Revisiting The Last Supper

Let us return to Holy Thursday’s “Last Supper” with Jesus.  The Last Supper was depicted in the gospels as taking place during the Jewish Passover Meal when God’s angel passed over the houses of the Jewish people, sparing them from death.  God’s action propelled Pharaoh (at least for a while) to let God’s people go free with God leading them through the Red Sea (or the “Sea of Reeds”) into the desert to the freedom of the Promised Land.

During Jesus’ great Prayer of Thanksgiving at the Last Supper, Jesus praises God for his impending Passover of the New Covenant by the gift of His Body and Blood to be poured out for many on Good Friday.  The Christian Eucharist and Eucharistic Prayer are now born with Jesus pointing to the “new exodus” – his departure from this world back to the Father.  Jesus’ prayer became the foundation for how the Church has prayed during the Liturgy of the Eucharist since that day.

We know from Church history that the first Jewish Christians attended the Sabbath Scripture Service in the Temple or Synagogue.  They then met in their homes for the “Breaking of Bread” or the Eucharist.  When the Jewish Christians were expelled from the Temple around 70 A.D., they combined the Scripture Readings to the “Breaking of Bread” in their homes.  (Remember that they had no large churches until after Emperor Constantine granted them religious freedom in 315 A.D.)  

In the Gospel accounts of the Last Supper, not all the words of Jesus’ Prayer of Thanksgiving were written down.  The emphasis was on the change Jesus made announcing the New Covenant in the sacrifice of His Body and Blood for the salvation of all people.  Therefore, Paul recalls only the words of Jesus over the bread and the cup (1 Corinthians 11:23-27).  St. Justin Martyr’s account of the Eucharistic Prayer (115 A.D.) recalls that the presider gave thanks to God as long as he was able, reciting Jesus’ words over the bread and wine.  The Church did not have a “set prayer” of thanksgiving at the Sunday Eucharist.  In 215 A.D., Pope Hippolytus provides us with the first written Eucharistic Prayer, restored to our worship today as the revised Eucharistic Prayer II.

By the time of Pope Gelasius I (496 A.D.), the Church had written down the prayer to be used by the presider.  This may have been done to protect the Church’s true faith regarding the Eucharist, or to keep the presider conscious of time, or perhaps because not every presider had the fluency to pray from his heart.  The Eucharistic Prayer of Pope Gelasius I (the Roman Canon) was the only Eucharistic Prayer used in the Roman Liturgy until Vatican Council II.  (In Gaul [France], Spain, and in the German-speaking world, other prayers were still being used.)  In the Eastern Churches, several different Eucharistic Prayers were used.  The first change made to the Roman Canon (since 496 A.D.) was St. Pope John XXIII’s inclusion of the name of St. Joseph following mention of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  The bishops at the council in 1962 were upset when he made this change.  But St. Pope John XXIII knew how the liturgy had evolved over the years, so he felt that he was on solid ground to make even such a small change.

In our next article, we will look at how Jesus’ prayer developed in the Apostolic Church and in the early Church until 496 A.D., when Pope Gelasius I made the final changes to the Eucharistic Prayer.

Father Sauer continues his look at the Mass in the July 7 issue of The Message.