SYNOPSIS OF CHAPTER XVII

I.

PREPARATIONS FOR THE PASCHAL MEAL:

              1. By whom and In What Place Made.

              2. On What Day? Thursday After-

              Nisan 14.

April 6.

II.

THE LAST SUPPER:

              1. The Jewish Paschal Meal in the Time of Our Lord.

              2. Particulars of Our Lord’s Last Supper:

              Arrival:

              Placing of guests.

                                          Contention as to rank.

                            First cup and washing of feet.

                            References to betrayal. Departure of Judas.

                            Institution of the Holy Eucharist.

              3. After the Last Supper:

              Our Lord’s lengthened discourse and closing prayer.

                            Departure from the supper room.

§ 1. Preparations for the Paschal Meal

1. By Whom and in What Place Made. Leaving aside the traitor Judas, who was ordinarily in charge of such affairs, Our Lord selected Peter and John to make the necessary preparations for the Paschal supper. He bade them go to the Holy City and enter a house, which He pointed out to them only in general, though sufficient, terms, for He did not wish to indicate this house or its owner in a clearer manner in the hearing of His betrayer. They were to ask the owner of this house for a very humble apartment, but as Jesus predicted, he would place at their disposal an upper room, that is, the most honorable place of his house, and which he had already furnished and made ready in view of the Paschal celebration. It was, then, to this upper room that Peter and John had to carry the lamb after they had slain it in the Temple, and to bring the unleavened cakes, bitter herbs, wine, etc., required for the Paschal supper.

2. On What Day was this Last Pasch Prepared? The answer to this question depends on the day we must admit for the last supper of Our Lord, for it is beyond doubt that Jesus ate His last supper on the evening of the day on which it was prepared by St. Peter and St. John. Now, if we consult the Evangelists, we shall find that there is an apparent contradiction between the Synoptists and St. John, concerning the day on which Our Lord ate His last supper. The former state plainly that Our Lord’s last supper took place on the legal day for the celebration of the Pasch (Thursday, Nisan 14th, April 6th); the latter, on the contrary, seems to say that this last supper occurred one day before the Pasch was celebrated by the Jews, and consequently that the legal day for the Paschal celebration was only Friday evening, April 7th.

It is impossible to detail and examine here the various theories which have been advanced in connection with this difficult question. Suffice it to say, (1) that we should reject every theory which holds that Jesus ate His last supper before the 14th of Nisan, for in such case Christ’s last supper would not have been a Paschal meal, contrary to what we read in St. Luke (22:15); (2) that a careful study of the sacred text shows that two of the passages of St. John above referred to must be understood as referring to the same day as the Synoptists, while the other two can easily be interpreted in the same harmonious manner. We therefore admit that St. John agrees with the first three Evangelists in placing Our Lord’s last supper on Nisan 14th, Thursday, April 6th; so that the preparations for this last supper must have been made in the afternoon of the same day.|

§ 2. The Last Supper

1. The Jewish Paschal Meal in the Time of Our Lord. The Paschal supper which Jesus had longed so ardently to celebrate with His disciples was probably conducted as follows by His Jewish contemporaries: The party, varying in number between ten and twenty persons, met in the evening and reclined on couches disposed along three sides of a low, Eastern table. The supper opened with a cup of wine mingled with water, which the master of the household or the person who presided had prepared and blessed, and of which all present partook. Thereupon all washed their hands, another blessing being at the same time pronounced. The different dishes of the feast, the lamb, the unleavened bread, the bitter herbs and the thick sauce (called the Charoseth), were next placed on the table, and the president, dipping some of the bitter herbs into the Charoseth, ate of them and gave to others. Then the person who presided explained the meaning of the festival, and the whole party, sharing in his gratitude to Jehovah, sang the first part of the Hallel, that is, Psalm 113 and part of Psalm 114, after which prayer was offered and the second cup drunk.

The head of the party washes his hands for the second time, breaks one of the cakes of unleavened bread, blesses it, and all partake of it, dipping the portions of it with the bitter herbs into the Charoseth. The flesh of the lamb was now eaten, and another blessing pronounced, when the third cup, or Cup of Blessing, was handed round. This was succeeded by the fourth, called the Cup of Hallel, because the second part of the Hallel (Psalm 114, second part; Psalms 115–117) was now sung, and this concluded the supper.

With these details before our minds we can easily understand several particulars of Our Lord’s last Paschal supper, as recorded in the sacred narrative.

