From the Passover Lamb to the Eucharist

pic: Durham Cathedral

Earlier this year, in a series of posts published under the blog label Jewish roots, I explore the Jewish roots of the Christian Eucharist.  I drew on the work of Brant Pitre among others when I wrote this:

One of the clearest places where the Jewish imprint on Christianity remains visible is in the Holy Mass, the Eucharist. Catholics believe that this sacrament was instituted at the Last Supper and marks the new covenant—the new Passover—in the blood of Jesus Christ, shed for all peoples outside the gates of Jerusalem. According to the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), the Last Supper was a ritual Jewish meal, structured as a Passover celebration like those observed by thousands of Jewish families at the time.

Long before modern scholars began to emphasise the Jewish roots of the Eucharist, they were already apparent in the writings of the Anglo-Saxon theologian, Doctor and saint, Bede the Venerable (c. 673-735).  Bede understood the Eucharist as the fulfilment of Old Testament figures such as the manna and Passover lamb.  In his commentaries on the Temple, the Tabernacle and the Passover, for example, he saw the Eucharist as the completion of God's saving plan rather than as an isolated ritual. The history of Israel culminates in Christ, and Christ continues to nourish his Church sacramentally.

He spent virtually his entire life in the monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow in Northumbria, where daily Mass, the Divine Office, the study of Scripture and communal prayer shaped the rhythm of monastic life.  There would have been significant contact between these monasteries and those of Lindisfarne and Iona.

In common with the emphasis of the Doctors of the first millennium, Bede was primarily focussed on transformation of life and less on philosophical explanation. His commentaries on Revelation especially stress that the Church's liturgy participates in the worship of the angels and saints before God's throne. This perspective became highly influential in medieval spirituality.

Commenting on Luke 22:20 in his Commentary on Luke, Bede emphasises that Christ replaced the old Passover with a new sacrament:

That namely, instead of the flesh of the lamb or its blood, substituting the sacrament of his flesh and blood in the figure of bread and wine, he showed that he himself was the one to whom the Lord swore and will not repent, you are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. [Source: historicalchristian.faith]

Using the traditional patristic language of 'figura' and without denying the reality of Christ's real presence, Bede reflects a classic patristic theme: the Eucharist is the fulfilment of the Old Testament sacrifices and especially of the Passover.  In patristic writings, 'figure' often denotes a foreshadowing or type of a future reality.  For Bede, scripture and Eucharist belong together. The same Christ who speaks through the Word also nourishes the Church sacramentally in the Eucharist, a theme that resonates strongly with modern Catholic teaching.