Original Douay–Rheims AnnotationsExodus 12
English College of Douai–Rheims
Read Exodus 12 in the BibleOriginal Douay–Rheims Annotations — English College of Douai–Rheims. CC0 1.0
English College of Douai–Rheims
Read Exodus 12 in the BibleOriginal Douay–Rheims Annotations — English College of Douai–Rheims. CC0 1.0
Exodus 12:3
The tenth day.
[1] Our Saviour Christ instituting the Sacrament of the Eucharist after the celebration of the Paschal lamb, whiles they were at supper, the night before his death, thereby sufficiently declared, that this old Pasch was a figure, not only of his Passion and Sacrifice on the Cross, but also of that he then did so solemnly with his Apostles; whom also in that action he made Priests commanding them and their successors to do the same in commemoration of him, till the end of the world. Other circumstances likewise, and conference of the one with the other make it more clear, that as in some respects it more resembled Christ's Passion and Sacrifice on the Cross, so in others it more expressed the Eucharist and mystical commemoration of his death, though also in many it prefigured Christ in both places [2]. For example, The preparing of the lamb the tenth day signified our Saviour's coming into Hierusalem, the same tenth day of the first moon, now represented in the Church on Palm-Sunday. Also the choice qualities of the lamb, without spot, a male, of the firs year, foreshewed in general the purity, fortitude, meekness, and all perfection of the true Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world [3]. More particularly the killing & bereaving the Paschal Lamb of natural life, the sprinkling of his blood on the door posts, the roasting at the fire, & not breaking any bone thereof, most specially expressed Christ's death on the Cross [4] [5]. But the fourteenth day, & the evening agree only with the Eucharist [6], instituted the night before our Lord's Passion, which he suffered the fifteenth being the full moon) and at midday, as ancient S. Dionyse of Ariopagite (in two Epistles, to Policarpus, & to Apollophanes) testifieth, admiring the miracle of the sun's eclipse, that happened the same time. Neither did the eating of the Lamb directly prefigurate the oblation of the Cross, for Christ was not crucified to be eaten: but the Sacrament in forms of bread and wine was expressly figured by eating the lamb with unleavened bread, & drinking the cup thereto adjoined (Luc. 22. v. 17.) In like sort the Lamb immolated in commemoration of the delivery of Israel from death, & from servitude, when the first-born of Ægypt were slain, most aptly prefigured the Eucharist, which is a perpetual commendation of man's redemption & delivery from eternal death, and from bondage of the devil & sin, by Christ's death on the Cross, which death indeed was the very redemption & delivery of mankind, & not a commemoration thereof. Finally, the immolating of the Lamb within the house with precise commandment to carry nothing thereof forth, pertained particularly to the Eucharist, which our Lord celebrated within the house, whereby S. Cyprian (lib. de unit. Eccles.) proveth, that the B. Sacrament must not be given to any out of the Catholic Church, though Christ's Passion be extended to all the world, as well to bring such as are without into the Church, as to save those that are already entered in. [7] In this sort the most ancient and best expositors of holy Scripture, explicate this special figure of the Paschal Lamb. As we shall here produce some witnesses in confirmation of this truth.
[1] Tertullian lib. 4. contra Marcionem, expounding our Saviour's words [2]: With desire I have desired to eat this Pasch with you before I suffer, saith, Christ coveted not veruecinam Iudæorum, the mutton of the Jews, but professing that with desire he desired to eat the Pasch, as his own (for it was unmeet that God should covet any thing not his own) the bread which he took, and gave to his disciples, he made his own body, saying: This is my body, that is, a figure of my body. Figura autem non suisset, nisi veritatis esset corpus: But it had not been a figure (saith he) unless it were a body of verity, or, a very body, to wit, not phantastical as the heretic Marcion imagined; because the figures in the old Testament were not figures, except a true body answered unto them. So the Sacramentaries sense, that Tertullian should call the Eucharist a figure, is quite against his meaning, and maketh him conclude nothing against Marcion; whereas his whole drift is, by the figures of the old Testament to prove, that in the Eucharist is the true & real body of Christ, & that consequently Christ hath a true and real body. Origen (in 26. Mat.) teacheth that in the great parlor (where Christ did eat the Paschal Lamb) he also made his new Pasch. [3]
S. Cyprian (de Cæna Dom.) saith: In the supper of sacramental banquets, old & new Institutions met together. The lamb being consumed, which old tradition proposed, the Master setteth inconsumptible meat to his disciples. S. Gregory Nazianzen (orat. 2. de Pascha) saith God commanded the Paschal Lamb should be eaten in the evening, because Christ in the evening gave the Sacrament of his own body to his disciples. S. Hierom (in 26. Mat.) After that the figurative Pasch was complete, & Christ had eaten the flesh of the lamb with his Apostles, he taketh bread, which confirmeth the heart of man [1], and passeth over to the true Sacrament of Pasch. Likewise S. Chrysostom (Ho. de prodit. Judæ) saith: In the same table both the Paschs, of the figure, & of the verity were celebrated. S. Ambrose (in Lucæ. 1.) expressly applieth this figurative lamb to the Eucharist, as it is celebrated in the Church, by himself & other Priests [2], saying: When we sacrifice, Christ is present, Christ is sacrificed: for Christ our Pasch is immolated [3]. The like affirmeth S. Augustine (li. 2. cont. lit. Petil. c. 27.) It is another Pasch that the Jews celebrated of a sheep, another which we receive in the body & blood of our Lord. S. Leo (ser. 7. de Pass.) To the end shadows might give place to the body, & figures might cease in presence of the verity, the old observation is taken away by the new Sacrament, host passeth into host, blood excludeth blood, and when the legal festivity is changed, it is fulfilled.
