Luminous Mysteries: Institution of the Eucharist

Summary

Detailed Summary of "Luminous Mysteries: Institution of the Eucharist" Podcast Episode

Podcast Information:

• Title: Catholic Bible Study
• Host/Author: Augustine Institute
• Episode: Luminous Mysteries: Institution of the Eucharist
• Release Date: March 20, 2025

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Introduction

In the final installment of the five-part series on the Luminous Mysteries, Dr. Ben Akers, Executive Director of Formed, engages in a profound discussion with Dr. Mark Gieshek, a distinguished colleague from the Graduate School of Theology at the Augustine Institute. The episode delves into the fifth Luminous Mystery: the Institution of the Eucharist, exploring its theological significance, historical roots, and spiritual implications for the faithful.

Defining the Mysteries of Light

Dr. Ben Akers opens the conversation by thanking supporters of the Mission Circle, emphasizing the role of monthly donations in facilitating such in-depth Bible studies. He introduces the Luminous Mysteries as concepts introduced by Pope St. John Paul II in 2002, positioned between the Joyful and Sorrowful Mysteries to highlight aspects of Jesus' public ministry.

[00:53] Dr. Mark Gieshek explains the terminology:

"Jesus says, I am the light of the world. And so John Paul II names them Mysteries of Light because light indicates revelation, right? Divine revelation." (00:53)

He prefers "Mysteries of Light" over "Luminous Mysteries," arguing that "light" better encapsulates the idea of spiritual enlightenment and divine revelation rather than the physical concept of light.

The Institution of the Eucharist

The discussion transitions to the core theme: the Institution of the Eucharist. Dr. Gieshek unpacks the term "institution," emphasizing its meaning as establishing a perpetual practice:

"It's to establish, to originate, to inaugurate. It's to begin something." (01:57)

He underscores that Jesus instituted the Eucharist as an enduring sacrament, intended to be a continuous practice until the Second Coming:

"He establishes it as a practice for all of history, right? Until the Second Coming." (02:04)

Eucharist as Sacrifice

A common misunderstanding addressed is the notion that the Mass re-sacrifices Jesus. Dr. Gieshek clarifies:

"We're united to the one sacrifice of Christ for all time through the Mass. So the Mass truly is a sacrifice." (03:05)

He emphasizes that the Eucharist is not a repeated sacrifice but a participation in the singular, eternal sacrifice of Christ:

"It's not as though Jesus gets re-sacrificed... but that he undergoes his death and resurrection for all people, for all time, and we're united to that through the Mass." (03:21)

Connection to the Passover and Old Testament

Linking the Eucharist to the Old Testament, Dr. Gieshek draws parallels between the Institution of the Eucharist and the Jewish Passover:

"The Eucharist fulfills the Jewish Passover and anticipates the final Passover of the Church in the glory of the kingdom." (04:58)

He explains that Jesus reinterprets the Passover meal by positioning Himself as the sacrificial lamb, thus transforming the traditional observance into a new covenant:

"Jesus is the sacrificial victim who's also officiating over the banquet." (07:27)

New Covenant vs. Old Covenant

The conversation shifts to the transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, highlighting continuity rather than contradiction:

"The New Covenant idea is like a really helpful way of thinking about that... what the Lord is doing in the New Covenant is not a contradiction of the Old Testament." (10:43)

Dr. Gieshek references Jeremiah 31:31, illustrating how Jesus fulfills and surpasses previous covenants:

"Jesus is the new Abraham, he's the new Moses, he's the new David." (13:22)

Theological Concepts: Transubstantiation and Sacramental Life

Exploring the theological depth of the Eucharist, Dr. Gieshek touches upon transubstantiation and the Eucharist as the "source and summit" of Christian life:

"The Mass is the true center of the Sacred Liturgy and indeed of the whole Christian life." (14:58)

He cautions against misconstruing this centrality as the entirety of one’s spiritual life, emphasizing that the Eucharist leads believers towards an eternal communion with God:

"It's the highest point of communion with God on earth, and yet it's meant to lead us into the even greater reality of the eschatological banquet." (15:03)

Relation to the Cross and Holy Week

Linking the Eucharist to the events of Holy Week, Dr. Gieshek explains the interplay between Jesus' sacrifice and the liturgical celebrations:

"The Holy Thursday liturgy never really ends, and the Good Friday liturgy never exactly begins... the liturgy begins on Holy Thursday and doesn't really end until the end of the Easter vigil." (18:02)

He elucidates that the Eucharist and the Passion of Christ are inextricably connected, forming a unified narrative of sacrifice and resurrection.

