Aboriginal Myth and the Sacrifice of the Mass

More documents

Recommendations

Info

What is it in the human subconscious that can account for this universal theme found in the creation myths andlegends of tribes separated by oceans and thousands of miles?I think we have the answer for that, and the clues are in the first reading. How do we explain the first reading inwhich the ancient king of Salem and priest of God the Most High, Melchizedek, brings bread and wine toAbraham, with a blessing? Melchizedek, a pre-Israelite, prefigures the priesthood that Christ established, andof course Melchizedek knew nothing about this foreshadowing or prefiguring, nor did Abraham.And well after Abraham, at the time of the Exodus, the Passover feast was established. The Seder plateprefigures the Eucharist as well. Here the original Passover lamb is sacrificed, and it is the blood that marks thedoorposts of the Israelites that is the promise of their freedom. To share in the Seder meal is to be part of thatExodus.For the Jews, to share a meal is to enter into communion with all who are at the table, because all share in theone food, which is a source of life. When they celebrate the Passover, they believe that what is past is madepresent in the here and now, and so each time the Passover is celebrated throughout the centuries, Moses ispresent in their midst; Jews who celebrate Passover believe they leave Egypt with all of Israel at the time of theExodus.Today’s gospel, the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fish, also prefigures the coming reality of theEucharist.We see this prefiguring of the Eucharist not only in the New Testament, and not only in the history of Israel,which includes a small account of the pagan king Melchizedek, but it goes back further, as far back asaboriginal man.God is so good. He leaves clues all throughout history, in every continent and in every people, clues aboutwhere He will be found. In the Person of Christ, myth becomes reality. All that the aborigines dreamt of,believed and articulated is affirmed by God and is brought to reality. We worship a murdered God, a crucifiedGod, and from his body come the fruit of the vine and the work of human hands, the bread of life and the cup ofsalvation. To partake of this thanksgiving sacrifice is to enter into him, to live in him. And just as aboriginalman saw ritual as the way of making sacred time contemporary with ordinary time, a way of making it touchprofane time thereby renewing it, so too has this come to reality in the Eucharist, because to be present at anordinary Mass, like this one, is to be just as present at the foot of the cross as Mary and John were two thousandyears ago. The sacrifice of Good Friday, which took place 2000 years ago, is made contemporary, that is, representedin the here and now. It is not this or that priest who is offering the sacrifice, it is Christ who is thepriest and who offers the sacrifice, and Christ is the victim, the murdered God, who is being offered. Theindividual priest is only acting in the Person of Christ (in persona Christi).And we believe that Christ is the new Passover lamb, whose blood frees us from the slavery of sin and death,and of whose flesh we partake, making us one with that sacrificial offering.And so to eat of this Eucharist is to become one not only with every member of Christ’s mystical body, past andpresent, but it is to become intimately one with all the faithful of Israel, as well as Primal religious man, theaborigines, who knew something of this sacrifice, however obscure that understanding might have been.When I was explaining to some students that the Eucharist is truly the body and blood of Christ, not merely asymbol of his body and blood, one girl raised her hand and said: “It can’t be. That would make us cannibals”.And of course she had no idea the religious significance of ancient tribal cannibalism. She saw primitive manwith the condescending eyes of the western world, that is, as backward and unintelligent. But it is not that wecannot be like them; rather, when you understand the significance of their myths and rituals, we begin to see
that we can be, we are, and they are like us. They yearned to participate in the life of the gods, that is, theyyearned for the sacred to repeatedly touch their profane existence and make it holy and complete, as we do now.God answers man’s deepest aspirations in the Incarnation, and ultimately in the Eucharist. There is nothing wecan do that is holier than to center our life around the Eucharist. We need to burn with a desire for theEucharist, to hunger for the Eucharist, and we need to pray more often before the Blessed Sacrament. St. JohnBosco used to tell his young people that if you wish to see miracles in your life, pray often before the BlessedSacrament. God is so merciful and humble that He joined a human nature, entered into human suffering, anddied on a cross. Cleary He loves to play hide and seek, and like a good player He hides Himself in unexpectedplaces, under a humble disguise. He continues to hide in our midst under the ordinary and humble appearanceof a wafer of bread. After consecration, it is no longer bread, although it looks like bread, tastes and feels likebread. It is the substance of his murdered and resurrected body. Let us pray that He will give us the grace todiscern him there more readily and hunger and thirst for him more voraciously.Preached at St. Basil’s Church, Brantford, Ontario, on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
Page 1: Aboriginal Myth and the Sacrifice o

Aboriginal Myth and the Sacrifice of the Mass

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?