What is «the altar» that «we have»? Because there is a
question of «eating» from this altar, some think that this altar represents the
eucharist, but the answer to them is that at the Last Supper there was no
altar, there was only a «table» (Luke 22:21) and, in sacrificial worship, it is
correct to distinguish altar and table properly. In the first Letter to the
Corinthians, after speaking of being «in communion with the altar», by «eating
the sacrifices» (1 Cor 10:18), Saint Paul speaks quite naturally of the «table»
on which it is eaten (10:21), because it was not eaten on the altar, it was
eaten at a table (see 1 Cor 8:10). It seems preferable therefore to identify
the altar with the cross of Jesus, the place where he offered his sacrifice,
while recognizing that the verb «to eat» then alludes to the eucharistic table,
where Jesus says: «Take, eat, this is my body» (Matt 26:26), the breaking of
bread showing that this gift of communion comes from the altar of the cross,
for it is the sign of his generous death. (Albert Vanhoye, A Different Priest:
The Letter to the Hebrews [trans. Leo Arnold; Rhetorica Semitica; Miamia:
Convivium Press, 2011], 413-14)
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