I first heard about Scott Hahn through my priest friend, Fr. Steve Tynan. He served for a long time in our parish chapel, and was transferred in our parish, St. Benedict. He recommended the book to me after having a discussion with me with regard to the Protestant claim of the things that they found to be not right in the Roman Catholic church.
I just finished last Wednesday, around past 12 in the morning, the audio recording of The Lamb's Supper by Scott Hahn. During this pandemic times I was not able to go to bookstores because for safety reasons. Anyway, if you want to purchase his books, a lot of his titles are available in Google Play Books.
Just a short information about the author. Scott Hahn, was a Presbyterian pastor who realized that the true church founded by Christ, and faithful to the early Church worship, and teaching is the Catholic church. He went to a Presbyterian college, he mastered Greek with an Oxford tutor. Translated the book of Revelation from Greek to English. According to his study, the word rapture does not appear a single time from the book of Revelation. The Battle of Armageddon occurs once in the end, and the anti-Christ doesn't occur but in the opening chapter.
I have attended for a long time Protestant services. I noticed that there was indeed a connection of the Old Testament, with the New Testament. A lot of parallelism. Just like what Scott Hahn noticed in the book of Revelation.
One thing that was favorable, when I attended a Protestant church is their eagerness to read the Bible. As a Catholic, I didn't really read the Bible much. But still, there is a caution. The Bible interpretation of the Protestant is of course different from the Catholic Bible, aside from the number of books included. According to one of our church fathers, St. Augustine, the New Testament is concealed in the old, and the old was revealed in the new. The pastor in the Protestant church that I went to before, studied in a Catholic university, I'm not sure if that was for his Masters or Doctorate, but that was the reason why he knows St. Augustine, and often quotes him too.
Some examples of parallelism in the Bible that was discussed in the book was Moises and Jesus. Moises had the 12 tribes of Israel, and Jesus had 12 disciples. There were 72 elders from both of them. Moises was the giver of the law, and Jesus gave the sermon on the Mount, law of the New covenant. This is called typology. You can find a chart online describing the parallelism between the two of them. Jesus is the new Moises.
There are 2 parts of the mass (Liturgy of the Word, and the Eucharist) just like, there are two parts in the book of Revelation.
Dr. Hahn mentioned that the greatest most significant event for Jews is the Passover, just like Thanksgiving and Christmas were for Christians. Jesus was the new Lamb of the Passover. You have to look back to the Old Testament in order to understand this. Moises gave the law, the law was to slaughter an unblemished lamb, sprinkle the blood of lamb, and you have to eat the lamb, this is non-negotiable. Just like when we eat the Body of Christ, at mass! I never really appreciated what we have before, and now I am very glad because of the realization of the precious gift that we have in mass.
Dr. Hahn's wife told him that he needs to write down a book someday so that Catholics would appreciate what they have, because in the Protestant services, it isn't this deep, it isn't biblical, it isn't what they have, like what he has shown in the book of Revelation.
As Dr. Hahn have said, "We all want to go to heaven, we just don't wanna die first. Well, the good news for Catholics, you don't need to die in order to go to heaven. All you have to do is go to mass, and heaven is where you are!... And the saints, and angels are who you were with, and when you read the book of Revelation, that their songs and prayers are identical to ours, and those songs, and those prayers, and that sacrifice of the Lamb is what releases God's power to vindicate His people, to rescue us, to give us the help that we need whenever we have hard times, and persecution. "
Jesus gave these visions to John when he was an old man. It is hard to take everything in, so Jesus told John to write down everything. John's vision of marriage Supper and the lamb, is the mass. The early church Father's were unanimous in the meaning of the great marriage, that Jesus is the bridegroom, as the groom gives himself to the bride. Jesus gave Himself to us, His church! In the book of Revelation, John called Jesus as the Lamb of God (Agnus Dei), 28 times!
If you have not listened to the recorded audio online, you must! May God bless us all always!
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I dedicated this post of mine, to my Lord Jesus. My Lord, and my God! Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam!
