During the Passover seder that became the Last Supper, Jesus showed His disciples more clearly than ever before what Christianity is. It was the Last Supper that became for Christians the event on which the life of the Church would subsequently be founded...
During the Passover seder that became the Last Supper, Jesus showed His disciples more clearly than ever before what Christianity is. It was the Last Supper that became for Christians the event on which the life of the Church would subsequently be founded, right up to Christ's return in glory. Every Christian breaking of bread, every Eucharist, becomes in essence a continuation of that same Last Supper which, while belonging to eternity, is at the same time refracted again and again in history, becoming what the Church usually calls a sacrament.
But what was the Last Supper? Outwardly it was an ordinary Passover seder, the traditional Jewish ritual festive meal held on the first day, or more precisely the first night, of the feast of Passover. In this respect Jesus invents nothing new. He does not intend to devise some special religious ritual for His disciples. And this is understandable: Jesus had no intention of founding a new religion. He speaks of something else, of His body and His blood. What does He mean?
In traditional Jewish usage, whether in Hebrew or Aramaic, body and blood mean the human person, human nature and human life. But life in all its fullness, both natural and spiritual. In the case of Christ this is very much indeed. One might say it is infinitely much, for He bears within Himself the life of the Kingdom in all its fullness. And Jewish ritual meals had always been a place of encounter, not only between God and the human person, but also among the people gathered at one table. God's presence united and sanctified them as one whole, one organism, one spiritual body. In Gospel times the entire Jewish people were perceived precisely in this way, as a single spiritual organism and not merely as an ethnic community. Ritual meals played an enormous part in their existence as one spiritual body: above all, of course, the Sabbath meals, but also those of other Jewish feasts, all founded on the breaking of bread as the moment when the participants in the meal met God and one another.
Jesus brings Himself into this communion. He brings the fullness of His life, and therefore the life of the Kingdom He has brought into the world. He brings it for all the ages to come, until the day when He returns as the triumphant King of His Kingdom fully revealed. Christianity is precisely participation in this life of Christ, sharing in the life of His Kingdom. Everything else is merely its setting, a historical framework which may take any form so long as it does not contradict the principal task. In an extreme case one can do without it altogether, provided that what began during the Last Supper is preserved. This, in fact, is what makes the Church the Church. Everything else will be added, if it is needed.
1
1:15 To the pure - Those whose hearts are purified by faith this we allow. All things are pure - All kinds of meat; the Mosaic distinction between clean and unclean meats being now taken away. But to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure - The apostle joins defiled and unbelieving, to intimate that nothing can be clean without a true faith: for both the understanding and conscience, those leading powers of the soul, are polluted; consequently, so is the man and all he does.
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2:1 Wholesome - Restoring and preserving spiritual health.
2:2 Vigilant - As veteran soldiers, not easily to be surprised. Patience - A virtue particularly needful for and becoming them. Serious - Not drolling or diverting on the brink of eternity.
2:3 In behaviour - The particulars whereof follow. As becometh holiness - Literally, observing an holy decorum. Not slanderers - Or evil - speakers. Not given to much wine - If they use a little for their often infirmities. Teachers - Age and experience call them so to be. Let them teach good only.
2:4 That they instruct the young women - These Timothy was to instruct himself; Titus, by the elder women. To love their husbands, their children - With a tender, temperate, holy, wise affection. O how hard a lesson.
2:5 Discreet - Particularly in the love of their children.Chaste - Particularly in the love of their husbands. Keepers at home - Whenever they are not called out by works of necessity, piety, and mercy. Good - Well tempered, sweet, soft, obliging.Obedient to their husbands - Whose will, in all things lawful, is a rule to the wife. That the word of God be not blasphemed - Or evil spoken of; particularly by unbelieving husbands, who lay all the blame on the religion of their wives.
2:6 To be discreet - A virtue rarely found in youth.
2:7 Showing thyself a pattern - Titus himself was then young. In the doctrine which thou teachest in public: as to matter, uncorruptness; as to the manner of delivering it, seriousness - Weightiness, solemnity.
2:8 Wholesome speech - In private conversation.
2:9 Please them in all things - Wherein it can be done without sin. Not answering again - Though blamed unjustly. This honest servants are most apt to do. Not stealing - Not taking or giving any thing without their master's leave: this fair - spoken servants are apt to do.
2:10 Showing all good fidelity - Soft, obliging faithfulness That they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour - More than St. Paul says of kings. How he raises the lowness of his subject! So may they, the lowness of their condition.