Maundy Thursday : Day of
Jupiter
Emil Bock
The Three Years
Thursday of Holy Week; the
day Christ instituted the Eucharist. It is a solemn feast in
Christian calendars.
On Maundy Thursday evening
a holy stillness descends, and all the clamour of the first half
of the week passes into silence. By day the sounds of swarming
streets, the bargaining and noisy talking of thousands of Passover
pilgrims, have reached their peak. Then, shortly before the deep
red sun has sunk in the west, faced by the silver disc of the
rising full moon, the trumpets sound from the Temple and give
the signal for the beginning of the day of Preparation. On the
eve of the Passover, the faithful of the Old Covenant are preparing
for the Sabbath, which begins on the following evening. In every
house people gather round the table to eat the Passover lamb
in the circle of their blood-relations. The streets are suddenly
emptied and an oppressive silence falls. It is the curfew of
Passover night, when the destroying Angel is abroad, as once
long ago, in Egypt.
So Jesus and His disciples
also withdraw to the room in which they are to celebrate the
Passover. The stillness of this room is enhanced, for Providence
has brought them to no private dwelling, but to the house of
the Order of the Essenes. The Coenaculum, which the Essene Brotherhood
has placed at the service of Jesus and His disciples for the
eve of the Passover, stands on holy ground. Here, on Mount Zion,
a sanctuary of humanity has existed from times immemorial. Immediately
opposite, also on a traditional spot, stands the house of Caiaphas,
the ancestral home of the Sadducean Order. A circle has gathered
there, also, to celebrate the Passover. They can scarcely give
thought to the coming Feast, for they are actively concerned
with a plan of hatred and enmity. For a time the struggle must
cease; the holy hour must first have passed. And so His enemies
themselves give the order: "Seek to arrest Him, but not
at the Feast." In the room where Jesus is assembled with
His disciples, the words of the 23rd Psalm are fulfilled, "Thou
preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies."
The Passover lamb on the table
in the Coenaculum assumes a new meaning. At the table is seated
the One of whom John the Baptist could say: "Behold the
Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Nowhere
in that hour nor ever before nor since, has the Passover Lamb
been so near to the One for whom it was an image. For thousands
of years the eating of the Passover lamb was a prophetic custom,
and now the fulfillment of the prophecy is at hand. The apostle
Paul will presently be able to say, "For even Christ our
Passover is sacrificed for us" (1 Cor. 5,7). In the Coenaculum,
prophecy and fulfillment meet each other. A heavy foreboding
fills the room; separation and tragedy rest in the air. Christ's
death of sacrifice throws its shadow before and the consciousness
of the disciples has a heavy test to endure.
The ancient tradition of blood-sacrifice
has its symbol in the Passover lamb upon the table. The magic
of the blood, signified by all pre-Christian blood-sacrifices,
has an active power. IT was believed that the shedding of the
blood of pure sacrificial animals was able to transport people's
souls, formerly more loosely united with the body, into a state
of ecstasy. Divine forces from the other world could then be
reflected in human conditions. And now the ancient sacrifice
loses its significance for ever in the Coenaculum on Mount Zion.
The diving Being has now Himself entered this world; therefore
the old blood-sacrifice has become superfluous. The Power which
it was sought formerly to bring down from other worlds is now
there, come to unite itself inseparably with this world. The
Passover lamb has magical forces no longer, for in earth-existence
itself a seed of heavenly forces is being formed. The lamb becomes
the pure image of the sacrificial deed of Divine Love.
On the table of the Holy Meal,
however, there is also bread and wine. And when the ancient custom
of the Passover meal has been observed, Christ takes, to the
astonishment of the disciples, these other representatives of
food and drink and adds a new meal to that ordained by the Old
Testament. IT is a new and unexpected deed when Christ gives
to His disciples bread and wine and says: "Take, this is
my body--this is my blood." But these symbols are not on
the table by accident. Something comes to light which has always
existed. Externally blood-sacrifices were carried out in the
Temple in the presence of the people, but in hidden sanctuaries
esoteric Sun-Mysteries had always been preserved, where bread
and wine were the symbols of the Sun-God. On the very spot where
now the circle were gathered at the Last Supper, the sanctuary
of Melchisedek had stood, whence he took forth bread and wine
and carried them down to the valley of Cedron to dispense them
to Abraham. Now bread and wine became more than symbols. The
dive Sun-Spirit is present in Christ, and as He distributes the
bread He can say: "This is my body," and in handing
the disciples the chalice: "This is my blood." His
soul surrenders itself and streams into the bread and wine. In
the twilight of the room bread and wine are enveloped with a
shining sun-aura. In as much as they become body and blood of
the Christ soul, they become body and blood of the Sun-Spirit
Himself. All the Sun-Mysteries of antiquity were but prophecy;
at this moment they grow into fulfillment. In the transition
from the blood offerings of the past to the bloodless offering
of bread and wine, the whole idea of sacrifice changed. Ancient
sacrifices ere always material offerings. Now the sacrifice of
the soul is founded, and there begins the true tradition of inner
sacrifice. The lunar sacrifices of antiquity are at an end; the
solar sacrifice of Christianity comes into being. Christianity,
the true Sun Religion, dawns in this evening hour.
