Transcription
Good morning and welcome to the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy. I'm Father Chris. Uh, we're very glad you're with us today.
I just returned from a week in our visitation house or to our house. I was doing a visitation in Ohio and I was just telling the group here at the shrine, I haven't been really this excited about a talk in a in a long time. I know I get excited about all of them, but but this one especially because um, as I thought I had finished this talk um last night late, I started digging into it deeper and be able to talk about. And somebody I think has their cell phone on. If we could turn the volume down. Okay.
Um, and so it's very interesting. We're going to talk about the Last Supper and we're going to talk about where the apostles were seated and what is the significance of that. And this is something that most Catholics have never been taught, have never been told. And then I'm going to share the rest of my seminary notes with you, what we learned about the Last Supper and the meaning. So, we've got a beautiful topic to talk about here today with the Last Supper. And what an important meaning because coming up in just a few days is the um uh the commemoration or the liturgy of the Lord's Supper. And so, we will be really right in a timely position.
So, let us begin in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Heavenly Father, we ask you send the Holy Spirit down upon us to open our minds and hearts to receive this grace that began in the upper room at the Last Supper. Well, with the incarnation it began, but with the fulfillment of the Passover, we ask that these graces be showered upon us. And we ask this, Lord, through Christ in the intercession of Mother Mary and through Christ our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Okay, we're going to we're going to come right out of the gate here and we're going to start showing you a bunch of slides because this is fascinating. Now, this what I'm going to teach you is drawn from scripture, sacred tradition, from the Jewish context that Jesus lived in, and from my seminary notes. So this is where we're getting. None of this is my opinion. This is what I'm teaching you. All right, let's go to our first slide.
This is Da Vinci's Last Supper, which was discovered in a Dominican uh monastery in Milan. And this is the Last Supper painting at the moment. What does that capture? What is happening at the Last Supper? At the moment of Leonardo, Leonardo da Vinci's painting. It's the moment Jesus reveals who will betray him. So notice the expressions of the of the people at the table. They're turning. They're talking. They're looking. They're wondering. What Da Vinci's painting of the Last Supper captures is the moment Jesus told them who's going to betray him. Now, most agree according to this painting, here's the order. Let's go to our next slide.
This is the order starting at the far left, Bartholomew. And the number above them is the number that they were called in order that Jesus called them. So you have Bartholomew, you have James, Andrew, Judas, closer to Jesus, Peter, and John. These according to Da Vinci are on Jesus's right. We're going to disprove this. We're going to show that this is actually not accurate. On Da Vinci's painting. Go over to Jesus's left, Thomas, James the Greater, Philip, Matthew, Thaddaeus, and Simon. What you are looking at is the order of the apostles in the way that Da Vinci presented them in the Last Supper. So most agree that this was the order. But now most scholars believe this layout of the order of the apostles in that Last Supper is incorrect. The table shape is incorrect. The fact that they're seated is incorrect. In fact, you can't get much more incorrect about Da Vinci's painting of the Last Supper. But it's beautiful nonetheless. I'm not mocking it. I certainly couldn't have done it. Most of us couldn't have done it. And it brings the spirit.
Now let's go to our next slide. This is what the Bible. Okay. The Bible doesn't provide definitive seating a seating chart, but scholars suggest a likely arrangement is what you're seeing on your screen. Okay. This is a U-shape. This is based on the Roman Jewish triclinium, which is a U-shaped table and based on the Bible, it makes perfect sense. This is what most scholars say. So look at your screen and I'm going to have Brother Mark leave this up for a while why I talk about it. Okay, it's shaped like a U.
Now this is the table. The likely arrangement is we said the Roman Jewish triclinium, a U-shaped table. Now the host would not have been in the middle. The host here, Jesus sat second position from the left on the central couch. This was the place of honor in in this time period, in this context, and in this place in the world. Now, the beloved disciple John, he sat to Jesus's right. Da Vinci got that correct. Okay? He was close enough to lean back against Jesus's chest. Now, we're going to tell you next coming up how they leaned on what side. And it makes sense because they leaned on their left side. They were not seated. And I'm going to show you that in a minute. So John would have leaned back against Jesus's chest to whisper questions because they were lying again on their left sides. They were not in a chair.
Now here's what's fascinating. The position of the trusted guest was likely Judas. According to the Bible, likely on Jesus's left was the trusted guest, Judas. This allowed Jesus to offer him the sop. This is the bread dipped in the herbs directly. This is a gesture extended to an honored guest or close companion. Jesus would not have dipped that and offered it to anybody else but on their left. And so this is why according to the Bible, they believe Judas was immediately on Jesus's left. Now the bread that was dipped would have been given to him as an honor.
Now the low position, not meaning low in dignity but in humility, was Peter. Now look where Peter is. He's on the opposite side of the U-shaped table. Now, all the theologians and scholars say on this that this is likely Peter where he sat at the opposite end of the U-shaped table because from here he would have it made sense. He was a place that Peter was taught by Jesus, the high will be humbled, the low will be honored. And so Peter was assuming already assuming this position, although his place of the apostles was a place of primacy. Now from here he would have had a clear line of sight to John to signal John, which aligns with the Gospel of John where Peter motions to John to ask Jesus a question. Ask who? Who? And so this layout that I'm having Brother Mark keep on the screen. This is what the real table, most all scholars believe now and theologians, that this would have been how they would have sat based on the Bible and Jewish tradition and Passover and the Jewish context and the Roman location. It would have been like this, not the straight table of Leonardo da Vinci.