2. Particulars of Our Lord’s Last Supper. It was probably in taking their places on the couches around the table that the contention as to rank arose among the disciples. They wished (following probably in this the custom of the Pharisees of the time) to recline at this important meal according to their rank, and this contest for precedence drew from Our Lord’s lips a well-deserved rebuke. The contest once over, St. John occupied the place on Our Lord’s right, so that his head could easily repose on the bosom of Jesus; St. Peter, stung by his Master’s rebuke, had probably rushed with his ordinary impetuosity to take the lowest place at the other end of the table, opposite St. John, to whom he could therefore easily beckon to ask who the traitor was; finally, Judas occupied very likely the place immediately on Our Lord’s left, as is suggested by several particulars of the Gospel narrative.

The disciples having reclined at table, Jesus, as the head of the party, “took the chalice, gave thanks and said, Take and divide it among you.” This was the first cup of the Jewish Paschal supper, and when it had passed round, the next ceremony was the washing of hands, which St. John probably records as transformed by his divine Master into the washing of feet. For this menial office, usually performed by slaves, Jesus left aside His garments, poured water into the basin, placed as usual at the end of the table, and came first to Peter, the nearest of all, and over whose resistance He finally prevailed. He washed in succession the feet of all, not without, however, making an obscure allusion to the betrayal of Judas: “You are clean, but not all.”| Then He resumed His garments, took His place again at table, and as the Jewish meal proceeded He explained to His disciples the meaning of so mysterious an action: He had given them an example of humility which they should imitate so as to secure to themselves eternal bliss.

One of them, however, would be by his own fault excluded from the promised reward, and this is why Jesus added, “I speak not of you all”; and He then referred to the prediction made long centuries before, that He would be betrayed by one of His disciples. But the apostles did not heed this new reference to the betrayal, probably because of their joy while singing the first part of the Hallel and drinking the second cup. But Our Saviour was far from rejoicing; indeed, “He was troubled in spirit,” and when He made a new and more explicit reference to the betrayer, “Amen, Amen, I say to you, one of you shall betray Me,” all the disciples remained at first amazed, and next asked, “Lord, is it I?” Our Lord’s answer left still the special person undetermined, but He added an awful woe against the betrayer. Judas, in his turn, repeated, “Is it I?” and Jesus gave him an affirmative answer, which the traitor alone could hear because of his nearness to Our Lord. Unable to discover otherwise who was to betray his Master, St. Peter beckoned to the beloved disciple, who then, changing a little his posture, leaned back on the sacred bosom of Jesus, asking Him who was to be the betrayer, and received as a sign the giving of the sop which probably followed the second cup. This sop consisted of a morsel of the Paschal lamb, together with a piece of unleavened bread and some bitter herbs, and it was first handed to Judas by Our Lord, who then added, “That which thou dost, do quickly.” Judas “went out immediately,” for as he had eaten the Pasch he could now leave for business purposes or for giving alms to the poor, so that “no man at table knew” the reason of his departure. The precise time at which Judas left the upper room has ever been a matter of discussion in the Church, yet it seems very probable that he went out before Our Lord instituted the Holy Eucharist.

The departure of Judas was manifestly a great relief to the Saviour, and He soon proceeded to give to His faithful disciples the supreme pledge of His love by the institution of the Holy Eucharist. The eating of the flesh of the lamb was now completed, after which nothing more was to be eaten; but here Our Lord anticipated a later rite, that of breaking and eating bread after the Paschal supper. He “took bread, and blessed and brake and gave to His disciples, and said, Take ye, and eat: THIS IS MY BODY”; and by these all-powerful words of the Son of God the bread was actually changed into the body of the Lord: into that very body which was soon to be crucified for man’s salvation. Then “taking the chalice,” the third cup, or “Cup of Blessing,” as it is called by St. Paul,| “He gave thanks and gave to them, saying: Drink ye all of this; for THIS IS MY BLOOD of the New Testament, which shall be shed for you.” By virtue of the same divine power, these words of Jesus changed the wine of the chalice into His most precious blood soon to be shed on Calvary for our redemption. Nor was this mysterious transformation of bread into the Lord’s body, of wine into His blood, to take place only once, for He entrusted the power to effect it to His apostles and to their successors in the priestly office: “Do this for a commemoration of Me.”

3. After the Last Supper. Our Lord’s last supper was practically over; yet He remained at table a little longer time, during which He imparted to His disciples His first consolatory words, then predicted to Peter his threefold denial, and addressed again words of comfort to His apostles. Then rising from the supper table, He said the Hymn—probably the second part of the Hallel delivered the beautiful discourse recorded in chapters 15 and 16 of the fourth Gospel. This long discourse Jesus closed with a prayer which He addressed to His Father, and in which He spoke as the great High Priest of the New Law.|

After these words Jesus went forth from the supper room with His disciples.