Transcript

He raised a simple question when we were going through verses in John 19, where Jesus says in verse 30, It is finished.

What do you think it refers to?

The Passover meal, as it was celebrated in the first century by Jews, consisted of four parts, and it was easy to identify the sequence of parts because there were four cups.

The Passover would climax after the third cup was shared with the singing of the Great Hallel, and then, of course, you would come to the culminating point, and that is the fourth cup.

So, you would drink this fourth cup, the Cup of Consummation, some call it, except that that's not what happens.

Jesus, instead of proceeding immediately to the climax, the drinking of the fourth cup, we read in Mark 14:26, And when they sang a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

So what about that fourth cup?

Precisely at the moment of His death, He drinks from the bowl of sour wine and partakes of the fourth cup.

I realized that I had found the answer to my question: the it that was finished was the Passover liturgy that He had begun with the disciples in the upper room and then interrupted.

And why?

Because, more precisely, the it that was finished was not simply the Passover of the Old Covenant, but Jesus' fulfillment of that and its transformation—the Passover of the Old Covenant into the Passover Sacrifice of the New Covenant.

The only way to really understand the meaning of Jesus' words or the mystery of what happened there at Golgotha is by backing up and looking at Calvary in the light of the upper room—the Passover, the Eucharist, the transformation of the old into the new, and then the prayer where He gives heartfelt consent to the Father's will to drink the cup, which He doesn't drink until He sees that it is all finished.

And then He declares that solemn phrase, It is finished.

I didn't want to teach anything that was Catholic, but I also didn't want in any way to just give in to fear and turn away from the scriptures and to kind of sin against the light, because the light of God's Word is what shone.

I realized this was leading me to a much deeper and more coherent and beautiful explanation of how it was there on Holy Thursday and how it was also on Good Friday.

To make a long story short, I ended up in search of a church that matched what I was finding on the pages of Sacred Scripture, because what I was finding on the pages of Scripture wasn't just the events that transpired from Holy Thursday through Good Friday to Easter Sunday.

I began to realize that there is much more to it than that.

In fact, I began to realize that if you back up one year and look into John's Gospel, there in chapter 6, you realize that Jesus, after feeding the 5,000 and filling the baskets—the twelve baskets with the leftovers—proceeds on in the synagogue there at Capernaum to give us the famous Bread of Life discourse in the context of the Passover (John 6:4). So there in John 6, on another evening— in fact, it was the next week of that seminary course on the Gospel of John— I am looking with them at what Jesus said to the disciples and all of the people that He fed, because He says to them in verse 51, If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever, and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh.

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

And so Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you...

I'm only speaking figuratively.

Well, that's not what He said; that's what I expected Him to say.

That's what I wanted Him to say.

But when I looked more closely at what He was saying to prepare my lectures, I realized that He said, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.

Just kidding!

Just kidding!

No, He didn't add that either.

In fact, what He goes on to say is not just once or twice or three times, but four times.

He says, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.

He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day, for My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.

He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.

You know, four times He says it.

And I'll be honest, I've never heard a single sermon ever preached to explain what He meant and why He said it that way.

I must have heard dozens of sermons on what Jesus says in John 3, You must be born again, which He only says once, but not a single paragraph in a homily about what Jesus is talking about here.

I could really relate to what we read in verse 60. In John 6, verse 60, we read, Many of the disciples, when they heard it, said, 'This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?'

He had just fed the thousands, but they were taking such offense at what He was now teaching that they began to fall away; they began to leave.

So, I went and looked at it more closely, because this must be a mistranslation.

The closer I looked at the Greek, the more I discovered that sure enough, Jesus is speaking at first about eating, using a Greek word, esthio, four times there in verses 49 to 53. That term can often be used figuratively, and of course, it must be used figuratively here.

It's like what's eating you is not literal but figurative.

Except that what Jesus goes on to say in the next few verses is about eating His flesh and drinking His blood.

He changes the verb to the Greek term trago, which doesn't just mean eat; it means to chew, to masticate, to munch.

No wonder they were so shocked.

This is a hard saying; it can't be taken figuratively.

And so when He realizes what's happening, we read in verse 66, After this, many of His disciples drew back and no longer went about with Him.

Jesus turned to the twelve; He doesn't ask them, Why didn't one of you stop me?

I was only speaking figuratively.

He clearly meant what He said, and He said what He meant, but I wasn't understanding, and it was apparent to me that neither did Peter.

Jesus said to the twelve, Do you also wish to go away?

And Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life, and we have come to know and believe that You are the Holy One of God.

I could relate to Peter, because, you know, he didn't say, Hey, they're outsiders; they don't have a clue as to what You’re referring to, but we're the insiders; we understand Your esoteric teaching.

Hold still while we chew Your arms and legs.

No, it doesn't work that way.

What Simon Peter was basically saying was, We don't have a clue as to what You're talking about, but we assume that You do.

It was like I was being asked to extend a line of credit to our Lord, which is never a bad idea.

That is also what Simon Peter was doing: Lord, to whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life.

On the one hand, he's asking, To whom shall we go?

Is there any other rabbi whose teaching is so profound, who performs miracles?

Can you recommend him?

But no, of course, there isn't. So he goes on to confess the fact that, We have come to believe that You're the Holy One of God.

And so Peter's basically saying, We don't understand, but we trust You.

I'll be honest; in preparing my lecture for this seminary course, I was facing that same dilemma, because I wasn't sure how to teach this.

I wasn't sure how to understand it.

I was sure that the Lord understood what He meant, and He said what He meant and meant what He said.

And then I made a big mistake.

I went to look into the writings of the early Church Fathers.

How did they understand the meaning of Jesus' words?

I read different Fathers—Ambrose, Augustine, St. John Chrysostom, and Irenaeus—but the one who really opened my eyes was St. Augustine.

He said in a couple of places that the only way to really understand what Jesus means is to notice when Jesus gave the Bread of Life discourse, immediately after feeding the multitude with the five loaves and the two fish and filling the twelve baskets full to symbolize the twelve tribes of Israel.

Because in John 6:4, we read that the Passover of the Jews was at hand, so this is the second to last Passover He'll ever celebrate.

What He’s doing is preparing His disciples for what He knows will happen one year later when He celebrates the final Passover.

Because He won't just celebrate it one last time; He will fulfill the Passover of the Old precisely by establishing the Passover of the New.

So, what is it that you need to celebrate the Passover?

What we've already seen.

Because back in Exodus 12, you had to take a lamb—an unblemished male lamb with no broken bones.

You had to slaughter the lamb; you had to sprinkle the blood.

But then you had to roast the lamb and eat the lamb together as a family gathered around the table with staff in hand, ready to flee to freedom.

But you had to eat the lamb; it was not an option.

In fact, it was the climax of the Passover.

So, if this is what Jesus is not only celebrating one last time one year later after His Bread of Life discourse, but precisely what Jesus is going to fulfill by establishing the Passover of the New Covenant, then, of course, the Lamb is going to have to die.

He's going to also have to pour out His blood for the forgiveness of sins, but He will also need to make provisions for the communion meal of the New Passover.

For St. Augustine and the other patristic sources I read, this is exactly why He said what He said when He said it in John 6. Because one year later, they would finally understand what Jesus alone knew one year earlier: that He'd have to lay His life down, He'd have to pour His blood out, but He would also have to make provisions.

Suppose back in Egypt you decided as a family that none of us like mutton, so, Mama, why don't you bake some matzah in the form of a lamb, and we'll eat that in remembrance of Moses?

Well, if you had proceeded to do that instead of eating the lamb, you would have awakened, and the firstborn would be dead.

Because it wasn't enough to slaughter the lamb; it wasn't enough to sprinkle the blood.

You had to eat the lamb, whether you liked lamb or not, because that was the climax of the Passover.

And if that was true in the Old, it isn't less but more true in the New.

And so Jesus gives the instructions because He knows He will make the provisions.

Thus, the disciples will come to see a year later with His death and resurrection, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, the mystery of the Last Supper will be unveiled at the cross.

Because there, we will see the fourth cup, the fulfillment of the Kingdom, the manifestation of the power of God's Kingdom, precisely in that love that is life-giving, as our Lord manifested it.

Well, after I had come to these conclusions, I was in search of a church.

I had submitted my resignation, and I ended up looking into this more and more, reading the Fathers more and more, but finding more and more clues in the Scriptures as well.

For example, we used to always say that the Mass is wrong because Jesus' sacrifice was once for all, as we read, for example, in Hebrews 7:27. This once-for-all sacrifice points to the fact that the Mass can't be a sacrifice because then Jesus would be sacrificed again and again.

When it's once for all, it's over and done; it's terminated.

I took all of my findings into the text of Hebrews, and I discovered this insight kept growing like a snowball rolling down the hill.

