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5 The Supper We are canonkally commanded to give thanks to God for God's saving works in Christ, joining the thanksgiving by sharing bread and a cup of wine. In the Western dogmatic and liturgical tradi­ tion, this command has been badly understood and obeyed, espe­ cially by a too-abstract concentration on the "sacrament" as against the "sacrifice." In themselves, of course, the sacramental promises are indeed "the chief thing" in the Supper, which by them is qualified as an anticipation of the messianic Supper, brought to pass by the risen Christ's availability as the bread and cup. The great Western controversy about "the sacrifice of the mass" can be resolved if Protestants can overcome their prejudices and Catholics can acknowledge the need and legitimacy of the Reformation's critical doctrine of justification. The controversy about the mode of Christ's bodily presence can be resolved only by fundamental metaphysical and ecclesiological new reflection. THE COMMAND From the beginning. Christians have celebrated their special meal, "break­ ing bread . . . with glad and generous hearts" (Acts 2:46), obeying a com­ mand to "do this" and passing on the command. That this mandate has apostolic authority is documented directly: Paul explicitly includes it in what he "received" and in what his congregations must obey (1 Cor. 11:23-26).' The same tradition appears in two versions in the synoptic Gospels, where the texts' character as instituting rubrics is apparent (Mark 14:22-25; Matt. 26:26-29; Luke 22:15-20).2 To see the mandate's content, we may conflate the texts: Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to his disciples, and said "Take [Mark, Matthew]. Eat [Matthew]. This is. . . . Do this for my remem­ brance [Paul, Luke]. Likewise, after supper, he took the cup, gave thanks, gave it to them, and said "All of you drink from it [Matthew]. This is. . . . Do this, whenever you drink it, for my remembrance [Paul]." "Do this." What is "this"? There are two exegetical possibilities. "Do this" should perhaps be read as a gloss emphasizing the rubrical character of the 337 1 0 / THE MEANS OF GRACE entire text.3 In that case it is all the actions listed that are mandated. Or perhaps "Do this" in Paul's and Luke's texts should be read for what it would have meant as an "instituting" utterance ofJesus. Then there is in the texts only one possible referent of "this": the "thanksgiving" Jesus has just performed.4 It is, one fears, worth pointing out that the referent of the explicit "Do this" cannot be the eating and drinking, since only the Pauline and Lukan texts have "Do this" and in them there is no mention of eating and drinking. For­ tunately for our purposes, either exegetical possibility yields the same man­ date, for in the structure of a formal Jewish meal of Jesus' time, a first "thanksgiving" was shared by sharing bread, and another, after the regular meal, was shared by the cup,5 so that "give thanks" in fact includes all the listed acts. It thus also becomes apparent that even on the first possibility the listed actions are not an unstructured set. The bread and cup are there as means by which the company shares the thanksgiving offered by the leader, as visible words of the company's communion in praise of God.6 What, then, was such a table-thanksgiving?7 The root exclamation is "Blessed—the Lord God!" It is addressed both to God and to the gathering: "Bless thee, God!" and "God is blessed" at once. God is praised for his sav­ ing works, in creation and the history of all people; thus the doxology is simultaneously a narrative remembering. So, for example, in the extremest brevity, the birkat ha-mazon: "Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who nourishest all the world in goodness, benevolence and mercy. Blessed art thou, Nourisher of the universe. We give thee thanks, O Lord our God, because thou hast given us the inheritance of a goodly land."8 Such commemoration of God's past acts must, within die structure of Israel's faith, terminate in invocation of the fulfillment of the promises contained in them. So the remainder of the birkat ha-mazon: "Have mercy, O Lord our God, on Israel thy people and Jerusalem thy city and Zion the place of thy glory. . . . Blessed art thou, O Lord, who wilt build Jerusalem...

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