As a result of such variations, the Eucharist has been a central issue in the discussions and deliberations of the ecumenical movement. Now this last-named criterion is inapplicable to the Scriptural examples brought forward by the Zwinglians, and especially so in regard to their interpretation of the words of Institution; for the words are not: This bread is my Body, but indefinitely: This is my Body. The species undoubtedly belong to the essence of the sacrament, since it is by means of them, and not by means of the invisible Body of Christ, that the Eucharist possesses the outward sign of the sacrament. Trent, Sess. WebThey are the Sacraments of Initiation (Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist), the Sacraments of Healing (Penance and the Anointing of the Sick), and the Sacraments at the Service of Communion (Marriage and Holy Orders). On the other hand, Communion is prescribed for adults, not only by the law of the Church, but also by a Divine command (John, vi, 50 sqq. The Eucharist, which is also called the Holy Communion, the Lord 's Supper, Mass, or the Divine Liturgy, is a sacrament accepted and celebrated by most Christians. First of all, no intrinsic repugnance can be shown in the concept of multilocation. The second mode of presence, that properly belonging to a spiritual being, requires the substance of a thing to exist in its entirety in the whole of the space, as well as whole and entire in each part of that space. In the opinion of Loofs (Dogmengeschichte, 4th ed., Halle, 1906, p. 409), St. Augustine never gives the reception of the true Body and Blood of Christ a thought; and this view Ad. Read more about the Eucharistwhat the Real Presence is, the Churchs apologetical defenses of the Eucharist through the ages, and morein the encyclopedia entry below. Christ is really present in the Holy Eucharist, even when not being received. So live, that you may receive every day. From the tenth to the thirteenth century, the practice of going to Communion more frequently during the year was rather rare among the laity and obtained only in cloistered communities. It was in this purely mystical manner that the Greeks themselves explained the meaning of the Epiklesis at the Council of Florence (Mansi, Collect. mass, the central act of worship of the Roman Catholic Church, which culminates in celebration of the sacrament of the Eucharist. Since, however, because of the brevity of the actual instant of conversion, the part taken by the Holy Spirit could not be expressed, the Epiklesis takes us back in imagination to the precious moment and regards the Consecration as just about to occur. (b) The second problem arises from the Totality of Presence, which means that Christ in His entirety is present in the whole of the Host and in each smallest part thereof, as the spiritual soul is present in the human body [see above, (2)]. Harnack (Dogmengeschichte, 3rd ed., Freiburg, 1897, III, 148) emphasizes when he declares that St. Augustine undoubtedly was one in this respect with the so-called pre-Reformation and with Zwingli. iii) rightly raised this truth to the dignity of a dogma. Smyrn., vii; Ad. The position of the Church in this regard may be readily determined from the Council of Constance (1414-1418). The simplest treatment of the subject was that offered by the Schoolmen, especially St. Thomas (III, Q. lxxvi, a. ), favors the literal interpretation. The principal aim of speculative theology with regard to the Eucharist, should be to discuss philosophically, and seek a logical solution of, three apparent contradictions, namely: (a) the continued existence of the Eucharistic Species, or the outward appearances of bread and wine, without their natural underlying subject (accidentia sine subjecto); (b) the spatially uncircumscribed, spiritual mode of existence of Christs Eucharistic Body (existentia corporis ad modum spiritus); (c) the simultaneous existence of Christ in heaven and in many places on earth (multilocatio). ix, de poenit., 1], to whom may be added the Latin Fathers, Hilary (De Trinit., VIII, iv, 13) and Ambrose (De myst., viii, 49; ix, 51 sq.). Why is the sacrament of the Eucharist the most important? The Seven Sacraments of the Roman Catholic church, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Eucharist, Christianity.com - What is the Eucharist? Thus, St. Thomas Aquinas maintained that a complete change occurred in the substance of each of the species, while the accidents, or outward appearances, remained the same. 086 079 7114 [email protected]. On the other hand, it is beyond question that, owing to the determining influence of Origen and the Platonic philosophy, which, as is well known, attached but slight value to visible matter and the sensible phenomena of the world, Augustine did not refer what was properly real (res) in the Blessed Sacrament to the Flesh of Christ (caro), but transferred it to the quickening principle (spiritus), i.e. According to this explanation the copula would here retain its meaning to be. The bread and wine we receive at communion is the body and blood of Jesus. The Holy Eucharist is not merely a food, but a medicine as well. This general and fundamental principle, which entirely abstracts from the duality of the species, must, nevertheless, be extended to each of the species of bread and wine.