Now let's go to our next slide. Here's what it would have looked like. Here the apostles are reclining at table. Look at Jesus. He's on his left side. How many times do we read in the Bible they reclined at table? Father, you're making this up. This is this is not they would have been seated at the table. No. The Bible says throughout they reclined at table. And so the remaining apostles, we don't know exactly how they filled the spots. The Bible doesn't give a seating chart. Okay? So, they would have filled the other spots around the table. What theologians believe we know is on the end was John, Jesus in the place of honor, John on his right, Judas a important position on the left who he handed the morsel to, and Peter across in the low place that communicated directly with Jesus. And then with them all laying on their side on their left side, it made perfect sense that John was able to rest his head on the breast of Jesus. It makes perfect sense.
Now, we don't know the order of the other apostles. I'm not going to tell you Simon sat here and Bartholomew sat here because we don't know. What I showed you earlier was what theologians say based on the painting of Dioaini where they would have been positioned. But we don't know that. Okay. Now, but that was his intent to show those apostles in that order. Now, the remaining apostles uh filled the spots. They likely were grouped by their status or social circles within the 12. Okay, this is interesting because this is part of the confusion. The apostles didn't get what was going on at the Last Supper because um they asked who's greatest. So note again that they're reclining at table. They're not seated. All right.
So let's now go into the Last Supper. What is the importance of the Last Supper? First of all, it was a Passover meal, but Jesus transformed it. The Last Supper took place during Passover. We know this from the Bible. Now let's go to our next slide.
This is described as a Passover meal. This is from Luke 22. What's in a Passover meal? You have the green vegetable, the saltwater, four cups of wine, which is very important. We'll talk about that in a moment. The baked egg. You have these elements of the Passover meal, the seder meal, the seder meal that we know was would have been at a Jewish Passover meal. This was a Passover meal. I recalled Israel's deliverance from Egypt, but Jesus radically transforms it. And this is coming up in just a couple days that we're going to partake in a way.
Now, instead of focusing on the lamb of the Exodus, there is no lamb. There's no mention of any lamb in any of the Gospels that they sacrificed and put on the table. Why? Because Jesus is the lamb. This is why the first thing said about Jesus in his public ministry is behold the lamb of God. And so he reveals himself now as the true lamb of God. Go back to John 1:29. Now, notably, the Gospels never mention a lamb at the meal. That's because it's now Jesus. Now, the Eucharist becomes the new Passover sacrifice. The Last Supper is a fulfillment of the Passover that you've probably been told. But the original Passover, which saved Israel from physical death, is now fulfilled. Jesus transforms it in bringing a new Passover that doesn't save you from physical death but saves you from eternal death from sin and eternal death. So the key parallels here, the lamb of the old Passover is now Christ, the new lamb, the Passover, the lamb of God. The blood that they sprinkled over the doorpost is now transformed or replaced or fulfilled by Christ's saving blood. Okay? The eating of the lamb had to be done or the sacrifice was invalid is now us eating the Eucharist. That's why the word in the Gospel of John chapter 6 uses the word tragō instead of literally to gnaw to chew with your teeth. And so the Eucharist is the new and eternal Passover.
Now what about this is fascinating. Now I I I'm going to get into something here. When Jesus says, "This is my body which will be given up for you. This is my blood." This is real, not symbolic. And we're going to show you why. Okay. Jesus says, "This is my body. This is my blood." We were talking now Matthew 26. This fulfills his teaching in John 6. My flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. As I said, true blood, true drink, to true food to eat, true God. That's why Jesus was laid in a manger. It was a feeding trough for the animals. And the language is direct and literal. It does not say this represents my body. He said this is my body. You don't say that. If I if I give you something that's representative, what's a wedding ring? It isn't your marriage. It's representative of the love of your marriage and that bond. We don't say this is grab the ring. This is your marriage. This represents your marriage. So if this was symbolic like a wedding ring, Jesus would have said, "This represents my body. This represents my blood." He didn't. He said, "This is my body. This is my blood." And so now we're going to get into something that I learned in seminary and was perfected by Father Spitzer, my absolute favorite non-Maronite priest. Right?
So, here's what we're going to go over. Now, when Jesus says this, um, the language, as I said, actually is institution of the priesthood. Now, let's go to our next slide. Anamnesis. You ever heard of the term? It's the Greek word. Okay. Jesus told his apostles, "Do this in memory of me." And non-Catholics just pass right by then. Why would Jesus say to do this in memory of me? Why? That word in the Greek, which the Gospels were written in, is anamnesis. Okay, this is a command to make present for all eternity what he is doing at that moment. That's how the Jews use the term. Christ instituted the priesthood at this moment. And we'll talk about the footwashing, which symbolized that. But the apostles were the first priests. But we don't need priests anymore. Jesus was the priest. They're in persona Christi, which means only the priest can consecrate the Eucharist like Jesus did because it's not their priesthood. There's no such thing as the priesthood of Father Chris. This is the priesthood of Christ. Only one priesthood that we share in. They, the priest is Christ at the altar. This is why he has to be a man. It's not sexist. But Christ was a man and that's who he is at the altar. Every Catholic priest shares in the same priesthood of Christ.
