The Mass and Agape Feast

Most of us are aware that all Christian Communion practices have their beginnings in the Last Supper of Jesus and His apostles. That Last Supper was actually a Seder meal, and many contemporary Jews would recognize many of the elements—the sharing of the cup, the blessing, the breaking of bread, the sop that was handed to Judas—as part of their Passover celebrations.

The New Testament’s book of Acts 2:42 records that early Christians would gather together to worship, pray, and teach. In the years after the church was empowered by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, there were two different but similar customs or early sacraments that are closely related to the more contemporary practice of Communion. These two sacraments could also be called meals, as one was the Lord’s Supper and the other was the Agape feast.

In 1 Corinthians 11:20–22, the apostle Paul was critical of the church because they were getting too rowdy and even drunk at what others would later call the Agape love feast: Therefore, when you come together, it is not really to eat the Lord’s Supper. For at the meal, each one eats his own supper ahead of others. So one person is hungry while another gets drunk! Don’t you have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you look down on the church of God and embarrass those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I praise you? I do not praise you for this! (HCSB)

Many scholars believe the early church would gather weekly for a common meal, often shared in the homes or house churches. Each meal would include a blessing, the breaking of bread, and a distribution of Communion. Over time this Communion (a Greek word for “fellowship”) became the Eucharist (another Greek word, meaning “grateful” or “thanksgiving”) and the central focus of the weekly gathering.

Piecing various historical records together indicates that this weekly common meal, sometimes called the Agape feast, included the distribution of Communion. However, independent of the Agape feast, a separate liturgy developed for Communion that did not include a meal. The Agape feast was truly a feast (think potluck with wine), and, probably because of the abuses similar to those mentioned by Paul hundreds of years earlier, it disappeared completely by the fourth century.

The apostle Jude also mentioned these Agape (meaning “love”) feasts and some problematic individuals. He wrote that some people were “spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves” (Jude 1:12, NKJV). Weekly celebrations, services, and the beginnings of what Roman Catholics now know as the Mass were anything but uniform throughout the early church. Cultural differences, location, language, and distance all had impacts on the way these early Christians would relate to each other, gather, and worship.

History records that the head of some of the local churches were called presidents, though in some locations, and over time, the heads of the church were referred to by the Greek words presbuteros and episkopos, typically translated as “elders” and “bishops.” Typically the duty of breaking bread and distributing Communion was the duty of these leaders of the church. Both history and the Bible give us indications that the early Christian community would utilize primarily Jewish prayers of thanksgiving on the Sabbath in connection with the breaking of bread and the distribution of Communion, which was their Last Supper memorial. As the believers in Jesus were removed from the Jewish houses of worship, they began to meet officially on Sundays, which was called the Lord’s Day. The apostle John, writing in Revelation 1:10, said, “On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet.”

By the end of the first century, Christians began to identify their weekly gatherings as pure sacrifice as opposed to the public sacrifices to the gods, which they referred to as offerings to demons. As the apostolic community was no longer on the scene, the church would use, read, and reflect on the writings of the first-generation leaders, including the writings of Paul and the sacred writings that would become the New Testament. Various patterned prayers, singing, invocations, and remembrances were added that ultimately developed into the beginnings of what is recognized by the Roman Catholic Church as the liturgy of the word.

The concept of the bread and wine being the body and blood of Jesus was acknowledged sufficiently in the second and third centuries that the Romans accused the Christians of being cannibals. There has been much controversy in the church surrounding the actual presence of Christ in the memorial service that we know as the Eucharist or Communion. We will not try to settle this controversy, but we can look at some history and some practical comments related to the development of the doctrine. History records that over time, theologians identified the Eucharist as both a memorial ritual as well as a sacrificial ritual. The Eucharist was said to be both the reenactment of the Last Supper along with a strong identification of the bread and wine with the body and blood of Jesus.

