which all your generations shall celebrate
with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution."
My thinking has been influenced by my reading of Karen Armstrong's The Case for God, which I read a year or two ago. In it she traces the deterioration of western thought about God from a ritual apprehension of the Mystery of God to the hubris of thinking we know God. With the reformation of Catholic liturgy after the Second Vatican Council, Armstrong also signals a return to the true cult (in the good sense of that word) of Christian worship.
I think of the Exodus from Egypt as a prehistoric event. There are no records of the incident outside the Scriptures. The Egyptians, for obvious reasons, were not eager to remember the defeat of their gods and the humiliation of their pharaoh, his priests and their people
But the Jews remember that day with great clarity and celebrate it annually with the Passover. With them, Christians return to the memory of slavery and liberation. We know that God has delivered us. He has led us through the Red Sea and into the Sinai Desert. He has revealed himself there on Mount Sinai and restored the Covenant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He has spelled out the terms of our Election, and defined our new freedom with the Ten Commandments. Never again shall we belong to any nation, pharaoh, king, dictator or democracy. Rather we shall be God's holy people, a people peculiarly his own.
Among the terms of that Covenant, we shall keep this day as a memorial feast and a perpetual institution.
Jews resent the suggestion that Jesus reformed their religion, and Christians rightly believe Jesus never intended to carry out such a reform. Rather, he started an entirely new religion which built upon the Hebrew Covenant (which we call The Old Testament).
With his New Covenant Jesus delivered his chosen disciples -- Jews and Gentiles -- from slavery to sin. The terms of his covenant include the Jewish moral code and the Sacrament of his Body and Blood. From that obscure date in the first century A.D. -- a day which is all but prehistoric -- and for all subsequent history until Eternity breaks upon us, we keep the Covenant by living within the Kingdom of God.
When we gather for Mass -- daily and weekly -- we eat his flesh and drink his blood. Although these elements appear to be only bread and wine, we believe we are truly chewing on his flesh and consuming his blood, as we are incorporated into the very Body of Christ.
Despite the wanderings of our theological and philosophical musing about God, the Church has never lost this primal understanding of our liturgy. It sounds barbaric to some. As Saint Paul said, it is a scandal to the pious and absurdity to the rational,
but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.On Holy Thursday we also celebrate the new priesthood Jesus instituted through his passion and death. First we recognize Jesus as the High Priest who has entered beyond the veil. Although he was not born of the priestly tribe of Levi, we recognize his priesthood in the "line of Melchizedek." This priesthood God anchored in the city of Salem (meaning Peace) even before David captured the city and introduced the Ark of the Covenant to God's temple. Because of his new priesthood Christians could abandon Jerusalem as our Holy City and its temple and worship God "in spirit and in truth" wherever we go -- and wherever he sends us.
In the matter of priesthood, the Catholic Church finds itself embroiled in intractable controversy. While some Christian churches have dismissed ordination altogether, others have expanded their priesthood to include women. I don't expect a resolution of this controversy in my lifetime; but I am sure we could not be a real church at all if we had no contested questions. Controversy comes with Incarnation. Just as the Incarnate Son of God faced innumerable contentious issues, so shall we always find ourselves drawing lines in the sand and standing our ground.
Empowered by his Holy Spirit we celebrate the new life Jesus has given us in all our Sacraments, from Baptism through Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance, Marriage, Holy Orders and Healing. Whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.