The Lamb's Supper
Page 14
“first confess your transactions . . .”Didache 14.13
“the church on the site of . . .” See Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, O.P., “The Cenacle and Community: The Background of Acts 2:44–45,” in M. D. Coogan, J. C. Exum, and L. E. Stager (eds.), Scripture and Other Artifacts (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox, 1994), pp. 296–310. Rainer Reisner, “Jesus, the Primitive Community, and the Essene Quarter of Jerusalem,” in J. H. Charlesworth (ed.), Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls (New York: Doubleday, 1992), pp. 198–234; Bargil Pixner, O.S.B., “Jerusalem's Essene Gateway: Where the Community Lived in Jesus' Time,” Biblical Archaeology Review (May–June 1997); idem, “Church of the Apostles Found on Mount Zion,” Biblical Archaeology Review (May–June 1990).
“For truly . . .” St. Cyril of Jerusalem,Catechetical Lectures 22.4.
For a good discussion of the celestial dimensions of the Mass in various patristic and medieval sources, see M. M. Schaefer, “Heavenly and Earthly Liturgies: Patristic Prototypes, Medieval Perspectives, and a Contemporary Application,” Worship 70 (1996): 482–505. “The liturgies of the old churches of East and West are inspired by the symbolic structures of Hebrews and Revelation. . . . The environment of the Divine Liturgy symbolizes worship “from above.' Centralized buildings crowned by a dome “imitate' heaven. Deacons obedient to a sacred choreography serve as ministering angels while the people sing acclamations as if at the heavenly court. The priest is icon of Christ the high priest. . . . Iconographical fount for numerous paleo-Christian and medieval apsidal programs in the city of Rome, it [the Book of Revelation] figured large in the religious imagination of the West” (pp. 489–90). Schaefer quotes Gregory the Great: “For, who of the faithful can have any doubt that at the moment of the immolation, at the sound of the priest's voice, the heavens stand open and choirs of angels are present at the mystery of Jesus Christ. There at the altar the lowliest is united with the most sublime, earth is joined to heaven, the visible and the invisible merge into one” (Dialogues IV.58 [PL 77, 425D]). She concludes: “Loss of patristic perspectives relegates the mystery of heaven and earth united in worship to the eschatological future . . .” (p. 502). Also see the groundbreaking study on the subject, O. Piper, “The Apocalypse of John and the Liturgy of the Ancient Church,”Church History 20 (1951): 10–22.
Erik Peterson, The Angels and the Liturgy (New York: Herder and Herder, 1964): p. ix: “We see clearly that the earthly Jerusalem with its temple worship has been the starting point for these ideas and images of primitive Christian literature; but the starting point has been left behind and it is no longer upon earth that Jerusalem is sought as a political power or centre of worship but in heaven, whither the eyes of all Christians are turned.” Elsewhere he writes: “Our analysis of the Liturgy of St. Mark is complete. This analysis has established our thesis that all earthly worship of the Church is to be seen as a participation in that worship offered to God by the angels in heaven—is confirmed not only by holy Scripture, but also by the tradition of the Church as expressed in the liturgy.”
“the body is a hidden . . .” Liber Graduum 12.1, cited in P. Manniyattu, Heaven on Earth (Rome: Mar Thoma Yogam, 1995), p. 9.
Worship Is Warfare
“This war is unavoidable . . .” Dom Lorenzo Scupoli, The Spiritual Combat (Westminster, Md.: Newman, 1945), p. 45.
“if the fury of your enemies is great . . .”Ibid, p. 44.
On the saints of the Roman Canon. See Joseph Ratzinger,A New Song for the Lord (New York: Crossroad, 1997), p. 175.
Parish the Thought
“God in His deepest mystery . . .” Pope John Paul II, Puebla: A Pilgrimage of Faith (Boston: Daughters of St. Paul), p. 86.
M. J. Scheeben, The Mysteries of Christianity (St. Louis: Herder, 1950), p. 509: “By the celebration of the sacrificial act which takes place on this earth, the Church is able to enter directly into union with the heavenly sacrifice Christ offers in the body that is glorified. . . . The Eucharistic act of sacrifice bears the stamp of immolation consummated on the cross, and reenacts it vividly in its form and power, only so far as in the heavenly holocaust the immolation of the cross is exhibited and offered in God's eternal remembrance, and this rememberance is visibly depicted to us in the separation of the blood from the body in the Eucharist by the difference between the species.”
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hahn, Scott.
The lamb's supper: the Mass as heaven on Earth / by Scott Hahn.
—1st ed.
p. cm.
1. Mass—Celebration. 2. Bible. N.T. Revelation—Criticism,
interpretation, etc. I. Title.
BX2230.5.H29 1999
264′.02036—dc21 99-23679
CIP
Nihil Obstat: Rev. James Dunfee, Censor Librorum
Imprimatur: Most Rev. Gilbert Sheldon, Bishop of Steubenville
The Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur are official declarations that a book or pamphlet is free of doctrinal or moral error. No implication is contained therein that those who have granted the Nihil Obstat andImprimatur agree with the contents, opinions, or statements expressed.
Copyright © 1999 by Scott Walker Hahn
All Rights Reserved
eISBN: 978-0-385-50480-5
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