[1] S. Gregory (ho. 22. in Evang.) proveth by these words, You shall not eat thereof any thing raw, that besides the letter there is a spiritual sense. Behold (saith he) the very words of the history drive us from the historical understanding. For did the Israelitical people in Ægypt use to eat a lamb raw, that the law should need to say: you shall not eat it raw? And so in that homily this great Doctor explicateth how we ought to celebrate & receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist, by the figure of this Paschal lamb. This blood (saith he) is sprinkled on both posts, when the Sacrament of his Passion is received with mouth, to redemption, and meditated with intentive mind to imitation, & in the transom over the door, when pure intention directeth the exterior act, also when we carry the Cross of his Passion in our forehead. The flesh of the lamb is eaten at night, because we now receive our Lord's body in the Sacrament, when yet we see not each other's consciences, roasted at the fire, when we join to our belief good works of fervent charity: with unleavened bread & with lettuce, that is, in sincerity, without corruption of vain glory, and with bitter penance for sins: not raw, nor sod in water, to wit, neither esteeming Christ a mere man, nor considering of him, with human wisdom or private spirit of heretics, called stolen water (Prov. 9.) To devour the head with the feet and entrails, is by faith to believe the Divinity of Christ, and to imitate by love the steps of his humanity, & greedily to learn all Christian mysteries. Nothing is left till morning, when we endeavour in this life before the resurrection to know every point of Christian doctrine, so far as to us pertaineth. But if any thing be left, it must be burned in the fire, because those hard & highest mysteries, which we cannot understand, we must remit to the Holy Ghost, lest any proudly presume either to contemn, or to proclaim that he understandeth not. [2] He further describeth also what manner of persons are to eat this new Pasch. Their loins must be girded, that is, all carnal pleasures tamed. They must have shoes on their feet, by the good examples of former Saints dead before, must strengthen their steps, to fly from vice, and follow virtue: holding staves in their hands, to rule and stay themselves and others from sliding, by the staff of authority. They must eat the Pasch speedily, that is without delay or procrastination must learn the mysteries of man's redemption, and heavenly life, and so perform God's will & precepts, in this life with speed. To this effect S. Gregory discourseth at large in the moral sense, which we have abridged, and otherwise (though holy Scripture be full hereof) seldom touch.
Returning therefore to our particular purpose, in all these testimonies we specially urge, that the paschal lamb was a figure, not only of Christ's Passion, but also of the Eucharist. Whereupon, besides the often express mention of our B. Saviour's body and blood in the same, which Protestants would wrest (as they do also the same terms in holy Scripture) to figurative sense, [1] it necessarily followeth, that there be far more excellent contents in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, than natural bread and wine. For S. Paul teacheth (colloss. 2.) that as the body excelleth the shadow, so the verity, or thing figured excelleth the figure. Whereas the substance of bread and wine doth not excel, much less so far excel the Paschal Lamb, as by S. Paul's doctrine is required. Again, seeing the Paschal lamb was a Sacrifice [2], as appeareth in this Chap. v. 6. & 27. also Num. 9. v. 7. & 13. and Mar. 14. v. 12: and as it was immolated was a figure of the Eucharist, as before appeareth by conference of the one with the other, in respect of the time, place, manner of offering, and eating it, and by testimony of the Doctors above cited, it followeth also that the Holy Eucharist is a Sacrifice far excelling the figure.