At Our Lady of Lourdes, we continue our Lenten Parish Retreat. This fourth week of Lent our theme is “The Bread of the Face of God,” a theme from the Book of Exodus.
After
the Exodus, when the children of Israel were in the wilderness of Sinai, God
instructed Moses to set up a sanctuary (the Tabernacle) that He might dwell in
the midst of the people (Ex. 25:8), according to a vision Moses was given of
the heavenly sanctuary (Ex. 25,9, 40; Heb. 8:4). One of the three sacred
objects to be placed in the inner Holy Place was a golden table of bread (Ex.25:23-30), patterned after the heavenly reality Moses was given to see. The
description is sometimes translated “showbread” or “Bread of the Presence.”
However, Hebrew word panim literally means “face,” or, “Bread of the
Face [of God].”
It
was to be always (perpetually) set in God’s “presence,” as a memorial
remembrance, before the Holy of Holies where the glory cloud of God’s presence
was (Ex. 25:30). The bread was the visible sign of the heavenly “face” of God,
and also the sign of the everlasting covenant between God and Israel (Lev.24:5-9).
There’s
more! God commanded that three times a year – the feasts of Passover,
Pentecost, Tabernacles – all the adult males “shall appear before” – the
English translation says, but the literal Hebrew reads, “shall see the face of
the Lord, the Lord God of Israel” (Ex. 34:23; 23:17). According to both the
Jerusalem Talmud and Babylonian Talmud, at each of these three feasts the
priests would take the Golden Table of the Bread of the Presence/Face out of
the Holy Place, and they “used to lift it up and exhibit the Bread of the
Presence on it to those who came up for the festivals, saying to them, ‘Behold,
God’s love for you!’” Exhibiting the bread saying, “Behold God’s love for you!”
Wow!
When
Jesus referred to the “Bread of the Presence” in a discussion with the
Pharisees, He said, “I tell you, something greater than the Temple is here”
(Matt. 12:6). Jesus’ body, of course, was the new “Temple” (Jn. 2:19-21), and
the “greater” is Christ Jesus, God Himself. He would give the new Bread of the
Presence, the Face of God.
On
Holy Thursday, when Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, He took bread and said,
“This is My Body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.” The
bread, His Body. The Bread of the Presence as a memorial, a remembrance. Jesus
said, “The cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My Blood.”
(Lk. 22:19-20.) The wine for the pouring of libations, and the Bread of the
Presence, were an everlasting covenant.
The
Bread of the Presence was in the form of 12 cakes, one for each of the 12
tribes of Israel. Jesus ate the Passover meal not in the usual family Passover
setting, but as a meal with his twelve disciples, reflective of the twelve
tribes. They were His new priests of His new priesthood. The Bread of the
Presence could only be eaten by the priests, and Jesus gives His new manna, His
new bread, His real presence, first to His new priests at the Last Supper.
Jesus then said, “I covenant for you that you may eat and drink at my table in
My kingdom,” the heavenly “table” of which the earthly golden table was a sign.
(Lk. 22:28-29.)
At the Lord’s Supper, Jesus was establishing a new passover which then began humanity’s deliverance, the Lord’s “exodus” (Lk 9:31), on the Cross the next day. At the Lord’s Supper, Jesus was giving His followers new manna, the Bread of Life. He was establishing His new priesthood, and the new and eternal covenant in His Blood. He was also instituting the new bread of God’s presence, God’s Face – by which we behold God’s love for us!
Dibby Allan Green