One of our names for the establishment of this sacramental meal is the Last Supper. We call it this because it was the last meal that Jesus shared with His disciples before His arrest and crucifixion. But the name is more evocative than being just a reference to the chronology of Christ’s life.
It was the meal at which He established this ritual, and so in that sense, of course, it was the First Supper. And He established this meal before He was crucified, and so what He did looked forward to the reality, in much the same way that the Old Testament sacrifices did. Our meal here is privileged—because Christ has died and has been raised up again—and we have the vantage of being able to look back at the once for all sacrifice, the sacrifice that was made at the end of the ages.
And of course, that is another sense in which we can refer to this as the Last Supper. The incarnation of Jesus, His death and resurrection, were an intrusion of the Last Things into the middle of history. He is the first fruits of the Last Day, which means that this is yet another way in which the last has become the first.
And so, in this meal we anticipate the consummation of all things. We are privileged to eat this meal, the last meal in the world. We are being given the last cup of wine, the last piece of bread, and this momentous meal is served to us in time and in history. In this way, each week we mark our faith in the fact that the end of the world defines the reality of it.