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The Life of Jesus as the Basis for Eucharist

Colm Holmes • 5 June 2021

Fr. Diarmuid O’Murchu ZOOM talk to WAC Ireland on 26 May 2021

The human race has been a creative species for 3.3 million years. There have been burial rites for 70,000 years. Our capacity for ritual making is God given. Kings, Warriors and Priests have been known since 5,000 BCE. And there are Shamans and Shamanesses. The Council of Trent in the 16th century established rigid doctrines.

Jesus was better known for Feasting than Fasting. The Passover was not an “Open Table” as it was reserved only for circumcised Jews, so women would not attend. All the gospel meals are important, not just one. Everybody is included; ritual observance is transgressed; ordinary food is offered; there is no formal host, but the woman of the house leads.

(References: Thomas O’Loughlin; Hal Taussig; Norma Wirza)

The Emmaus story is a good example:

1. Gather people (the two disciples on the road)

2. Let them tell their stories (the disciples spoke at length about their concerns)

3. Break bread together

Jesus vanished. Jesus vanished IN, not OUT. Jesus vanished into them in the form of the Holy Spirit.

The Epiclesis, the invocation of the Holy Spirit has been seen as central. A Syrian Eucharistic Prayer was deemed proper by the Congregation for Doctrine and Faith under Cardinal Ratzinger, who said you do not need words of consecration.

“May the Spirit empower us to see the new life of Christ through these earthly gifts of bread and wine.”

The Holy Spirit is invoked by the gathered community of baptised people.

The Jewish Shabbat Meal (not Passover) every Friday is a good example. The woman of the house leads; her husband with the skull cap has all the power – but she does the empowering. Shocking that the Catholic Church adopted this patriarchal model.

Transubstantiation only came into vogue at the end of the first millennium.

Summary:

- Re-education in faith from the ground up