THE WORLD'S GREATEST SECRET
John Mathias Haffert
table of contents
CHAPTER FOUR
THE CURTAIN WOULD FALL
When Harris probed a grave
in an empty field in Greece to verify that three hundred Thebans had died
there, it was difficult to realize that two thousand years ago this was an
important part of the world. Today, man is spread around the globe. But, then,
with the exception of scattered barbarian tribes and a pocket of culture in
the Orient, those few countries around the Mediterranean Sea were the world.
And the heart of that world was not so much Rome and Athens, which were cities
busy with politics and northern barbarism. Even more, it would now appear, the
heart of the world was where civilization seems to have begun: about in the
area where Christ made His incredible announcement. Over three million persons
lived around that small Sea of Galilee. It was a major center of population.
Famous Greek cities known as the Decapolis extended the Greek civilization
down from Asia Minor on one side, and on the other, the richest cultural and
social heritage of ancient Egypt was found wedded in the enlightened Hebrews
to whom Christ spoke. What impelled them, even after an entire night during
which to ponder the drastic consequences, to proclaim Him their king?
2 Was it only because He had
fed them? He had no army! Could He defend them in their opposition to the
might of Rome? Were not His mere twelve men as poor and inconsequential as the
twelve baskets of remains from the bread and fish? Yet they had made up their
minds. They wanted Him to be their king. We know there was an air of royalty
about Him, and power. Later, a Roman governor was impulsively to ask, and
without humor: "Are you a king?" And the soldiers were not joking
later when they felt an impulse to mock him as a king, then blindfolded those
eyes that flashed regality and power. He was a man who seemed to fit a
description given by one of the most venerable of the Jewish prophets,
Jeremiah: a man of contradiction. That same prophet had foretold the captivity
of the Jews, their deliverance, and finally the coming of a savior who would
make their glorious delivery from Egypt a mere shadow of the deliverance and
security he would bring (Jet. 33:7-16): "in those days Judah shall be
safe and Jerusalem shall dwell secure. " (v. 16). That day by the Sea of
Galilee, they suspected that He was the Savior of whom Jeremiah and their
other prophets had spoken. But would the Messiah, the Savior, speak of giving His flesh
to eat and His blood to drink when they offered to recognize Him, when they
offered to proclaim Him king? And was He not a man, even though He did such
wonders? Did not everyone know that His father was a carpenter in nearby
Nazareth, that His mother was right here with Him, in the company of some
other relatives from His mountain village?
3 Jeremiah spoke of a
Savior. They were expecting a Savior, and one who would be linked somehow with
the mystery of the Passover*... the mystery of their delivery from Egypt. That
is why this miracle of the bread and fish was significant. The Passover had
been marked by a miraculous feeding after the miracle of ten plagues and the
parting of the sea. They said to Him when He promised bread which would enable
them to live forever: "We want this bread! We want this bread!" Each
year the Jews relived the Pasch, or Passover. Each year, following their
ancient covenant* with God, they girded themselves as for a trip as had their
forefathers on that fateful night in Egypt. They slaughtered a lamb, marked
the doorposts with the blood, and ate it in a ritual of brotherhood and prayer
reminiscent of that night when God showed a final sign to convince the Pharaoh
of Egypt to set them free. On that night an angel of death struck down the
firstborn in every house of Egypt, passing over those houses marked by the
blood of the lamb. Now this Christ, armed with the lightning of miracles and
the gentleness of a lamb and the mystery of a prophet, speaks of giving His
own blood. How could this make Him their Savior? They wanted freedom from
Rome, and can drinking a man's blood bring freedom? They wanted power, and can
eating a man's flesh give power? There is one disquieting thought: When the Israelites
had been released from the clutches of Egypt, God had to constantly work
miracles to preserve their freedom and their life. He had to destroy armies
which the vacillating Pharaoh sent after them.
4 He had to feed them in the
desert - and for this it was necessary to miraculously let fall each day upon
the sands a mysterious bread in sufficient quantity. And that bread was
adequate food. So when Christ said (instead of becoming their king) that He
would give them bread to eat which would pre vent them from dying, they were
not completely incredulous. Their forefathers had eaten manna in the desert.
But was it really possible that this was how they were to be saved - by bread?
If so, would He give another sign so they could truly believe something so
unbelievable? Too bad. They would have to wait two years to be told of
something far more astounding than mere bread jailing on desert sand. They
would have to believe something so incredible that it would become the world's
greatest secret, kept from all but the "initiated" for hundreds of
years and still secret to millions right into the twentieth century, when men
would still be gasping at the explanation of what He meant. Understanding
would begin only after all the prophecies concerning Christ had been
fulfilled: the prophecies of Jeremiah, which described Him as a Man of
Sorrows; of David, who said of Him that "They have pierced my hands and
my feet, I can count all my bones"; of Isaiah; Ezeckiel; of Hosea, who
cried, "Where now is your king?"(13:10); and of Malachi, who
prophesied ". . . from the rising of the sun, even to its setting, my
name is great among the nations; And everywhere they bring sacrifice to my
name, and a pure offering ... " I 11). In the early centuries, Christians
formulated this understanding in an act of faith known as the "Nicene
Creed" which is still the profession of faith of most Christians in every
Part of the world today:
5 "For us men and for
our salvation, He came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he
was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man. " The new Pasch, or
Passover, was to provide a new and saving sacrifice to revolutionize the
world. It would turn the year of His birth into the year 1. It was to distill
the good out of all the civilization of the past into a single chalice of
incredible love which eventually would transform warring communities into a
world governed -by fraternal law. For two years Christ did not explain the
"hard saying." He did not destroy His enemies by saying to the
people: "Comeback, I'll tell you what it means and you can proclaim me
King." He gave even His own disciples nothing ,more than a clue: The
secret was "spirit and life. " Then came that last night of the
Passover. He was finally ready to admit that He was indeed a King. But His
kingdom was "not of this world." For the first time He proclaimed
clearly that He was the Savior: "For this was I born, for this did I come
into the world" (Jn 18:37). Now He was about to explain the hard saying.
