Jean Delorme (2) (1920–2005)

This "symposium" binds together six papers on its topic from disparate sources, all by Catholic scholars. The translator E. M. Stewart made the puzzling and fundamentally unhelpful choice to translate the French term Alliance with its English cognate "Alliance" rather than the "Covenant" which the context so clearly demands. An exception is made for the scriptural quotes that demonstrate the willful error.

The longest and most rewarding of the papers is the first, by J. Delorme (the only one whose name does not have the letters of some order trailing after it) on "The Last Supper and the Pasch in the New Testament." My chief constructive takeaway here was the identification of two different modes of reading the myth of Exodus into the action of the Eucharist. The Synoptics, who place the Last Supper during a Paschal meal, thus propose its identity with the sacrificial lamb. The Fourth Gospel instead identifies the Eucharist with the miraculous nourishment of manna in the wilderness. Delorme seems to claim that the Johannine version is more primitive, in that it could coexist with the distinct celebration of Pesach. (But in that event it seems to be devoid of the necessary aspect of oblation.) He suggests that the continuing practice of Pesach by early "Jewish Christians" prevented the weekly Eucharist from fully absorbing and thus transmitting the theological force of the Paschal sacrifice until much later liturgies when the Jewish customs had fallen away from Christian communities.

All of Delorme's perplexity over the suppressions and lack of emphasis regarding the nevertheless evident Paschal situation of the Eucharist in the scriptures dissolve in the face of the fact that they were written to authenticate the practice with reference to polyvalent lore rather than positive history. The allusive indications given were sufficient--their very existence surpassed the empirical realities. They were to reinforce and add depth to existing customs, not to supply banal documentation. Scriptural authors wanted to affirm the Hebrew heritage without reducing nascent Christianity to a Jewish sect.

The "new avenue of research" that Delorme takes up from Jaubert may clarify some reasons for calendrical contradictions among Gospel writers, but it does not illuminate the True Deeds of the Historical Pinnochio. Delorme's confession of ignorance regarding popular practices of Hebrew religion in the first century is fine, but will not lead to a veridical "reconstruction of the last Supper" (65). It is curious that Delorme finds the Qumran texts valuable in his investigations, yet he fully neglects the Didache--the earliest documentation of Christian liturgy, antedating the liturgical passages in the canonical scriptures.

The second paper does not deliver on the promise of its title, "The Accounts of the Institution and What They Imply." While I had hoped for a survey of the NT institution narratives with exegesis about their differences, it instead mixes them together for a sort of pointless proof-texting of vulgar Catholic doctrine.

Dupont's "Meal at Emmaus" drew my attention to a rich pericope (Luke 24:13-35) that I had not given its due with connection to the Eucharist. While I wasn't sympathetic to his theological interpretations, the features of the text that he chose to highlight were genuinely intriguing, and I found his intra-scriptural connections useful. The sort of retroactive illumination experienced by Cleopas and company (and by the Ethiopian eunuch of Acts 8) highlights the transformative powers of interpretation and memory in sacramental action. These narratives also strike me as profoundly Phildickian.

Boismard's "Eucharist According to St. Paul" is a negligible paper, adding no new conundrums or topics of interest to what I had read earlier in the book. It would be useful on its own, perhaps, for someone interested in the topic of its title and wanting to address it in isolation from other questions.

The final paper is on "The Sixth Chapter of John," exploring the Johannine institution narrative, such as it is. The author Mollat adduces a connection with the Hebrew Wisdom literature, which I found interesting. He also notes how the flesh of Chapter 6 complements and connects with the water given to the Samaritan woman in Chapter 4. All of this matter is more meaningful and potent for a true illuminatus of the mysteries--or even to a Consecrated Magician with the proper aptitude--than it can ever be to a Jesuit scholar.

A feature of the Christian Eucharist that had previously escaped my conscious study was the "eschatological words" (Luke 22:15-18), Most of the papers in the book mentioned this aspect, at least in passing, and I am now contemplating it in connection with Liber A'ash vv. 6-7. Strangely, it does not seem to connect very well with the Apocalyptic symbolism of Liber XV, which ritual includes no parallel language.… (more)