Now let's go to our next slide. This is Father Robert Spitzer. He's blind. And when I was writing my book with Father Jason Lewis and we were talking about the concept of God being outside of time and everybody said, "You can't say this, Father Chris." And I I did not know Father Spitzer at the time, but I took a chance and I tracked him down and I called him and I said, "Father Spitzer, I know you don't know me. Um, I'm I'm writing this book and I I'm I'm I'm talking and I'm looking into the theology. I have to make sure it's correct. I said, um, here's my premise." I just left him this long voicemail. And he called me back. He doesn't know me from Adam. And he spent three hours with me on the phone while we were while I was writing this book. This priest, if you haven't seen him on EWTN, is one of the most incredible priests. God took his sight, but he gave him everything else. This guy has a photographic memory. He He's a PhD. He the guy is amazing. So, we just recently went out to go see him. We did a conference at the um at the cathedral there in Orange County, and I got to sit down with him, one of the highlights of my priesthood. And he is incredible. And I'm going to share with you what he talks about the Last Supper. He talks that Jesus compresses time. Okay? And he's trying to explain basically with this term philosophically and theologically what the Church means by anamnesis at the Mass. It means God is outside of time. Now, God does not live moment to moment like we do. We were created in time. Time was created for man. He exists, God, in an eternal present moment. Everything is present to God. I've said before, if if this is the beginning of time, Adam and Eve, and this is the end of the world, God sees everything at one moment. There's no past for God. There's no future for God. Everything is one big eternal present moment. Father, I've heard you talk about this before. No, I'm not going to be repeating um the suicide talk or anything like that. What I'm going to go into you is the Mass because what Father Spitzer taught me changed my life. And so for God, the Last Supper, the crucifixion, and the resurrection are not past events. They are eternally present to God. This is why our faith teaches Jesus is eternally present before the Father doing what? What is Jesus present, eternally before the Father doing? Showing his wounds. Showing his wounds so that God the Father will will will will take that sacrifice of the Son and grant us eternal salvation from it. So Jesus brings that eternal reality into time. The eternal reality of the Son being present before the Father.
So, Father Spitzer taught me at the Last Supper, Jesus does something astonishing. I'm hanging on every word. And he takes what will happen at Calvary the next day. Did you ever wonder how Jesus says, "This is my body. This is my blood." When the last of the crucifixion has even happened yet? Because we think in time. And so, Father Spitzer says, "My concept of Father Jason Lewis on the fact of prayer at any time for somebody because God is outside of time is correct." Father Spitzer teaches that what will happen at Calvary the next day, Jesus makes it present ahead of time. So Jesus at the Last Supper hasn't been crucified yet. I always wondered that. I always wondered. I said, "Father, it just doesn't make sense to me how Jesus could be saying, 'I'm laying my life down' when the the crucifixion, Good Friday, hasn't even happened yet." It's because of anamnesis, because this Jesus compresses time.
Now, if you want to see a much better explanation, um, go to Father Spitzer, type in "Jesus compresses time." Look at his teachings. Unbelievable what this guy explains. He is so anointed. He is so anointed. God took his eyesight, but he gave him everything else and he's the most trusted priest to me. So anyway, um, this is what's going on. So Christ takes what will happen at Calvary the next day and makes it present ahead of time. So when he says, "This is my body and this is my blood which will be given up for you." He's already offering the same sacrifice that will occur on the cross. He's offering it to them. How is that possible? He hasn't been to the cross yet. This is what Spitzer means. Father Spitzer by Jesus compresses time. And so Jesus draws together past, present, and future into one moment at the Last Supper. This is what's going on at the Last Supper. And we just see a picture of Da Vinci and say, "Oh, isn't that nice?" No. The past, the present, and the future are all there in one moment. All of creation of the past in a way is there. The Last Supper itself is the present. That's the present moment. But the sacrifice of Calvary, the future is there at the Last Supper. Every future Mass is there at the Last Supper. So all are united, all these things, creation from the past, the Last Supper itself in the present, the sacrifice of Calvary and every Mass in the future are all united in one eternal act.
And look at this next slide. Wow. Christ's singular and eternal sacrifice. Oh, you Catholics say that you resacrifice Christ. No, we don't. There's one sacrifice. And look at this slide. It's anticipated at the Last Supper. It is fulfilled at Calvary and made present at Mass. This is what Father Spitzer teaches. This is what it all means. And this is what I didn't learn till seminary. And I still didn't understand it in seminary until Father Spitzer explained it to me. And so all are united into one eternal act. This is what's going on at the Last Supper.
So the Mass participates in this compressed time. At every Mass, we are not going back in time in terms of historical time. You are in sacred time. So you are present at Calvary as Jesus's sacrifice for your salvation is taking place. Christ is bringing his one eternal sacrifice into our present moment at the Mass. How is that possible? Father, it happened 2,000 years ago because God is outside of time. Jesus compresses time. This is what Father Spitzer teaches and he gets it from all the Church Fathers. He put all their a lifetime of study. He put all their teaching together. This is incredible. And so the Mass is the same sacrifice as Calvary. You are there. You didn't take a time capsule because we're not going back in historical time. We are in uh sacred time and it is not repeated. We do not crucify Christ. His one sacrifice is made present in this Mass.