Conclusion and Invitation

As the episode concludes, Dr. Akers highlights the profound mystery of the Eucharist and previews forthcoming discussions on the Sorrowful Mysteries. He invites listeners to engage in the Luminous Mysteries, particularly on Thursdays, to deepen their understanding and support the mission of the Augustine Institute:

"We invite you to join us if you pray the luminous mysteries, the Mysteries of Light if you pray them on Thursdays." (17:00)

Dr. Gieshek adds a final reflection on the spiritual communion achieved through the Eucharist:

"We eat his resurrected body." (18:55)

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Key Takeaways

1. Mysteries of Light: Emphasize divine revelation and spiritual enlightenment, positioning the Institution of the Eucharist within the broader context of Jesus’ public ministry.

2. Eucharist as Eternal Sacrifice: Clarifies that the Mass is a participation in Christ's one eternal sacrifice, not a repeated offering.

3. Old Testament Fulfillment: Connects the Eucharist to the Jewish Passover, portraying Jesus as the new Passover lamb and establishing a new covenant.

4. Transubstantiation and Sacramental Life: Highlights the theological depth of the Eucharist as the source and summit of Christian life, leading believers towards eternal communion with God.

5. Unity with the Cross: Explains the seamless liturgical flow from Holy Thursday through Good Friday to Easter, illustrating the unity of the Eucharist with Jesus' Passion and Resurrection.

6. Invitation to Deepen Faith: Encourages participation in the Luminous Mysteries and supports the ongoing mission to deepen understanding and devotion to the Scriptures.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Dr. Mark Gieshek on Mysteries of Light:

  "...light indicates revelation, right? Divine revelation." (00:53)

• Dr. Gieshek on the Eucharist as a sacrifice:

  "We're united to the one sacrifice of Christ for all time through the Mass." (03:05)

• Dr. Gieshek on Jesus as the Passover lamb:

  "Jesus is the sacrificial victim who's also officiating over the banquet." (07:27)

• Dr. Gieshek on New Covenant fulfillment:

  "Jesus is the new Abraham, he's the new Moses, he's the new David." (13:22)

• Dr. Gieshek on the Eucharist's centrality:

  "The Mass is the true center of the Sacred Liturgy and indeed of the whole Christian life." (14:58)

• Dr. Gieshek on eternal communion:

  "We eat his resurrected body." (18:55)

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This episode masterfully intertwines theology, scripture, and tradition to offer listeners a comprehensive understanding of the Institution of the Eucharist. By bridging Old and New Testament covenants, and elucidating complex theological concepts, Dr. Akers and Dr. Gieshek provide valuable insights that deepen the faithful's encounter with the sacred mystery of the Eucharist.

Transcript

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Hello and welcome to Form. Now we're in part five of our five part series, a Bible study on the luminous mysteries. My name is Dr. Ben Akers. I'm the executive director of formed. And joining me today is a friend and colleague at the Graduate School of Theology at the Augusta Institute, Dr. Mark Gieshek. Thanks for joining me, Mark.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Hey, it's great to be here, Ben.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

And before we get started, I want to talk and thank you for your support of the Mission Circle. The Mission Circle is a monthly donation group where you can give money to help us have conversations like this and have shows. And we hope this has been helpful to pray. The Luminous Mysteries. The luminous Mysteries were given to us by Pope St. John Paul II in 2002. He suggested them to us and they exist in between the joyful mysteries of Jesus's early life and the sorrowful mysteries of his passion. And so we're on number five, and that's the institution of the Eucharist. Mark, why is this a mystery of light?

