Eucharist as Communion
A Holy and Living Sacrifice:
The Eucharist in Christian Perspective by: Ernest Falardeau
We believe and profess our faith in the Triune God which is in the
Christian doctrine. Christians are communion with Christ and through him we are
in communion with God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). Each person in the Trinity
is distinct and yet divine in nature.
Christ’s coming, of his sacrifice and of the Eucharist is to share the life
of the Father. The bread of life gives us a deeper share in the life of Christ,
as Christ shares the life of the Father, so shall we if we have faith and share
the Eucharist. The life of Jesus is shared through baptism, and it is nourished
through the Eucharist. Communion is at the heart of Eucharistic mystery. In
first Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 develop the image of the body of Christ of
which Christians are members: you are the body of Christ the unity and
diversity in the body of Christ building up the Church with different gifts and
ministries of each Christian member. The Eucharist is a constant reminder of
the self-giving of Jesus Christ. It is a call for our self-giving to others
too. We are the body of Christ therefore, we are the extension in time and
history of what Jesus was at the beginning, the revelation of God’s
self-giving. He gave his life as a proof that “greater love than this no one
has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends (Jn
15:13). To celebrate the Eucharist is to
renew our covenant with God that we will live the Christ-life. The Eucharistic
sacrifice is both recalling and a celebration of life as self-giving.” It is
more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). Greater love than this, no
one has, that one lay down one’s life for the life of one’s friends” (Jn
15:13).
Therefore, Jesus in the Eucharist offers himself as a sacrifice for the
sake of all and for the forgiveness of our sins. The Eucharist unites us in the prayer of
Jesus for the unity of all who believe in him. It unites us in his eternal offering
to the Father for the salvation of all.
Eucharist as the Source of
Christian Life
Encyclical Letter “Ecclesia de
Eucharistia on the Eucharist:
Life of theChurch,
John Paul emphatically declares, Eucharist is the source and summit of the
Christian life, for the most holy Eucharist contains the Church’s entire
spiritual wealth; Christ himself, our Passover and living bread. In this sense
the sacrament of matrimony and family is centered around and strengthened by
the celebration of the Eucharist. Hence, we should approach the Eucharist with
amazement and wonder. John Paul wants all the faithful to worship and promote
devotion to the mystery of the Eucharist. Since the glorified Christ is present
in the Eucharist in its fullest sense, it is worthy of receiving thanks and
worship. The Pope reminds us Jesus waits for us in this sacrament of love Let
us be generous with our time in going to meet him in adoration and in
contemplation. That is full of faith, ready to make reparation for the severe
faults and crimes of the world. May our adoration never cease, our dignity and
decorum as regards the sacrament of the Eucharist is a proof of our faith in
land love for Christ who is present in the consecrated forms of bread and wine.
In the pilgrim journey of the Church towards heavenly Jerusalem the
Eucharist stands as her confident hope. The Lord remains with us in the
Eucharistic form of bread and wine to enable us to shine with hope in the
world. This eschatological orientation of the Eucharist unites its participants
to the heavenly liturgy and to the saints and angels in heaven. The pope
elucidates the relationship between heavenly and earthly liturgy in this way;
the Eucharist is truly a glimpse of heaven appearing on earth. It is a glorious
ray of the heavenly Jerusalem which pierces the clouds of our history and
lights up our journey. This attempt of the pope to relate the sacrament of the
Eucharist to the eternal liturgy is very much conducive to the Oriental
Eucharistic celebration.
The Priesthood of the People of God
Life as Eucharist by Norman Pittenger
A priest is one who does thus mediate God and his people. Jesus Christ can
be and representative of God to man and man to God. The priesthood of Christ is
effectually present in the priesthood attribute to the Church. It is the body
of the living Christ. Christ is the head and we are his body. The priesthood of
Christ is wiling to share with his body is his own priesthood. The royal
priesthood of Christ according to Peter is the priesthood as the king. His
kingship is not after the fashion of earthly rulers but a suffering kingship
when he was crowned with thorns and hanging on the cross. The kingship of
Christ is found in perfect service. As St Augustine said, “to serve is to
reign’ therefore the priesthood of Christ shared in the royal priesthood which
is also the priesthood of service.
The priesthood of Christ shared to the Church, the member of his body who
participates in the ongoing life of the true body of Christ. The priesthood of
the laity, which is the priesthood of all believers, is also known as the
common priesthood. Now that the priesthood belong to each of us we participate
in the body of Christ our Lord and Saviour.
Now in the Eucharist, that the priestly work of Christ is remembered and
continued, although that act of worship is set in the context of a wider
mediatorial life and work in the world… the theology of the Eucharist helps us
to understand what the doctrine of atonement intends. The Eucharist God and man
are brought into union one with another, for it is in that Eucharistic rite
that Calvary is remembered or re-presented in a humanly performed the action,
and God and man are made one in the person of Christ himself who comes to dwell
in his people. Thus we both enter into and plead before God the Father the
already accomplished union of the God-head and manhood, as at the holy table we
offer “this sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving” and receive into ourselves
the life of the risen Lord.