You know, think of it this way. Think of a long line. You're at the end of the line. Pretty soon you're going to get to the front of the line. Okay? Our life is like that. Our life is like living along a line, moving each day. If this is the day you're born and this is the day you die, there is a finite number of days that God knows in between. Each day you are moving closer to the end of the line. It's the end of the line. Each day you're moving closer to that end of the line. But guess what, everybody? God sees the whole line that you're in at once. The line of your life, your birth, your baptism, your um uh first communion, confession, your first communion, your confirmation, your marriage, um your or your education, your marriage, uh your your children, your your sickness and your death. He sees it all at once. Now if God can see it all at once, Jesus as God incarnate can take a single point in that line like Calvary and make it present at all the points in the line, the Last Supper, our Mass today. Jesus can take in his line, his line is the beginning of the world to the end of the world. So Christ can take any point in that line. Pick pick one. Um, Calvary. Okay. He can take what any point in that line like Calvary and make it present at multiple points along that line. Again, the Last Supper, the Mass. How was Mary immaculately conceived by the power, the the the merits of the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ? But Jesus Christ was 43 years away or 48 years away from his passion, death, and resurrection. How was Mary immaculately conceived? This is what I did a talk on in the movie The Immaculate Conception about Kronos and Kairos. So anyway, God can do this. This is what Father Spitzer means by compressing time. And so this explains several key Catholic beliefs. All right. The Eucharist is truly sacrificial because it is the same act of Christ's self-offering. It's the same. The Mass is not symbolic because we are really participating in that one eternal act at Calvary. Divine mercy is always accessible because the moment of the cross is always present to us. This is why at every Catholic Mass you have a crucifix with the body of Christ on it because his divine mercy poured out of his side and the blood and the water to the whole world. And that's what you're getting at the Mass. Non-Catholic Masses don't or non-Catholic uh uh praise and worship don't have that. This is why every Catholic Mass has a crucifix. And so that moment of the cross is always present to us in the Mass. So compressing time means Christ takes his one sacrifice offered once in history and makes it present at every age. This is the meaning of anamnesis, the word used in the Bible. Well, Father, how do you know that's how they meant it? The Jews, that's what they taught about Passover, that it was eternal. And so at the Mass, we are not remembering Calvary. You are standing within it. That's why at every Catholic church, the altar, this little sanctuary here is Calvary. That altar is the cross. You are at the foot of the cross. And this sacrifice is real. But we are participating. We're not recrucifying.
And so let's get into something Scott Hahn taught me. And you can easily reference this. He wrote a book about it. The Fourth Cup. Now the cup, the chalice is about the covenant, is about covenant and sacrifice. Jesus calls the chalice the blood of the new and everlasting covenant, the new and eternal covenant. This echoes Exodus 24 when Moses sealed the covenant with blood. But Jesus offers his own blood now, anticipating the cross. So the Last Supper is not just a meal. It's the beginning of the sacrifice of Calvary. It is both a meal and a sacrifice. And that is what the Protestant Reformation tragically left behind. They do not understand the concept of sacrifice. This is the Mass, both a meal and a sacrifice. And so it's the same sacrifice as the cross, but in a sacramental or unbloody form. So Jesus offers himself in advance under the signs of bread and wine. Could you let the people in the back in please? I think they're wanting to come in. So this is Jesus offering himself in advance and he's doing it through bread and wine. This is the meaning of the Last Supper and the Mass.
Now let's talk about the mystery of the fourth cup. A traditional Passover includes four cups of wine. But at the Last Supper, Jesus drank three. They drank three. Jesus does not finish the final cup. Jesus does not finish the fourth cup. He says, "I shall not drink again until the kingdom comes." Now, he completes it on the cross when he drinks wine. John 19. And he says, "It is finished." Let's go to our next slide. This is Scott Hahn's amazing book called The Fourth Cup. So what I learned here is from Scott Hahn. Now he completes it on the cross when they put the wine and the hyssop and he does take a drink because he said, "I thirst." What is he thirsting for? That fourth cup that he never finished at the Last Supper. And so he says now he says, "It is finished." The Last Supper and the crucifixion form one continuous sacrifice. This leads us to the Last Supper being the first Mass. The Church teaches the Last Supper is the institution of the Mass. Well, Father, the Church made that up. Read the Book of Revelation. Another book by Scott Hahn called The Lamb's Supper changed my life along with Father Spitzer. It's all there. The bread, the wine, the words of consecration, which Jesus uttered at the Mass. The apostles acting as priests getting their feet washed, which we'll talk about. The command, "Do this in memory of me." Anamnesis, making it present for all eternity. So, at every Mass, let's go to my favorite painting. Every Mass makes present the same sacrifice of Christ. There, look at this. On the left, you see Mary at the foot, Jesus on the cross. What is happening is this present Mass is making the same sacrifice of Christ present to us today. What is on the right? The priest offering that sacrifice. He is in persona Christi. And what is God the Father doing up at top? Seeing it all at one moment. He's looking at that whole line. And so this is so much like I said, what I learned in seminary, confirmed through Scott Hahn, confirmed through Father Spitzer. This is the teaching of the Church and this is the meaning of the Mass and this is what the Last Supper is about.
So let's keep going. I keep mentioning the footwashing. This was shocking. In the Gospel of John, John 13, Jesus washes the apostles' feet. Now, this was a task of a servant, not a master. But what does Jesus tell us? "I came to serve, not to be served." St. Peter initially refuses, shocked by the humility of Jesus. But then by the Last Supper, he takes the position of humility. And part of the ironic priesthood ordination was getting your feet washed. This was the institution of the priesthood. This is what they did as part of the ordination rite of the priesthood of the Aaronic priesthood. Aaronic meaning a aaron, the priesthood of Aaron.
