If I understand it correctly, the Traditional Mass is the Christian reality prefigured by the Daily Bread Offering of the Mosaic Law: the Todah or bread of thanksgiving. Scott Hahn has a very good book written about this where one can find lots of great information: The Lamb’s Supper: The Mass as Heaven on Earth. Here I quote from the presentation of that book in the internet:
Of all things Catholic, there is nothing that is so familiar as the Mass. With its unchanging prayers, the Mass fits Catholics like their favorite clothes. Yet most Catholics sitting in the pews on Sundays fail to see the powerful supernatural drama that enfolds them. Pope John Paul II described the Mass as “Heaven on Earth,” explaining that what “we celebrate on Earth is a mysterious participation in the heavenly liturgy.”
The offering of bread and wine goes back at least to Abraham and Melchizedek, the king-priest of Salem. The story that leads to the introduction of Melchizedek is very similar to the story of David’s loss and recovery of Ziklag. (1 Samuel 30)
Abraham is informed that his nephew Lot and all his considerable belongings were lost after an enemy raid on Sodom, where Lot happened to be residing. (Genesis 14:1-13) Abraham and his men pursue the enemies of Lot and recover everyone and everything after a decisive battle that also resulted in the liberation of various peoples who had been vanquished by Chedorlaomer, the leader of the enemy forces defeated by Abraham.
Melchizedek offers bread and wine
After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). And King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High. He blessed him and said: “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!” And Abram gave him one-tenth of everything. (Genesis 14: 17-22)
The practice of offering bread and wine after a great act of liberation by God appears again when the descendants of Abraham through Jacob leave Egypt after the Egyptian Pharaoh decided to exterminate the Israelites by killing their offspring. (See Exodus 1) Before liberating the Israelites from the Egyptian yoke, God institutes the Feast of the Unleavened Bread that will later become the Jewish Passover. (See Exodus 12: 14-20) That is the todah sacrifice.
A todah sacrifice would be offered by someone whose life had been delivered from great peril, such as disease or the sword. The redeemed person would show his gratitude to God by gathering his closest friends and family for a todah sacrificial meal. The lamb would be sacrificed in the Temple and the bread for the meal would be consecrated the moment the lamb was sacrificed. The bread and meat, along with wine, would constitute the elements of the sacred todah meal, which would be accompanied by prayers and songs of thanksgiving, such as Psalm 116. (Tim Gray, From Jewish Passover to Christian Eucharist: The Story of the Todah)
Bread appears again when Jesus recalls how David ate the Bread of the Presence when running away from murderous King Saul.
One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the Bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:23-28)
Liberation is always associated with the sacrifice of unleavened bread. I believe God is building something through history to lead us to the Eucharist. In fact Todah and Eucharistia mean exactly the same thing: thanksgiving.
Etymology of the English word “lord”
In Anglo-Saxon times, the lord was known as the hläford, from the Viking hläfweard, meaning a bread-keeper or ‘bread ward’. The lord was responsible for providing bread for his household; therefore he was head of the house. (Oxford Dictionary quoted online by Susan Pierotti for Editors VIC.)
So, a lord is a keeper of the loaves of bread. Interesting coincidence!
By now you know that the “bread of the presence” of the Hebrew liturgy is a shadow or type of the Christian Eucharist, which the Catholic Church professes to be the presence of Christ among us: his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity offered to effect our liberation from sin and death.
Todah and Eucharist point at Christ
The type we are contemplating in the Old Testament is a complex type. It presents us not only with God’s great liberating acts through history but with his constant work to liberate mankind even at the personal level. Todah-Eucharist is a constant feature meant to point at Christ, first as the expected Jewish Messiah and later as the Great Liberator of mankind.
“In the coming Messianic age all sacrifices will cease, but the thanksgiving oblation [todah] will never cease.” Hartmut Gese, Essays On Biblical Theology (Minneapolis; Augsburg Publishing House, 1981), p. 133.
