Replies

From: Genesis 14:18-20

Melchizedek, King and Priest

[18] And Melchizedek 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.

*********************************************************************************************
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 (Sa-
lem, Sodom) of the blessing they receive through Abraham (cf. 12:3). In the spe-
cific 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 sig-
nificant 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 forever, 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 Melchize-
dek) 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 Pra-
yer I); tradition sees him as a figure of priests of the New Law.

*********************************************************************************************
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 Je-
sus on the night when He was betrayed took bread, [24] and when He had gi-
ven 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.

*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:

23-26. These verses clearly bear witness to the early Christians’ faith in the eu-
charistic 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 Apos-
tles 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 Sacra-
ment 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” (”Let-
ter 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, re-
viving 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 A-
postles 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.