Now let's go back. They were reclining as I showed you earlier, not sitting. In the ancient world, participants reclined at table. The triclinium. This posture is important because it symbolized freedom. Slaves stood. Free men reclined. Participation in a sacred feast was the posture here. So the Eucharist is a banquet of the redeemed, the freed, not an ordinary meal. So Judas, as I showed you earlier, was likely in that place of honor. In the Gospel of John 13, Jesus gives a dipped morsel directly to Judas Iscariot. Now this suggests that Judas must have been seated very close to Jesus. And then I read one of the theologians was talking about he would have been next to him because that's who you handed the dipped morsel to. So this would have been the place of honor, the left. Well, Father, I thought the place of honor was the right. Yes, the right is the main place of honor, but the left is still a place of honor. Even in betrayal, Jesus is offering friendship and mercy to Judas. Do you know in Dante's Inferno, Judas appears in the deepest chasm of hell? Many Church Fathers agree with this. But do you know why? Why did Judas end up in such the depths of hell? Not because he betrayed Jesus. Peter betrayed Jesus. Judas is not, according to the Church Fathers, in the depths of hell from betrayal. But because he rejected God's mercy, he despaired of mercy and forgiveness and rather took his life. Do not despair of God's mercy, but don't be presumptuous of it either.
Now, the Bible says it was at night. Why is that important? When Judas leaves, John says, "And it was night." John 13:30. Night. Why? Because night was associated with sin, betrayal, darkness. So redemption began in the hour of darkness. Christ is associated with the light that enters into that darkness. That is divine mercy. So the apostles didn't fully understand this. They're still arguing about who's the greatest. And then they will soon scatter, confused. Yet Jesus still entrusted them with the Eucharist. So you too can still be confused. And Jesus will still entrust you with the Eucharist. This shows the priesthood and the Eucharist, the priesthood to us and the Eucharist to you are pure gift. You don't earn them.
So let's talk now about the Real Presence and the ongoing reality of it. Jesus said he will remain with us until the end of time. How? He ascended to the Father. He left us. No, he stays with us. The Eucharist. And the Last Supper is not only an historical event but a mystery that continues at every Mass. The Last Supper is not just a past event. It continues. Father, how do you know that? At every Mass, Christ becomes truly present in the Eucharist. The sacrifice of Calvary is made present because of anamnesis, Jesus compressing time. This is why Catholics, we worship the Eucharist and believe in the Real Presence. This is all scriptural. But you got to dive into scripture and also read the Church Fathers and know what the first Christians did. If you say it doesn't explicitly say this in the Bible, well, it really does. What do you think the first Christians doing this for a thousand years before Martin Luther? Do you think that we know better than they do and that it's just going to change 1500 years later after 1500 years of of treating the Eucharist as the Real Presence? Of course not.
Now, I want to add on here that this is the source of divine mercy. This is why I'm a Maronite. The Eucharist is given to us at the Last Supper becomes Christ's body broken. In the Bible, it says that Jesus broke the bread. It also says that when he did the multiplication of the loaves, didn't it? But at the Last Supper, it says Jesus broke the bread. Why? Because his body is broken. It's broken on the cross. Not the bones, but the the the flesh, the body, it's the blood is separated. That's breaking it. His blood is poured out on the cross. Blood and water then flow from his side. John 19:34. This corresponds to the vision of St. Faustina. Let's go to our next slide. That's the image of divine mercy. The red is the blood, the Eucharist, the Precious Blood. The pale ray is the water, cleansing waters of Baptism and Confession. So the Last Supper is the hidden beginning of divine mercy fully revealed on the cross when the blood and the water pour out his side which came from his heart. Remember I teach you the spear went through his side from his side punctured the heart and the blood and the water that came out actually came from his heart on the Shroud of Turin. Father Spitzer was telling me that the that studies have shown from the Shroud that the heart had blood and water come out of it. Amazing. So this is what's going on now. This is the beginning of the outpouring of divine mercy. All right. Is fully now revealed on the cross. The Last Supper begins the outpouring of mercy. At the Last Supper, Jesus gives us the Eucharist and says, "This is my body. This is my blood poured out for you." Poured out. Where else do you see it poured out? On the cross. Luke 22:19. This is the beginning of the outpouring of divine mercy. Christ is already offering his life for the forgiveness of sins. And the Eucharist makes this sacrifice present and accessible to us 2,000 years later. The Last Supper and the cross are one mystery. At the Last Supper, Jesus offers himself sacramentally. That's why you are at the Last Supper. On the cross, Jesus sheds his blood physically. The key connection, mercy is offered at the Last Supper. The mercy that's offered there by Jesus is fulfilled on Good Friday when the blood and the water literally flow from his side. This is the fountain of divine mercy that St. Faustina talks so much about. And I'm so excited. I am so excited because for 10 years my desire, my dream has been able to take the diary, to go through it and to put it in chronological order and to take the key points out and to make a diary that instead of being so um um what do you call it? Uh um um what's the right word? I I can't think right now. um intimidating. We're going to put it in a form for you that everybody can understand clearly. We're not changing anything. It's just the way that we're compiling and what we include and what we order. And we have a a novice, Father Scott Foley, who came to us from the diocese. And what I did when I went out to Ohio was work with him. He's doing incredible work. You're about to see something incredible come out. And we hope that it'll tie to St. Faustina being named Doctor of the Church. If this happens and Faustina's named Doctor of the Church and we get this abridged copy of the diary out, I will die in peace. I will die in peace. And so stay stay with us. Stay with us because this is amazing what's coming.