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Yeah, yeah. I actually don't like the word luminous very much in English because really based on the Latin word for light, which is lumen, and it doesn't really mean a whole lot to us, I think.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

So mysteries of light, I think is a slightly better way of talking about these because they remind us of all of the kind of connotations of light.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Jesus says, I am the light of the world. And so John Paul II names them Mysteries of Light because light indicates revelation, right? Divine revelation. It's not primarily about creation.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Let there be light. And it's not primarily about physics, if you will. It's not about photons or whatever. It really is about spiritual enlightenment.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

About the Lord shining the light of His Son, the light of the world, on our hearts, that we might come to enlightenment.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right?

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

To true enlightenment. That we might come out of the darkness of sin and the darkness of ignorance into the wonderful light of his presence.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

That's beautiful. So what is he. So what are we learning? What are we. What is God revealing to us about His Son in this particular mystery?

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Yes. So maybe one way to think about the institution of the Eucharist at the beginning is just like, what does it mean to institute?

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

We're the existent institute.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

We talk about the institution of the Eucharist or the institution narrative, which is part of the liturgy. And I think sometimes in English again, it kind of. We kind of lose the forest for the trees. What's going on here? This sense of institute, It's a verb, right? It means to establish, to originate, to inaugurate. It's to begin something. And so when Jesus institutes the Eucharist, right. He establishes it as a practice for all of history, right? Until the Second Coming, right. When we'll be caught up into the eschatological banquet.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

So when he says, do this in memory of me, he means keep doing this. It's not just a one time, one and done.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Yeah.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

But it's a little bit strange, right? Because it's in some sense, there's just one Mass. It's not as though there are many, many Masses.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

There's just one Mass. And every time we go to Mass, we're not like, reinventing the wheel or re sacrificing Jesus, which sometimes a common.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Objection that we get is, you keep re sacrificing Jesus at Mass.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right, Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

But we're united to the one sacrifice of Christ for all time through the Mass. So the Mass truly is a sacrifice.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

There truly is a participation in Jesus's death and resurrection. But we have to be careful about the way we think of this.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

It's not as though Jesus gets re sacrificed, like we said.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

But that he undergoes his death and resurrection for all people, for all time, and we're united to that through the Mass.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

One of the ways that John Paul II describes this, he says it's a sacramental. The institution of the Eucharist as the sacramental expression of the paschal mystery. How would sacrament relate to that and paschal mystery? Let's unpack some of those words if we want to go. Some etymology.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Yeah, There's a lot going on here. So one thing to remember about the Mass that I think is easy to forget is that it actually has to do with the Passover in Exodus 12.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

So, you know, hopefully you've watched the Ten Commandments, Cecil B. DeMille, at some points.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

And. And when we go to Mass, we should recall that event.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right?

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

The delivery of the Israelites, the deliverance of the Israelites from their Egyptian slavers, you know, and while they were oppressed under, you know, physical political slavery in a foreign country.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Our souls can be enslaved or oppressed by sin and by evil. And the Mass delivers us from evil.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

It delivers us from the slavery of sin. And so we should think of ourselves sort of in the footsteps of the ancient Hebrews. The Catechism calls the Eucharist the efficacious. Sorry. It says that the Eucharist fulfills the Jewish Passover and anticipates the final Passover of The church in the glory of the kingdom.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Hmm. Let's unpack that. So one of the things that we've discovered in our conversations for the previous four shows on reflecting on these mysteries is there are clear Old Testament echoes. Would you say that this is the primary Old Testament echo would be the Passover of Exodus?

