All About the Bread

The World Cup is probably the most captivating sports event in the world.

Actually, I take that back.

The World Cup is definitely the most captivating sports event in the world, and this is coming from a lifelong basketball fan.

It’s no secret that, in general, scarcity drives value and the World Cup is no exception, as the once every four years cadence makes it an event you really cannot miss, even if you’re not a soccer fan.

But it’s more than the scarcity.

For all the talk of country borders being nothing more than a social construct that should be eliminated for a “peaceful” one-world entity, people sure do care about the country they are either representing or rooting for. The national pride on display in these games is unbelievably palpable, as the emotions from the fans and players are honestly a bit moving.

Sure, the Olympics is also an opportunity to represent one’s country every four years but it’s not the same and everyone knows it. This is likely because for nearly every country in the world minus a few exceptions, soccer is the sport that every child grows up playing at the local park. Thus, the opportunity to represent your country on a global stage that only happens once every four years to play a sport that is vital to the culture is what makes the event so special. Even as an NBA fan, there is a stark difference between a World Cup match and game 53 for the Wizards on a Thursday evening.

In the Wizards’ defense, their games will be a bit more exciting now.

The reality that essentially the entire world coalesced around Spain to defeat the “boogeyman” of Argentina is a topic to be discussed at a later time.

The WC game that caught my eye was the semifinal between Argentina and England to determine who would play Spain in the championship. Going into the 85th minute, England held a 1-0 lead, and it seemed like Messi and Argentina were headed home before a miraculous turnaround that featured two Messi assists, securing a 2-1 victory.

This victory is relevant for a number of different reasons but the most pertinent is that Argentina, a Catholic country, in defeating England, the largest and most relevant historically Protestant nation, secured yet another undeniable “total Catholic victory.” Many Argentinian players have Catholic artwork on their shinguards and also have been spotted attending Mass here in the US, receiving the blessed Eucharist in spiritual preparation for their matches.

When it comes to the theological concept of the Eucharist, Catholics will not only use Church history and tradition to argue that the Church’s understanding of receiving the true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ has remained consistent for 2,000 years but will also reference Sacred Scripture, typically the Bread of Life discourse found in John 6:

This is a lengthy passage but it can essentially be summarized as the following: Jesus Christ identifies Himself as the new bread from heaven which gives eternal life, unlike the old bread that momentarily sustained the Israelites, tells the crowd that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood to inherit eternal life, then those listening take Him literally and many leave since it is a hard thing to believe, and after asking Peter if he wants to leave to, Peter responds that he has nowhere else to go because Jesus Christ alone has the words of eternal life.

Hypothetically speaking, I could spend a lot of time explaining why this excerpt proves transubstantiation, throw in Church Fathers’ commentary, and call it a day, but there’s something more interesting that needs to be uncovered.

To do so, we need to flip back a few hundred pages and traverse to the Old Testament. We know the OT isn’t some throwaway archaic text that can be discarded because Christ fulfilled the prophecies but rather it contains the secrets of the NT woven within the text waiting to be discovered. The NT is revolutionary on a standalone basis but once properly placed in the context of the OT, reading Sacred Scripture can become a mind-blowing experience.

Thus, to gain a holistic understanding of the Eucharist’s significance, we must first review what Passover is and why the Jews held it in such high regard.

The Jews had become enslaved in Egypt and were under severe persecution at the hands of the Pharaoh. To liberate His people, God brought about the ten plagues on Egypt, with the last being the death of every firstborn Egyptian male. To ensure that the Jewish families would be free from the plague, they were ordered to put the blood of a lamb on their doors so that when the angel came, they would recognize the Jewish households and “pass-over” the house. After these plagues, the Jews were led out of Egypt by Moses before eventually being led to the promised land of Canaan by Joshua. These happy times in the promised land did not last very long, as the ten northern tribes of Israel would be exiled by the Assyrians and the two southern tribes of Benjamin and Judah were exiled by the Babylonians with the Jerusalem temple being destroyed.

Before getting too deep into Old Testament timelines, what is most relevant to note is during the original Passover, the sacrifice was not complete simply because the lamb had been slain; rather, it was the consumption of the slain lamb that completed Passover. In other words, it is inconceivable to the Jewish mind to separate the sacrifice of the lamb and the consumption of its flesh. Additionally, this miraculous event, while only happening once, would be continuously celebrated by circumcised Jews and no one else because of its covenantal nature.

Not only did the animal have to be a lamb, but there were special requirements for the lamb itself: it had to be unblemished, in prime condition, male, and no bones should be broken while being sacrificed.

