Source and summit

Old Testament: elements of Eucharist

“Melchizedek king of Salem brought bread and wine; he was a priest of God Most High”. (Genesis 14:18)

“Remember the long road by which Yahweh your God led you for forty years in the desert, to humble you, to test you and know your inmost heart- whether you would keep his commandments or not. He humbled you, he made you feel hunger, he fed you with manna which neither you nor your ancestors had ever known, to make you understand that human beings live not on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of Yahweh.” (Deut 8:2-3)

For the tradition I received from the Lord and also handed on to you is that on the night he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread, and after he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘ This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ And in the same way, with the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do it as a memorial of me.’ 1 Cor 11: 23-25

•Jesus took bread, then a cup of wine, •He gave thanks, or pronounced the blessing, •He broke the bread, •He gave the bread and the cup to his disciples.

Early Patristic Eucharist

“The eucharist is the flesh and blood of our Saviour, the flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father raised from the dead”

(Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Smyrnaeans 6)

“the food which has been made eucharist through the prayer formed out of the words of Christ, and which nourishes and becomes our flesh and blood, is the flesh and blood of the same Jesus who was made incarnate” (Justin Martyr, 1 Apology 66)

“When the bread from the earth receives the invocation of God it is no longer common bread but eucharist, having both an earthly and a heavenly reality”; the bread and wine are “the body of the Lord and the cup of his blood” (Irenaeus, Against heresies IV, 18)

“For how can they be expected to shed their blood for Christ unless they are allowed to share in his blood?” (Cyprian, Letters, 67)

“This bread was in fact bread before the sacramental words were spoken, but at the moment of consecration it becomes the flesh of Christ. We can establish this truth by examining the words of consecration themselves. Before the consecration the words are those of the priest. He offers praise to God, he prays for the congregation, for the rulers, and for all other people. But when he is about to produce the venerable sacrament the priest stops using his own words and starts using the words of Christ. It is therefore the words of Christ which produce this sacrament, words such as those through which he created all things. So if the words of the Lord Jesus are powerful enough to make non-existent things come into being, how much more effective must they be in changing what already exists into something else! Therefore, before the consecration, the bread is not the body of Christ but after the consecration it now is the body of Christ.”

(St. Ambrose, On the Sacraments, 13-20)

“Once the bread that you see on the altar is sanctified by the word of God, it is the body of Christ. And once the chalice is sanctified by the word of God, what the chalice contains is the blood of Christ.”

(St. Augustine, Sermons 227)

Transubstantiation: (Change of substance). The change (through the Eucharistic words of Consecration) of the substance of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, with the appearances of bread and wine remaining. Consubstantiation: (along with the substance). The view, condemned at Trent, that after the words of eucharistic consecration the substances of bread and wine continue to exist alongside the body and blood of the Lord. O’Collins, Farrugia, “A Concise Dictionary of Theology”, Harper Collins, London, 1991.

“I deny that there are seven sacraments, and for the present maintain that there are only three: baptism, penance and the bread. All three have been subjected to a miserable captivity by the Roman authorities, and the Church has been robbed of all her freedom.”

“What we call the Mass is a promise of the forgiveness of sins made to us by God, and such a promise as has been confirmed by the death of the Son of God... If the Mass is a promise, as has been said, then access to it is to be gained, not with any works, or powers, or merits of one’s own, but by faith alone. For where there is the word of the promising God, there must necessarily be the faith of the accepting believer. It is plain therefore, that the beginning of our salvation is a faith which clings to the word of the promising God who, without any effort on our part, in free and unmerited mercy takes the initiative and offers us the word of his promise.”

“If someone sews on a white cross, he proclaims that he wishes to be a confederate. And if he makes the pilgrimage to Nähenfels and gives God praise and thanksgiving for the victory vouchsafed to our forefathers, he testifies that he is a confederate indeed. Similarly, whoever receives the mark of baptism is the one who is resolved to hear what God says to him, to learn the divine precepts, and to live his life in accordance with them. And whoever in the congregation gives thanks to God in the remembrance or supper testifies to the fact that he rejoices in the death of Christ from the depths of his heart, and thanks him for it.”