The question that arises is whether the bread and wine were symbolic and a memorial or whether there was a sacrifice and a transubstantiation— the Catholic Church term indicating the bread and wine become literally the body and blood of Jesus. By the fourth century, some of the modern teachings of the Roman Catholic Church had evolved, but not with the clarity that many would suppose. For example, we have writings by both St. Augustine (bishop in Hippo, Africa) as well as Cyril (archbishop of Jerusalem) related to the Eucharist. Augustine said Jesus is present in the Eucharist “per modum symboli,” or symbolically. (35) However, Cyril declared that in the Eucharist, Christians “offer up Christ sacrificed for our sins.” (36) Obviously there was nothing symbolic about the way Cyril viewed the Eucharist.

From my perspective the issue is not about the presence of Christ but the ability of a man, a Roman Catholic priest, to be able to transform supernaturally, call down, or have the power to change bread and wine into the actual body and blood of Christ. This is a role or a power that other ordained clergy or pastors of various other churches do not claim to have or believe is appropriate. The issue of symbolic versus actual is an argument that may not need to be voiced. Symbols are often actual representations. For example, the national seal of a country on an embassy in a foreign land indicates not symbolically but in actuality that the embassy is a part of that nation, even though it may be thousands of miles from the homeland. The American flag is not a mere symbol but represents the country. That is why patriots will come to the rescue of the flag that is burning or being dishonored in some way. Are a married couple’s wedding rings merely symbols? If they were, why would they be one of the central elements in a wedding ceremony and thought to be literally priceless if lost or stolen?

Misplace your wedding ring someday, and see if your spouse thinks it was just symbolic.

Both the traditions as well as the teachings of the church changed considerably over the first few centuries. By the fourth century, the first Christian emperor, Constantine, eliminated the persecution of the Christians, which led to the rapid expansion of Christianity in the empire. Around that time the local pastors of the church were first being called priests, a term that would never have been used for the leaders of the church at the time of the apostles. Priests were nonexistent in the church for the first few hundred years, but priest became the popular term for the clergy that were ordained and commissioned. As the priests took on this specialized role, the laity took an increasingly diminished role in spiritual affairs.

Soon the clergy started dressing differently from the rest of the church, and Latin became the official language of the church. Soon those who didn’t speak Latin (including nearly all of Europe after the fall of Rome in the fifth century) couldn’t read the Bible or understand the prayers and liturgy of the Mass.

There was a great amount of diversity in traditions and practices in the church. However, by the seventh century, Pope Gregory declared that the Latin Mass used in Rome was the standard, and it became the basis for what Roman Catholics knew as the Roman rite up until the time of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.

In the Middle Ages, the sacraments were fully defined, the power of the church became absolute, and the sacrificial aspect of the Eucharist grew in importance while the Last Supper and meal symbolism diminished. The spiritual divide between the clergy and laity widened. The power of the priesthood was thought to be essential in the celebration and the sacrifice of the Mass. For the most part, the general public became merely spectators to an intentionally mysterious drama that the priest performed while wearing special robes and standing before an altar.

The Eucharistic prayers, consecration, and Communion became the central part of the worship service. However, the people rarely participated, as they were reminded frequently of their sins and shortcomings. The importance of receiving Communion became less important for the laity than their witness at the Mass of the consecration of the bread and wine. This led to the practice of worshipping and adoring the Eucharistic Lord (the specialized round wafer, called a host, from the Latin hostia, meaning “an offering, usually an animal”). Because so few people were receiving Holy Communion, the Fourth Lateran Council (AD 1215) required that Catholics must receive Communion at least once a year.

The sixteenth century brought about the Protestant Reformation. The pope convened the Council of Trent (1545–1563) to correct some of the abuses that had crept into the church. It also defended some Catholic beliefs that the reformers attacked. In the area of the Eucharist, the church fathers reaffirmed the real presence of Jesus. They also defended the sacrificial nature of the Mass against the reformers. In addition the Roman Missal was published, which brought uniformity to the official ritual of the Mass. The Roman Catholic Church used it for the next four hundred years.

