Jesus empowered also women to preside at the Eucharist
Jesus instituted the Eucharist by saying: “All of you take and eat . . . Do this in commemoration of me!” He addressed all the disciples who were present at the Last Supper. Since also women were among them, they too were in principle empowered to preside.
Theologians in the Middle Ages misread the gospels and took it for granted that only the twelve apostles were present at the Last Supper. They concluded from this that Jesus ‘only ordained men’. In the words of Durandus à Saint-Pourçain (1270 – 1334 AD): “Christ ordained only men in the supper when he bestowed the power of consecrating.”[1] It is a view repeated by recent Popes. “The Twelve were with Christ at the Last Supper. They alone received the sacramental charge ‘Do this in remembrance of me’ (Luke 22:19; 1 Cor. 11:24) which is joined to the institution of the Eucharist.”[2]
But was this true? Were there no women?
Who were there at the Last Supper?
Let us begin by observing that Jesus rarely consumed his meals with just the twelve. Numerous accounts in the gospels show that usually other disciples joined in the meal. “As he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. And the scribes and Pharisees (criticised) when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors ….” (Mk 2,15-16). Now we should not imagine that in the small Palestinian houses of the time, there was prime seating accommodation for all. Some might be seated at the main table. Others on stools or benches along the walls. Some will even have been sitting on cushions on the floor. Remember Jesus’ advice: “When you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place’. Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests” (Lk 14,10).
At times so many people crowded in that Jesus found it hard to take his food (Mk 3,20). Everyone was welcome. Jesus warns that on the last day saying ‘We ate and drank in your presence’ (Lk 13,26) will not be enough. On rare occasions, “when they could not even eat”, Jesus would take his close disciples apart “to a desolate place” (Mk 6,31).
Were women present at Jesus meals? We can be sure they were. We know from traditional Jewish family meals that men and women were not segregated. “While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment” (Mk.14,3). When Jesus visited Martha’s home, Martha’s sister Mary, like other guests, sat on the floor at Jesus’ feet (Lk 10:38–42).[3] And when Jesus, after talking to the Samaritan woman, for two days stayed as a guest in Sychar, his audience at table clearly included women as well as men (Jn 4,39-42).[4]
Now the Last Supper, arranged for Jesus’ disciples, will have excluded outsiders. But we know it was not just the twelve who were there. For one thing, Barsabbas and Matthias, the two candidates who stood for the election of Judas Iscariot’s successor, must have been present to fulfil the requirements stipulated by Peter (Acts 1,21-22). Moreover, the two disciples of Emmaus, Cleophas and companion, recognised Jesus when he re-enacted the eucharist in their home (Lk 24,12-35). And, interestingly, Cleophas’s companion is most likely to have been his wife. She was one of the disciples who stood under his cross (Jn 19,25).[5] How could they have recognised the eucharist if they had not been present at the Last Supper?
Moreover, conclusive proof for women’s presence arises from the fact that it was a Paschal meal.
The Last Supper was a Passover meal
We read in the Gospels: “On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples said to him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?’ ” (Mk 14,12; Lk 22,7; see also Mt 26,17). Scholars have debated about the date. The Last Supper took place on a Thursday. The slaughtering of the paschal lamb and the subsequent Passover meal would usually be celebrated on the Friday as John’s Gospel also confirms (Jn 19,41).[6] But apparently, there were exceptions. There is convincing evidence to show two ways of calculating the Passover day were followed in Jesus’ time.[7]
Whatever the exact date of the Last Supper, for Jesus it was the Passover meal. “I have longed to eat this Passover with you” (Lk 22,15). Joachim Jeremias lists 14 parallels between the Last Supper and traditional Jewish Passover meals.[8]
But who was present at Jesus’ Passover meal? Women are not mentioned explicitly in the gospel texts, but that means nothing. Mark tells us that, at the multiplication of the loaves, the beneficiaries “numbered about five thousand” (Mk 6,44). Telling the same story Matthew says: “those who ate numbered about five thousand men, not counting the women and children” (Mt 14,21). The women’s presence was taken for granted. And with good reason.
Passover meals had to be celebrated with the whole family, and a neighbour’s family if need be, including wives, daughters, grandmothers (Ex 12,1-11). So women must have been there. Would Jesus have forgotten his mother at this celebration – he who was so concerned about her that hanging on the cross he commended her to the Apostle John (Jn 19,26-27)? And what about the other female disciples who were undoubtedly in Jerusalem at the time of the Last Supper? The next day they would follow him to Golgotha while the male apostles fled. He would show himself first to them after his resurrection. Is it conceivable that Jesus would not have invited these women, together with his mother, to join him at his last Passover meal? Remember also that the Last Supper took place in ‘a large room upstairs, furnished and ready’ (Mk 14,15), ‘a large room upstairs, already furnished’ (Lk 22,12).
