International Catholic University
I. Essence of the Eucharist: Sacrifice, Presence, Meal
A. Eucharistic Sacrifice
1. Protestant Reformers objection: all-sufficiency of Calvary
2. Early Patristic evidence
a. 1 Clem 44 bishops are "men who have offered the sacrifices with innocence and holiness." (95 AD)
b. Didache 14 "On every Lord's Day--his special day--come together and break bread and give thanks, first confessing your sins so that your sacrifice may be pure. Anyone at variance with his neighbor must not join you, until they are reconciled, lest your sacrifice be defiled. For it was of this sacrifice that the Lord said, 'Always and everywhere offer me a pure sacrifice.' [Mal 1:11]" (early 2nd, late 1st century)
3. Trent (Neuner-Dupuis, CF [5th ed.] 467-472)
a. it is a sacrifice of praise, but not merely this
b. not repetition but re-presentation of the one sacrifice of the cross; applying its power (cf. CCC 1366)
c. unbloody sacrifice: same sacrifice as on cross offered differently
d. propitiatory sacrifice: has power to remit sins, intercessory power for living and dead, those present and those absent
e. Mal 1:11; 1 Cor 10:21 table/altar; prefiguration of OT sacrifices
4. Vatican II & Catechism of the Catholic Church on Sacrifice: 3 aspects
a. Sacrifice of praise for creation & redemption
(1) Ps 50:23 "he that offers a sacrifice of praise glorifies me"
(2) CCC 1359-61
b. Sacrifice of Christ the Head made present again
(1) "Christ's death on the cross is thus the ultimate consequence of, and the symbol that brings to fulfillment, his lifelong obedient dedication to the Father's will; this lifelong self-giving is his real 'sacrifice of his life' [Heb 10:5-7 citing Ps 40: 7-9]." Emminghaus, xxi.
(2) not repetition but re-presentation
c. Sacrifice of the members of Christ's Body with Christ their head
(1) act of priesthood of the laity & ministerial priesthood
(2) 1 Pet 2:5 "You too are living stones built as an edifice of spirit, into a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." NAB
(3) 2 Tim 4:6-7 "I for my part am already being poured out like a libation. The time of my dissolution is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." NAB
(4) Col 1:24 "Even now I find my joy in the suffering I endure for you. In my own flesh I fill up what is lacking in the suffering of Christ for the sake of his body, the Church." Origin of the idea of "offering up" one's sufferings. Cf. Ignatius of Antioch's understanding of his impending martyrdom-a sacrifice for the church.
(5) Every Eucharist is an "altar call"; Mass as renewal of baptism. Ro 12:1-2. "I appeal to you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."
(6) SC 48: laity at Mass should not be "silent spectators:" "Offering the immaculate victim, not only through the hands of the priest but also together with him, they should learn to offer themselves."
(7) it is this self-giving that is primarily what SC and GIRM have in mind when they call for conscious, full, active participation. "Only secondarily does the participation involve the proper execution of rites." Emminghaus, xxii.
(8) "For besides intimately linking them to His life and His mission, He also gives them a sharing in His priestly function of offering spiritual worship for the glory of God and the salvation of men. For this reason the laity, dedicated to Christ and anointed by the Holy Spirit, are marvelously called and wonderfully prepared so that ever more abundant fruits of the Spirit may be produced in them. For all their works, prayers and apostolic endeavors, their ordinary married and family life, their daily occupations, their physical and mental relaxation, if carried out in the Spirit, and even the hardships of life, if patiently borne-all these become 'spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ'. Together with the offering of the Lord's body, they are most fittingly offered in the celebration of the Eucharist. Thus, as those everywhere who adore in holy activity, the laity consecrate the world itself to God." LG 34
d. Conclusion & Summary: Mass is the Sacrifice of the Whole Christ (Totus Christus), Head & Members CCC 1367-8
B. "Real Presence" of Christ's Body & Blood
1. We must distinguish between different kinds of "real presence"
a. Of his divinity: creation
b. Of his divine grace: salvation. Indwelling all the justified
c. Of his whole self, humanity as well as divinity (eucharistic presence). CCC 1374; MF 39
2. New Testament
a. 1 Cor 11:17-34 Earliest institution account (ca. 56 AD)
b. Synoptics Mk 14:24-26 (Mat 26:26-30); Lk 22:14-20
c. John 6:52-58 "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drinkhis blood, you have no life within you."
d. Lk 24: Emmaus account, Jesus recognized in breaking of bread
e. 3 bodies of Christ (or modes by which the body is present)
(1) natural or physical at the right hand of the Father (local)
(2) ecclesial (the Church)
(3) Eucharistic (sacramental). This originally was called the "mystical body." Switched to the church after 11th century.