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Absolutely.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Okay.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Absolutely.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Well, one of the things that I can think about as I'm praying, this mystery or that Jesus does in his new Passover with the Instituting the Eucharist to help it come alive.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Yeah.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

So.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Well, maybe one way to think about it is just to look at the text.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

So the institution narrative comes to us in the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and in 1 Corinthians of all places, chapter 11. The institution narrative actually isn't in the Gospel of John. We usually think of the Gospel of John as the most Eucharistic because of John, Chapter six. But the institution narrative itself isn't there.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

This is interesting because liturgically, on Holy Thursday, when we celebrate as a church and part of Lent, this reliving and remembering, this institution of the Eucharist, the Gospel for that day is the washing of the feet.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Yeah.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

So, like, the one day that you think that would be the best to read the institution narrative, we have the washing of the feet from John's gospel.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Yeah.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Well, institution narrative is in every mess. Right, Right. So you'll probably recognize these words. I'm going to read the one from the Gospel of Mark. And as they were eating, he took bread and blessed and broke it and. And gave it to them and said, take, this is my body. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many. Truly, I say to you, I shall not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God. So while there are many, many things here, the one thing to notice is that Jesus is officiating at a Passover Seder meal. Right. So while there's the original Passover meal of Exodus 12, the Jews would celebrate the Passover every year and would eat this special sacred meal along with it. What's interesting about the Last Supper is that there's no lamb. Right. Normally you would have a sacrificial lamb that you would eat that would have been sacrificed to the temple, and then you would eat it with this special meal. And in the Gospels, there's no sacrificial lamb.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Do the Gospels know that? We know that? They want us to notice that.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Oh, of course they do.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Because who is Jesus, Right? We're told in the Gospel of John by John the Baptist, Jesus is the lamb.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

That's why, behold the lamb.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

So he's the sacrificial victim who's also officiating over the banquet. I mean, it's really a kind of powerful moment when you. When you start to see that. Now, what are the other features of the Passover meal? The Passover meal is very complicated, so I'm not going to go through and try to explain all of it. But it has these different cups of wine. And so actually in the Gospel of Luke's version, in Luke 22, you'll notice that there are actually two different cups of wine that the disciples drink. And traditionally, there would be four cups at the Passover meal. So a lot of wine. But every time.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

That's why the apostles fall asleep in the agony in the garden later.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Every time you eat or drink wine, as a Jew, right, you pronounce a blessing, right? So in the same way that we bless our food, right, before we eat, you would bless your wine before you drink it, and you'd bless your food before you eat it. And so in. So Jesus's blessings, right, says he took the bread and he blessed and broke it, right? So he's blessing it in the same way that a normal Jewish man would bless before. You know, in the context of the Passover meal, there are special blessings, right? But you pray a regular blessing at every meal, and then you pray special blessings at the Passover meal. And that's part of the kind of process here. And then he does the same thing with the cup, right? And the idea is that we're thanking God for the gifts of creation. So the traditional Jewish blessings over the wine and over the bread, thank God for these gifts that he gives to us. And wine in particular is viewed as kind of like a sign of God's blessing in that, you know, obviously it has alcohol in it. It's the fruit of the vine. It makes us happy, right? And so you'll find wine all over the Old Testament from, say, the time of Noah all the way through to Jesus. And wine in this particular way signifies the blessing of creation. Now, what's. But what's going on in the Passover, back in Exodus 12 is a kind of recreation, a kind of decreation and recreation, right? The Egyptians get walloped by the Lord at the Red Sea, right? And what happens in Dry ground comes out of the water for the sake of the Israelites, and they walk across to the other side. It's a recapitulation of Genesis, chapter one. It's a recreation event, a new creation.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Event to be created as a people, a new people of God.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Exactly Right. And then the same thing happens in the New Passover in Jerusalem. You know, over a thousand years later, Jesus is there with. With his disciples as the new Paschal lamb, the new Passover lamb. And he's doing it all over again.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Instead of leading us out of Egypt into the promised land, he's leading us out of the slavery to sin into the promised land of freedom in Christ.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

And the destruction of death. So what's happening is another new creation event.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

That's beautiful. Well, and when you said new creation, that made me think of, in Luke's Gospel in particular, he says, this is the new covenant in my blood. What does he mean by that? So is this an echo to the Old Testament, an Old Covenant?

