Bible, liturgy concur: women were
there
By MARJORIE REILEY
MAGUIRE
The most compelling reason the Vatican gives for denying
ordination to women it the example of Jesus. Jesus instituted the sacrament of
ordination at the Last Supper, the reasoning goes, only for 12 male
apostles.
Suppose, however, that the 12 male apostles were not the only
followers of Jesus at the Last Supper. Could the exclusion of women from Holy
Orders then be justified?
Recently, a word I had never before noticed in the Mass caused me
to look anew at scripture and tradition regarding the Last Supper. My
conclusion is that it has been the common and constant teaching of the church,
as found in scripture and the churchs liturgical tradition, that both
disciples and apostles of Jesus were at the Last Supper. Moreover, it seems
abundantly clear that some of those disciples were women.
Although I have attended Mass for over 50 years, I recently heard,
as if for the first time, the celebrant say at the consecration, On the
night he was betrayed, Jesus said to his disciples ... I could have
sworn that the word had always been apostles. On any other occasion, if
I had noticed the priest using the word disciples at the consecration, I
would simply assumed that the priest was using inclusive language. This
particular Sunday, however, the celebrant was my local archbishop, and I know
that archbishops do no fool around with the words of Consecration. Thus, I knew
disciples had to be the official word.
If most Catholics take a moment to repeat the words of
consecration to themselves, of course they realize it is disciples.
However, whether I ask a priest, a theologically educated Catholic of a new
convert with little theological training, their quick, unreflective guess is
that the word used at Mass is apostles. It seems that most Catholics
have been hearing what artists trained us to hear in their depictions of the
Last Supper, showing Jesus sitting at the table with 12 men. But scripture and
tradition do not support the idea that only the 12 male apostles were at the
Last Supper.
Scripture scholars tell us that the earliest recording of
Jesus words at the Last Supper is in St. Pauls letter to the
Corinthians, I Corinthians 11:23-26, which scholars way was written about 57
A.D. However, St. Paul does not give us any details about who was at the Last
Supper. He simply repeats Jesus words.
Matthew, Mark and Luke all begin their story of the Last Supper by
telling us that Jesus wanted to share the Passover with disciples.
Significantly, the evangelists do no say Jesus wanted to share the Passover
with his apostles or the Twelve, although all three writers knew and used these
words in the gospels. All three evangelists also tell us that Jesus actually
did share the Passover with his disciples.
While all three evangelists say that Jesus disciples were at
the Last Supper, they also note the special place of the apostles. In Matthew
and Luke, Jesus reclines at table with the Twelve. In Mark, Jesus arrives with
the Twelve. Mark does not explicitly say that only the Twelve were at
Jesus table, but mark can be read to imply that.
Apparently, it is form the detail about the Twelve being at
Jesus table that the assumption developed that Jesus celebrated the Last
Supper only with the 12 apostles. Though some scripture scholars would today
argue that the notion of an inner core of followers composed of the Twelve is
unhistorical, what is important here is to note that the gospels do not
restrict attendance at the Last Supper to just this group.
On closer examination, it seems that the purpose of the detail
about who was at Jesus table is to show that the betrayer came from among
Jesus inner circle, from among those who shared the same table and dipped
in the same dish with Jesus. If the evangelists gave this detail to show that
only the Twelve were at the Last Supper, it would not make sense that the three
gospels used the word disciples in the very beginning of the story to
describe who was at the Passover meal. Moreover, there would have been no need
for Matthew and Luke to mention that Jesus shared a table with the Twelve, if
it was obvious that the Twelve were the only ones in the room.
Immediately after the section about who was at Jesus table,
the three evangelists tell us about Jesus words over the bread and wine.
Matthew is the only one of the evangelists who directly answers the question of
whether Jesus said the eucharistic words to all his disciples of only to the
Twelve at his table. Using almost the same words as the consecration of the
Mass, Matthew explicitly states that Jesus addressed the words over the bread
to his disciples (Matthew 26:26), Mark and Luke are more ambiguous, but neither
clearly excludes the disciples.
Although Johns Gospel does not recount the institution of
the Eucharist, it does not have a long account of the Last Supper. Like the
other three evangelists, John also supports the idea that there were other
disciples besides the Twelve in the room. In his account of the supper, John
uses only the word disciples, never apostles or Twelve.
Jesus washes the feet of the disciples. He shares food with his disciples.
And he gives his final discourse to the disciples. Jon does not even say that
Jesus shared his table with the Twelve, although John does tell the story that
the betrayer was the one to whom Jesus handed bread from his table.
Johns Gospel has an interesting detail, which further
supports the argument that other disciples besides the Twelve were present.
During Jesus final discourse, John says that Judas, not the
Iscariot asked Jesus a question. (John 14:22) This person may well have
been a disciple who was not one of the Twelve.
Besides these gospel stories, there are also two other New
Testament stories that seem to prove that Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with
more of his disciples that simply the 12 apostles. Acts 1:15-26 tells us that
after the Ascension of Jesus, Peter proposed that they add another apostle to
take the place of Judas. The standard Peter proposed for choosing the
additional apostle was that this person would be one of those who have
accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among
us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from
us. Given this standard, it is very unlikely that the person would not
have been at the Last Supper. There were two candidates put forward who met
this standard. Thus, at least two disciples other than the Twelve must have
been at the Last Supper.