Sacramentum Caritatis
The Eucharist, a Mystery to be Believed
The first part of the exhortation focus on the theological aspects of the
sacrament of the Eucharist and its celebration, draws our attention not so much
on the Eucharist as species, but more on the person with whom we enter into a
relationship by means of Eucharist. For Benedict XVI ‘in the Eucharist Jesus
does not give us a ‘thing’, but himself’ (#7), and this gift is part of the
divine plan of God who is trinity, so that we might experience the love of God
through our sharing in Christ’s body and
blood: the love of God for us manifest on the cross which becomes a supreme act
of love and deliverance of humankind from evil’ (#10). Eucharist both makes
this act of love present and also rejoices in that love. Furthermore, the
celebration of the Eucharist is far more than a ritualised drama of
remembrance, but the encounter of good conquering evil through Christ’s
definitive act of self-emptying love.
In this section, since the focus is how the Eucharist draws us into a
relationship with the person of the risen Christ, Benedict avoids any need to
reconsider doctrines about the change of bread and wine into Christ’s body and
blood. From the western theology about the Eucharist with the publication of
the Catechism of the Catholic Church, give emphasis on the relationship of the
Holy Spirit to the Sacrament, particularly to the role of the Spirit in the
transformation of the bread and wine. For him, the development of the liturgy
has been thanks to the Spirit who played ‘the decisive role’ (#12), and whose
presence is to be found in all aspects of the sacramental life of the Church
particularly in its liturgical celebrations.
The relationship of love with Christ that is found in Eucharist is also to
be seen in the Church that the Eucharist fosters. Because the celebration of
Eucharist is so important to the very nature and activity of the Church, that
the centre of the Church is the presence of love. Without this relationship the
Church suffers; with it, there is possibility of true unity and ecclesial
communion. Therefore, for whatever the particular differences that exists
between ecclesial groups, for Benedict the presence of the love of Christ at
the very heart the Church makes our dialogue with other groups essential. Our
celebration of the Eucharist cannot be truly an act of love if we use it to
emphasize our separatedness or distinctiveness. If it is not fundamentally an
act of love then it has no place within the activities of the body of Christ.
The Liturgy of
the Eucharist
The Eucharist
by Johannes H. Emminghaus
Liturgy of the Eucharist is the heart of the celebration of Mass. The great
meal instituted by Christ and his command to repeat what he had done the
actions with the bread and the cup (Lk 22:19; 1Cor 11:24) and these were to be
repeated in his memory. Christ’s action is a thanksgiving to God and also for
this meal. His words declare on these elements of meal to be himself, his body
and his blood. The memorial action which Christ orders the Church to repeat is
the thanksgiving that turns the bread and wine into his body and blood by the
power of the spirit, as well as the reception of these gifts. This is what
Christ left us a special kind of meal with full of meaning and done in a very
simple way. These gifts convey Christ as one sacrificed; through his body and
blood to be given and poured out for many for the salvation of souls and for
the forgiveness of our sins.
The Eucharist is also the sacrifice of the Church as what Jesus’ sacrifice
did on the cross but a participation in Christ’s sacrifice: “I appeal to you,
therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living
sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” (Rom 12:1). This cultic sacrifice of
praise which Christ offers and to which the concrete community unites in each
Mass is the summit and source of the Christian life of faith, hope and love. In
this way, Christians is clearly to be aware that the liturgy is but one of the
three self-actuations of the Church, and that it must be integrated with proclamation
and service.
Therefore, Eucharist is essentially both meal and the sacrifice of Christ
made present: that in form is a thanksgiving prayer over the elements of
food for eating. And this is an imitation of Christ’s action who took bread and
wine, gave thanks over them, and gave himself in them to those at table. At the
last supper Christ instituted the sacrifice and paschal meal by means of which
his sacrifice of the cross is made constantly present in the Church, whenever a
priest representing Christ the Lord, does what the Lord himself did and gave
his disciples to do in his memory. And so, the Church has made the entire
celebration of the Eucharistic liturgy consist of the following parts which
correspond to the words and action of Christ.
·
At
the preparation of the gifts, bread, wine, and water are brought to the altar:
that is, the elements which Christ took in his hands;
·
In
the Eucharistic prayer thanks are offered to God for the entire work of
salvation, and the gifts offered become the body and blood of Christ;
·
The
unity of the faithful is manifested by the breaking of the one bread, and in
Communion of the faithful receive the body and blood of the Lord just as the
apostles did from the hand of Christ himself (GI, no. 48).
References:
Benedict XVI (2007) Post- Synodal Exhortation
Sacramentum Caritatis on the Sacrament
of
Charity, Nairobi: Paulines.
Emminghaus, J.H., The Eucharist (Essence, Form,
Celebration), Collegeville Minnesota,
1988
Falardeau, E., A Holy and Living Sacrifice: The
Eucharist in Christian Perspective,
Collegeville,
Minnesota, 1996.
John Paul II (2003) Encyclical Letter “Ecclesia de
Eucharistia on the Eucharist: Life of theChurch, Nairobi: Paulines.
Pittenger, N., Life as Eucharist, Michigan, 1972
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