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Well, it's Jeremiah 31. 31.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

You know very well. So it's important that Jesus is on the one hand, innovating, if you will.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

But on the other hand, he's showing how what he's doing is in continuity with the Old Testament. And this is a really important tension for us to hold in our minds and our hearts as we think about Old Testament, New Testament, Old Covenant, New Covenant. That what the Lord is doing in the New Covenant is not a contradiction of the Old Testament.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

But it's a fulfillment. And I think the New Covenant idea is like a really helpful way of thinking about that.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Where God established a covenant with Abraham and with Moses and with David and all these heroes of the Old Testament. Now he's establishing a new covenant in his son that will be greater than and will surpass all of the previous covenants.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

This is a big question, but I know you teach salvation history here in the graduate school and also the short course that you've taught for the Augusta Institute. Short courses. What's a quick primer on what does covenant mean?

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Yeah, covenant is a complicated concept. So we could think of it as a contract. It's a way that people made agreements in the ancient world. And in our contracts, we make agreements like, I'll play shortstop for your major League baseball team if you pay me $10 million. And then there are penalties that are built into the contract. If I don't play shortstop, then you won't pay me my salary. Or maybe I'll have to pay you back some money and this sort of thing. In ancient times, agreements were just as solemn, if not more so, but they were harder to enforce.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

The legal system wasn't as developed. And so the way that people would bind themselves to one another and make sure that you were going to make good on your end of the bargain is they would take oaths. So really the word covenant, you could translate it as oath.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

So people would swear oaths usually to the gods. Right. Essentially wishing harm upon themselves if they didn't fulfill the stipulations of the covenant.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

That's very serious.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Very serious. Yeah. And you get a sense of this from reading Deuteronomy chapters 27 and 28, where the people of God pronounce the covenant blessings.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

If you fulfill the covenant and the covenant curses if you don't. These are oaths. So that might be a helpful way of thinking about it. And of course, the Latin word sacramentum means oath.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Great.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

So there's a kind of continuity between Old Testament covenantal thinking and the new covenant in Christ in the sacraments.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

When I read the Old Testament, I see, as you mentioned, these different covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses, this word comes up often. But then I get to the New Testament, I don't see it show up until this moment. Is that by design or what's going on there, you think? Strategy?

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Yeah, I mean, I mean, maybe one way to conceive of it is that the Old Testament is giving us far more history.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Over a long period of time. And you have a variety of covenant mediators in the Old Testament, like I mentioned Abraham and Moses and so forth. So Jesus is the new covenant mediator.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

He's the new Abraham, he's the new Moses, he's the new David. So it's really. We would only expect it to happen once in the New Testament, but even the word testament in English means covenant. Right? So we could have like the, you know, the King James translators or whatever gave us Old Testament, New Testament, but they really could just be Old covenant. New covenant.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Okay, so the old covenant and the new covenant. So we can start referring to that, the New Testament as the new. The new covenant. Yeah. That's beautiful. One of the things that also jumps out when I read this text. So this new covenant, this new covenant is blood. And he talks about bread, being himself. What would be if I'm an apostle listening to this, hearing this for the first time, and if I'm maybe going to mass for the first time, never been to mass before, when Jesus or the priest Takes the bread and says, this is my body, and takes the cup of wine and says, this is my blood. What's happening there?

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Yeah, I mean, it's something complicated we call transubstantiation, right? And this is where when we're meditating on the Eucharist, we have to kind of hold a variety of things in our minds and hearts at the same time. So one of the documents that the Church uses to describe it is called eucharisticum mysterium from 1967. And it says there that the mystery of the Eucharist is the true center of the Sacred Liturgy and indeed of the whole Christian life. That's a pretty big statement, right?

[Dr. Ben Akers]

This sounds like. I've heard it.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

It's the center.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

It's the center or source and summit is another phrase I've heard before.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

I think sometimes we can end up making a mistake based on a statement like that or on the source and summit language that we find in Vatican 2 and begin to think about either the. The ceremony itself, right. Or the. The sacrament itself as like somehow all encompassing. And that now we don't need to worry about thinking about God or. Or praying outside of Mass or theology or whatever, right? It's like what's going on in the Eucharist is the summit, right? It's the. It's the highest point of communion with God on earth, and yet it's meant to lead us into, right. The even greater reality of the eschatological banquet, right? In heaven, we'll be part of the Mass full time, right? We won't have to go to Mass because we'll constantly be at Mass, so to speak.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right?