The gospel story of Jesus appearance to the two disciples on
the road to Emmaus shows even more explicitly that there were other disciples
besides the Twelve at the Last Supper. Luke sets this story on the day of
Jesus resurrection, Easter Sunday, three days after the Last Supper. The
two Emmaus disciples realize that their traveling companion is Jesus when they
recognize him in the breaking of the bread. That phrase makes sense
only if the two disciples were present at the Last Supper just a few days
earlier. We know that these two disciples are not from among the Twelve because
Luke gives the name of one of them and because the story ends by telling us
that the two returned to Jerusalem that very day to tell the Eleven
what happened.
Some scholars have suggested that the Emmaus disciple whose name
we do not know is a woman. They suggest it is a husband and wife who were
traveling to Emmaus. If so, that would be direct scriptural evidence that women
were among the disciples who were at the Last Supper.
The scriptural truth that both the disciples and the apostles were
present at the Last Supper has been preserved in the churchs tradition
from the time of early Christianity. The ancient liturgical texts show this,
and liturgy is the prime vehicle for handing on the churchs
tradition.
The earliest form of the liturgy that includes the words of
consecration is The Anaphora of Basil of Caesarea from about 357 A.D. It uses
both words, disciples and apostles. It says, Jesus took
bread, blessed, sanctified, broke and gave it to his holy disciples and
apostles ... This if the same formula 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 Chrysostum.
Similarly, the earliest complete liturgy only the word
disciples at the Consecration. While this liturgy appears to have come
from the church at Antioch, it is attributed to St. Clement of Rome. The
liturgy is preserved in Book 8 of The Apostolic Constitutions, compiled in
about the fourth century. At the Consecration, this liturgy says that Jesus
broke the bread and gave it to his disciples. Since that liturgy
also uses the word apostles elsewhere, the use of the word
disciples at the Consecration must have been intentional.
The earliest versions of the Mass of the Roman Rite are traced to
the works of St. Ambrose, who uses both apostles and disciples
for his version of the words of Consecration. In his sermons, which are
collected in a work called De Sacramentis, Ambrose quotes from the Canon
of his time, which said that Jesus took the bread and handed it when
broken to his apostles and disciples. The Canon also said that Jesus took
the cup and handed it to his apostles and disciples.
Liturgical history, in other words, shows that the overwhelming
faith of the whole Christian church is that Jesus said the words at the Last
Supper to both his disciples and his apostles. Even the Roman church, which
uses only one word, uses the word disciples, not the word
apostles.
While I have found no test showing that women were among the
disciples at the Last Supper, the evidence that the disciples of Jesus were
present does a very important thing for the debate about womens
ordination. It shifts the burden of proof on the question.
If the 12 apostles were the only ones at the Last Supper with
Jesus, as we have assumed for 2,000 years, then the Vatican would be correct to
put the burden of proof on those who claim that the church as the authority to
ordain women. However, if the disciples of Jesus were also present at the Last
Supper to hear the eucharistic words and Jesus commission to do
this in remembrance of me, then the burden of proof shifts to those who
would say that there were no women among the disciples present. That seems an
impossible argument to make.
It is undeniable that women are included among Jesus
disciples in the gospels. One women disciple, Martha, is presented as making a
confession of faith in Jesus comparable to Peters famous confession of
faith, which caused Jesus to build his church on Peter. Would not Martha, then,
have been one of the disciples invited to the Last Supper? Jesus women
disciples were undoubtedly in Jerusalem at the time of the Last Supper, since
they were there the next day to follow him to Golgotha while the male apostles
hid. Women were the first to see Jesus after the Resurrection. It is
inconceivable that Jesus would not have invited these women, especially his
mother and Mary Magdalene, to join him at his last Passover meal, if he invited
more of his disciples than 12 apostles. Moreover, both men and women disciples,
including Jesus mother, were present in the upper room at Pentecost, when
the Holy Spirit came upon all of them, men and women alike. If Jesus had chosen
not to have women present among his many disciples in the upper room at the
Last Supper, isnt it likely that Jesus would also have chosen not to send
the Holy Spirit down upon those in the upper room at a time when women were
present?
Could the preservation of the word disciples in the gospel
stories of the Last Supper and the eucharistic liturgies through out the ages
be the Holy Spirits way of keeping Jesus original intention alive
until Gods time for womens ordination arrived?
Instead of viewing the question of womens ordination as an
issue that has arisen only to meet the needs of modern feminists, is it not
possible that it is an issue that has arisen under the guidance of the Holy
Spirit to meet the needs of both women and men in the church in the modern
world, where the question of womens place has finally surfaced and will
not go away?
Perhaps the Jubilee Year 2000 could be the time for a new
beginning in the church on this issue.
Marjorie Reiley Maguire is a theologian and attorney in
Milwaukee.
National Catholic Reporter, June 5,
1998
|