The Eucharistic Covenant
We’ve seen that all of Christ’s earthly ministry is a fulfillment of what was prophesied through the prophets and what was typified through the great mediators of Salvation History. Our Lord’s ministry comes to a definitive climax in Passion Week, where He forms the new covenant in two stages. First, in the upper room and then at Calvary. First, the upper room.
Let’s talk about what takes place at the Lord’s Last Supper. In fact, let’s focus especially on Luke 22:20, the verse that we began these lessons with. We know that after the Supper, Luke describes how Our Lord took a cup and He spoke over the cup that, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” That phrase “in my blood” means consisting of my blood. To put that back in, this cup is the new covenant consisting of my blood.
What that means is the Eucharist is the New Covenant. That is extremely important. The new covenant is not a book. The new covenant is not a form of teaching. The new covenant is Jesus’ Eucharistic Self. It’s His blood as identified there in Luke 22:20. We know that the properties of the blood are also the properties of the body. We know it’s the Eucharistic Blood of Our Lord that’s in the cup when He speaks those words. It’s Jesus’, we can say, Eucharistic Self, which is the new covenant.
That fulfills, mystically and in an amazing fashion, the prophecies of Isaiah that describe this servant being given as a covenant. For example, Isaiah 42:6 says that “the servant of the Lord,” who we all know as the Messiah, “will be given as a covenant to the people.” What that prophecy meant before its fulfillment to those who read it is anybody’s guess.
I’m a student of ancient Jewish literature. I’ve never encountered in all of the ancient literature any understanding or interpretation of how the Jews understood this idea of the servant being given as a covenant. In light of its fulfillment, suddenly it all becomes clear: Jesus is the servant of God who gives Himself as a covenant in His Eucharistic Body and Blood. That giving of Himself as Body and Blood is a perfect symbol of what is actually taking place when we receive the Eucharist.
We know that the Eucharist is the new covenant. It’s the perfect covenant, a covenant forms the kinship bond. A covenant is the extension of kinship by oath. Well, if you’re going to pick an oath ritual to symbolize the making of a covenant, then you can choose no more perfect symbol than to give your body and your blood to those who are entering the covenant, and they eat it and we all know that you are what you eat. They are, quite literally, becoming your body and blood, they are becoming your kin.
We all know that the Eucharist is not just a symbol, but it’s a Sacrament. What is a Sacrament? A Sacrament is a sign which participates in what it is signifying. So, the Eucharist not only symbolically represents what’s taking place, but actually makes it take place. We really are receiving the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord. We truly are becoming the family of God when we receive the Eucharist. Jesus establishes that in the Upper Room. There, the new covenant is formed but it remains to, as it were, confirm the meaning of the new covenant and that takes place on the cross where Jesus completes the sacramental gift of Himself in the upper room with what we might describe as the physical gift of His Body on the Cross.
There, as He’s giving His life for us on the Cross, St. John includes a beautiful sign in John 19:34. He describes how Jesus’ side was pierced by a Roman lance and out came a flow of blood and water from the side of Christ. That flow of blood and water from the side of Christ is like the river that flowed out of Eden to bring life to the world. Eden, you will recall, was the original temple, but Jesus’ Body is the new temple. We see that in John 2:21 where the Apostle says “He spoke of the temple of His Body.” So, Jesus’ Body is the new Eden-temple.
Jesus Himself had said earlier in the Gospel of John (7:37-39), “out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.” The Apostles explains that he said that about the Spirit. When, at the Cross, Our Lord’s heart flows with the water in that blood, that is a sign of the Holy Spirit being poured out, but it’s poured out in two ways: in water and in blood. In the context of the Gospel of John, water is always tied with baptism. Blood is always tied with Eucharist. This flow of blood and water from the side of Christ is the flow of the Sacraments, which flow from Calvary in A.D. 33 through all the world geographically, down into Africa, out into Asia, up into Europe, west into the new world and continue flowing through all time, through all the centuries, through ancient times, through medieval times, to the contemporary period, even up to us today where we may be living in the current year.
That flow of the Sacraments is still coming from the side of Christ. Every time we go to a Catholic Church, we can participate in it because every Catholic Church is a sacrament of Calvary and indeed a sacrament of Eden. When we go into that Catholic Church, we see the baptismal font, which is the river of life. We see the altar, which is the tree of life which bears the fruit of life, which is the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ Our Lord. That’s how Jesus brings us back to Eden. It’s not just bringing us back to Eden, but more than it, we’ll talk about that.
It’s through the Sacraments that we receive the Spirit of God, that breath of life that was breathed into Adam’s nostrils. It’s how we’re made again, made into living beings once again. It’s how we’re restored to life as children of God. It’s very significant, the most profound mystery in all of human experience. There’s much more we can say about it, but this is how Our Lord establishes the new covenant which is really His Eucharistic Self. That’s what we’re trying to initiate people into, that’s what we’re trying to bring people to when we do Catholic evangelization.
Let’s talk a little bit more about the relevance of understanding Passion Week through Catholic eyes. It’s not just a “catholic” take on the Gospels, but it’s really what the Gospels are presenting. We’re so used to the presentation of the Gospel from Protestant evangelists who de-emphasize the role of the Sacraments and don’t capture or understand the sacramental symbolism and the sacramental reality in Passion Week and what Jesus is doing in forming the new covenant.
For example, most Protestants, if you ask them “what is the New Testament?” They think it’s a book, they might say the 27 books at the end of the Bible. That’s the New Testament. That’s not actually what the New Testament defines as the New Testament. Let’s keep in mind that testamentum is just a Latin word that means “covenant.” Properly speaking, “New Testament” means “new covenant.” What does the New Testament identify as the new covenant? It identifies it as the Eucharistic blood of Jesus in Luke 22:20 “this cup is the new covenant in my blood” which means consisting of my blood.
If the new covenant is the Eucharist, what can we say about those who claim to be new covenant Christians, or New Testament Christians, but who are not participating in the Eucharist? It would be like going to a Chinese restaurant and reading the whole menu and getting all fascinated at the menu and never ordering General Tso’s Chicken. That would be a shame, it would be like not completing the act.
We need to keep that in mind when we’re doing evangelism. We’ll sometimes run into non-Catholic Christians, who have been reading the menu, have been fascinated with God’s Word, with, say, the New Testament, or the Bible generally, and that’s great. The Bible gives testimony to the Eucharist. It speaks of the new covenant which is the Body and Blood of Jesus. We want our separated brethren to see that and join us for the meal. Not only read about the meal, but experience it. That’s what we call the fullness of truth that is in the Catholic Church and in the Sacraments. We’re trying to bring people to the Sacraments.
That’s why it’s so important to see, for example, that symbolism of the blood and water coming from the side of Christ. He’s establishing the sacramental order through baptism and Eucharist. We can be filled with the Holy Spirit. It’s not just through studying a book, it’s not just through prayer. Those are wonderful but those should lead up and culminate with an experience of Jesus in the Sacraments. That was His intention for us.