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From: Genesis 14:18-20

[18] And Melchizekek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was
priest of God Most High. [19] And he blessed him and said,

“”Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
maker of heaven and earth;
[20] and blessed be God Most High,
who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”

And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

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Commentary:

14:18-20. After the account of Abraham’s victory over the kings of the North,
there is this little insertion, apparently, that records a piece of tradition which
shows Abraham’s connexion with Jerusalem and its king. In the context of the
story of the patriarchs, this episode implies recognition by the local nations
(Salem, Sodom) of the blessing they receive through Abraham (cf. 12:3). In the
specific case of Salem, we get a glimpse of the fact that the true God, the
Creator of heaven and earth, was worshipped there, under the name of El-Elyon,
or God Most High, and also that he is acknowledged by Abraham as the Lord
himself, “maker of heaven and earth” (cf. 14:22). The bread and wine are first-
fruits of the land, offered in sacrifice as a sign of recognition of the Creator. In
the name of El-Elyon Abraham receives Melchizedek’s blessing, thereby making
Jerusalem the place from where the Lord imparts his blessing (cf. Ps 134:3). It
is also significant that Abraham gives the king of Jerusalem a tenth of everything,
implying that he had a right to receive it.

In Jewish tradition the city of Salem and the figure of Melchizedek acquired a
special meaning. It identifies Salem with Jerusalem or Zion, where the Lord
dwells: “His abode has been established in Salem, his dwelling place in Zion,”
Psalm 76:3 acclaims. Melchizedek is regarded as having a priesthood earlier and
greater than that of Aaron; cf. when the King Messiah is praised: “You are a
priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek” (Ps 110:4). In the New Testament,
the mysterious priestly figure of Melchizedek is portrayed as a type of the priest-
hood of Christ, for Christ is truly the eternal priest even though he (like
Melchizedek) does not belong to the priesthood of Aaron. “For this Melchizedek,
king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the
slaughter of the kings and blessed him; and to him apportioned a tenth part of
everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and
then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. He is without father or
mother or genealogy, and has neither beginning of days nor end of life, but
resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever” (Heb 7:1-3).

In the light of all this, Christian liturgy has seen a prefiguring of the Eucharist in
the bread and wine offered by Melchizedek (cf. Roman Missal, Eucharistic
Prayer I); tradition sees him as a figure of priests of the New Law.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

The Institution of the Eucharist

[23] For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that
the Lord Jesus on the night when He was betrayed took bread, [24] and
when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, “This is My body which
is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.” [25] In the same way also
the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My
blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” [26]
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the
Lord’s death until He comes.

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Commentary:

23-26. These verses clearly bear witness to the early Christians’ faith
in the eucharistic mystery. St. Paul is writing around the year 57—only
twenty-seven years since the institution of the Eucharist—reminding the
Corinthians of what they had been taught some years earlier (c. the year
51). The words “received” and “delivered” are technical terms used to
indicate that a teaching is part of apostolic Tradition; cf. also
1 Corinthians 15:3. These two passages highlight the importance of that
apostolic Tradition. The words “I received from the Lord” are a technical
expression which means “I received through that Tradition which goes
back to the Lord Himself.”

There are three other New Testament accounts of the institution of the
Eucharist (Matthew 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:16-20). This
account, which is most like St. Luke’s, is the earliest of the four.

The text contains the fundamental elements of Christian faith in the
mystery of the Eucharist: 1) the institution of this Sacrament by Jesus
Christ and His real presence in it; 2) the institution of the Christian
priesthood; 3) the Eucharist is the sacrifice of the New Testament (cf.
notes on Matthew 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:16-20; 1 Corinthians
10:14-22).

“Do this in remembrance of Me”: in instituting the Eucharist, our Lord
charged that it be re-enacted until the end of time (cf. Luke 22:19),
thereby instituting the priesthood. The Council of Trent teaches that
Jesus Christ our Lord, at the Last Supper, “offered His body and blood
under the species of bread and wine to God the Father and He gave His
body and blood under the same species to the Apostles to receive,
making them priests of the New Testament at that time. [...] He
ordered the Apostles and their successors in the priesthood to offer
this Sacrament when He said, “Do this in remembrance of Me”, as the
Catholic Church has always understood and taught” (”De SS. Missae
Sacrificio”, Chapter 1; cf. Canon 2). And so, Pope John Paul II teaches,
the Eucharist is “the principal and central reason-of-being of the
Sacrament of the priesthood, which effectively came into being at the
moment of the institution of the Eucharist, and together with it” (”Letter
To All Bishops”, 24 February 1980).

The word “remembrance” is charged with the meaning of a Hebrew word
which was used to convey the essence of the feast of the Passover —
commemoration of the exodus from Egypt. For the Israelites the
Passover rite not only reminded them of a bygone event: they were
conscious of making that event present, reviving it, in order to participate
in it, in some way, generation after generation (cf. Exodus 12:26-27;
Deuteronomy 6:20-25). So, when our Lord commands His Apostles to
“do this in remembrance of Me”, it is not a matter of merely recalling His
supper but of renewing His own Passover sacrifice of Calvary, which
already, at the Last Supper, was present in an anticipated way.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.