(Deification in Christ) — In the Fourth Luminous Mystery, it was explained that Jesus revealed himself to be God’s ultimate Temple at the Transfiguration. God’s Temple was revealed to Peter, James, and John immediately following Jesus’ teaching that he must suffer and die to redeem and complete the “Israel of God” (cf. Gal 6:16; Mt 16:21). Where then is the entrance to Jesus as the temple? How do I enter and be filled with Christ’s life, “the inexhaustible riches” (Eph 3:8) shown at the Transfiguration? It was when Jesus instituted his body and blood as the institution of “the new covenant” (Lk 22:20) that God was opening his Temple and heart for participation by humanity (cf. 2 Pet 1:4)
Jesus was revealed to us as the Lamb of God by John the Baptist (in the First Luminous Mystery) and so started his public ministry. The public ministry ended with Jesus instituting himself as the Lamb of God at the Last Supper in an unbloody manner and then completing the one-time bloody sacrifice on the wood of the Cross. Christ can die no more. By showing his body and blood separated [death] under the appearance of bread and wine at the Last Supper, Jesus was showing the death he would offer “for the forgiveness of sins” as the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29). This bloodless offering of his Body and Blood under the appearance of bread and wine call down mercy and the Holy Spirit on all who gather and receive it. Through the Eucharistic sacrifice, Christ unites us to himself. It can be offered to continually cleanse and sanctify all who are gathered and need cleansing from their daily sins [venial]; and, all without Christ suffering or dying again.
At the Last Supper, Jesus not only became the new Passover lamb, but the new daily lamb of the “whole offering” (cf. Exodus 28:38-46) which was designated to cleanse Israel of its daily sins. The daily lambs of the whole offering were instituted so Israel could remain in the presence of where God had pitched his tent and dwelt amongst Israel (cf. Jn 1:14; Ex 28:45). Rabbi Neusner explains this is why Jesus also cleansed the Temple and money changers at the beginning of his public ministry in John’s Gospel. It was to announce that all future temple worship would be based upon Jesus Christ and his sacrifice:
For the overturning of the moneychangers’ tables represents an act of the rejection of the most important rite of the Israelite cult, the daily whole offering, and, therefore, a statement that there is a means of atonement other than the daily whole-offering, which now is null. Then what was to take the place of the daily whole-offering? It was to be the rite of the Eucharist: table for table, whole offering for whole offering. It therefore seems to me that the correct context in which to read the overturning of the moneychangers’ tables is not the destruction of the Temple in general, but the institution of the sacrifice of the Eucharist, in particular. It further follows that the counterpart of Jesus’ negative action in overturning one table must be his affirmative action in establishing or setting up another table, that is to say, I turn to the passion narratives centred upon the Last Supper. That, at any rate, is how, as an outsider to scholarship in this field, I should suggest we read the statement. The negative is that the atonement for sin achieved by the daily whole offering is null, and the positive, that atonement for sin is achieved by the Eucharist: one table overturned, another table set up in place, and both for the same purpose of atonement and expiation of sin.
The Book of Revelation symbolically depicts this sacramental mystery of the Christian Eucharistic Liturgy in Chapter 21: “He showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God…And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” (vv.10-23). This joining of heaven and earth for the new temple of God occurs every time the legitimate successors of the Apostles make present the living Body and Blood of Jesus during the worship in spirit and truth which Jesus instituted and commanded: “Do this in memory of me.” For this reason, the foundation of the new Jerusalem in Revelation depicts the city “had twelve foundations, and on them the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb” (Rev 21:14).
The apostles and their lawful successors were given the authority to “bind and loose” (Mt 16:19, 18:18) heaven and earth and give the entrance way to daily healing and participation in the resurrected and life-giving body of Jesus Christ. This entrance way is inseparable from the forgiveness of daily sins (venial): “whose sins you forgive are forgiven” (John 20:23) and the purpose of the Sacrament of Penance as cleansing for mortal sin (cf. 1 Jn 5:16). As the Lamb of God, Jesus is God’s temple where we “partake of the Holy Spirit” (Heb 6:4) through “better sacrifices” (Heb 9:23). For this reason, the Catholic Church became the realization of the “Israel of God” (Gal 6:16; Gen 12:1-3) by God’s promised Messiah (cf. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium #9.3).
