Celebrate Easter with Mary and Cleopas!
by John Wijngaards
This article was published on La Croix International, 19 April 2022. See here: https://international.la-croix.com/news/religion/celebrate-easter-with-mary-and-cleopas/15959
Allow me to introduce this couple to you. Mary, wife of Cleopas, was one of the women who stood under the cross.[1] Mary and Cleopas welcomed Jesus to their home in Emmaus. They were early witnesses of the resurrection and – as I will show – of much more![2]
Luke first narrates about the women who find Jesus’ tomb empty and report it to the apostles. Peter confirms it is true. Both male and female disciples are involved at this stage but they are all confused (Luke 24,1-12). Luke then goes on: “That same day two of them went to a village called Emmaus” (Luke 24,13). With their typical bias against women, interpreters immediately assumed the two were men. However, the ‘two of them’ came from that mixed bunch of women and men. Moreover, we learn that one of the two is Cleopas (Luke 24,17). Since his wife Mary was also one of that mixed bunch, she is his most likely companion. The two, Mary and Cleopas, walk back home to Emmaus because, as they explain to their unrecognised fellow traveller, they had believed in Jesus, but now, with him executed and dead, they are afraid ‘it’s all over’ (Luke 24,14-24).
The mysterious fellow traveller then explains how the Scriptures had already foretold that the Messiah would have to suffer before ‘entering his glory’ (Luke 25,25-27). When they reached their home village Emmaus, they invited the fellow traveller to stay with them (Luke 28-29). Then it happened!
“When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?’ ” (Luke 14,30-32)
So Mary and Cleopas recognised Jesus at the Eucharistic breaking of the bread! They rushed back to Jerusalem and reported the event to the Christian community, again both men and women: ‘the Eleven and those with them’ (Luke 24,33-34). “The two told what had happened on the way, and how they recognised Jesus when he broke the bread” (Luke 24,35).
Interesting! Because the breaking of the bread had happened at the Last Supper. So Cleopas and Mary had been present at that event.
Women at the Last Supper?
At the Last Supper Jesus initiated two sacraments. He both instituted the Eucharist and empowered (‘ordained’) persons to administer it. For his key words were: “Take and eat, this is my body . . . this is the cup of my blood, drink of it all of you . . . Do this in memory of me!”[3] 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?
In the Middle Ages some theologians assumed that only the twelve apostles were present at the Last Supper. Jesus ‘ordained’ them by saying to them ‘do this in memory of me’.[4] In 1994 Pope John Paul II quoted this tradition in his Apostolic Letter on ‘Reserving Priestly Ordination to Men Alone’. He stated that the exclusion of women from the priesthood was a permanent decision by Jesus Christ which church authorities cannot reverse.[5]
However, we know other disciples were present at the Last Supper. For one thing, it was the Paschal meal in which the whole family had to take part. It is also clear from the original reports.
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).
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” (Mark 14,3). When Jesus visited Martha’s home, Martha’s sister Mary, like other guests, sat on the floor at Jesus’ feet (Luke 10,38–42).[6] 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 (John 4,39-42).[7]
This is confirmed by Cleopas and Mary’s story. They had witnessed Jesus’ Eucharistic breaking of the bread. So they had been there.
‘Do this in memory of me!’
OK. Other disciples, men and women, were also present at the Last Supper. But, perhaps, he addressed the empowering words only to the eleven apostles . . . Could that be the case?
No. Matthew says clearly: “He blessed the bread, broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying . .” (Matthew 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 …”[8]
- 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 he took the cup and “handed it to his apostles and disciples”.[9]
- The same formula is still used today by the Coptic and Orthodox Churches in the Liturgy of St. Basil and by the Orthodox Church in its regular liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.
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 Corinthians 11,23-27).
“Do this in memory of me” does therefore not just 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.
Conclusion
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.
Mary and Cleopas are not only two of the first witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection. They also witness to the fact that Jesus in principle empowered all disciples, whether women or men, to be ordained and to preside at the Eucharist in his name.
Once their eyes had been opened, they immediately walked back to Jerusalem to persuade the leaders of the community to accept the new situation. In our Synodal Appeal for Pastoral Reforms we do the same. We alert church leaders of what needs to be done now. Be active, like Mary and Cleopas, and join us. If you have not signed our Appeal yet, do so now. Click here