Most Catholics continued to avoid going to Communion, believing they were unworthy, until 1910, when Pope Pius X permitted children who attained the age of reason to receive Holy Communion and encouraged frequent Communion by all the faithful. More than anything else, it was Pius X’s reforms of the Eucharist that had the greatest impact on the daily lives of Catholics. With his decree, “Sacra Tridentina Synodus” (1905), Pius emphasized that Holy Communion was not a reward for good behavior but, as the Council of Trent noted, “the antidote whereby we may be freed from daily faults and be preserved from mortal sins.” In another decree, “Quam Singulari” (1910), the pope laid out guidelines on the age of children who are to be admitted to Holy Communion. In the past, children—or better, adolescents—received their first Communions when they were between the ages of twelve and fourteen. Since Pius X’s edict, they were more likely around seven years of age, often in the second grade, as I was at St. Joseph’s School.

The text above from pages 110-118 in Communion and the Mass- Chapter 20 of "Roaming Catholics" 

Was Peter the first Pope? Should Christians pray the Rosary?  Should priests be married?  These are among the provocative topics addressed in Roaming Catholics: Ending the wandering to embrace the wonder" 

This thoroughly researched book presents the development of the Catholic Church in an engaging way to help Christians understand their common history shared by all.  The apostle Paul referred to the church as the "Body of Christ," not the "Body of Christians."   Rather than Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female he proclaimed we are to be one in Christ. 

Pastor and theologian Kenneth Behr shares his own religious evolution from a Catholic altar boy to an evangelical pastor and engages readers with a parallel story of the evolution of Catholicism. 

Celibacy - A Personal Choice or Requirement? 

Today the issue of celibacy is a popular topic with both the uninformed and the opinionated. In the United States as well as in many nations around the globe, the Catholic Church has had to face very serious issues of child sexual abuse allegations and convictions. Some connect the alleged crimes to the church’s practice of celibacy. The thinking is that somehow celibacy creates pent-up sexual frustration that is then released through criminal conduct.

However, while the child sexual abuse allegations are very serious and no child should be subjected to abuse, there is no evidence I have found that priests are more likely to abuse children than are other groups of men. The Center for Sex Offender Management (CSOM) has stated repeatedly that there is no profile of a typical sex offender. (32)  If that is true, then child sex offenders can be male or female, married, divorced, or single. Research indicates that the majority of the offenders are minors themselves, typically older boys preying on younger boys and girls. It follows, therefore, that only a very small percentage of these sex offenders would be frustrated because of celibacy.

The news reports of clergy sexual abuse, just like other stories of infidelity, theft, power struggles, or any kind of abuse within the church, have wounded the church and created a blemish on the desirability of a career or vocational calling to the priesthood. Many people believe that celibacy has contributed greatly to the decline in the number of priests.

In total the number of Catholic priests in the United States dropped from nearly 59,000 in 1975 to about 41,500 last year. (33) These issues, coupled with other demographic and macro trends in the Catholic Church, have led to a serious decline in the number of men going into the priesthood. The requirement of celibate priests in the church is ancient, meaning the advocacy of celibacy for both priests and monks dates back centuries. The picture at the beginning of this chapter is of Origen, who was born at the end of the second century in Alexandria, Egypt. The Alexandrian school was one of the first advocates of monastic living, including a very ascetic lifestyle that was void of all material comforts. Origen was famous for being a devoted Christian, an early theologian, a heretic, and an early advocate for celibacy (not all at the same time). So passionate was he about his own celibacy that he reportedly castrated himself.

