On the night he was betrayed, Jesus and his disciples spoke about many things. John’s Gospel in particular tells us a lot about what Jesus taught them that night. But the thing which has really stuck in the Church’s memory from that night is not so much a teaching, but a meal. Because only Jesus could give us Holy Communion.
After all, thousands of years before Jesus, Moses taught us to love God with all our hearts and to love our neighbour as ourselves (Deut 6:4-5, Lev 19:18). Almost all of the prophets remind us of our obligation to care for the poor and the marginalised. If he had wanted to, God could have sent John the Baptist to speak in parables or to tell us to turn the other cheek. But nobody other than Jesus could have given us Holy Communion.
That’s because in Holy Communion, Jesus doesn’t just give us a teaching (though it teaches us many things). In fact, one of the things it teaches us is that we needed more than just a Teacher to be saved from our sins! In Holy Communion, Jesus gives us what we most desperately need and what he alone can give: himself.
Holy Communion