Because there in Hebrews 7, what we read is about Jesus: He has no need like those high priests to offer sacrifices daily, first for His own sins and then for those of His people.

He did this once for all when He offered up Himself.

And this is why He is a priest forever; He holds His priesthood permanently because He continues forever.

Then in the next section of Hebrews, chapter 8, we read—and I saw for the first time—that the point in what we're saying is this: We have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the sanctuary, in the true tent which is set up, not by man but by the Lord.

For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; hence, it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer.

But where does He offer it?

In heaven.

What is He offering?

Cattle, sheep, and goats?

No, He's offering His body, which was given to them in the upper room in the form of the Eucharist.

His body, which then knelt down and prayed three times, Take away this cup; nevertheless, not my will but Thy will be done.

And then that same body that was hanging on the cross, the same body that was buried in the tomb, that same body that was resurrected from the dead is now ascended into heaven and enthroned at the right hand of God as not only a king but a royal high priest.

And so He's a priest forever because He’s got a priestly ministry, and every priest is appointed to offer sacrifice.

So what is the sacrifice that Jesus now offers?

It isn't cattle, sheep, and goats like those who did it on earth; it is His glorified body.

But it's the same sacrifice as what was initiated in the upper room, the same sacrifice that is consummated on the cross, the same sacrifice that is now present in heaven on our behalf as the Son presents to the Father His glorified humanity, which is not only glorified but deified, and it's what glorifies and deifies us as well.

You can't freeze-frame this and say the sacrifice is only Calvary.

That is the climax, indeed, of what was begun in the upper room, but Jesus is a heavenly high priest, and what He is offering up in heaven is what we share through the power of the Holy Spirit in the Holy Eucharist.

But this is the meaning of once for all.

It's not once and for all over and done; it's not once and for all in the sense of termination.

It's once and for all in the sense of everlasting.

It's once and for all in the sense that Jesus' sacrifice is perpetuated in the sacrifice.

We are not repeatedly sacrificing Jesus, because how can you repeat something that is never-ending?

Jesus now stands in heaven before the Father and offers His glorified humanity, and that same sacred humanity is what we receive in Holy Communion as the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus.

But this is the meaning of once for all: not over and done, but continuous; not terminated, but perpetuated.

It's the only reason why the text says He continues a priest forever.

It wasn't that He was a priest for several hours or a few days, but when He finally got up to heaven and sat down, He retired.

No, He is offering Himself as both priest and victim, and this is the only thing that unlocks the door for me to show that instead of condemning the sacrifice of the Mass, the book of Hebrews was teaching it the same way.

I found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and especially John 19:28-30, John chapter 6, verses 51-66, over and over again, things just keep coming up Catholic.

And so naturally, this is what it led me to see.

But what I also want to share is this: the practical implications for us today.

Because if, in fact, Jesus shared the fourth cup at the cross and gives to us the cup of blessing in each and every Mass to drink from, when do we share the fourth cup?

At the hour of our death.

Did you ever wonder why we pray so many times, Pray for us now and at the hour of our death?

I'm a professor; I know what it's like to teach, but I also know what it's like to test.

The final exam is always the moment of truth, and our last hour is, in a sense, that moment of truth.

What I found in the early Church Fathers was this insight into what it is that Jesus established—truth.

Because if the Passover in the Old Covenant is what led Israel out of Egyptian bondage into the inheritance of the Promised Land, all of that is just an earthly figure that prefigures something much greater, and that is the new and greater Moses, the new Passover of the New Covenant, bringing about a new Exodus that leads us not out of Egyptian bondage but bondage to sin and to death, so that through Jesus a new way has been opened into a much greater inheritance—a far more glorious Promised Land, which, of course, is heaven.

And that is what we will reach when we come to the hour of our death.

It's an interesting fact that I discovered that this is associated not just with the hour of death but with drinking the cup.

One of my favorite examples from the early Church Fathers is this account of the martyrdom of St. Polycarp.

Polycarp, as you know, was the Bishop of Smyrna in the second century and, at the ripe old age of 86, was martyred.

But there were eyewitnesses who described not only the circumstances but also the climax of his final prayer.

I'm going to read from this if you don't mind.

As Polycarp stepped into the arena, there came a voice from heaven: Be strong, Polycarp, and play the man.

No one caught sight of the speaker, but those of our friends who were there heard the voice.

He was then brought before the governor, who tried to persuade him to recant.

Polycarp, have some respect for your years, he said.

Just swear an oath by Caesar.

