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Is the Mass in the Bible?
Yes, many places! Like most everything else about
Christianity, the Eucharist was foretold
in the Old
Testament. Genesis tells us that, “Melchizedek, king
of Salem, brought out bread and wine, and being
a
priest of God Most High, he blessed [Abraham]”
(14:18). The Bible says Jesus is, “a high priest for
ever
after the order of Melchizedek” (Heb 6:20), and
thus he is the perfect bread and wine. The Old
Testament also
tells how the Israelites ate manna, the
bread from heaven, while they lived in the desert (Dt
8:3, see also Ps 116:13,
17). Jesus is the ultimate
bread from heaven, because in the New Testament,
Jesus himself proclaims, “I am the
bread of life.
Your fathers ate manna in the desert and they
died…he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has
eternal
life” (Jn 6:49)!
In addition, the Old
Testament describes the origin of the Paschal meal in
Exodus Chapters
11-12. It says the chosen people ate
unleavened bread and covered their doors with the
blood of a lamb to protect themselves
from the
avenging angel sent to kill the firstborn of Egypt.
Jesus perfected this Pashal meal at the Last
Supper
by actually offering himself as the bread
and blood which saves all believers from their
deadly sins. This is why Jesus
is called the Lamb
of God!
The New Testament foreshadows the Eucharist in the
miracle of the multiplication of the
loaves (CCC
1335, Mt 14:13-21, 15:32-39), in the transformation
of water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana (Jn
2:1-11)
and in “the daily bread” mentioned in the
prayer to “Our Father” (Mt 6:11, Lk 11:3). The
6
Pope
Paul VI, On Worship of the Eucharistic Mystery Eucharisticum Mysteri
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