Fr. Hunwicke (som jeg nylig) siterte, fortsetter å skrive om hvordan messen er et offer og et offermåltid; på ingen må et hvilket som helst slags måltid, som mennesker i vår tid (så ukjente som de er med religiøse offer) ofte later til å tro. Slik fortsetter han sitt innlegg om at messen første og fremst er et offer:
The central purpose of the Mass … even before the ‘Supper’ aspect … is sacrifice. Or so I claimed in a recent post. Even if you wanted to agree, you may have noticed a couple of little doubts lurking on the outskirts of your mind.
Doubt 1: Why did S Paul call the Eucharist the Lord’s Supper (kyriakon deipnon)? But this is, surprisingly to us, sacrificial language. In the Greco-Roman world, sacrifice was a communal activity. After the animal was killed and the prescribed portions sacrificially burned, the rest was cooked and eaten by the worshippers in a supper which was not just a sequel but was an integral part of the sacrificial ritual (what the Jews called a Communion Sacrifice). Many such invitations have come to light in the rubbish dumps of ancient Egypt, preserved by the dryness of the desert sand. A typical example is ‘An invitation to you from Nilos to have deipnon in the dining room of the Kyrios Serapis in the Serapeum’ (POxy 2592; late first century). That is why so many excavated temple complexes have dining rooms and extensive kitchen areas attached to them; although sometimes the sacrificial banquet happened, like Christian Eucharist, in a private home (when this happened, the phrase in the papyri is en tei idiai oikiai). And it is one reason why S Paul is so concerned about his Corinthian converts partaking «in the tables of demons». To do so is to share in the pagan sacrifice. Look at I Cor 10:14-22 and note the parallelism the Saint draws between pagan sacificial banquets and the sacrificial banquet which is the Eucharist. Kyriakon deipnon certainly did not, as liberals like to assume, mean some informal sort of matey event («an expression of fellowship») or a plate in front of the television during Channel Four News.
Doubt 2: Did Jesus really have the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and its sacrificial theology in mind when he sat at table with his disciples hours before his death? Jacob Neusner powerfully argues that he did … …