And then he pointed to the Christians and said, Denounce them; say, 'Down with the infidels!'

Polycarp's brow darkened as he threw a look around the turbulent crowd of heathens in the circus, and then indicating them instead with a sweep of his hand, he said with a growl and a glance up to heaven, Down with the infidels!

The governor still went on pressing him, Take the oath; I'll let you go.

Revile your Christ.

Polycarp replied, For eighty and six years have I served Him, and He has done me no wrong.

How then can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?

And then the witnesses go on to describe how it was all done in less time than it takes to tell.

In a moment, the crowd had collected firewood and kindling.

The irons with which the pyre was equipped were fastened around him, bound with his hands tied behind him.

He was like a noble ram taken out of some great flock for sacrifice.

Notice the liturgical image—a holy burnt offering already for God.

And then he cast his eyes up to heaven and said, and listen to his prayer: O Lord God Almighty, Father of Your blessed and beloved Son, Jesus Christ, I bless You for granting me this day and this hour, that I may be numbered among the martyrs to share the cup of Your Anointed and to rise again unto life everlasting, both in body and soul in the immortality of the Holy Spirit.

May I be received among them this day in Your presence, a sacrifice rich and acceptable.

Amen.

Historians notice phrases that are actually lifted from the ancient Eucharistic liturgy, as well as the Passover, as well as the Gospel text of drinking the cup there at the cross.

The eyewitnesses conclude the account: as Polycarp's great amen soared up and the prayer ended, the men at the fire set their lights to it, and a great sheet of flame blazed out.

Then we who were privileged to witness it saw a most wondrous sight, and we have been spared to tell it to the rest of you, for the fire took on the shape of a hollow chamber and formed a wall around the martyr's figure.

And there he was in the center of it, not like a human being in flames but like a loaf baking in the oven.

We all became aware of a delicious fragrance, like the odor of incense.

Finally, when they realized that his body could not be destroyed by fire, the ruffians ordered one of the dagger men to go up and stab him with his weapon, and he did so.

When he did, there flew out of the fire a dove, together with such a copious rush of blood that the flames were extinguished, filling the spectators with awe to see the greatness of the difference that separates unbelievers from the elect of God.

We all know what the mortality rate is for earthlings: It's 100%. None of us are going to get out of here alive; we're all going to come to the hour of death.

But there, we're going to have a choice.

But it's not a choice that we'll simply make at that moment; it's a choice that we will make at this moment and every subsequent moment leading up to the hour of death.

Because if, in fact, we give consent to Jesus' sacrifice for us and for our sins, then indeed we will receive the grace to pass in a new and greater Exodus and to drink from our fourth cup.

So that all of the cups of blessing, all of the times that we have partaken of the body and blood of Christ, will prepare us for that moment when we can say, It is finished.

Even if we're not tortured, even if we're not martyred, we can still be a martus.

The Greek word for martyr, martus, means witness.

The Greek word marturia is the term in Greek for testimony.

We can be witnesses and give testimony to the world through our lives by living out the mystery that we celebrate in the holy sacrifice of the Mass, by allowing our Lord to reproduce His love, His life, His suffering, and His death while we offer it up until that final moment when we all drink from the fourth cup.

But every Mass and every communion will lead us to that hour, to that moment, to that cup.

St. Augustine also extols what he calls the martyr's cup.

He said in one of his sermons, number 329, You have sat down at a great table.

Consider carefully what is set before you, since you ought to prepare the same kind of thing yourself.

It is certainly a great table, for the Lord of the table is Himself the banquet.

No one feeds his guests on himself, but that is what the Lord Christ did, being Himself the host, Himself the food and drink.

Therefore, the martyrs recognized what they ate and drank so that they could live out the same kind of thing.

What shall I give to the Lord for all that He has done for me?

I will take up the cup of salvation.

What is this cup?

The bitter but salutary and saving cup of suffering.

This is what the cup is.

We can recognize this cup on the lips of our Lord when He says, Father, if it be so, let this cup pass from Me. Oh, how blessed are those who drink this cup!

This is what invests every moment of our lives with meaning, but this also illuminates the mystery of how Christ's death saves us.

Let me conclude by quoting from my favorite theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas, who says—and I quote—By suffering out of love and obedience, Christ gave more to God the Father than what was required to compensate for all the sins of the human race.

Think about it—the debt that we have incurred by sinning against the holy God countless times is an immeasurable debt.