It matters little what the terms are, provided the things signified by them are rightly understood. Since in the natural order of events each body is restricted to one position in space (unilocatio), so that before the law proof of an alibi immediately frees a person from the suspicion of crime, multilocation without further question belongs to the supernatural order. Consequently, together with His Body and Blood and Soul, His whole Humanity also, and, by virtue of the hypostatic union, His Divinity, i.e. The application of the foregoing to the Eucharist is an easy matter. To root out the last vestiges of Jansenistic rigorism, Pius X issued a decree (December 24, 1905) wherein he allows and recommends daily Communion to the entire laity and requires but two conditions for its permissibility, namely, the state of grace and a right and pious intention. Eccl., VI, xliv). On the other hand, a very ancient law of the Church which, however, has nothing to do with the validity of the sacrament, prescribes that a little water be added to the wine before the Consecration (Decr. If, moreover, the reader finds in some of the other Fathers difficulties, obscurities, and a certain inaccuracy of expression, this may be explained on three general grounds: (I) because of the peace and security there is in their possession of the Churchs truth, whence resulted a certain want of accuracy in their terminology; (2) because of the strictness with which the Discipline of the Secret, expressly concerned with the Holy Eucharist, was maintained in the East until the end of the fifth, in the West down to the middle of the sixth, century; (3) because of the preference of many Fathers for the allegorical interpretation of Scripture, which was especially in vogue in the Alexandrian School (Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Cyril), but which found a salutary counterpoise in the emphasis laid on the literal interpretation by the School of Antioch (Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret). The reason the physicality of the sacrament is important is because, in the action itself, we witness to our heart of faith. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Thus the Trinity, Incarnation, and Eucharist are really welded together like a precious chain, which in a wonderful manner links heaven with earth, God with man, uniting them most intimately and keeping them thus united. In this matter the Church alone has the right to decide, and her regulations regarding the Communion rite may vary according to the circumstances of the times. There can be no question of a grievous offense against Christ Himself, unless we suppose that the true Body and the true Blood of Christ are really present in the Eucharist. The nature of the mystery that occurs in the bread and wine is signified by the term metabol (sacramental change). For Catholics, without the Eucharist, there is no life with and in Christ (Jn 6:55-58). And this teaching of the Council of Trent has ever been and is now the unwavering position of the whole of Catholic Christendom. The first of these articles contains an open denial of Transubstantiation. In the history of the Zwinglian conception of the Lords Supper, certain sacramental expressions (locutions sacramentales) of the Sacred Text, regarded as parallelisms of the words of Institution, have attracted considerable attention. The bread and wine we receive at communion is the body and blood of Jesus. Significance of the Eucharist The Eucharist has formed a central rite of Christian worship. catech., xxxvii), Cyril of Jerusalem (Catech. As a union based upon love, the Holy Eucharist cleanses with its purifying flame the smallest stains which adhere to the soul, and at the same time serves as an effective prophylactic against grievous sin. It is to be noted that St. Luke (xxii, 18 sqq. XXI, c. i). Now, Christ, according to the literal purport of His testament, has left us as a precious legacy, not mere bread and wine, but His Body and Blood. It is true, that Pope Innocent III (De Sacro altaris myst., IV, vi) before his elevation to the pontificate did hold the opinion, which later theologians branded as temerarious, that Christ consecrated without words by means of the mere benediction. Thus, too, the theory of Impanation advocated by Osiander and certain Berengarians, and according to which a hypostatic union is supposed to take place between the substance of the bread and the God-man (impanatio= Deus pans factus), is authoritatively rejected. Kimmel, Monum. Roman Catholic theology preserves the early understanding of the Eucharist as a sacrifice in its teaching on the mass, and it has firmly insisted that the mass repeats the rite that Jesus told his disciples to repeat. Moreover, we must not omit the very important circumstance, that one of the four narrators has interpreted his own account literally. For if, as has been seen above, Divine omnipotence can in a supernatural manner impart to a body such a spiritual, unextended, spatially uncircumscribed mode of presence, which is natural to the soul as regards the human body, one may well surmise the possibility of Christs Eucharistic Body being present in its entirety in the whole Host, and whole and entire in each part thereof. He then shared a cup of wine with