The celibacy of the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church is a discipline, not a doctrine. This means it can be changed, though there doesn’t seem to be much movement at the top indicating it will change anytime soon. The defi nition of celibacy in the Roman Catholic Church is also slightly different in that it strictly refers to the requirement that their priests remain unmarried. This is not at all to indicate that the Roman Catholic Church is not interested in purity or chastity, as there are vows that all priests take regarding the sins of the fl esh. There has been much research into the origins of the celibate priest movement. Most of the apostles were married, Peter was married, and seven popes were married. Likely the teachings of Gnosticism that material things and sexual relations even in marriage were evil led to the teachings on celibacy.

The first recorded requirement of celibacy was issued at the Synod of Elvira (circa AD 305–306). This same synod also issued injunctions against the use of any pictures inside the church “so that they do not become objects of worship and adoration” and that “candles are not to be burned in a cemetery during the day.” (34) It was not unusual for many of the councils to have injunctions or proclamations that were later reversed or even considered heresy. For example, just a few years after Elvira, Constantine called the First Ecumenical Council of the church, with many bishops in attendance from both the East and the West. At this council in AD 325, officially called the Council of Nicaea, there was a discussion on clerical celibacy. The council disagreed with the requirements handed down by the Synod of Elvira. They agreed with the Egyptian bishop—St. Paphnutius, the confessor of Thebes—who argued successfully that celibacy should be only a matter of personal choice and not a requirement.

Church clergy remained married without any restrictions until Pope Pelagious II (AD 579–590) issued a series of proclamations regarding celibacy that were designed primarily to stop property from being transferred from clergy to children. However, this papal proclamation was often ignored. It was not until the Second Lateran Council in AD 1139 that the Latin (Western) Rite of the Catholic Church decided to accept people for ordination only after they had taken a promise of celibacy.

The Eastern Orthodox Church continues to follow the thinking of St. Paphnutius. To this day about 90 percent of all Orthodox clerics are married.

The text above is from pages 104-108 in Celibacy- A Personal Choice or Requirement?- Chapter 19 of "Roaming Catholics" Picture at top is of Rev. Alberto Cutié, former Roman Catholic Priest. 

Was Peter the first Pope? Should Christians pray the Rosary?  Should priests be married?  These are among the provocative topics addressed in Roaming Catholics: Ending the wandering to embrace the wonder" 

This thoroughly researched book presents the development of the Catholic Church in an engaging way to help Christians understand their common history shared by all.  The apostle Paul referred to the church as the "Body of Christ," not the "Body of Christians."   Rather than Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female he proclaimed we are to be one in Christ. 

Pastor and theologian Kenneth Behr shares his own religious evolution from a Catholic altar boy to an evangelical pastor and engages readers with a parallel story of the evolution of Catholicism. 

Through the Flames…

The official Roman Catholic teaching regarding purgatory is rooted in historical Jewish prayers for the dead. History records that as early as the second and third centuries, Christians often made reference to prayers for the departed. The argument that Catholics, therefore, have historically given for purgatory is “why pray for the dead if there isn’t some benefit in the prayers?”

One of the common scriptures used in connection with this doctrine is from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, chapter three, verse fifteen: “If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.”

It was St. Augustine of Hippo (AD 354–450) who first used the term purgare in referring to the need for the departed to be purged or cleansed of their sin. While the idea that the Christian departed may still need to be cleansed from their sin was ancient, a place called purgatory was most likely brought into common knowledge by the fourteenth century

Italian poet Dante, who wrote of the seven terraces of Mount Purgatory in the epic Divine Comedy. Unlike the more modern Roman Catholic teaching regarding purgatory, in the late Middle Ages it was portrayed as a horrible place of torment, punishment, hellfire, despair, and anguish. It became a popular teaching of the church at that time that indulgences would be granted for individuals who were alive as well as those who had died. These indulgences ranged from simple prayers and good works to gifts of money and property. People who gave substantially to build churches and monasteries would receive years of indulgences that could benefit them or departed relatives suffering in purgatory.