Jesus’ key words at the institution of the Eucharist are: “Take and eat, this is my body . . . this is the cup of my blood, drink of it all of you . . . Do this in memorial of me!” (see Mt 26,26-29; Mk 14,12-16; Lk 22,17-13; 1 Cor 11,23-25). Jesus’ words have always, rightly, be interpreted as not so much a request ‘please, do this in memory of me’, but as a commission ‘I empower you to do this to remember me’. Well, to whom did Jesus address these words?
Matthew says clearly “He blessed the bread, broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying . .” (Mt 26,26). The commission was not just given to the twelve apostles, but to all disciples. The significance of this was not lost in early tradition. Liturgical texts used at the eucharist make this clear. The Anaphora of Basil of Caesarea (about 357 AD) contains both words, disciples as well as apostles. It says: “Jesus took bread, blessed, sanctified, broke it and gave it to his holy disciples and apostles …”[9] The eucharistic canon of the early Roman Rite as found with St. Ambrose does the same. It reads: Jesus took the bread and “handed it when broken to his apostles and disciples . . . then took the cup and “handed it to his apostles and disciples”.[10] The same formula is still used today by the Coptic and Orthodox Church in the Liturgy of St. Basil and by the Orthodox Church in its regular liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.
Notice also that Jesus unmistakingly says: “Eat this . . . drink this all of you!” The Church has always understood that holy communion should be given to all the faithful. If so, why would Jesus’ commission be just limited to the Twelve? Both injunctions are spoken in the same breath.
Moreover, this interpretation is strongly affirmed by St Paul. His comments on the eucharist are the oldest in the New Testament writings. They can be dated to about 50 AD. Paul links the eating and drinking to the act of remembering Jesus: “The Lord Jesus took some bread… saying ‘This is my body which is for you’… In the same way he took the cup after supper, saying ‘this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do this in memory of me’. Until the Lord comes therefore, every time you eat this bread and drink of this cup, you are proclaiming his death.” (1 Cor 11,23-27). “Do this in memory of me” does therefore not empower an ordained minister to speak the words of consecration. It is a commission for the whole community to celebrate the eucharist in Jesus’ memory.
Assigning someone to ordained leadership in the community has a function. Yet, at the Last Supper, when Jesus instituted the eucharist he established a more fundamental power. In principle he enabled all baptised disciples including women to be ordained and to preside.
JOHN WIJNGAARDS
FOOTNOTES
[1] In IV Sent., Dist. 25, p.2; ed. Venice, 1571, f 364-v.
[2] John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem §26; see also ‘Letter to priests on Maunday Thursday’ §5, Briefing 30 ( 2000) no 4, 12 April, pp 27 – 31.
[3] “Among the participants at the meal are Lazarus and his sisters”, X. Léon-Dufour, Lecture de l’Évangile selon Jean, Seuil, Paris, vol. II, p. 443.
[4] S. Tunc, ‘Meals of the Community’, in Des Femmes aussi Suivant Jésus, Desclée de Brouwer, Paris 1998, pp 69-77.
[5] B. Metzger, New Testament Studies: Philological, Versional, and Patristic, Brill, Leiden 1980, pp. 40-41; C. Thiede, The Emmaus Mystery: Discovering Evidence for the Risen Christ, A&C Black, London 2006, pp. 94-96.
6] Read the discussion in the Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series 42 (1951/52) : P. J. Heawood, ‘The Time of the Last Supper’, pp. 37-44; S Zeitlin, ‘The Time of the Passover meal’, pp. 45-50. D. Dormeyer, Die Passion als Verhaltensmodell, Münster 1947, pp. 88-94; R. Pesch, Das Markusevangelium, Vol II, Herder, Freiburg 1977, pp. 340-345; A. J. Kostenberger, ‘Was the Last Supper a Passover Meal?’ in The Lord’s Supper: Remembering and Proclaiming Christ Until He Comes, ed. Th. R. Schreiner and M. R. Crawford, Academic, Nashville 2010, pp. 6–30.
[7]A. Jaubert. La date de la Cène. Calendrier biblique et liturgie chrétienne, Gabalda & Gle, Paris 1957; C. J. Humphreys, The Mystery of the Last Supper, Cambridge University Press 2011; W. Telford, ‘Review of The Mystery of the Last Supper: Reconstructing the Final Days of Jesus’, The Journal of Theological Studies 66 (2015) pp. 371–76.
[8] J. Jeremias, The Eucharistic Words of Jesus, 3rd ed., SCM Press, London 1966, esp. pp. 42–61.
[9] A. Vohers McGowan, Anne (2010). ‘The Basilian Anaphoras, Rethinking the question’, in M. E. Johnson (ed.). Issues in Eucharistic praying in East and West, Liturgical Press, Collegeville 2010.
[10] Ambrose, On the Mysteries and the Treatise on the Sacraments, trans. T. Thompson, Macmillan, New York 1919; H. Chadwick (ed.), Saint Ambrose : on the Sacraments, book 4, Mowbray, London 1960; M. Reiley Maguire, ‘Bible, liturgy concur: women were there’, National Catholic Reporter 5 June 5 1998.