This traditional Jewish commentary (the Pesikta) cannot be confused with being pro-Christian but nevertheless, its intuition proves to be perfectly coherent with the Catholic view of the Eucharist. The Eucharist is a continuation of the Todah, even after all other forms of sacrifice required by God in the Old Testament are eliminated, the Todah subsists in the Christian Eucharist and the Jewish Passover celebration.
Before Christ, we have the Todah. After the Last Supper, we have the Eucharist which is Christ’s body, the ultimate oblation.
See it as a string of bread and wine sacrifices that starts with Melchizedek at the edge of the Bronze Age and continues until Christ’s death in Calvary.
Then imagine the Cross, right at the center of history and the Eucharist being celebrated to this day. Christ is in the center, with both kinds of thanksgiving oblation pointing at Him on the Cross and the resulting liberation of mankind.
And when he is sitting on the mount of the Olives, the disciples came near to him by himself, saying, ‘Tell us, when shall these be? and what is the sign of thy presence, and of the full end of the age?’ (Matthew 24:3 Young’s Literal Translation)
“The sign of thy presence” is a sign that will alert the Church to the End Times. In Greek: σημεῖον σῆς παρουσίας, pron. sēmeion sēs parousías. In Daniel 12, the prophet seems to be pointing at an interruption of the constant oblation. Such interruption is important because it triggers the very end of the end times.
I heard but could not understand; so I said, ‘My lord, how shall it be that these things will come to pass?’ He said, ‘Go your way, Daniel, for the words are to remain secret and sealed until the time of the end. Many shall be purified, cleansed, and refined, but the wicked shall continue to act wickedly. None of the wicked shall understand, but those who are perspicacious shall understand. From the time that the constant oblation is taken away and the desolating abomination is set up, there shall be 1290 days. Happy are those who persevere and attain the 1335 days. But you, go your way, and rest; you shall rise for your reward at the end of the days.’ (Daniel 12:8-13. The author’s translation)
Here is when we have to examine the recent history of the Mass and of the men who dared to refuse to celebrate the Novus Ordo Mass so that the constant oblation lasting two millennia would not be interrupted. We will do that in depth in the next post. In the meanwhile we can quickly summarize the present situation.
In our days the Modernist revolutionaries have manage to infiltrate and sway important parts of the Church towards their abominable ideals. If they are successful in stopping the celebration of the Traditional Mass worldwide and –if the Traditional Mass is the constant oblation that the prophet Daniel was talking about– then the author of that interruption is soon to appear in the world. That would presumably be the Antichrist.
What will happen at that time, when the Body of Christ is banished and disappears from Christian life? The first obvious thing will be the installation of an operation of disobedience. The Church exists to offer the Eucharist, the sign of Christ’s presence, and of Christ’s Resurrection. The commandment we received the night of His Passion could not be more clear: “Continue to do this in memory of Me.” (Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:24)
Emmaus in reverse
At the inn by the road to Emmaus, Christ gives thanks, the disciples recognize him and only then Christ disappears while the Consecrated Bread remains. The message, the image are indisputably Eucharistic.
When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. (Luke 24:30-31)
When the Consecrated Bread disappears from the altars of the Church, it is reasonable to expect that the opposite will happen: Jesus will make His appearance (parousía) and His presence will be evident to all. The wicked generation will finally see the sign they were asking for, the promised “sign of Jonah” … the undeniable proof of His Resurrection and Lordship over Death. Every disciple will recognize Him as Lord, thus closing the circle. I believe we are quite close to that moment but only God knows the exact time.
I just found this article that clearly explains the problem in the context of the current events.
http://forge-and-anvil.com/2020/04/10/the-continual-sacrifice-was-taken-away/
The True Church is of Christ and for Christ. No group of men however cunning, can make the Church work for any other purpose than to bring Christ to the world. If the Church is eclipsed or hijacked the world plunges into deep darkness. The Church is the true light of the world.