“Our Lord Jesus Christ, who promised many times to forgive the sins of his people and to strengthen their souls through the last supper, added a pledge to that promise in case there remained any uncertainty on their part- in much the same way as a groom, wishing to assure his bride (if she had any doubts), gives her a ring, declaring, “Take this, I give myself to you’. And she, accepting that ring, believes that he is hers, and turns her heart from all other lovers and, to please her husband, attaches herself to him, and him alone.”

“Wherever we find the Word of God preached purely and listened to, and the sacraments administered according to the institution of Christ, we cannot doubt that a Church exists.”

Calvin’s definitions of ‘Sacrament’: “an external symbol by which the Lord seals on our consciences his promises of good will towards us, in order to sustain the weakness of our faith” “visible sign of a sacred thing, or a visible form of an invisible grace”

“When we see wine set forth as a symbol of blood, we must reflect upon the benefits which wine imparts to the human body. We thus come to realise that these same benefits are imparted to us in a spiritual manner by the blood of Christ. These benefits are to nourish, refresh, strengthen and gladden.”

•Decree on the Most Holy Eucharist (1551)

•Doctrine on communion under both Species and on Communion of little children (1562)

•Doctrine on the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (1562)

“...our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and true man, is truly, really and substantially contained under the appearances of bread and wine” (Eucharist 1)

“By the consecration of the bread and wine, the whole substance of the bread is changed into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord, and the whole substance of the wine is changed into the substance of his blood” (Eucharist 4).

“The Sacred Council has set out to impart an ever-increasing vigour to the Christian lives of the faithful; to adapt more closely to the needs of our age those instructions which are subject to change...Accordingly it sees particularly cogent reasons for undertaking the reform and promotion of the liturgy.” (SC 1)

“It is very much the wish of the Church that all the faithful should be led to take that full, conscious, and active part in liturgical celebrations which is demanded by the very nature of the liturgy, and to which the Christian people, ‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a redeemed people’ (1 Pet 2:9, 4-5) have a right and to which they are bound by reason of their baptism.” (SC 14)

“The Church...spares no effort in trying to ensure that, when present at this mystery of faith, Christian believers should not be there as strangers or silent spectators. On the contrary, having a good grasp of it through the rites and prayers, they should take part in the sacred action, actively, fully aware, and devoutly. They should be formed by God’s word, and be nourished at the table of the Lord’s Body. They should give thanks to God. Offering the immaculate victim, not only through the hands of the priest but also together with him, they should learn to offer themselves” (SC48)

“From the liturgy...and especially from the Eucharist, grace is poured forth upon us as from a fountain, and our sanctification in Christ and the glorification of God to which all other activities of the Church are directed, as toward their end, are achieved with maximum effectiveness.” (SC10)

“At the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, our Saviour instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his body and blood. This he did in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout the ages until he should come again, and so to entrust to his beloved spouse, the Church, a memorial of his death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, ‘a paschal banquet in which Christ is received, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us.” (SC47)

“To receive in truth the body and Blood of Christ given up for us, we must recognise Christ in the poorest, his brethren: ‘You have tasted the blood of the Lord, yet you do not recognise your brother...You dishonour this table when you do not judge worthy of sharing your food someone judged worthy to take part in this meal... God freed you from all your sins and invited you here, but you have not become more merciful.” (CCC1397)

Ecclesia de Eucharistia (Encyclical, JP II, 2003):

35. The celebration of the Eucharist cannot be the starting-point for communion. 40. The Eucharist creates communion and fosters communion.

Redemptionis Sacramentum (Instruction from Congregation for divine worship, 2004)

Sacramentum Caritatis (Apostolic Exhortation, Benedict XVI, 2007)

Introduction PART ONE:

THE EUCHARIST, A MYSTERY TO BE BELIEVED PART TWO:

THE EUCHARIST, A MYSTERY TO BE CELEBRATED PART THREE:

THE EUCHARIST, A MYSTERY TO BE LIVED Conclusion

•To bring adults into the learning circles of our parishes, •To bind catechesis to liturgy, •To make households of faith the goal, •To lead the whole Church to build a society and world where the Gospel is the good news of peace and justice, •To do this with all God’s people, regardless of culture or whether they have a disability, •To include the Catholic Schools in the equation, •To work inter-generationally, allowing the Church itself to be our curriculum.