This chant is said in the church when the celebrant
unveiled the Crucifix on Good Friday afternoon service
A huge cross of rough timber, and a ladder
These are reminiscent of Gethsemane and Golgotha
The antithesis between the tree in the Garden of Eden and the cross on Mount Calvary is obvious. This enormous cross, presumably a tree cut into shape, reminds us of it. The devil out matched Eve and the rest of us when, under the guise of a serpent, he hid among the leafy branches of a tree. Christ chose to overcome the serpent-devil and save us by dying on the tree of the cross.
Lantern, a rope, a hammer, nails, and an axe
Again these are reminiscent of Gethsemane and Golgotha.
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Zechariah.
These Old Testament prophets all seemed to have an inkling of the sufferings of the Messiah - Isaiah (52:13-53:12), more than all. We are reminded of Christ's own sufferings as we read of the hardships Jeremiah had experienced 600 years earlier (Jer. 20:1-6; 26:10-24; 37:11-21).
Isaiah & Jeremiah
Daniel & Zechariah
Melchisedek was king as well as priest of Jerusalem in Abraham's day (19th-cent. B.C.)
When he congratulated Abraham on his successful war campaign, he took the initiative in offering bread and wine in sacrifice to God Most High {Genesis 14:1-20). It is because this early sacrifice of bread and wine would somehow typify Christ's offering of Himself under the species of bread and wine in the Blessed Eucharist, that Melchisedek here walks before the group-statue of the Last Supper. Furthermore, Jesus is the "priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedek" (Psalm 110:4;Hebrews 5:6).
Man carrying Manna from the Desert
To be sure, we have another Old Testament prefigurement of the Eucharistic Bread of Life in the Manna in the Desert which nourished the Israelites all through the forty years' wanderings between Egypt and the Promised Land
(Exodus 16:1-36). The link between both types of heavenly bread was made by Christ Himself in the discourse at Capernaum (John 6:30-58).
There is, perhaps, in the bunch of grapes fetched from the Promised Land a faint allusion to the wine consecrated at the last Supper and in the Mass. Moses had sent Joshua and Caleb and ten other representatives to spy out the land of Canaan before attempting to conquer it. Those who brought good report of the land brought with them, as tangible proof of its fertility, a single cluster of grapes so huge that they had to carry it on a pole between two of them (Numbers 13:1-12).
Now comes Andrew and two youths holding five loaves and two fishes, as in the feeding of the 5,000 at Bethsaida Julias,for he was the Apostle who singled out the boy among so large a crowd (John 6:1:-13).
Christ's miracle was meant to pave the way for a still greater miracle of multiplication of bread - the Eucharist, or Himself as the Living Bread.
THE LAST SUPPER
Picture taken 1999
Scene 2 - Continue >>
E-mail Danny Apap: dannyapap@maltesemail.com
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