What is the connection between the Last Supper and the Eucharistic Prayer?
St John tells us what happened in the Upper Room after the meal. Jesus alone spoke; the disciples listened; they would listen to him forever. Before long, Jesus was no longer speaking to them; He was addressing the Father. They all held their breath. Jesus prayed.
Isn’t this situation almost exactly like that which is reproduced in the Mass? Only the priest proclaims the Eucharistic Prayer by virtue of his ordination. We have heard the Lord’s teaching; we have prayed aloud together, beseeching his mediation. Now the priest speaks ‘in persona Christi.’ All things considered, it would be better that no other human voice should make itself heard: Jesus is going to pray with us and for us.
In this Eucharistic Prayer, we announce to the world the death and resurrection of the Lord. This is the paschal message that transforms us interiorly, turning us into heralds of the Good News.
Our faith seems to us too faint and our love too little to allow us to accompany our Lord in his oblation and hymn of praise to the Father. But we believe because it is Jesus Christ who has revealed to us this wonderful mystery. We believe in Christ’s word—there is no truer token than Truth’s own word.
Now, let us submit to God in all things and not contradict him, even if what He says seems to contradict our reason and intellect; let his words prevail over our reason and intellect. Let us act in this way about the Eucharistic mysteries, and not limit our attention just to what can be perceived by the senses, but instead hold fast to his words, for his word cannot deceive.
We believe and we want to love; we do not want to be like the disciples who fell asleep in the supreme moment when Jesus prepared himself for the holocaust. “I believe, Lord, but help my unbelief!” we should say with that man, the father of the boy possessed by the devil. “Lord, you know everything; you know I love you,” we should repeat once and again.
Thus, we can transcend the limited horizons of our egoism, as a person in love strives to overcome their personal limitations and serenade their beloved when they want to.
As Christ offers himself to the Father, we must join him, as a living part of the Church, his Mystical Body. What a pity if we allow Christ to go on without us, if we spurn him.
We should be awake and praying, following Christ from the Upper Room to the cross, to realize how little a life is to offer to God. Thus, we will finally shed our nasty habit of bargaining with God.
Dec 4 Thu