By performing significant
acts before and after the Meal, Christ brings about a fourfold
Whole, anticipating the four parts of the central Christian sacrament
which thenceforward will be continually celebrated. Before the
Meal He follows the custom observed in the Order of the Essenes
and washes the feet of each of the disciples, even of Judas.
A deeply moving picture, unfathomable in its full significance:
Christ utterly surrendering Himself in loving devotion, on which
His death will soon set the seal. After the Meal another ceremonial
act is observed by Christ, this time in accord with the custom
followed by all the neighboring households at this hour. When
the Passover has been eaten, the head of the family begins to
recite from the Haggada, the history of the People from ancient
times set down in legendary form. With Christ, too, the meal
is followed by a discourse. This is recorded and gathered together
by St. John in the wonderful "Farewell Discourses"
culminating in the High Priestly Prayer (St. John, Chapters 14-17).
Four stages are passed through:
the Washing of the Feet, the Passover Lamb, the Bread and Wine,
and the Farewell Discourse. The Washing of the feet sums up in
a pictorial act the essence of Christ's teaching: "A new
commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another."
The Washing of the Feet is, as it were, the last of the parables,
enacted, not merely spoken. It teaches Love as the ultimate purpose
of Christ's Gospel. The eating of the Passover Lamb corresponds
in the structure of the Communion Service to the stage of the
Offering, which follows the Reading of the Gospel. The image
of the Offering emerges: Christ the Passover Lamb Who on the
next day dies for humanity on the Cross. Then comes the third
stage: Christ gives the disciples Bread and Wine. For the first
time Transubstantiation is consummated, forming the third part
of the Sacrament, after the Reading of the Gospel and the Offering.
Now the Spiritual lights up in earthly substance. In the Farewell
Discourse, the fourth stage, Christ imparts to the disciples
the most intimate information about His own being. These words
are body and blood of Christ in a still higher degree than the
bread and wine. The soul of Christ gives itself to the souls
of the disciples who are only able to receive them as yet as
though in a dream. Only John, who lies at the breast of Jesus,
and listens to the speaking heart of Christ is able in his Gospel
to preserve for mankind a reflection of this moment.
The Christ, from Whom proceeds
the stream of cosmic Love, speaks at the same time as the Spirit
of Wisdom. It as though Jupiter, the god of Wisdom, has appeared
in new form among men.
The sacred Round Table breaks
up dramatically. It is a strict regulation of the Passover that
on this night no one may leave the protection of the house. If
he does so, he meets the Destroying Angel. The streets remain
empty of people. In spite of this, at a certain moment, someone
does go out; he does not delay after he has received the bread
from Jesus' hand. St. John's Gospel adds: "It was night."
It was also night within Judas; at this moment Satan entered
into him. Judas goes to the house opposite, where Caiaphas and
his circle are keeping the Passover. They are ready and eager
for the business that Judas wants to transact.
The soul of Judas founders
on the Mystery of the Sacrament. On the evening before, as the
sacramental mood unfolded in the house at Bethany, he was already
seized with the demon of unrest. In the Coenaculum he has met
the sacramental substance for the second time. Peace within himself
would alone enable him to receive the blessing of peace through
the sacrament, but this he does not possess. So that which could
dispense peace to him serves to throw him into the final restlessness,
into the Ahrimanic displacing of the ego, and possession.
Once more the Passover is
broken. Jesus rises from the table and beckons to the astonished
disciples. They follow him out into the night, where the light
of the full moon had for some time been almost extinguished.
It is passing through an eclipse. The frosty chills of winter
giving place to spring begin to be felt as Jesus goes with His
disciples to Gethsemane.
The two acts of going-out-into-the-night
symbolize inner events. The going out of Judas shows that his
true self has abandoned him; outside he meets the Angel of Death
in reality. ahrimanic spirits make him their pawn. The going-out
of Christ is a picture of the free surrender of the soul which
has been from the beginning the cosmic bearer of Sacrifice. As
Judas goes out, the Gospel says, "It was night" and
soul of Judas is also shrouded in night. As the Christ goes out,
one could say, "It was day." A golden shimmer mingles
with the chilly night as the Christ goes down with the disciples
the same path into the valley that was trodden 2,000 years before
by Melchisedek, carrying down bread and wine.
The shining aura which people
saw radiating from the Being of Christ on Palm Sunday has now
contracted into much deeper levels. No one perceives it, yet
the world receives a new glory on this holy evening, which is
more an Easter Eve than an eve of Good Friday. On that other
Thursday, Ascension Day six weeks later, the seed of light, whose
growth began in the Coenaculum, will have already spread over
the whole Earth with cosmic power.