Between the time of when Passover originally occurred and the Second Temple period that Jesus Christ lived through, there had been a few important changes. First, sacrifices used to take place in the houses of individual Jews because of the universal priesthood that all males shared but had shifted to the temple due to the tribe of Levi being the only tribe to not fall into idolatry, setting up the Levitical priesthood. The second difference is that interestingly enough, the lamb was now sacrificed in a manner resembling crucifixion with thin smooth staves driven horizontally through the shoulders of the lamb and a vertical skewer of pomegranate wood from its mouth to its buttocks.

Another key difference was the rabbis during the time of Christ specifically taught that everyone who celebrated Passover was mysteriously participating in the original Passover that occurred hundreds of years prior. In both the Mishnah and the Talmud, there is an emphasis that God’s deliverance of the Jewish people was not simply bound to those who experienced it firsthand but also to those who continuously celebrate the feast.

Lastly, there was the expectation that the redemption of Israel through the chosen one, or messiah, would occur during the time of Passover.

Before coming back to the New Testament, another Judaic concept that must be understood is the mysterious manna that fed the Israelites while in the wilderness. Most are familiar with the divine bread that rained down from heaven every morning to feed the Israelites during the forty years of wilderness in the desert. The amount was just enough to feed them for a day and if anyone tried to hoard more than a day’s worth, it would spoil, thus becoming the daily bread received directly from heaven.

What is less known about the manna is not only did Jews believe that the manna was some sort of pre-existent entity but also that the Messiah would bring back this miraculous bread when he arrived.

So not only would the Messiah bring back the heavenly manna, but there was an expectation that the Jewish people would regularly eat of this manna between the coming of the Messiah and the end of the age during the bodily resurrection. This belief stems from the idea that in the same way Israelites ate the manna after Passover but before entering into the promised land, the Messiah would begin the new Exodus that involves the eating of the manna before reaching the end state of bodily resurrection.

Thus, the Catholic understanding of eating the body of Christ begins to make a bit more sense. One of the most beautiful aspects of Christianity is its continuity with ancient Judaism, as Christ of course did not come to abrogate the law but to fulfill it. This continuity is a large part why the earliest generation of Christians were almost all Jewish because they understood that the Old and New Testaments fit together like a perfect puzzle, and the Eucharist is a perfect example.

Christ specifically tells His disciples to “do this in remembrance of me,” but that begs an obvious question: what is the “this” He is referring to?

It is of course the celebration of not just the Passover in the same way it had been done for generations but the celebration of the New Passover, which mirrors the Old Passover in a very specific way: the celebration is incomplete without both the sacrifice and the eating of the lamb. In continuity with the old tradition, the Lamb of the New covenant is unblemished, in prime condition, male, and no bones are broken during the sacrifice. Moreover, it would be fitting for this new Lamb to be crucified, resembling the posture of the lambs of the Second Temple period. John the Baptist reveals the identity of this new Lamb:

The Messiah had arrived and redeemed the world through His passion during the time of the Passover like many of the Jewish leaders had suspected.

Hence, it is no surprise that the 12 Apostles began to celebrate the Mass—the New Passover—in the different regions that they settled in before handing on the tradition to those who came after them. It is even less of a surprise that the Mass always consisted of both a sacrificial and communal meal component simply because the Passover would be incomplete if the lamb was not sacrificed and consumed. Hence, during the liturgy, the priest raises the body of Christ up to the Father, re-presenting the original sacrifice of Christ offering Himself up to the Father for the sake of humanity in the same way that Jews believed participating in the Passover celebration was a participation in the original Passover event. Right after the re-presentation of the sacrifice, we partake in eating the Lamb that was sacrificed, not only because Christ tells us to eat His flesh in John 6, but also because the sacrifice always precedes the meal.

Not only is the nature of the Eucharist revealed through a detailed understanding of the Passover but also through the manna as well. Jesus speaks about this in a more clear way telling the Jews that He is the bread of life that comes down from heaven, mirroring the old manna despite being different in a special way: whoever eats of this new manna will never hunger again unlike the Old Israelites. The Jewish rabbis almost hit the mark with their understanding of the Messiah arriving with manna, as Jesus Christ doesn’t just come back with the old manna or even arrive with some new manna but tells them that He is the new manna. And sure enough, we are blessed to be able to partake in eating the new manna between the coming of the Messiah and the end of the age when we will worship God in body and soul.

Incredible.

It’s no wonder why a common theme among our great saints and theologians is the supernatural nature and great importance of Mass:

Thus, it takes a certain faith to grasp this reality because our limited perception can trick us into missing the magnitude of the Holy Sacrifice. Let us continue to grow in faith that we may grow to love, appreciate, and cherish the Holy Mass.

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Thanks for reading and until next time.