– After alliances between man and divinity there was a banquet to ratify the pact. So it happened in the OT with the patriarchs. God in various ways manifested his acceptance of the sacrifice offered to him. On the other hand, men were to participate in it to signify their adherence to the covenant.
– A prototype of this ritual is narrated in Genesis. At the conclusion of the covenant made between God and Moses, the people’s participation in the sacrifice is made by sprinkling the blood of the sacrificial victims on the multitude:
Gen 15,7-17 : Take a three-year-old heifer […] a three-year-old lamb, a turtledove and a young pigeon.
Ex 24:1-8 : “Behold”, he said, “the blood of the covenant which the Lord made with you, in accordance with all that was said”.
– In Leviticus, several norms are prescribed on how to consume the meat offered to the Lord:
Lev 10,8-15 : You shall eat it in a holy place, because that part of the sacrifices made by fire to the Lord.
– Prefiguring his sacrifice on the cross, Jesus ratifies the New Covenant with the Father, inserting the rites of the new cult into the Jewish ritual of the last supper. The community of the faithful united to Christ gives its assent by celebrating the same Eucharistic banquet:
Mt 26,26-29 : Drink from him all of you, because this is my blood, the blood of the New Covenant.
Mk 14:22-25 : This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, which is shed for many.
Lc 22,19-20 : This is my body, which is given for you; do this in memory of me.
Jo 6,51.53-56 : I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.
Jn 13:18 : He who eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me (Ps 40:10).
1Cor 10:16 : And the bread which we break, is it not a communion in the body of Christ?
1Cor 11,17-29 : Whoever eats and drinks without distinguishing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.
– See SACRIFICE, EUCHARIST.
