Eucharist

EUCHARIST

BASIC R.C. BELIEF From Greek eucharistia, giving thanks. In BIBLE CATECHISM(1967), John Kerstan writes, “Eucharist originally meant `Great Prayers of Thanksgiving and Adoration.’ Now Eucharist usually means `the object over which the Great Prayer of Thanksgiving, or the Eucharistic Prayer, is pronounced’, namely, the sacred Body and Blood of Jesus.” The term Eucharistic Sacrifice is used to denote the Mass, which is also called the Holy Mystery of the Eucharist.

POST VATICAN II In ecumenical dialogue with Protestants, progress toward unity is enhanced if the Protestants are liturgical, i.e., both parties are “eucharistic” communions.

CATHOLIC JOURNALS From THE CATHOLIC DIGEST, 9/78. “The great majority (of Christians), Catholic and Orthodox, have always believed that somehow the bread and wine became the actual blood of their Saviour.

“Recent theological discussions between Roman Catholics and other churches, especially the Anglicans and the Lutherans, have revealed a surprising consensus on the meaning of the Eucharist. All of the major denominations agree that the Eucharist is the central act of worship of the Church. Most Christians see the Eucharist as more than a simple memorial meal and affirm the doctrine of the real presence.

“Today a number of Anglican scholars recognize that the doctrine of transubstantiation was a sincere attempt to explain the “how” of the Eucharist according to Aristotlean philosophy.

“Lutherans . . . hold a strict belief in the real presence. The members of the Lutheran-Catholic dialogue recently argued that despite all remaining differences in the ways we speak and think of the eucharistic sacrifice and our Lord’s presence in his supper, we are no longer able to regard ourselves as divided in the one holy and apostolic faith on these two points.

“The Lutheran theology of the Eucharist is stated in the Augsburg Confession of 1530, `the true body and blood of Christ are truly present in the Supper under the form of bread and wine.’

“The Westminster Confession put it, `the partakers do then inwardly by faith, really and indeed, yet not carnally and corporally but spiritually, receive and feed upon Christ cruscified.’

“Worldwide, probably nine out of ten Christians belong to churches which believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.”