Now He was about to explain what all the prophets had meant by the
"salvation." And He began His whole extraordinary revelation with
these words: "I have greatly desired to eat this Passover with you before
I suffer. " (Lk. 22:15) Never before had He "greatly desired"
anything. He did not explain that within a few hours He would submit to
imprisonment, mockery, scourging, and finally, death by crucifixion. Now, this
moment of Passover was the moment for which He had longed. Everything else,
all the teaching of the past years and all of His suffering of tomorrow, was
contingent on this moment and this act He was about to perform and for which
He had so ardently longed.
6 Now the purpose of His
coming and of His thirty-three years on this earth was to be made clear. Now
was the hour when He would explain what He had meant when He said that He
would enable men to live forever by eating His flesh and blood. Now He would
fulfill the Old Law by giving a new covenant* between God and man, a covenant
sealed in one final bloodletting that would so far outweigh in value all the
bloody sacrifices of the past that the world would henceforth be able to offer
"everywhere... a pure offering; For great is my name among the nations,
says the Lord of hosts." (Mal. 1: 11). In a few moments, they would know
that the relationship between God and man was no longer to be a secret of
Israel, but was to be between God and all men. And this is how He began that
eventful revelation in the year 33, the last night of His life: Over their
protests He washed their feet and said: "I give you a new commandment:
Love one another. Such has been my love for you, so must your love be for each
other. This is how all will know you for my disciples: your love for one
another" JN 13:34-35). But where were they to find such love? He was not
asking them merely to love each other person in the room, including the very
one who in a few moments would betray them all. He was saying that anyone who
was to be saved, anyone who wants to follow Him, would have to love all men as
brothers the way He loved them, unto death.
7 He told them openly that
He was "one" with God: "If you really knew me, you would know
my Father also. " He explained a great deal about the very nature of God
*: Although of one nature, He was three persons. One Person (the Father) had
sent Him; another Person (the Spirit) He would send so they would be able to
understand all they had been taught; He Himself was the "Son."
Philip, showing how much the Paraclete was needed, even after three years of
listening to Christ and even of seeing Him raise dead persons back to life,
said: "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for US."
Jesus replied, with perhaps an air of frustrated weariness: "Philip,
after I have been with you all this time, you still do not know me? Whoever
has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you
not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?"(Jn. 14:
8-10). Thus minute by minute, phrase by phrase, He led them toward that
dramatic, climactic moment of the second most historic Passover in history...
the moment of the world's greatest secret. Now He was to reveal the mystery of
men eating His flesh and blood. Now He was to reveal how He was Himself to
become the ultimate Lamb of Sacrifice, the salvation of the world. Now a new
Passover was to begin, of which the old was merely symbolic. Now men were to
pass from the slavery of materialism to the freedom of children of God. Now,
with the intervention of God "fighting for them" (Ex. 14:14), men
would have the daily aid of a miracle greater than the manna in the desert. It
would be a bread which would enable them to live forever.
8 Their passage would not be
merely from physical bondage to another land, but from spiritual bondage to
freedom of the spirit. They would become one with the Father by becoming one
with Him, and thus all men might eventually be one: "as you, Father, are
in me, and I in you" Jn 17:21). He prayed for them to the Father as He
proceeded to the great moment for which He had so long desired. Saint Matthew
(26:26-28) describes what followed in these words: "During the meal Jesus
took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to his disciples. 'Take this and
eat it,' he said, 'this is my body.' Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave
it to them. 'All of you must drink from it,' he said, 'for this is my blood,
the blood of the covenant, to be poured out in behalf of many for the
forgiveness of sins."' Now they understood! "At last you are
speaking plainly," the disciples exclaimed. Saint John describes the
disciples saying, "We are convinced that you know everything.... We do
indeed believe you came from God" (Jn. 16:30). But did they know, really?
Or did they recognize only\ that He was one with the Father, and they would
become one with the Father by becoming one with Him - by perpetuating this
miracle through which He had just transformed an ordinary Passover sacrifice
into the world's first Eucharistic Liturgy?* There was too much for them to
understand without further supernatural aid. First He would have to go through
the Passion to show the extent of the love of which He spoke. Next He would
have to prove it all again by performing His greatest miracle, His own
resurrection. Finally, He would instruct them further, then send the Paraclete
who "will guide you to all truth" (Jn. 16:13).
9 Then would fall a great
curtain of secrecy. The Gospels themselves would be written in terms which
would in general be understood only by the initiated, by those trusted,
instructed, baptized and confirmed. The world at large would not know. Years
of persecution would deepen the secrecy. The ritual of that historic Passover
would be called "The Secret" until the twentieth century and Vatican
Council 11, when excavations in Rome were confirming what some had never dared
"plain to an unprepared world.
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