All true. However the First Mass was at the Last Supper, which was a Seder, on the first night of Passover. At the Seder the Blessing of the Bread comes first. There are several points at which wine is blessed and the one our Lord Consecrated was at the end of the Seder (Order of the Service.) So at the Mass which is taken from the Seder, and where the form of blessing follows the Jewish pattern of the Brakot, The Bread is blessed first and the Wine second, as in the Passover, rather than on Sabbath or other festivals where the Wine is blessed first.
Some facts about the Seder and bread and wine used. Our Lord seems to have taken great care in instituting the Eucharist at Passover, not simply because it is the feast to commemorate freedom from bondage and the lamb which was sacrificed in the Temple.
The elements are not just any bread, and the wine too has importance. The bread is referred to as the “Bread of Life”, which the Children of Israel brought with them out of Egypt. not having time to allow the bread to rise, it is unleavened, as leaven puffs up the bread, like sin and pride puff up a man’s soul. The requirements for the Bread are that it be wheat, (although oats, spelt, barley and rye can be used if no wheat can be had) and water, nothing else. Not just any wheat, but the wheat from the new harvest so no natural yeasts (Leaven) would have a chance to settle on it, ensuring it is unleavened. From the point the water is mixed until the cooking is completed, takes no longer than 18 minutes. Chai, is the 18th letter of the Hebrew alphabet and also means LIFE. Matzoh is pierced and when baked it usually develops stripes. In Judaism the scriptural passage, “By His stripes we are saved” is identified as the stripes on the Matzoh, and reminds a Jew of God saving him from the bondage of slavery (both Egypt and Sin). All sounds like our Lord Himself, He said He is the Bread of Life, His stripes, (scourging) and passion is how we are saved. He is the Bread of Life. Also important is that at the Passover, the observant Jew is reminded that by participating in the Ritual of the Passover they cannot consider that the Exodus is something that was done for his or her ancestors in the past, but by participation in the ritual each person is to consider that he himself is being led out of Egypt to the Promised Land. That God makes by the participation of the individual in the Passover rite the Exodus, not a simple historic “Remembering” of a past event, but they are to consider that God has personally taken them out of Egypt. The Exodus takes place again, through God’s intervention, just as we stand at the foot of the Cross at Calvary when we assist at Mass. It’s not a remembering of something from the past, but we are really present there.
The Passover in Jewish theology makes the Exodus present today; Jesus chose it to make the Sacrifice which He offers for us something that we can be present at the Mass, where through His priesthood, and his priests He is the primary Celebrant and the victim.
In the Seder the externals are different, a Jew does not physically walk out of Egypt, In the Mass the Sacrifice of the Cross is there for us, but we do not see the suffering Christ, we see the Risen and Glorified Christ.