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Because we'll be constantly united with the Lord spiritually. And of course, the Protestants disagree with us. They have a kind of heretical notion of the. Of. Of what the Last Supper signifies. And so I think we can end up overemphasizing the kind of physicality of the Eucharist and forget that the. Yes. While it is the Body of Christ, right? We can forget that this is a spiritual meal that we're invited to, right? We're invited to a spiritual communion. And we enter that communion through the Eucharist, right? This is why I think communion is such a powerful word that the Church uses to describe the Eucharist, right? It really unites us to the Lord.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

And so we won't need Communion, Holy Communion in heaven.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Well, we won't have repeatedly, right? Because we'll be caught up in divine beatitude for all eternity, right? So we'll be Caught up in the who God is forever and ever. It'll be wonderful. And there's a way in which, like the. The institutions.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Of.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Of the church on this earth will kind of fade into the background as we're caught up into the beatific vision.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

One of the things that words that you. You threw out that. That just. I wanted to, for our audience, if they may not be familiar with these words. You said Thanksgiving a lot.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Yeah.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

How does that relate to.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

That's the meaning of the word Eucharist.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Okay.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

So this means Thanksgiving. Yeah.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

The other word that. That John Paul II uses is paschal mystery. Can you unpack what paschal means?

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Yeah. Paschal, it just comes from the Hebrew word for Passover.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Okay.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

And so whenever you hear of Pascha for Easter or Paschal for describing, you know, the Eucharist or the Mass.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

And we often use the phrase the Paschal mystery to describe everything that happens in Holy Week.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

The whole triduum.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

So the whole. All the events of Holy Week kind of condensed into one phrase.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Yeah.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

That's beautiful. Now, as I go, you know, for us, in just the last couple minutes or two that we have all these mysteries, the baptism cana, proclamation of the kingdom, transfiguration, have related to the cross in some way. How does this mystery relate us to the cross?

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

Yeah. So it's one Mass. It's one sacrifice. I think sometimes people think, okay, so Jesus celebrates Mass on Thursday, and then he dies on Friday, and then he rises on Sunday. I don't really understand. But if you think about the way that the liturgy is presented to us, the Holy Thursday liturgy never really ends, and the Good Friday liturgy never exactly begins, and it never exactly ends. So it's like the liturgy begins on Holy Thursday and doesn't really end until the end of the Easter vigil. And I think that's how we should conceive of the first Mass.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

That Jesus offers this sacrifice on Holy Thursday night, but the Mass is not complete until he dies and rises again.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

And so, like, while the disciples are literally eating his body on Holy Thursday, that's only possible because he's going to die on Friday, and this is only possible and then rise again.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

We're not. We're not. We're not cannibals.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

We don't sit around eating the dead body of Jesus.

[Unnamed Colleague]

Right.

[Dr. Mark Gieshek]

We eat his resurrected body.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

His resurrected flesh. Yeah. Well, the. Thank you for joining us, joining me and talking about this. This. It went by fast, and the Eucharist is just such. It's vast. It's the Mystery. And there's a teaser of going through a Bible study on the different the five different mysteries, the luminous mysteries of the Mysteries of Light as we talked about. And as John Paul II says, the Rosary is a compendium of the Gospel, a summary of the Gospel. So the institution of the Eucharist brings us right up to the next the Sorrowful Mysteries, the first sorrowful mystery being the Agony in the Garden. So we'll do a series on each of the Mysteries of the Rosary going forward, but we wanted to start with this Mysteries of Light. The third we pray on the Thursdays is a traditional day to pray these since John Paul II introduced him in 2002. This is a day that we as the Augusta Institute in particular prayer for the work of the Augustus Institute. So we invite you to join us if you pray the luminous mysteries, the Mysteries of Light if you pray them on Thursdays. Please ask the Lord to intercede and bless the work of the Augusta Institute. Thank you for joining us and God bless.