41. Holy Thursday - The Last Supper, The First Communion

'Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go, select lambs for your families, and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go outside the door of your house until morning. For The Lord will pass through to strike down the Egyptians; when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, The Lord will Passover that door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you down. You shall observe this rite of perpetual ordinance for you and for your children. When you come to the land The Lord will give you, as He has promised, you shall keep this observance. And when your children ask you, 'What do you mean by this observance?' You shall say, 'It is the Passover sacrifice to The Lord, for He passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck down the Egyptians but spared our houses.' And the people bowed and worshiped.

The Israelites went and did just as The Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

At midnight The Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on the throne to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock.'

Jesus shut the book, and looked around at His disciples, and at me, and said, "The Lord our God delivered us from the bondage of slavery on this night. But there is a bondage to sin that is greater than that of slavery. Sins of mistrust, of faithlessness, of hatred and falsehood, any thought, word or deed that separates mankind from the image and likeness of God is sin. Sin creates a chasm between heaven and earth, between life and death, that cannot be traversed because the bondage to sin has bolted mankind to the earth and to death.

Who is the pharaoh that keeps God's people tied to sin? The enemy of mankind is this spiritual Pharaoh, Satan. His armies of demons work within men's hearts to disobey and distrust the Father. Satan will not easily let mankind go free.

What lamb will be slaughtered and eaten so that humankind may paint its blood on the lintels and doorposts of their hearts so that death will pass them by?"

Silence spread throughout the room, not even a mouse could be heard scurrying into its hole.

Andrew broke the silence by asking, "Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?"

By sunset the disciples were sitting around a long table in a large upper room of a big house in Jerusalem. As usual, I hovered around watching. Jesus had just mustered up the hutzpah to announce that He knew that Judas had betrayed Him.Yikes! I heard Jesus say to him, "The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born."

I have not been on earth very long. I certainly am not a native of this planet, thank God! But over the last eight months I have observed and experienced much. I was sent here to learn about the year of the Bride of Christ, about how She plays with time and matter in miraculous ways. This knowledge was to help me become less skeptical of the Creation of this planet. Perhaps that was all a guise to keep me from chanting in the choir, I don't know. I know for certain that from the heights of my origin, I could not have imagined the intricacies of the battles between good and evil that are being played out here. It would seem that God created this theater as a magnet for evil and to cleanse the heavens. He left just enough good, enough of Himself to make the battle seem worthwhile to Satan.

Jesus coming here as God in the flesh is as an opposing magnet to draw the children of God out of this realm and to transport them to the pristine kingdom He is creating for His fleshly immortals.

"Enough cogitating we've got to go!" Shouted Poppy, nearly shocking me out of my wits.

"Poppy! What are you doing here? How can I leave now? I promised Jesus that I would stay near Him. He needs me. Where are you taking me?"

Poppy replied, " It's okay, you will be back when He needs you the most. Don't worry, this is God's idea. I can explain on the way; quickly, we have only moments."

I followed Poppy through the skies and the millennia forward to Washington, DC in the twenty first century, and back to Saint Sophia's. It was good to be home. Nothing changed. All the mosaics and icons were in their places. The seraphim in the dome winked at me when they saw me enter. I winked back and smiled. It was very early in the morning and the church was half full of yawning people.

Poppy barked, "Pay attention!"

I looked down at the altar at Father Steve in his most beautiful vestments as he was saying, "Take ye eat; this is My Body, which for you is broken unto the remission of sins. Amen." And then he said, "Drink of it ye all, this is My Blood of the new covenant which for you and for many is shed unto the remission of sins."

"I looked at Poppy as if I had heard this for the first time, which of course I hadn't, but I never understood what it meant before."

Poppy smiled with tremendous satisfaction, in fact she was glowing. Then she said, The Bride is feeding Her children with the blood of Christ, that He was about to give them before I dragged you away. But the Father wanted you to see not just the Bridegroom, but the Bride in unison feeding this potion that is the antidote for sin, that enters the body and paints Christ's blood, the blood of the Lamb of God, on the doorposts and lintels of hearts so that death may pass over them and so they may live forever, free from sin. Isn't that exciting?!"

"That's great Poppy,". I agreed, "but can I go back now? I am getting really nervous about what is going on over there, please I have gotta get back to Jesus."

"Okay, okay go" she said sounding more than a little disappointed. "I just thought you might want to see the bigger picture. Good bye and fly safe."

By the time I returned, the Passover supper was over and Jesus was praying, and obviously did not want to be disturbed. As on so many occasions during the wilderness journey, I hovered by standing guard over the Creator of the world incarnate...admittedly feeling a little useless. I have never met a demon yet that was as afraid of me as it was of Jesus Christ.

[Passover, Last Supper, Eucharist - the trifecta of Life Giving Blood.]