Now the Last Supper. Okay. Um, let's see. Where was I? Um, all right. The Last Supper and the cross of Christ, as we said, are one mystery. All right. So let's now look at Divine Mercy Sunday, which is also coming up. Okay. Divine Mercy Sunday is a return to the upper room. You want to see something really interesting? Let's go to our next slide. You you ever seen this image of divine mercy? It's different. This was the image of divine mercy um commissioned by Father Seraphim and it's to help people to understand. It shows the upper room. It shows the cenacle. It shows the rays not going straight down because the rays would go out to the whole world. It still has the blood and the water. But this is actually commissioned by Father Seraphim to help teach you what divine mercy is, not to replace the Vilnius image, but to teach you the meaning of it. And so on Divine Mercy Sunday, the week after, it says the following week on the first day of the week, here I'm reading John chapter 20, 19-23. Christ appeared again in the upper room, the same place as the Last Supper, and he says, "Peace be with you. Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them." So Christ institutes the sacrament of confession. He gives the apostles the authority to forgive sins through delegation. Oh Father, you're a heretic. Nobody can forgive sins but Jesus. Yes, that's true. Jesus had the ultimate authority to forgive sin. But when you have ultimate authority, you have the authority to delegate that authority. Jesus is still the one who forgives the sin, but he's delegated the priest to be his spokesperson on earth. How do you know that, Father? Matthew 18, 16-18, Matthew um uh let's see, Matthew 16:19, Matthew 18:18, John 20:23. "Whose sins you forgive are forgiven in heaven. Whose sins you retain are retained in heaven." As I always say, was Jesus talking to himself? No. No. So somebody was given that authority not because they have it or they earned it, but because Christ delegated it. This is what he did with his priests. So Christ institutes a sacrament of confession. He gives the apostles authority to forgive sins through delegation. And this is the direct application of mercy one on the cross and begun in the Last Supper. The same room where the Last Supper, we get the sacraments of the Eucharist and the priesthood, is the same room that Divine Mercy Sunday happens. We get the sacrament of confession. Amazing.
So the image of divine mercy and the Last Supper are connected. The rays of red and water flow from Christ's heart. The blood is the Eucharist. The water is Baptism and Confession. These sacraments were instituted or rooted in the Last Supper and its fulfillment on the cross. They are the channels of mercy given to the Church. Wow. St. Faustina, let's go to our next slide. Always talks from the Eucharist comes all mercy. Every Mass is a divine mercy encounter. There you see the rays coming from the monstrance, from the Eucharist, the blood and the water. Wow.
So let's go to our next slide because there's a powerful insight to all this. So if Brother Mark can show the next slide, a powerful theological insight is this. Holy Thursday, the Last Supper, mercy is instituted. Even though mercy began in the garden with St. Faustina or with the fall of Adam and Eve and God the Father, but it was a promise. That's where it began in the garden. But the promise was of a Savior. Now it's realized. So Holy Thursday, the Last Supper, mercy is instituted. Then the next day, Good Friday, mercy is accomplished. With the blood and the water pouring out. Then on Easter Sunday, mercy is revealed. How he resurrects. And on Divine Mercy Sunday, mercy is applied to you. It has to have some way to apply to you today. And it does through Divine Mercy Sunday. One continuous mystery of divine mercy from the upper room through Divine Mercy Sunday, and that is the Paschal Mystery. That's why Divine Mercy Sunday is within the octave of Easter. Amazing. And last page, last page. The Last Supper is where divine mercy begins in the new covenant. The cross is where it is one. And Divine Mercy Sunday is where Christ gives that mercy to us, especially through confession and the Eucharist.
All right. Right now, I looked through videos over and over and over that could best summarize what I just taught you. And it got so bad that I was going to make one myself. But that's kind of dumb to make a video of me to show you while I'm talking. But then I found a video that Father Mark Baron, our own Maronite priest, did. It's about 10 minutes long, but I cut out two and a half minutes. This is one of the best summaries I've ever heard, and it comes from our own priest, Father Mark. So, I'm going to have Brother Mark now show you this video where Jesus expl or Father Mark Baron explains what Jesus was doing at the Last Supper.
The main difference between the Passover that Jesus and his disciples celebrated and the traditional one can be found in the absence of a Passover lamb. This is weird because as was previously stated, every Jewish Passover celebration revolved around the the body and blood of the sacrificial lamb. In Jesus's time, the lamb was slaughtered in the temple, its blood poured out upon the altar, and then each family brought back their lamb to their house where it was to be eaten. At the time of the Last Supper, scripture does tell us that there was the slaughtering of the lambs, but that was done to show that indeed it was the night of Passover in which the Last Supper took place. But scripture doesn't mention anything about pouring out of the lamb's blood or the presence of the lamb at the meal to be eaten. Why is that? Well, the answer is simple. Because Jesus saw himself as the sacrificial lamb of the Passover whose own blood was to be shed, poured out, and whose own body was to be eaten soon after. Why did Jesus see himself in this way? Well, the answer lies in the fact that Jesus as the Messiah understood himself as the new Moses who is going to be inaugurating a new exodus for mankind. How did he have that understanding? Because in the Old Testament, Moses spoke of the coming of a future new Moses. And the Old Testament prophets in various passages alluded to the idea of a future new exodus that was to take place in order to bring mankind into a new covenant with God and so experience a new era of grace and salvation. As the new Moses, Jesus was the one who was going to accomplish a new exodus for mankind. Jesus's association with the new Exodus is actually stated in Luke's account of Jesus's transfiguration on Mount Tabor. So if we understand then that Jesus saw himself as the new Moses who was going to initiate a new Exodus, then we can appreciate that he would have also understood that this was going to call for a new Passover, which then must include the sacrifice of a new Passover lamb. And Jesus was to be that lamb. This is why he was identified as such by John the Baptist in the first chapter of the Gospel of John. It is also why at the Last Supper within the context of the old Passover meal that Jesus would initiate the new Passover and he would accomplish this by serving as the sacrificial lamb whose blood was to be poured out and whose flesh was to be eaten.
