Kundry weeps.  Unto the woman who was a sinner and wept at His feet Christ said:  “Thy sins are forgiven. . . .  Thy faith hath saved thee.  Go in peace.”  At the elevation of the grail by Parsifal after the healing of Amfortas a dove descends from the dome and hovers over the new king’s head.  What saith the Scripture?  “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water; and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him.” (St. Matthew iii. 16.) It would be idle to argue that these things are not Biblical, though the reported allusions to Parsifal as a redeemer do not of necessity belong in the category.  We shall see presently that the drama is permeated with Buddhism, and there were a multitude of redeemers and saviours in India besides the Buddha.

Let us look at the liturgical elements.  The Holy Grail is a chalice.  It is brought into the temple in solemn procession in a veiled shrine and deposited on a table.  Thus, also, the chalice, within its pall, is brought in at the sacrament of the mass and placed on the altar before the celebrant.  In the drama boys’ voices sing in the invisible heights:—­

  Nehmet hin mein Blut
  Um unserer Liebe willen! 
  Nehmet hin meinem Leib
  Auf dass ihr mein gedenkt!

Is there a purposed resemblance here to the words of consecration in the mass?  Accipite, et manducate ex hoc omnes.  Hoc est enim Corpus meum.  Accipite, et bibite ex eo omnes.  Hic est enim Calix sanguinis mei!  In a moment made wonderfully impressive by Wagner’s music, while Amfortas bends over the grail and the knights are on their knees, a ray of light illumines the cup and it glows red.  Amfortas lifts it high, gently sways it from side to side, and blesses the bread and wine which youthful servitors have placed beside each knight on the table.  In the book of the play, as the hall gradually grows light the cups before the knights appear filled with red wine, and beside each lies a small loaf of bread.  Now the celestial choristers sing:  “The wine and bread of the Last Supper, once the Lord of the Grail, through pity’s love-power, changed into the blood which he shed, into the body which he offered.  To-day the Redeemer whom ye laud changes the blood and body of the sacrificial offering into the wine poured out for you, and the bread that you eat!” And the knights respond antiphonally:  “Take of the bread; bravely change it anew into strength and power.  Faithful unto death, staunch in effort to do the works of the Lord.  Take of the blood; change it anew to life’s fiery flood.  Gladly in communion, faithful as brothers, to fight with blessed courage.”  Are these words, or are they not, a paraphrase of those which in the canon of the mass follow the first and second ablutions of the celebrant:  Quod ore sumpsimus Domine, etc., and:  Corpus tuum, Domine, etc.?  He would be but little critical who would deny it.