3. Early Patristic Witnesses
a. Ignatius of Antioch, Symr 7:1 "they [Docetists] hold aloof from the Eucharist and from services of prayer, because they refuse to admit that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins and which, in his goodness, the Father raised [from the dead]. Consequently those who wrangle and dispute God's gift face death." (ca. 110 AD)
b. Justin 1 Apol 66 (Emminghaus, p. 36) ca. 155 AD: "For we do not receive these things as common bread or common drink; but as JC our Saviour being incarnate by God's word took flesh and blood for our salvation, so also we have been taught that the food consecrated by the word of prayer which comes from him, from which our flesh and blood are nourished by transformation, is the flesh and blood of that incarnate Jesus."
c. implicit and unquestioned for 1000 years. Simple identity without explanation; the 3 bodies understood together, as rather inseparable
4. Medieval controversies: Berengarius (11th century)
a. in figura & in veritas
b. explicit: Council of Rome 1079: substantial change CF #1501. "The eucharistic signs are no mere signs but Christ present by a change of substance."
c. Danger of ultra-realism: don't chew the host. Jesus lives in tabernacle.
5. Aquinas & Substantial Change (transubstantiation) see w 64.
a. 4th Lateran Council (1215, before Aquinas born) first official use of the noun "transubstantiation."CF 1505. Pope Innocent III had used the verb form "transubstantiated" (transubstantiavit) in a letter to the former bishop of Lyon in 1202. CF 1502.
b. Thomas: uses Aristotelian framework substance & accidents. Substantia: that which "stands under" appearences.
c. difference between natural & sacramental modes of presence
d. "conversion of the whole substance": sudden change. Ontological. Metaphysical rather than physical. Eg., makeover is merely accidental
e. Sacrament of sacraments: Christ gives not just his grace but himself
f. 2nd Council of Lyon, 1274 CF 28
g. Must distinguish between what is present (the entire reality of Christ's physical body) and how it is present (not according to a natural, physical, local modality, but according to a sacramental modality).
6. Reformers: all denied transubstantiation (& misunderstood it)
a. Ulrich Zwingli: (founder of Reformed Tradition, Zurich)
(1) mere (empty) symbol: problem of local presence. Symbolic reminder of something absent.
(2) "That the body of Christ, that is his natural body in essence and reality, is either present in the supper or eaten with our mouth & teeth . . . we not only deny but firmly maintain to be an error." Cited by G. R. Potter, Huldrych Zwingli NY: St. Martin's Press, 1977, 108.
b. Martin Luther's theory
(1) known as Consubstantiation. One of his disciples, Oseander, explained it as "impanation" like "incarnation"
(2) "the bread and wine are not changed into the body and blood of Jesus but there is a most intimate union between them while they are given and received in the sacrament." Luther's Small Catechism (Mankato, MN: Luther Synod Book Co., 1966), 214.
(3) Luther taught that Christ's presence in the eucharist was lasting & allowed adoration. See his 1523 work The Adoration of the sacrament, trans Abdel Ross Wentz in Luthers Works vol 36, Word & Sacrament II (Philadelphia: fortress, 1959) 275-305.
c. Philip Melanchthon: not abiding presence, no reservation
d. John Calvin: virtual presence of Christ (by virtue of his power, grace). See Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Bk 4, chap 17.
e. Bibliography: for more on the Reformers eucharistic teaching, see Y. Brilioth, Eucharistic Faith and Practice: Evangelical and Catholic. Course bibliography, p. 13.
7. Trent (see Neuner-Dupuis, The Christian Faith)
a. Christ is: "truly, really and substantially contained" under appearances of bread & wine. CF #1513. CCC 1374
b. distinguishes natural mode of existence of Christ's body and sacramental mode of presence to us in the sacrament CF #1513.
c. Augustine: "the Euch is a symbol of a sacred thing" cited by Trent in CF #1516. Not a local presence: "We can hardly find words to express this way of existing."
d. meaning of Eucharist: spiritual food, remedy for sin, pledge of future glory, symbol of the unity of the Lord's ecclesial body. CF # 1515
e. body, blood, soul, divinity present under each species (yet Vat II teaches that communion under 2 forms a better sign) CF #1517
f. "not merely the power of his grace but in the reality of his glorified humanity" CF, p. 447.
g. permanent presence: reservation, exposition, processions CF #1521 (CCC 1378-9)
h. worshiped with latreia (adoration reserved for God alone) CF 1520
i. Spiritual communion: CF 1523. See CCC 1108.
8. Vatican II & Subsequent Magisteium on Eucharistic Presence
a. At least 4 ways (modes) Christ is truly (really) present in the Mass with the last being most special (SC 7)
b. "by the power of his word and the Holy Spirit" CCC 1375
c. "transubstantiation" CCC 1376. Paul VI Mysterium Fidei insists that Christ's full physical reality is present. Transignification true, but not adequate to describe what goes on.
d. Real presence orientated toward communion: meal
e. Fruits of Communion
9. Importance of Subjective Dispositions
a. SC 11 "In order that the liturgy may be able to produce its full effects it is necessary that the faithful come to it with proper dispositions, that their minds be attuned to their voices, and that they cooperate with heavenly grace lest they receive it in vain."
b. CCC 1128 despite ex opere operato, "the fruits of the sacraments also depend on the disposition of the one who receives them."
c. come few minutes early, make act of faith, recollect, read readings, pray in the car on the way
d. Maronite Prayer: "Make us worthy, O Lord God, to sanctify our bodies with your holy body and to purify our souls with your forgiving blood. May our communion be for the forgiveness of our sins and for eternal life. O Lord our God, to you be glory."