Okay. So, there you can see Father Mark given a great summary of what's going on at the Last Supper, why there was no lamb, why it was Passover, and how Jesus is the new Moses, and how he's leading the people into a new Passover. So, again, that's a lot in that little um two and a half to three minute clip. So, watch it again. It's that good to be able to just see how everything fits together.
So now I want to finish by talking, well, you know what I mean, let's do a little bit more of a summary. Father Mark kind of summarized it, but let me try to summarize here. Now if you really were put together everything I'm trying to show you here, it boils down to in the Old Testament, Moses gave bread, the manna from heaven. And he, do you know he changed water into blood? Moses changed water into blood. Now Jesus is presented as the new Moses at the Transfiguration. He meets Moses. He meets Moses on the mountain. Moses led the Exodus passing through the Red Sea. That is our Baptism. It compares that in 1 Corinthians 10. And then provides miraculous bread in the wilderness. That's the multiplication of the loaves. Now Jesus gives bread in the wilderness for our spiritual journey, not just a physical journey. Jesus is the new Moses on a mountain. The mountain now is Calvary with a shining face leading the Exodus. The people saw the connection between Moses and Judas. Sorry, Jesus. That was Jesus. The the people, the first Christians saw this connection, the manna, the manna from Moses and the multiplication of the loaves, the bread from Jesus. You know, I I've said that in my talk on Cana, if you didn't get a chance to see that, my oh my, when I went to the Holy Land, do you know that uh it talks about in the Bible that Jesus's public ministry was three years? Absolutely, it was three years. But in his very first public miracle was at Cana. And what did he do at Cana? And they know from the Bible, the timeline given that it was near Passover. So in Jesus's first Passover of his public ministry, he changed, he made the wine. He made the wine. Then exactly one year later, if you follow the Bible, it was around Passover again. He made the bread. He multiplied a bunch of loaves and made a bunch of bread. So on Passover, his first Passover, he makes the wine. Then in his second Passover, he makes the bread. Then in his third Passover of his ministry and earthly life, right before he dies, he changes that blood or that that wine in that bread into the bread, the wine of Christ, his body and blood. Changes it into the body and blood of of himself. So what do we have at Mass? We have the blood. Sorry, the wine. What do we have at
Mass? The bread. What did Jesus do? He made the wine at Kaa. He made the bread at the multiplication. And what does he do at the Last Supper? He makes that bread and that wine into the body and blood of Christ. Phenomenal.
So the people saw this connection. You know how many loaves did Jesus change? How many loaves? Five. Five barley loaves. That's because it was symbolic of the five books of the Torah. He was changing the law, transforming it, not eliminating it, fulfilling it. They are these are the five books of Moses called the Torah or the Pentateuch. Five barley loaves. He transformed the Mosaic law into something much more nourishing, the living bread.
At the Last Supper, Christ instituted the memorial of the Eucharist and entrusted it to the priests. So, right now, I'm giving you a summary of everything I just showed you. The Eucharist is a memorial. That's the word ammonis in that it makes present the actual sacrifice which Christ offered to the Father on the cross. It makes present and actual the sacrifice which Christ offered to the Father on the cross once and for all on behalf of all mankind. We're not recrucifying him. The sacrifice of the cross and the sacrifice of the Eucharist and the sacrifice at the Last Supper are one and the same sacrifice. The sacrifices are one and the same. The sacrifice of the cross, the sacrifice of the Last Supper, and the sacrifice of the Mass. This is why we need the Mass. The priest and victim are the same. Jesus, only the matter, the manner of offering it is different. Bloody versus now unbloody. That's all that's changed. And that's why God says, "I don't need the bloody sacrifices of the animals. I need the sacrifice of your heart."
The priesthood and the Eucharist were established at the Last Supper, washing of the feet. The Eucharist was foreshadowed in the Old Testament Passover meal with unleavened bread when they left the enslavement of Egypt. Now through it we leave the enslavement of sin. In Israel, the Passover lamb had to be eaten or the sacrifice was invalid. Christ is now that lamb. We have to eat him as the sacrifice. Otherwise, we're totally disregarding everything God gave us that was fulfilled by Christ. That's why we eat the Eucharist and tone. John 6 says to chew, "The Wedding Feast of the Lamb." Scott Hahn wrote about this. The Mass is heaven on earth. Union with our true spouse in the Eucharist. You've heard me talk about that all the time. And when you come up the aisle, you're the bride who's waiting for you, the groom. It's your wedding.
In the Eucharist, the sacrifice of Christ becomes the sacrifice of the members of his body. We are the body of Christ. So at Mass, we should offer up everything. Our joys, our sorrows, our hopes, our fears, our praise, our suffering, our whole life. This is the offering of Christ for all the living and the dead in reparation for the sins of us and the sins of the whole world. That's the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. It all comes together. Unbelievable.
Let's read one scripture passage and Brother Mark can show the next passage. This is from 1 Corinthians 10. The cup of blessing. Notice the cup, the chalice. The cup of blessing which we bless. Is it not participation in the blood of Christ? Participation in the blood of Christ. This is what I've been teaching. This is what the Church has been teaching for 2,000 years. The bread which we break, is it not the participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Wow.
How about this? 1 Corinthians 11, next chapter. This I don't have on a slide. The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." This isn't me making up the words. What do those sound like? Those are the words of the Mass. Where does that come from? 1 Corinthians 11. Do we just forget this? Do we just conveniently ignore this part of the Bible? Well, if you're not Catholic and you're not attending the Mass, that's exactly what you have done.
