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Catholic Commentary
The Institution of the Eucharist
14When the hour had come, he sat down with the twelve apostles.15He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer,16for I tell you, I will no longer by any means eat of it until it is fulfilled in God’s Kingdom.”17He received a cup, and when he had given thanks, he said, “Take this and share it among yourselves,18for I tell you, I will not drink at all again from the fruit of the vine, until God’s Kingdom comes.”19He took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in memory of me.”20Likewise, he took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
Luke 22:14–20 describes Jesus's Last Supper, in which he reinterprets the Passover meal as a new covenant, identifying the bread as his body and the wine as his blood given for humanity's salvation. Jesus frames this meal as both a memorial of his imminent sacrifice and an anticipation of the eschatological banquet in God's Kingdom.
At the Last Supper, Jesus doesn't give the Church a meal to remember—he gives it a perpetual act that makes his saving death present every time the priest says "This is my body."
Verse 19 — "This is my body which is given for you. Do this in memory of me." This is the epicenter of the passage. The present tense of the copula — "This IS my body" — is an assertion of real identity, not metaphor or symbol. The participial phrase "given for you" (to hyper hymōn didomenon) is a sacrificial formula recalling the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 who is "given" for many. "Do this" (touto poieite) is a command establishing a perpetual rite; anamnēsis (memory/memorial) in the Jewish cultic tradition is not mere psychological recollection but a re-presentation — making the past event sacramentally present. This single verse is the scriptural foundation for both the Real Presence and the ordained priesthood.
Verse 20 — "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you." The phrase "new covenant" (kainē diathēkē) directly invokes Jeremiah 31:31–34, where God promises to write the law on hearts rather than stone. Blood as the instrument of covenant ratification echoes Exodus 24:8, where Moses sprinkles blood saying "this is the blood of the covenant." Jesus now surpasses both: not animal blood but his own is the seal of the definitive covenant. The verb "poured out" (ekchynnomenon) is a present participle, placing the shedding of blood as an event already underway at the table — the supper and Calvary are sacramentally continuous.
Catholic tradition sees in these verses the institution of both the Eucharist and the ministerial priesthood — two inseparable gifts given in a single act. The Council of Trent (Session XIII, 1551) defined that Christ is "truly, really, and substantially" present under the eucharistic species, grounding this definition directly in the words of institution recorded here. The Catechism of the Catholic Church §1337 states: "The Lord, having loved those who were his own, loved them to the end. Knowing that the hour had come to leave this world and return to the Father, in the course of a meal he washed their feet and gave them the commandment of love. In order to leave them a pledge of this love... he instituted the Eucharist."
St. Thomas Aquinas, in the Summa Theologiae (III, q. 73–83), provides the classical Catholic synthesis: the Eucharist is simultaneously sacrifice, sacrament, and communion — all three dimensions are present in these verses (sacrifice in "given for you / poured out for you," sacrament in the real presence formula, communion in "share it among yourselves / Do this in memory of me").
St. John Chrysostom underscores the priestly dimension: "It is not man who causes what is present to become the Body and Blood of Christ, but Christ himself who was crucified for us. The priest, in the role of Christ, pronounces these words, but their power and grace are God's." This anticipates the Catholic teaching on in persona Christi — the priest acts not in his own name but in the person of Christ (CCC §1548).
Pope Benedict XVI's Sacramentum Caritatis (2007) §11 recovers the Trinitarian depth of the Eucharist: "In the Eucharist, Jesus does not give us a 'thing,' but himself; he offers his own body and pours out his own blood." The anamnēsis command of verse 19 is, in Catholic understanding, the genesis of apostolic succession and ordained priesthood — the command was given to the Twelve, the apostles, and entrusted through ordination to their successors.
For the contemporary Catholic, these verses invite a radical re-evaluation of how the Mass is approached. The "earnest desire" of Jesus in verse 15 is not past history — Catholic theology holds that Christ's desire to be united with his people is perpetually active in every celebration of the Eucharist. To receive Communion passively or routinely is to miss the intensity of longing that Christ himself brings to the table.
The anamnēsis command — "Do this in memory of me" — challenges the modern tendency to treat memory as sentimental. This is a cultic memorial: when the Church obeys this command at every Mass, Christ's saving death is not merely recalled but made present. Attending Sunday Mass is therefore not a weekly obligation to be minimized but a participation in the very event that redeems the world.
Practically: before your next Mass, spend five minutes with verse 15 — sit with the image of a Christ who has earnestly longed to meet you at this altar. Let that change the quality of your attention during the Liturgy of the Eucharist. And allow verse 20's language of "poured out for you" to make the Eucharist personal: this blood of the new covenant was shed not abstractly for humanity, but specifically, irreducibly, for you.
Commentary
Verse 14 — "When the hour had come, he sat down with the twelve apostles." The word "hour" (Greek: hōra) is theologically weighted throughout the Gospels (cf. John 2:4; 12:23; 17:1). Luke signals that this is not merely a calendar event but a divinely appointed moment of fulfillment. The reclining posture ("sat down," Greek: anepesen) reflects the Passover seder custom of reclining at table as free persons — a posture of liberation. The specific mention of "the twelve apostles" (Luke's only use of apostoloi at the supper) is deliberate: this meal establishes a new order of ministry within a reconstituted Israel of twelve.
Verse 15 — "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer." The Greek epithumia epethumēsa ("I have earnestly desired") is an emphatic Hebraic construction conveying intense longing. Jesus does not merely attend this Passover — he has yearned for it, because he knows it is the moment when his entire mission reaches its sacramental and sacrificial culmination. The phrase "before I suffer" (pro tou me pathein) explicitly casts the meal in the shadow of the Passion: the supper and the Cross are theologically one event.
Verse 16 — "I will no longer by any means eat of it until it is fulfilled in God's Kingdom." Jesus announces a fast from Passover that will only be broken in the eschatological banquet (cf. Luke 14:15; Rev 19:9). The word "fulfilled" (plēroō) is crucial: the old Passover is not abolished but brought to its deepest meaning in Christ's death and resurrection. This verse introduces the eschatological tension that defines every Eucharist — the Mass is both a memorial of the past (the Cross) and an anticipation of the future (the heavenly feast).
Verse 17 — "He received a cup, and when he had given thanks..." Luke's account contains a notable structural feature absent in Matthew and Mark: two cup references (vv. 17 and 20). The first cup likely corresponds to the second cup of the seder ritual, preceding the bread. The verb "given thanks" (eucharistēsas) is the origin of the term Eucharist. Jesus takes the prescribed Passover cup and, with a gesture that transforms its meaning, makes thanksgiving (todah in Hebrew — a sacrifice of praise) the paradigm for Christian worship.
Verses 17–18 — The eschatological declaration over the first cup. As with the Passover lamb, Jesus identifies himself with what is offered. His renunciation of the fruit of the vine "until God's Kingdom comes" echoes and deepens verse 16: the Cross is the threshold between the old age and the new. Every Eucharist therefore stands at that threshold, proclaiming, as Paul writes, "the Lord's death until he comes" (1 Cor 11:26).