If Peter celebrated all the Jewish holy days, why doesn’t the Catholic church do the same as Peter did.
The Catholic church does not celebrate the passover like Jews do or Peter did.
(Continued)
Other scholars say, well back them there must not have been a fourth cup. But ancient revered traditions like that don’t just spring up overnight and then cover the globe like the Passover liturgy has, with all four cups.Why did he skip the fourth cup? After all, he was raised a Jew, he’d been celebrating the Passover every year of his life since he was a little boy according to the strictest laws of Moses. Well, maybe there’s a psychological reason. Maybe he was so anxious, so uptight about what he knew he was going to do, he - for instance, we read in Mark 14:32, “They went out to a place called Gethsemane and he said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I pray.’ He took with him Peter, James and John and began to be greatly distressed and troubled, and he said to them, ‘My soul is very sorrowful even unto death.’”
Well, we just read, they went to Gethsemane. Three times he fell down to the ground and said to his Father, he cried out. “Abba, Father!” He fell to the ground and three times said to the Father, “Abba, Father.” The most intimate of terms. “All things are possible to Thee. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what Thou wilt.” Remove this cup. Take away this cup. What is this cup? I think, is a connection between an interrupted liturgy that had been followed strictly up until the very end and this heartfelt, earnest plea and prayer of our Savior. Remove this cup. He also said, though, “I shall not taste of the fruit of the vine again until I enter into the kingdom.”
But then we turn to John, chapter 19 which describes in unique detail the sacrifice of our Lord. There’s no mistaking the fact that St. John, the beloved disciple, understood our Lord’s sacrifice as the culmination, the fulfillment of the Old Testament Passover. For instance, why is that Jesus happened to be wearing a seamless linen garment at the cross, when just coincidently that’s what the priest was legislated to wear when he sacrificed the Passover? Here is the true priest, as well as the true victim.
And when he was crucified, unlike the two thieves whose legs had to be broken to expedite death, his bones were not broken. Why? To fulfill the scripture where it says, “None of his bones shall be broken.” What’s that talking about where it says, “None of his bones shall be broken”? One of the things is that if you took a lamb to sacrifice for the Passover and you discovered that it had a broken bone, you had to throw him out and get another one. The only fit sacrifice was a lamb without broken bones. John sees in this so much more than we can get into, but one thing in particular. Verse 28, “After this"
at the very end of his cruel sufferings"Jesus, knowing that all was now finished said, in order to fulfill the scriptures, ‘I thirst.’” Now, he’s been on the cross for hours. Is this the first moment of thirst. No, he’d been wracked with pain and dying of thirst for hours. But he says, in order to fulfill the scripture, “I thirst.” Why? To fulfill the scripture.
"A bowl of sour wine stood there. They put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch_the same kind of branch the Israelites had to use. He refused it: “I will not taste of the fruit of the vine I am coming into the kingdom.” He skipped the fourth cup and then he went to pray, ‘Remove this cup, not as I will will, but as thou wilt,’ And now he has gone and fulfilled that will to the uttermost, in perfect suffering obedience to the Father, in an act of unspeakable love.
"They put a sponge full of the sour wine on hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine he said the words that are spoken of in the fourth cup consummation, “It is finished.” What is the it referring to? An exegete, a trained interpreter of the word is supposed to find the contextual meaning, not just import a meaning from a theology textbook. What is Jesus speaking of when he says, “It is finished?” I mean, our redemption is not completed once he - he’s not yet raised. Paul says, “He was raised for our justification.”
So what is the
it talking about? He said, ‘
It is finished’, and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit, his breath. The
it, of course you realize by now, is the Passover sacrifice. Because who is Jesus Christ? He is the sacrifice of Egypt, the firstborn son. Remember, the Egyptians involuntarily had to offer up their firstborn sons as atonement for their own sins and wickedness. Christ dies for Egypt and the world. Plus, he is the Passover lamb, the unblemished lamb, without broken bones who offers himself up for the life of the world.
The sacrifice begins in the upper room with the institution of the Eucharist and it ends at calvary. Calvary begins with the Eucharist. The Eucharist ends at Calvary. But in another way of thinking, it ain’t over yet! Cause it ain’t over till it’s over.
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 5:7-8, “Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed, therefore”_what?_we don’t need to have any more sacrifice? Therefore we don’t need to have any more ritual, therefore all we have to do is have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and invite him into our hearts and everything else is taken care of? No, he’s too knowledgeable about the Old Testament to say any of that. He says, “Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed; let us therefore celebrate the feast.” What feast? The whole Passover feast. It’s not complete yet. What do you mean? And the next five chapters in many ways St. Paul describes how the Eucharist is to be celebrated, because it’s the culmination of the Passover sacrifice.
It means the feast must be celebrated forever and that is what occurs at every Mass in the Eucharist.
