“Be pleased to look upon these offerings with a serene and kindly countenance, and to accept them, as you were pleased to accept the gifts of your servant Abel the just, the sacrifice of Abraham, our father in faith, and the offering of your high priest Melchizedek, a holy sacrifice, a spotless victim.” – Eucharistic Prayer I, New Roman Missal |
The Key Questions
How does Old Testament worship prefigure the Mass?
Key Points
Liturgy
From the very beginning God’s people have been called to worship and praise him. The public prayer of the Church called is called Liturgy meaning “public work” or “ service” in the original Greek. (Pitre) Liturgy is the participation of People of God in the “work of God” (John 17:4). Christ is the ultimate example of this completion of the “work” and is the one true “high priest” of the Liturgy of the Church (Heb 8:2-6); through him and with him the Church, through Her ordained ministers, “celebrates in the liturgy above all the Paschal mystery by which Christ accomplished the work of our salvation.” (CCC 1067). In Liturgy God offers himself to us and we (should) continually give ourselves to him by our praise, love, and adoration. Our Catholic Liturgy (made most manifest in the Mass) is prefigured throughout the Old Testament.
Abel’s Sacrifice and Melchizedek’s offering of Bread and Wine
Even in Genesis we can find types of the Mass. (The word “type” is used throughout to mean an Old Testament action or person prefiguring and superseded or brought to fulfillment by the New Testament e.g. Moses was a type of Christ because he led his people out of the slavery of Egypt, just as Christ leads us out of the slavery of Sin. Christ’s action is prefigured by Moses’ and it is larger.) Abel offers the “the firstlings of his flock” (Gen 4:4) just as we ask each Mass that “the Lord accept the sacrifice,” of our first fruit: the gifts of bread and wine and equally important our lives, hurts, joys, humiliations, pain, laughter, and our very selves. (USSCB Roman Missal). Each Mass the priest asks in the Eucharistic prayer that Lord would look upon our offering and it be acceptable to Him just as He “looked with favor on Abel and his offering” (Gen 4:4).
Another of the earliest type of the Mass was the offering of bread and wine by the Priest-King Melchizedek in Genesis 14:18-20.
Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was a priest of God Most High. He blessed Abram with these words: ‘Blessed be Abram by God Most High, the creator of heaven and earth; And blessed be God Most High, who delivered your foes into your hand.’ Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything. (Gen 14:18-20)
It is obvious that this offering of thanksgiving that was made on Abram’s behalf to God Most High prefigures our Catholic Mass. Melchizedek is a type of Christ who is yet to come as explained by St. Paul in the Letter to the Hebrews, Chapter 7, in which the Priesthood of Christ is more fully explained; Another supporting statement is found in Psalms 110:4: “The LORD has sworn and will not waver: ‘You are a priest forever in the manner of Melchizedek.’”
The Exodus and Passover
During the Easter Vigil the Priest or Deacon reads or sings aloud the Exsultet which speaks of salvation history and compares the Exodus of the Jews away from Egyptian slavery and into freedom. It calls Easter mysteries “the feasts of Passover, in which is slain the Lamb, the one true Lamb, whose Blood anoints the doorposts of believers.”(Roman Missal) Christ becomes our Passover Lamb whose blood protects us from the death we deserve because of our sin. Continuing it further emphasizes the connection between the two actions in beautiful language:
“This is the night, when once you led our forebears, Israel’s children, from slavery in Egypt and made them pass dry-shod through the Red Sea. This is the night that with a pillar of fire banished the darkness of sin. This is the night that even now, throughout the world, sets Christian believers apart from worldly vices and from the gloom of sin, lending them to grace, and joining them to his holy ones. This is the night when Christ broke the prison-bars of death, and rose victorious from the underworld. Our birth would have been no gain, had we not been redeemed.” (Exsultet Easter Vigil)
The story of the Exodus is found in Exodus chapters 12-14 and it would be a good bible study for your small group. Furthermore, the rituals of the Old Testament sacrifice are explained more fully in Leviticus 23:4-5 and surrounding; Numbers 28; Deuteronomy 16:1-7. Notice the similarities between them and our Mass; unleavened bread, sacrifice, and the Lamb in particular.
Fulfillment in the Mass
Our Catholic Liturgy (most fully complete in the Mass) was prefigured throughout the Old Testament by the actions of our Jewish ancestors of the faith. The purpose of this lesson is to convey that the Mass was typified by and is the perfect and unchanging completion of the Old Testament customs and sacrifices. At each Holy Mass the Sacrifice of Christ at Calvary is represented to God the Father for the forgiveness of sin.
The Catechism puts it this way:
CCC 1066 In the Symbol of the faith the Church confesses the mystery of the Holy Trinity and of the plan of God's "good pleasure" for all creation: the Father accomplishes the "mystery of his will" by giving his beloved Son and his Holy Spirit for the salvation of the world and for the glory of his name.
Such is the mystery of Christ, revealed and fulfilled in history according to the wisely ordered plan that St. Paul calls the "plan of the mystery" and the patristic tradition will call the "economy of the Word incarnate" or the "economy of salvation."
CCC 1067 "The wonderful works of God among the people of the Old Testament were but a prelude to the work of Christ the Lord in redeeming mankind and giving perfect glory to God. He accomplished this work principally by the Paschal mystery of his blessed Passion, Resurrection from the dead, and glorious Ascension, whereby 'dying he destroyed our death, rising he restored our life.' For it was from the side of Christ as he slept the sleep of death upon the cross that there came forth 'the wondrous sacrament of the whole Church."' For this reason, the Church celebrates in the liturgy above all the Paschal mystery by which Christ accomplished the work of our salvation.
CCC 1070: In the New Testament the word "liturgy" refers not only to the celebration of divine worship but also to the proclamation of the Gospel and to active charity. In all of these situations it is a question of the service of God and neighbor. In a liturgical celebration the Church is servant in the image of her Lord, the one "leitourgos"; she shares in Christ's priesthood (worship), which is both prophetic (proclamation) and kingly (service of charity):
The liturgy then is rightly seen as an exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ. It involves the presentation of man's sanctification under the guise of signs perceptible by the senses and its accomplishment in ways appropriate to each of these signs. In it full public worship is performed by the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, that is, by the Head and his members. From this it follows that every liturgical celebration, because it is an action of Christ the priest and of his Body which is the Church, is a sacred action surpassing all others. No other action of the Church can equal its efficacy by the same title and to the same degree
CCC 1074 "The liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; it is also the font from which all her power flows."13 It is therefore the privileged place for catechizing the People of God. "Catechesis is intrinsically linked with the whole of liturgical and sacramental activity, for it is in the sacraments, especially in the Eucharist, that Christ Jesus works in fullness for the transformation of men."
Questions for Discussion:
- What is liturgy and why is it important to the Church?
- What similarities to the Mass do you find in the Old Testament?
- What other types (prefiguring people or things) of the Mass can you find in the Old Testament?
- Where was the Mass instituted in the bible? (Last Supper Narratives)
- How can learning about the Old Testament help you to understand what you do at Mass more fully?
- What part of the Mass do you understand the least? The best?
- How can you be a better participant in the Mass?
Take Home Message:
The Mass was typified by and is the perfect and unchanging completion of the Old Testament customs and sacrifices.
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