209 INSTITUTION OF THE EUCHARIST AT THE LAST SUPPER

YOUCAT Lesson 209

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

209  When did Christ institute the Eucharist?

Christ instituted the Holy Eucharist on the evening before his death, “on the night when he was betrayed” (1 Corinthians 11:23), when he gathered the apostles around him in the Upper Room in Jerusalem and celebrated the Last Supper with them.  [1323, 1337-1340]

Montage: …..Communion of the Apostles in the Upper Room, by Fra Angelico_ with crucifixion inset added by Don L. Bragg. …..209

“How can Jesus distribute his Body and Blood?  By making the bread into his Body and the wine into his Blood, he anticipates his death, he accepts it in his heart, and he transforms it into an action of love.  What on the outside is simply brutal violence—the Crucifixion—from within becomes an act of total self-giving love.”  Pope Benedict XVI, August 28, 2008

THE SACRAMENT OF THE EUCHARIST

…….1323   "At the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, our Savior instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood. This he did in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until he should come again, and so to entrust to his beloved Spouse, the Church, a memorial of his death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a Paschal banquet 'in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us.'"(Sacrosanctum Concilium 47)¹³⁵ –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

The institution of the Eucharist

…….1337   The Lord, having loved those who were his own, loved them to the end. Knowing that the hour had come to leave this world and return to the Father, in the course of a meal he washed their feet and gave them the commandment of love.(compare John 13:1-17; Jn1: 34-35)¹⁶³    In order to leave them a pledge of this love, in order never to depart from his own and to make them sharers in his Passover, he instituted the Eucharist as the memorial of his death and Resurrection, and commanded his apostles to celebrate it until his return; "thereby he constituted them priests of the New Testament."(Council of Trent (1562): Denzinger-Schönmetzer 1740)¹⁶⁴ --CCC

…….1338   The three synoptic Gospels and St. Paul have handed on to us the account of the institution of the Eucharist; St. John, for his part, reports the words of Jesus in the synagogue of Capernaum that prepare for the institution of the Eucharist: Christ calls himself the bread of life, come down from heaven.(compare John 6:35)¹⁶⁵ --CCC

…….1339   Jesus chose the time of Passover to fulfill what he had announced at Capernaum: giving his disciples his Body and his Blood:

Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, "Go and prepare the passover meal for us, that we may eat it. . . ." They went . . . and prepared the passover. And when the hour came, he sat at table, and the apostles with him. And he said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer; for I tell you I shall not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.". . . . And he took bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." And likewise the cup after supper, saying, "This cup which is poured out for you is the New Covenant in my blood."(Luke 22:17; compare Matthew 26:26; Mark 14:22; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26)¹⁶⁶ –CCC

……..1340   By celebrating the Last Supper with his apostles in the course of the Passover meal, Jesus gave the Jewish Passover its definitive meaning. Jesus' passing over to his father by his death and Resurrection, the new Passover, is anticipated in the Supper and celebrated in the Eucharist, which fulfills the Jewish Passover and anticipates the final Passover of the Church in the glory of the kingdom. --CCC