The New and Everlasting Covenant Established

Throughout salvation history, the establishment of a covenant required an initiation and a response. God initiated a covenant with Adam, Adam offered an imperfect response. God initiated a covenant with Noah, Noah offered an imperfect response. God initiated a covenant with Moses, Moses offered an imperfect response. So on and so forth throughout the times of the Old Testament.

At the Last Supper, in the context of the Jewish Passover, Jesus Christ, through His divine nature initiated a new and everlasting covenant [Matthew 26:27-29].  Jesus Christ then, through His human nature, offered the perfect response to the new covenant on the cross as He drank from the fourth and final Passover Cup (the Chalice of Hallel), sacrificed Himself as the true Lamb of God, and declared the consummation of the new covenant finished [John 19:28-30].

This is the true context of Jesus's role of our one true Mediator with God. It really has nothing to do with intercessory prayer (as many mistakenly believe), but rather, the initiation of and response to the new and everlasting covenant. Only Jesus Christ could initiate the covenant in His divinity and also respond to it (perfectly) in His humanity.

At the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the Eucharist to be our Passover Feast [1Corinthians 11:17-33]. The Eucharist is the way Jesus desires us to worship Him. The Eucharist is also the mechanism that He gave to us that allows us to substantially participate in His sacrifice on Calvary and to efficaciously participate in His perfect response to the new covenant.

Without our active participation in the Mass, our response to the new covenant is imperfect at best, and potentially not efficacious. We need the Mass. We need the Eucharist. We need to drink from the chalice from which Jesus drank (namely, the Chalice of Hallel offered in the Mass) [Mark 10:35-40]. We need to eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood in order to have salvation and eternal life [John 6:47-58].

Most precious blood of Jesus Christ, save us and the whole world!