In the same way also the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me." Ammonis, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes again. Recognize that whoever eats this bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Oh, but I want to receive Holy Communion. I don't need confession. Well, you better read 1 Corinthians chapter 11 because it is telling you whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. He's telling you now. Who's he talking to? Jesus is already dead. He's not talking to the people before Jesus gave the bread at the Last Supper. He's talking about us now. And what bread is he possibly talking about if not the Eucharist? Amazing. Keep on going. This is St. Paul. Let a man examine himself and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. Why aren't we teaching this? It's right in the Bible. This should be shouted from every catechism rooftop, every family, every Mass. This, where's that in the Bible? Where's that in the Bible? Right here. It's in the Bible.
Also the Gospel of John, we know chapter six, we see that Jesus has already introduced the idea of eating his body and drinking his blood before the Last Supper. What I just read you was Jesus's words at the Last Supper and then Paul's words after the Last Supper. But Jesus spoke before the Last Supper in John 6. Jesus said in John 6:48-65, "Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." Now notice, if this was only a symbol, Jesus would have just did a hit and run. He just would have said, "Yeah, yeah, make sure you eat that bread. Now, let's go and do some social justice." No. When it is literally true, you keep repeating it to hammer it home.
Did Jesus stop there? No. Jesus said to them, "Amen. Amen. I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats this flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." He doesn't stop there. He keeps going. "For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him." He doesn't stop there. Is he only talking symbolically? He would have stopped long ago. He doesn't stop. He goes on. "Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever." And John 6 has a lot more than I just read.
How can we not long and desire to come and receive this Eucharist? But don't treat it flippantly. Get to confession, or then you are bringing condemnation upon yourself. How dare you discriminating Catholics teach this hatred and this bigotry? We're not. This is St. Paul and the words of Jesus himself. So, I'm going to go with Paul and Jesus on this one. Okay? I'm going to go with Paul and Jesus on this one. This is how important this is.
And the Last Supper, which we will celebrate on Thursday, the Liturgy of the Lord's Supper. This will be something that hopefully you will see in a new way. If you haven't already known all this, I said where I got all this information was seminary, Father Spitzer, Dr. Scott Hahn, and the Church Fathers. They're not coming. It's not coming from me. I just love going through all this stuff so that you don't have to. This is why priests don't marry because if I had a wife at home, if I had children at home, that would be very neglectful to them. Instead, I can be up to 4:00 in the morning reading church documents because you have to be with your family, with your spouse, with your children, doing all that you have to do. And this enables us as priests to do this for you. This is the purpose of why we do what we do. This is the purpose and the meaning of why priests do what we do. And we hope that you'll at least open your heart to the message. Amen. God bless you. There is no more important message.
And so I want to finish if Brother Mark can show on the screen. We are also continuing our pilgrimages because this is where you could see all that I've talked about come alive. The actual Upper Room where the Last Supper happened. We're going there. So on the slide on your screen, you can see some of the upcoming pilgrimages and every dollar of profit goes to help our seminarians. This is the beautiful agreement we have with the tour company. And so join us. On June 7th, I'll be going to Poland to the World Apostolic Congress of Mercy. I was invited by the bishop of Vilnius and I said, "Hey, why not take a pilgrim with me?" And so we'll be going in the footsteps of St. Faustina, going into Poland, Warsaw, and different places. And then going to the Mercy Congress in Lithuania, totally safe, very beautiful. That's June 7th through 17th.
Then we have the Holy Land pilgrimage and we are monitoring this every day. Don't worry, we're not going to take anything that is risky, but we're monitoring everything. I was just there a few weeks ago, totally safe. Nothing's changed, but we're monitoring it daily. And right now, this pilgrimage is still going to happen. We know exactly where to go and when to go. But we'll keep you safe. We promise there'll be no risk, zero risk if we decide to continue that, which we want to. Next, I'm going to be doing an Old Testament pilgrimage, Jordan, Mount Sinai, in Egypt. This will be from September 23rd to October 3rd. And then you can stay for the Nile extension on October 3rd through the 8th. And then next year, we invite you to join us to Medjugorje and Croatia. We're going to do a Croatian cruise. It's one of the most beautiful areas in the whole world. And we're going to go talk about Mary. It's going to be a Marian pilgrimage at Medjugorje and other places. So that's in 2027.
Now, if you're interested, Peter is not in the office today, but you can leave a message for him at 413-298-1303 or you can email him saying I'm interested in more information at peter, his email is peterjame, one word.org. And so he can help give you all the information that you wish to have. And so, praise be to God.
And if you want to learn more about the sacraments, I still have the book out there called Understanding the Sacraments that I talk a lot about the Mass and the Eucharist and Divine Mercy. And so, you can get that on shopmercy.org, there it is on your screen, or you can get it as well on Amazon. So, praise be to God. Thank you for coming and we're grateful that you open your heart to get this grace. The Lord be with you. And with your spirit. And may Almighty God bless you. The Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Go in peace. The talk is ended. Thanks be to God. Thank you, everybody. God bless you. Thank you.
Now we have created together with our friends at Ascension the Divine Mercy Catholic Bible. This is a beautiful leathrette Bible that has just an absolutely important message for you. Not only is it all the words of scripture that you're familiar with, but in it we have great contributions from people like Father Seraphim, Dr. Robert Stackpole, and others that explain exactly where you see God's mercy in each of the passages of both the Old and the New Testament. So, please join me and get a copy of this incredible new Divine Mercy Bible and help you to understand the Bible from the perspective of God's divine mercy. So, you can get your copy at shopmercy.org or please call us at 800-462-7426. Thank you, and we hope you'll pick up a copy.