Holy Thursday 2017
“And He Sang”
Fr. Jeff Nicolas
We are in the Year of St. Matthew’s Gospel, so this year I looked at Matthew’s depiction of the Last Supper and noticed a small detail I had not in the past given much thought to… After identifying the bread as his “body” and the wine as his “blood”, Matthew’s Gospel reads, “And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.”
After they had sung a hymn… This got me thinking… What did Jesus sing? Why did he sing it? And what does it mean for us tonight?
I’ve learned from professor of Scripture and Theology, Dr. Brant Pitre, that the Passover liturgy Jesus knew included special hymns drawn from the Book of Psalms, particularly the Hallel Psalms (or Praise Psalms: 113-118).
The Hallel Psalms give us a window into the words which were not said at the Last Supper, but sung. This is why our Church to this day has us remember Psalm 116 in tonight’s liturgy. What we do in our Mass is connected all the way back to Jesus’ Last Supper… we participate in Jesus’ Last Supper. You see, Jesus would have grown up learning how to sing these psalm prayers. The image of Jesus singing the Last Supper is mirrored in our Mass in its HIGH form.
Those long enough in the tooth will remember back when priests had either had a High Mass or a Low Mass. (The pastor would offer the High Mass, and the associates would offer Low Masses.) The High Mass was sung while the Low Mass was said.
Today, however, for various reasons, most are used to its Low form in which the Mass is “said.” (Hence the saying, “I had a Mass said for you.”
Truth is, the Mass, like the Last Supper which it makes present, is a song, the “New Song” of the Lord. [as recorded in Revelation 14:1-4]
“Then I looked, and lo, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder; the voice I heard was like the sound of harpers playing on their harps, and they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the earth… It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes; these have been redeemed from mankind as first fruits for God and the Lamb…”
Revelation here is referring to the Great Divine Liturgy, which we participate in whenever we celebrate our Mass. The whole thing can be sung, because the whole thing is in fact a song!
So what does this mean for us tonight?
As Dr. Pitre points out, Jesus intentionally shifted the focus of the Passover away from the body of the Passover lamb - offered in the Temple - and the blood of the lamb - poured out by the priests on the Temple altar, to his own body and blood to which he commanded his disciples to eat and drink. Jesus is the new Passover Lamb, and as every first century Jew knew, you have to eat the flesh of the Lamb in order to really participate in the Passover. Couple this with the Hallel Psalms, particularly our Psalm 116, and we clearly see that Jesus links salvation not just to his death but to “the cup of salvation.”
The snares of death encompassed me,
the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish.
Then I called on the name of the LORD;
"O LORD, I beg you, save my life!"...
For you have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling;
I walk before the LORD in the land of the living...
What shall I render to the LORD for all his bounty to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD...
O LORD, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid.
You have loosed my bonds.
I will offer you the sacrifice of thanksgiving...
(Psalm 116:3-4, 8-9, 12-13, 16-17)
Jesus refers to the sacrifice offered as a “sacrifice of thanksgiving.” In Hebrew this word is “todah”. The Greek translation is “eucharistia” = a thank-offering for deliverance from death.
So here is what we must understand! Jesus went out to the Mount of Olives and his passion knowing it would ultimately join us to his new Passover, his New Covenant with his Father in heaven.
As fearful as his impending passion would be, Jesus left for it singing of his trust in the Father and his love for us!
Do more than just believe that our bread and wine change into the Body and Blood of Jesus; trust the love of Jesus with which it is given to us, and then become that love for one another; become a foot-washer.
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