Fr. Don’s Weekly Letter ~ 22 February 2026

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

Our Lenten small group/self study begins this week using Session One from A Biblical Walk through the Mass by Edward Sri.

His first session on the Mass has to do with the historical and religious underpinnings of Judaism. You can’t really look at the New Testament if you don’t use a filter of the Hebrew Scriptures, because the New Testament world and their understanding of God didn’t suddenly just appear; they grew out of a rich context of a long, often troubled relationship of a people with their God. If you don’t recognize the sacred significance of ritual sacrifice and ritual meal in the time before Jesus, you will not grasp the literal and deliberate actions he took and what they meant.

He gave a thorough catechesis to his disciples and followers to prepare them for what was to come. At the time it often seems like people weren’t paying attention, but looking back from our time we can see the methodical way in which Jesus was preparing his followers for the unfolding of his passion, death and resurrection.

His bread of life discourse is, even for us today, a lot to take in, and would have been absolutely unacceptable at the time of Jesus. If you do not eat the flesh (literally, gnaw on) of the Son of Man and drink his blood you will not have life in you ... my flesh is real food and my blood, real drink. It says that after that, most of Jesus followers couldn’t continue following him. The message was that important, that this is his real presence.

In account after account in the Old Testament, the strict instructions/laws given to Moses by God about the Passover were to be followed to the letter. God’s instructions. On the night that the tenth and final plague was to happen and the first born male of every family and stable was to be struck down, there was only one way that the angel of death would pass over their houses. A strict ritual was to be followed in sacrificing a lamb without blemish, its blood was to be reserved and painted on the posts and lintel of their doorways. This was the sign by which the angel of death would pass over. Inside, the Passover meal was being eaten with care: certain ingredients which signified various aspects of their history and covenant with God. The Passover meal at every house was exactly the same, and eaten with your boots on and your staff in hand, as if you were a people ready to flee at a moment’s notice.

That moment at Jesus’ Last Supper was a confluence of everything that came before and after. First of all he, God, was the author of Passover. He chose this moment to reveal the purpose of his suffering and crucifixion the following day.

Could the author of the Passover have forgotten the lamb of sacrifice? There was no lamb. Do you think the apostles were troubled by this? At the point of the meal when the lamb is offered around the table, Jesus says take this and eat it: this is my Body, which will be given up for you. And, likewise, this is the cup of my Blood, the Blood of the new and eternal (not just everlasting) covenant, so that sins may be forgiven.

A new covenant is ratified by the ritual meal intended, as was the Passover, to be an unending observance. Jesus said, do this in memory of me. One of the powers of your soul, memory (the others being intellect and free will), has the active ability to make the past present. The Greek word is anamnesis.

Anamnesis is the word used to describe the fact that, at Mass, we aren’t just remembering what happened at the Last Supper. In the liturgy, Christ’s sacrifice is presented to us in a way that goes above and beyond “remembering.” I have heard it said that his sacrifice is being re-presented. How that is written is important. It isn’t a typo. The dash in “re-presented” assures that we aren’t saying that it is, somehow, a representation of what happened at the Last Supper. Instead, Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross is offered upon the altar, and we have access to the eternal moment of Calvery, God in time. Jesus, who offered himself up for our sins, is being made present to us. Body, blood, soul, and divinity, Jesus is present in the Eucharist. The Church has always taught that Christ is not re-sacrificed at each Mass, but that we enter into that one moment in history when he was scourged for our offenses and wounded for our sin. Jesus’ death defeated evil’s strongest consequence, death. The new Passover.

“Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” (John the Baptist)

The Lord be with you,