What is "it"?

I guess I never really thought about it until I heard Scott Hahn's discussion of it, but when Jesus says from the Cross "It is finished," what is the antecedent of the pronoun?  The answer can't very well be "the work of redemption," because then you would be leaving the Resurrection out of it. 

The answer involves the Gospel of John and the Jewish Seder ritual.  Apparently (I wasn't aware of this - see how much I need to learn about the Old Covenant!) there are always four cups of wine in the Passover meal.  The third one is called the "blessing cup."  Remember the passage (Corinthians, I think) "Our blessing cup is a participation in the Blood of Christ"?  The third one is the one Jesus used in the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper.  But also remember that they didn't drink the fourth one.  Jesus says (if memory serves) that he would not taste the fruit of the vine until He drank it new in the Kingdom of Heaven, then left for the Mount of Olives, singing a hymn.  I suppose I took this as it came because I don't really know how Passover meals go besides the Mass, but Scott Hahn says that for someone familiar with the ritual this would be about as startling as it would be for us if a priest stopped Mass and left just before the communion rite.

From there He goes to Calvary.  Tellingly, Jesus is offered wine but refuses until the very end when He asks to drink it, then declares that "it" has been consummated and gives up His spirit.

The message is that the Last Supper and Calvary are one unified whole.  Fr. Bill has told us Maryland people this from the pulpit any number of times, and I didn't doubt it, but now I have been shown how it works that way in Scripture.

Comments

[Lindsay]

Our breakout session speaker at this year's Eucharistic Congress mentioned the four cups part of the Passover seder. That was the first time I heard about it, and it pretty much blew me away, too.

[John]

After that speaker that Lindsay mentioned (who actually claimed that Jesus didn't drink the 4th cup on earth), I talked to Derek and Helen about it and they explained it to me. No wonder this sounded familiar.