By the time of the Reformation, the sale of indulgences had become a major financial boon for the Catholic Church, and a German monk by the name of Johann Tetzel was charged with the task of raising money for the rebuilding of St. Peter’s in Rome. Martin Luther saw the selling of indulgences as not only nonbiblical but another obvious example of the corruption in the Catholic Church, which included the office of the pope. Martin Luther made Johann Tetzel famous—or infamous— because of Tetzel’s nondisputed quote: “As soon as the gold in the casket rings; the rescued soul to heaven springs.”

Today the Roman Catholic Church continues to embrace both purgatory as well as indulgences. However, since the time of the Reformation, when Martin Luther and others strongly objected to the obvious abuses in the church, including the sale of indulgences, the Roman Catholic Church has modified its teachings so that purgatory is not so frightening. It is not thought to be a place of torment but rather a holding place where venial sins or minor transgressions are purged primarily through time as well as by the prayers of others and through the sacrifice of the altar, meaning the saying of a Mass for the departed. The Catholic Church denies that indulgences were ever sold. It claims people thought they were buying the indulgence where in fact they were just making financial contributions, and the church was providing the spiritual merit from their treasury of merit.

text above from pages 99-101 in Purgatory - Chapter 18 of "Roaming Catholics"

Was Peter the first Pope? Should Christians pray the Rosary?  Should priests be married?  These are among the provocative topics addressed in Roaming Catholics: Ending the wandering to embrace the wonder" 

This thoroughly researched book presents the development of the Catholic Church in an engaging way to help Christians understand their common history shared by all.  The apostle Paul referred to the church as the "Body of Christ," not the "Body of Christians."   Rather than Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female he proclaimed we are to be one in Christ. 

Pastor and theologian Kenneth Behr shares his own religious evolution from a Catholic altar boy to an evangelical pastor and engages readers with a parallel story of the evolution of Catholicism. 

In AD 380 the Roman emperor Theodosius made Christianity the state religion, calling the new religion Catholic.  In one generation, Christians went from being persecuted, to becoming the official religion of the Roman Empire.  Between the 4th and the 6th century, much of what we know now as the faith of the Roman Catholic Church emerged.  At the center of this was the powerful Bishops including the Patriarch of Rome who took on the name "Pope" by the sixth century. 

Here's more information from the popular book, "Roaming Catholics: ending the wandering to embrace the wonder"

The need for a standard liturgy grew in the minds of those who felt they were in charge. The thought was that unity of the church would only come about by conformity. Initially there was great variety in Sunday celebrations, language, and customs. In the seventh century, however, Pope Gregory the Great declared that the Latin Mass in Rome was the standard for the Western Church. Latin versus Greek would ultimately contribute to the Great Schism in the church in AD 1054.

As it became more scripted and standardized, the Catholic Mass emphasized the sacrificial aspect of Jesus, focusing on His death on the cross, and grew in importance while the teaching, preaching, and symbolism of the Passover in the Eucharist faded.

The theology of the period stressed Christ’s divinity and a harsh divine judgment on all people who violated both the moral code as well as the laws of the church. This theology led to the people feeling less worthy and less likely to approach God, and instead to look to the church as the go-between between God and man. As a result there was a gradual separation between the clergy and laity. The church taught that the clergy were closer to God, holy, and worthy, while the people were separated from God, unholy, and unworthy of God’s love.

The text above is from page 51 in What is a Catholic - Chapter 10 of "Roaming Catholics"

Was Peter the first Pope? Should Christians pray the Rosary?  Should priests be married?  These are among the provocative topics addressed in Roaming Catholics: Ending the wandering to embrace the wonder" 

This thoroughly researched book presents the development of the Catholic Church in an engaging way to help Christians understand their common history shared by all.  The apostle Paul referred to the church as the "Body of Christ," not the "Body of Christians."   Rather than Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female he proclaimed we are to be one in Christ. 

Pastor and theologian Kenneth Behr shares his own religious evolution from a Catholic altar boy to an evangelical pastor and engages readers with a parallel story of the evolution of Catholicism.