"Where do you want us to go
and prepare for you to eat the Passover?
The disciples were able to prepare for Jesus to celebrate the passover because Jesus himself had already somehow singlehandedly arranged everything to his purpose. At their entry into Jerusalem he had told them they would find a colt and the words they could use with its owner so that he would allow them to bring it (see Luke 19:30-32). Now they were told they would find a man with a jar of water who would lead them to a place that Jesus, apparently, already had in mind, and for which he must have already made rather specific arrangements. The disciples consistently "found it just as he had told them". But this was more than impressively careful planning on the part of Jesus. It was an indication not only of his exhaustive foreknowledge of what was to come, but of his complete control over the situation. It demonstrated concretely that Jesus himself freely chose to lay down his life and that no one took it from him (see John 10:18). These sorts of preparatory measures ought to have helped the disciples cling to hope even during the dark hour of the Passion when all hope seemed to be lost.
"Take it; this is my body."
Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them,
and they all drank from it.
He said to them,
"This is my blood of the covenant
It is clear that the principle actor in the establishment of the Eucharist was not the Pharisees, or Pilate, or any other Jewish or Roman leader, but Jesus himself. It was Jesus who gave his flesh and blood to the Father as an offering "for many", his "flesh for the life of the world" (see John 6:51). He was the Paschal lamb whose blood would forever stay the sword of the angel of death. His blood was that of a new and eternal covenant that would finally accomplish what the "blood of goats and caves" could not, the remission of sins. It was actually these sacrificial overtones of the Last Supper that eventually helped the disciples to recognize the cross of Jesus as itself a sacrificial offering. For apart from this connection the cross appeared to be an ignominious execution and a shameful death. Two thousand years of reflection makes it seem obvious to us that the cross was primarily a sacrifice for sin. But it was not so immediately obvious at the time and without the Eucharist it would have remained obscure.
Amen, I say to you,
I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine
until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
The cross did not lead only to the remission of sins. This was merely the first step in clearing the way to a larger goal. The earthly banquet pointed toward a heavenly one in which the risen Lord would drink new wine of joy in fellowship with his disciples, those who were with him then, and those who have followed him throughout history. The sacrifice of Jesus was meant not only to remove sin but to allow his followers to receive new life. If the life was said to be in the blood of a creature then the blood of Jesus was meant to convey his own divine life to us. The Eucharistic feast had the opposite effect of normal food. In normal eating and drinking we assimilate the nutrients to become a part of us. But in the Eucharist we are meant to become what we receive as Jesus himself assimilates us into his own Mystical Body.
A final point about the Eucharist that is so obvious as to merit stating explicitly so that we don't neglect it is the fact that it is not meant to be received only once. It is meant to become our daily bread and food for our journey. The effects toward which it points cannot be accomplished, typically, a single mass, but are meant to nourish and transform us over the course of a lifetime. We ignore our need for this heavenly food at our peril. But isn't it quite wonderful that Jesus has deigned in his providential wisdom to remain so close to us as this, a relationship with a built in recurring ritual of love, so that we may never be far from him.
how much more will the blood of Christ,
who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God,
cleanse our consciences from dead works
to worship the living God.
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