his disciples and told them that this is the blood of my covenant, which is poured out for many. According to St. Luke, Jesus called on his followers to repeat the ceremony in his memory, and the letters of the Apostle Paul and the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament demonstrate that early Christians believed that they were to continue the celebration as an anticipation in this life of the joys of the banquet that was to come in the kingdom of God. The argument from tradition is strikingly confirmed by the ancient liturgies, whose touching and beautiful prayers express the idea of conversion in the clearest manner. It is true that in certain Anglican circles it was formerly the custom to appeal to the supposed poverty of the Aramaic tongue, which was spoken by Christ in the company of His Apostles; for it was maintained that no word could be found in this language corresponding to the concept to signify. Philosophy distinguishes two modes of presence in creatures: (I) the circumscriptive and (2) the definitive. Through the celebration of the Eucharist, we are joined to Christ's sacrifice and receive its inexhaustible benefits. It is the Church alone, the pillar and ground of truth, imbued with and directed by the Holy Spirit, that guarantees to her children through her infallible teaching the full and unadulterated revelation of God. praktische Quartalschrift, Linz, 1906, LIX, 95 sqq. After the Greek Patriarch Michael Caerularius of Constantinople had sought in 1053 to palliate the renewed rupture with Rome by means of the controversy concerning unleavened bread, the two Churches, in the Decree of Union at Florence, in 1439, came to the unanimous dogmatic decision, that the distinction between leavened and unleavened bread did not interfere with the confection of the sacrament, though for just reasons based upon the Churchs discipline and practice, the Latins were obliged to retain unleavened bread, while the Greeks still held on to the use of leavened (cf. De Augustinis, De re sacramentaria, Rome, 1889, II, 573 sqq.).

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The Western term transubstantiation occurs only in some confessions of faith after the 17th century. It only remains for us to ascertain with clearness the manner in which this preservative influence against relapse into mortal sin is exerted. XXI, cap. Eucharist, also called Holy Communion or Lords Supper, in Christianity, ritual commemoration of Jesus Last Supper with his disciples. Eventually the West became the classic home of scientific perfection in the difficult doctrine of Transubstantiation. In the early days of the Church the faithful frequently carried the Blessed Eucharist with them to their homes (cf. The vagaries of the Cartesians, however, went beyond all bounds. vii). A new impetus was given to the adoration of the Eucharist through the visits to the Blessed Sacrament (Visitatio SS. Furthermore, the intimate connection between the cessation of one extreme and the appearance of the other seems to be preserved by the fact, that both events are the results, not of two independent processes, as, e.g. This is deduced partly from the rite of the Passover, which required the head of the family to pass around the cup of benediction (calix benedictionis) containing the wine of grapes, partly, and especially, from the express declaration of Christ, that henceforth He would not drink of the fruit of the vine (genimen vitis). It is easy to prove that in the case of infants Holy Communion is not necessary to salvation, either as a means or as of precept. The Jews, moreover, were accustomed even the day before the fourteenth of Nisan to get rid of all the leaven which chanced to be in their dwellings, that so they might from that time on partake exclusively of the so-called mazzoth as bread. What is particularly important regarding material substances and their accidental qualities, is the necessity of proceeding cautiously in this discussion, since in the domain of natural philosophy the greatest uncertainty reigns even at the present day concerning the nature of matter, one system pulling down what another has reared, as is proved in the latest theories of atomism and energy, of ions and electrons. A similar purely psychological retrospective transfer is met with in other portions of the Liturgy, as in the Mass for the Dead, wherein the Church prays for the departed as if they were still upon their bed of agony and could still be rescued from the gates of hell. ii), according to the promise of Christ: He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up on the last day. Hence the chief reason why the ancient Fathers, as Ignatius (Ephes., 20), Irenaeus (Adv. Not many theologians, however, followed him in this regard, among the few being Ambrose Catharinus, Cheffontaines, and Hoppe, by far the greater number preferring to stand by the unanimous testimony of the Fathers. What we do particularly discover is a new proof of the reasonableness of the Catholic religion, from the circumstance that Jesus Christ in a wonderfully condescending manner responds to the natural craving of the human heart after a food which nourishes unto immortality, a craving expressed in many pagan religions, by dispensing to mankind His own Flesh and Blood.