Catholic Studies Quiz #10

What is a catechumen?

An unbaptized person who is preparing for full initiation into a Christian church.

What does St. Hippolytus write about catechumens who are martyred?

If they suffer violence or are executed in God’s name without having their sins removed, they will be justified, because they have received baptism in their own blood.

What does the Apostolic Tradition say about the baptism of children who are too young to respond to the bishop’s questions?

If they cannot answer for themselves, their parents or somebody else from their family can answer for them.

What are some of the restrictions on who can become a catechumen?

Pimps who support prositutes, sculptors or painters who make idols, charioteers who take part in the games, gladiators, priests of idols, military men in authority who execute men, magi, prostitutes, wanton men, those who castrate themselves, enchanters, astrologers, diviners, men who have concubines, etc. all cannot become catechumens.

According to St. Thomas Aquinas, in what two ways can someone lack the sacrament of baptism? How do these differ in terms of salvation?

1. In both reality and desire

2. In reality but not in desire

Those who are unbaptized in both reality and desire cannot obtain salvation. Those who are unbaptized only in reality can obtain salvation without being baptized.

How does St. Thomas reconcile his position on salvation without baptism with John 3:5, “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit”?

1 Kings 16:7 - “People see those things that appear, but the Lord beholds the heart.” Someone who desires to be born of water and the Holy Spirit will be regenerated in heart, though not in body. According to Romans 2:29, “circumcision of the heart is spiritual, not literal; whose praise is not from people but from God.”

Pitre writes that “the overall structure of the Passover meal” (151) was focused on four cups of wine. Describe the meaning of each cup.

1. Cup of Sanctification: introductory rites - beginning of the meal with a formal blessing over the cup and the feast day

2. Cup of Proclamation: the father would begin to proclaim the story of the exodus and explain the meaning of the parts of the meal

3. Cup of Blessing: first a blessing over the unleavened bread, then the serving of an appetizer, then the eating of the main meal

4. Cup of Praise: concluding rites - the remaining portion of the Hallel Psalms was sung, then the cup would be drunk, signaling the end of the meal

According to Luke, how many cups of wine were there at the Last Supper?

At least two - one over which he gives thanks, and the other which he identifies as the new covenant in his blood

How does “the fourth cup” figure into the accounts of the Last Supper in Matthew (26:27-30) and Mark (14:24-26)?

According to Matthew, Jesus vowed not to drink “the fruit of the vine” until the coming of the kingdom of God, even though at that point in the Passover meal the fourth cup still had to be drunk. In addition, Mark’s account says that the disciples “went out” of the Upper Room after they had sung a hymn, even though they should have drunk the final cup after the hymn. 

In the garden of Gethsemane, why did Jesus describe his death through the metaphor of drinking a cup?

Describing it using this metaphor makes it the completion of the Passover meal. When the meal is finished and the final cup is drunk, it means Jesus’ death has arrived. That is why he did not finish the Last Supper.

Discuss the significance of the Jewish custom of giving wine to a man sentenced to death.

It explains why Jesus was offered wine on the way to the cross. He refused it because he did not wish to dull his suffering in the midst of his passion.

It also explains how Jesus could have deliberately left the Passover incomplete, while still expecting to eventually drink the wine.

What is the meaning of Jesus’ words “I thirst” and “It is finished” in the Gospel of John?

Jesus specifically requests to have a drink. He doesn’t say “it is finished” until he drinks the wine, so this means that he drank the fourth cup of the Passover, not in the Upper Room, but on the cross at the moment of his death.

How does the Last Supper make Jesus’ crucifixion a sacrifice, rather than just an execution?

First, by vowing not to drink the final cup of the Last Supper, Jesus extended his Passover meal to include his own suffering and death. The Last Supper was not just a symbolic enactment of his death but a prophetic sign that set it into motion. 

Second, by praying three times in Gethsemane for the cup to be taken from him, Jesus revealed that he understood his own death in terms of the Passover sacrifice. When the final cup was drunk, his sacrifice would be complete and his blood would be poured out like the Passover lambs’. 

Third, by waiting to drink the fourth cup until the very moment of his death, Jesus united the Last Supper to his death on the cross. By means of the Last Supper, Jesus transformed the Cross into a Passover, and by means of the Cross, he transformed the Last Supper into a sacrifice.