And yet, what Christ gave back to the Father through His love and obedience was much more than what we took away.

Why?

Aquinas continues: first, because of the exceeding charity from which Jesus suffered; second, because the dignity of the life that He laid down in atonement for it was the life of one who is both God and man; and third, because of the extent of the passion and the greatness of the grief that He endured.

He concludes thus: Christ's passion was not only sufficient for our sins but a superabundant atonement for our sins.

Indeed, Aquinas concludes, Christ's love was so much greater than His slayers' malice that the value of His passion in atoning surpassed the murderous guilt of His crucifiers, such that Christ's suffering is a sufficient and superabundant atonement even for the sin of His murderers.

And haven't we all, in effect, contributed to His death by our sins?

By turning away from the infinite grace of God for the finite goods of this world.

As one martyr wrote in his journal before he faced death, He is no fool to give up what he cannot keep in order to gain what he can never lose.

We can't keep anything in this world, nor can we take it with us.

And so, when we're called upon to sacrifice what it is that God has given us out of greater love for the giver of the gifts, it is a very reasonable exchange.

But for God the Son to become the suffering servant and to transform sinful servants into beloved sons and daughters, this is what the mystery of the cross is.

This is what the Passover of the New Covenant illuminates.

This is why we can't understand either one without the other.

What Jesus is doing—celebrating the Passover of the Old, fulfilling it by instituting the New, taking it all the way to the cross, drinking the fourth cup at the moment of death—brings about the new and greater Exodus, the new and greater Covenant.

Not for Himself, because He gained nothing from all of this that He lacked before He became a man.

Being God, He lacked nothing; becoming a man, He gained nothing.

So, why bother?

It wasn't to gain stuff for Himself; it was to give it to us, and He lavishes not only His love but His life as well.

I am convinced that this is the most precise explanation of how Jesus' death saves us, much to be preferred to the Protestant notion of penal substitution, that for a few hours God the Father looked down from heaven and could no longer see His Son whom He loved; He could only see our sins heaped upon Him.

And so, instead of loving His Son, He heaped His wrath and vented His rage upon Him as a victim.

That is what is often proclaimed as the gospel.

That is a counterfeit; that is not only a misinterpretation but a gross and virtually blasphemous distortion of what is happening.

It's out of love and obedience that the Son offers it to the Father.

I think it would also be true to say this: when God the Father looked down from heaven upon His Son throughout His 33 years, His sacred humanity was always lovely and always beloved, but never so lovely...

As the moment when He gave consent to the cup and went to Golgotha and hung on the cross, not losing but giving His life, not suspending the love of the Father but expressing the love of the Father; precisely because a Father's love in the Trinity is life-giving love.

And that's what Jesus is doing through His sacred humanity—He's making His life a gift of love, not only then but now in the Holy Eucharist, and not only for us but through us as well.

He doesn't just bestow; He doesn't just bear a cross for us; He bestows a cross on us.

He calls us to carry the cross, to drink of the cup, but not before He continually gives us again and again the cup of blessing—the third cup that He shared with the disciples—knowing that all of them would share in the fellowship of His sufferings.

This is the one thing that explains everything—it’s traceable back to the inner life of God, the Holy Trinity, who is life-giving love from all eternity and calls us to that goal.

The only reason for which we were made was to enter into that life, and the only way we can is by allowing that life to enter into us through the sacrifice of the cross, through the sacrifice of the Mass, through the love and the power of the Holy Spirit.

I am convinced that it is time for us as Catholics to lay hold of this, not by becoming graduate students in theology, but by becoming faithful followers of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is what transformed my understanding of the Gospel, but even more, this is what opened my eyes to the mystery of the holy sacrifice of the Mass.

Through the eyes of faith, we behold something that is really greater than this whole world can contain, and yet here we are in the world to celebrate this.

So let's ask our Lord to increase our faith, along with the endurance of hope, to perfect our charity as well.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Almighty God, our Father in heaven, we thank You for the gift of Your eternal Son, our Savior.

We thank You for manifesting to us through Him a love that goes beyond anything we've ever known from our parents, from our siblings, and friends, because You have established through the Holy Eucharist a bond of friendship, a covenant of love, and we thank You for it.

But we also ask You, in the holy name of Jesus, for the gift of the Holy Spirit to illuminate our minds with the word of Your truth, to enkindle our hearts with the fire of Your love, that we might not only be informed by Your word but also transformed into saints.

So hear us as we pray that family prayer that Jesus taught us: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Thank you very much.