laudare, benedicere, praedicare TO PRAISE, TO BLESS, TO PREACH
January 2024 Saint Thomas Aquinas, 18th-century Portuguese School.
Most Pure Feast
By: Sister Thomas Aquinas, O.P. Agnus Dei (c. 1635–1640) by Francisco de Zurbarán
I
n the Litany of the Most Blessed Sacrament, there is an invocation that .......causes one to pause: “Most Pure Feast.”[1] What is the significance of referring to the Eucharist as a “pure feast”? First of all, the invocation calls to mind the Communion Antiphon for Easter: “Christ our Passover has been sacrificed, alleluia; therefore let us keep the feast with the unleavened bread of purity and truth, alleluia, alleluia”[2] (cf. 1 Cor. 5:7-8). The Eucharist is the Feast of feasts, giving nourishment to our souls. The verses in 1 Corinthians link the Eucharist as “Most Pure Feast” not only with the Old Covenant feast of Passover and the Paschal Lamb – both prefiguring Jesus’ saving sacrifice – but also with the purity of the bread that is transformed into his pure Body and Blood and given to us as saving food by Jesus at the Last Supper and at every Mass. The Catechism of the Catholic Church highlights these connections and draws out further links to feasting:
At the heart of the Eucharistic celebration are the bread and wine that, by the words of Christ and the invocation of the Holy Spirit, become Christ's Body and Blood. . . . In the Old Covenant bread and wine were offered in sacrifice . . . . The "cup of blessing" at the end of the Jewish Passover meal adds to the festive joy of wine an eschatological dimension . . . . The sign of water turned into wine at Cana already announces the Hour of Jesus' glorification. It makes manifest the fulfillment of the wedding feast in the Father's kingdom, where the faithful will drink the new wine that has become the Blood of Christ (1333-1335).[3]
O God, who has left us, in this wonderful sacrament, a perpetual memorial of your passion, grant us, we beseech you, so to reverence the sacred mysteries of your Body and Blood that we may ever find in our souls the fruit of your redemption, who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.
From the “O Sacred Banquet” prayed before The Divine Office
St. Thomas Aquinas, in discussing whether the Paschal Lamb is the chief figure of the Eucharist, indicates the purity of this feast when he points out that the lamb offered in sacrifice by the Hebrews during the Passover feast was eaten with unleavened loaves. Moreover, Jesus “is called the Lamb on account of His innocence” (Summa Theologiae III, Q. 73, Art. 6).[4] In addition to the Eucharistic hymns that Aquinas wrote for the new feast of Corpus Christi, he wrote the Magnificat antiphon (Evening Prayer II) in praise of the Sacred Banquet: “O sacred feast in which we partake of Christ: his sufferings are remembered, our minds are filled with his grace and we receive a pledge of the glory that is to be ours, alleluia”.[5] Pope John Paul II’s catechesis connects the marriage feast and the Lamb: The Eucharist is the sacramental anticipation and, in a certain sense, a "foretaste" of that royal feast which the Book of Revelation calls "the marriage supper of the Lamb" (cf. Rev 19:9). The bridegroom who is at the center of that marriage feast and of its Eucharistic foreshadowing and anticipation is the Lamb who "took away the sins of the world," the Redeemer.[6] That this feast, which is both sacrifice and sacrament, is also pure is emphasized in Eucharistic Prayer I when, after the consecration, the priest prays “we . . . offer to your glorious majesty . . . this pure victim, this holy victim, this spotless victim, the holy Bread of eternal life and the Chalice of everlasting salvation.”[7]
Finally, the purity of this feast calls to mind Our Lady, who St. Peter Julian Eymard called “the pure tabernacle”.[8] Of Mary and the Eucharist, Pope John Paul II wrote: If the Eucharist is a mystery of faith which so greatly transcends our understanding as to call for sheer abandonment to the word of God, then there can be no one like Mary to act as our support and guide in acquiring this disposition. In repeating what Christ did at the Last Supper in obedience to his command: “Do this in memory of me!”, we also accept Mary's invitation to obey him without hesitation: “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5). With the same maternal concern which she showed at the wedding feast of Cana, Mary seems to say to us: “Do not waver; trust in the words of my Son. If he was able to change water into wine, he can also turn bread and wine into his body and blood, and through this mystery bestow on believers the living memorial of his passover, thus becoming the 'bread of life'”.[9] May we approach this “Most Pure Feast” with the words of St. Thomas Aquinas: Recall that night when Christ proclaims his law of love, and shows himself the Lamb of God and great high priest: the sinless One, made sin, for sinners gives his all, and shares with us his very self as Paschal feast.[10] O thou our reminder of Christ crucified, Living Bread, the life of us for whom he died, Lend this life to me then: feed and feast my mind, There be thou the sweetness man was meant to find.[11]
Endnotes 1 https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/resource/56089/litany-of-the-mostblessed-sacrament, accessed 6/21/2023. 2 https://www.liturgies.net/Liturgies/Catholic/roman_missal/eastermass.htm, accessed 6/28/2023. 3 http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/ccc_toc2.htm, accessed 6/28/2023. 4 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/19950/pg19950.html, accessed 6/28/2023. 5 https://www.liturgyoffice.org.uk/Resources/Adoremus/Corpus-Hymns.pdf, accessed 6/28/2023. 6 https://adoremus.org/2007/12/catechesis-of-his-holiness-john-paul-ii-on-theeucharist/#anchor4072970, accessed 6/28/2023. 7 https://catholic-resources.org/ChurchDocs/RM3-EP1-4.htm, accessed 6/29/2023. 8 http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/tes/quotes5.html, accessed 6/29/2023. 9 https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paulii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_20030417_eccl-de-euch.html, accessed 6/29/2023. 10 https://www.liturgyoffice.org.uk/Resources/Adoremus/Corpus-Hymns.pdf, accessed 6/29/2023; Sacris solemniis (Panis Angelicus), translated by James Quinn, S.J. (1919–2010). 11 Ibid.; Adoro Te Devote, translated by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89).
La Vierge à l'hostie (1854) by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
Vocation Story
Sacrifice into Blessing By: Sister Clare Dominic, O.P.
I
was sixteen when I started attending daily ......Mass. Don’t, however, think that I was some sort of pious and overly devout high schooler. My intentions were far from pure. At my Catholic high school, all students had a 45minute study period halfway through the morning. One had the option to do homework, ask teachers for extra help, or go to daily Mass in the school chapel. Lent was coming up, and I wanted to do something other than give up chocolate or Starbucks, and I definitely didn’t want to use my study hall to study. So throughout the forty days of Lent, I went to Mass each day. I didn’t expect it to change my life, but it certainly did. Though I had grown up going to Mass every Sunday with my family, this quiet daily encounter with Jesus in the Word and the Blessed Sacrament gently opened me up to starting a real relationship with Him. I started to crave those three-quarters of an hour because at Mass, I tasted the peace that only Jesus can give, the peace that I had no idea existed. I was hooked, and from then on, I made an effort to get to daily Mass as often as possible and spend time in the Adoration chapel at my parish. Only God could orchestrate things such that my laziness as a sixteen-year-old student would eventually lead to hearing the call to belong totally to Him as a Nashville Dominican. And only He could give me the grace and peace to say yes!
Christmas
at the motherhouse