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The priesthood of the baptized
In meditating on the Fifth Luminous Mystery of the Institution of the Eucharist – in union with the heart of Mary – through ten “Hail Mary’s” [a decade], what should we be contemplating? We should be remembering that our baptism was just the beginning of entrance into the life of Christ and that the Eucharist is the food that nourishes (cf. Eph 5:29) and develops that life. “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you” (Jn 6:27). We must accept our baptism more fully by desiring greater union with Christ in the Eucharistic sacrifice and Holy Communion. We must desire healing from our daily sins (venial) and growth in Christ through Holy Communion.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us of our great dignity as baptized members of Christ:
The baptized have become “living stones” to be “built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood” [1 Pet 2:5]. By Baptism they share in the priesthood of Christ, in his prophetic and royal mission. They are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that [they] may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called [them] out of darkness into his marvelous light.” [1 Pet 2:9]. Baptism gives a share in the common priesthood of all believers. [CCC #1268]
By baptism into Christ and a share in his priesthood, we possess something higher than the Levitical Priesthood [cf. Heb 7:18-25], we possess the right to enter the Holy of Holies: “we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way which he opened for us through the curtain, that is through his flesh” (Heb 10:19-20). For this reason, two chapters later, Paul tells us: “You have not come to [Mount Sinai]…But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (Heb 12:18-22). In other words, the Lamb of God brings down heaven to earth in the Eucharistic Sacrifice (cf. Rev 21) by the apostolic succession which Christ instituted and commanded to do this.
What was closed off by the broken covenant of Mount Sinai and the temporary institution of the Levitical priesthood, Jesus has re-opened by the New Covenant which he made in the Upper Room at the Last Supper. What was symbolized and hoped for in Old Testament worship has been realized through the blood of the new covenant (cf. Jer 31:31-34). Since Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father, then receiving his Body and Blood brings us to where he is at: participation in heaven itself by his Holy Spirit. His promises are begun in us even before we pass permanently from this life into heaven: “I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself [cf. Eph 5:29], that where I am you may be also” (John 14:3). Jesus taught this immediately after instituting his Body and Blood.
Think of how high is the dignity to which a baptized Christian has been raised. Only the high priest of the Old Testament could go behind the curtain and that only once a year on the Day of Atonement. God’s Israel in Christ, as “partakers of the Holy Spirit” (Heb 6:4), the priesthood of the baptized can go behind the flesh of Christ in Holy Communion and mystically participate in heaven itself (Heb 8:2-6; 10:20; 12:22-24) even before we die. The Christian can do this daily because of Christ’s great love and institution of the Eucharist. God told Saint Catherine of Siena: “I make heaven wherever I dwell by grace.”
The Eucharist builds Christ’s life in us even before we leave this world. It is because Christ builds this supernatural life into us through the Eucharist before we die, that the supernatural life is in us to carry us permanently into heaven when we die. “This is the bread which comes down from heaven [cf. Rev 21:10,22], that a man may eat of it and not die” (John 6:50). Because we partake in the Eucharist, and the supernatural life is already built into us, death has no power over us. Humanity never again has to experience death in terms of separation from God when we pass from this life into the next. Instead, we pass into what Christ built into our souls, God himself, Heaven and the fullness of Life.
The Beatitudes
Christ is the great peacemaker. He is the Son of God. By his blood he has reconciled heaven and earth. He has become “a life-giving spirit” (1 Cor 15:45) by the mystery of his glorified body in heaven. Through Jesus’ body, blood, soul, and divinity in heaven, he makes available in the eucharist his body, blood, soul, and divinity so that believers can partake in his life-giving spirit. Jesus takes us to himself because he has become “an indestructible life” (Heb 7:16). The Lamb of God gives his body and blood so the Israel of God can be sanctified and renewed in the daily trials of the journey to God’s promised land, heaven itself.
Through the body and blood of Jesus, Saint Paul appeals to the priesthood of the baptized: “by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Rom 12:1-2). We are to join our sacrifices to Christ and continue to reconcile the world to Christ. In the Eucharist, we join Christ and become fit to be true peacemakers as we are made “sons of God” (Rom 8:14-17).
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Mt 5:9).
Reprinted with permission from Deification in Christ.
