Some curious details appear in the institution of the Eucharist according to Mark.
First there is a detailed description of how the dinner is prepared. Which suggests that the last supper was not improvised, but rather prepared with care.
Jesus blesses the bread and wine by pronouncing the well-known words that we usually hear during the Eucharistic celebration. However, he does not appear “for the remission of our sins”.
At the end of dinner, Jesus and his disciples leave and go to the Mount of Olives.
Jesus is building an extraordinary and unforgettable experience for his disciples: in fact, the Last Supper is the fulcrum of our faith.
But what is Jesus making his disciples experience? For human beings, food is not just a matter of biological nourishment. It is also an anthropological fact. Sharing the table is a social ritual that builds communion. Preparing the environment, cooking the food, setting the table are gestures through which people build the human essence together and mutually.
Jesus takes on the everyday life of this gesture, identifying his body and blood with bread and wine. With this coincidence, he is saying that where we experience true humanity he is also there. In this way he definitively links that dinner to the memory of him.
Immediately afterwards the scene changes to Gethsemane: there the disciples will be able to see in action the human essence that the Last Supper activated. Ultimately, being human and being a disciple of Jesus is the same thing. It may seem like a small thing. But how much less trouble would there be if we were more aware of it!
Flavio Emanuele Bottaro SJ
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Source: Get up and Walk – the daily gospel with commentary
