Catholicism 102– Class #1
Introduction to The Eucharist
Marcel LeJeune
-The Hebrew people were liberated from slavery in Egypt. Every year they commemorate that event when they
celebrate the Passover.
-Exodus 12:43-51
-In the Passover, they express their identity as a people.
-Every time Jews celebrate Passover, the past events of the Exodus become present and real again.
-More than just a memorial.
-Past and the present are joined.
-Jesus was a Jew and observed Passover every year.
-The last supper meal includes (among other foods) unleavened bread and grape wine.
-He took that Passover meal and transformed it into something new.
-He fulfilled the old Passover and gave it a new meaning.
-Jesus is the sacrificial lamb/new covenant
-Luke 22:7-20 (Last Supper)
-Just as the Passover formed the Jewish identity, the Eucharist forms our Christian identity.
-This is our covenant with God.
-When Jesus said, “Do this in memory of me,” he did not MERELY mean a recollection of him.
-He was using memorial in the Biblical sense, where the celebration of the memorial is a PARTICIPATION in the
past event.
-Anamnesis-repeat of the one sacrifice
-To make present by re-membering
-What happened in the past is happening now
"I wish to add something that is plainly awe-inspiring, but do not be astonished or upset. This Sacrifice, no matter
who offers it, be it Peter or Paul, is always the same as that which Christ gave His disciples and which priests now
offer: The offering of today is in no way inferior to that which Christ offered, because it is not men who sanctify the
offering of today; it is the same Christ who sanctified His own. For just as the words which God spoke are the very
same as those which the priest now speaks, so too the oblation is the very same."
-St. John Chrysostom, "Homilies on the Second Epistle to Timothy," 2,4, c. 397 A.D.
-Eucharist is a sacrifice-re-presents (makes present)
Sacrifice is no longer bloody-still a sacrifice
-Altar is altar of sacrifice and table of the Lord
-The past event of the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross is made present.
-The saving power of that sacrifice of Christ is applied to us.
-Through this sacrifice, we renew our new covenant with the Father, through Christ’s blood.
-I Cor. 10:16-17
-We, also, as members of the Church, are members of the Body of Christ.
-So, in the Eucharist, we also offer our lives, our praise, our sufferings, our prayer, and our work. These all acquire
new value, because they are united with those of Christ, in his total offering of himself to the Father.
-We totally offer ourselves to God the Father.
How does this happen?
- Remember that God is all-powerful.
- It happens through the power of God’s Word and God’s Spirit.
- In the Mass, the priest prays (epiclesis): “Let your Spirit come upon these gifts and make them holy, so
that they may become for us the sacred Body and Blood of your Son.” The Spirit makes it possible.
- Jesus commanded his apostles to do this. He said, “Do this in memory of me.” He must have intended
to make it possible, because he never commands us to do the impossible.
What happens?
-bread and wine become the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ.
-Form of bread and wine
-Think of a wooden chair
Form is chair
Substance is wood
cut it, paint it, it is still wood
-Eucharist-form stays the same, but the substance is changed-body and blood
-Christ is present in many ways in our world, but the MODE of Christ’s PRESENCE in the Eucharist is UNIQUE.
It is a substantial presence in which Jesus Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present.
-We call this the REAL PRESENCE.
TRANSUBSTANTIATION:
-The bread and wine continue to have the same ACCIDENTAL properties of bread and wine (taste, feel, smell, size,
shape).
-But their SUBSTANCE, their true identity, changes to become the Body and Blood of Christ.
-This change happens at the consecration in the Mass, and it continues as long as the appearance of bread and wine
remains.
Type of Change
Example
Accidents
(Appearance)
Substance
(Essence)
Natural Accidental
Natural Substantial
Supernatural Accidental
Supernatural Substantial
Water to Ice or Steam
Metabolism of Food
Miracle of Loaves Matt 14:19
Transubstantiation
Changed
Changed
Changed (Quantity)
Same
Same
Changed
Same
Changed
This teaching of the Church has been a CONSTANT teaching since the time of Christ.
The early Patristic writers clearly taught the Real Presence.
St. Justin Martyr, (155 A.D)
“We call this food Eucharist; and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes…and has been
washed in the washing which is for the remission of sins…For not as common bread nor common drink do we
receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and
blood for our salvation, so, too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the
Eucharistic prayer…is both flesh and blood of that incarnated Jesus.”
The Didache – (circa 120 ad) -Ch. 9:5
"Let no one eat and drink of your Eucharist but those baptized in the name of the Lord; to this, too the saying of the
Lord is applicable: 'Do not give to dogs what is sacred'".
Ignatius of Antioch "Letter to the Smyrnaeans", paragraph 6. circa 80-110 A.D.
"Consider how contrary to the mind of God are the heterodox in regard to the grace of God which has come to us.
They have no regard for charity, none for the widow, the orphan, the oppressed, none for the man in prison, the
hungry or the thirsty. They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not admit that the
Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, the flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father, in His
graciousness, raised from the dead."
St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, 180 A.D.:
[Christ] has declared the cup, a part of creation, to be his own Blood, from which he causes our blood to flow; and
the bread, a part of creation, he has established as his own Body, from which he gives increase to our bodies."
Clement of Alexandria-"The Instructor of the Children" [1,6,41,3] ante 202 A.D.. ,
"The Word is everything to a child: both Father and Mother, both Instructor and Nurse. 'Eat My Flesh,' He says,
'and drink My Blood.' The Lord supplies us with these intimate nutrients. He delivers over His Flesh, and pours out
His Blood; and nothing is lacking for the growth of His children. O incredible mystery!",
The Effects of Receiving the Eucharist:
1 - It increases our union with Christ and with one another
As we all partake-one bread one cup
2 - It is an experience of the Holy Trinity.
-God’ intervention in human history was to bring us into union with himself. He does that in Christ, through the
Holy Spirit.
-This is realized in the Eucharist.
-St. Cyril of Alexandria said in the early 5th century: “As two pieces of wax fused together make one, so he who
receives Holy Communion is so united with Christ that Christ is in him and he is in Christ.”
-We can say, with St. Paul in Gal. 2:20, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
3 - It sanctifies us: it forgives and cleanses us of our venial sins.
-It strengthens us to help us not to commit future mortal sins.
4 - It unites us in the Mystical Body of Christ.
-I Cor. 10:17 “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one
bread.”
5 - It is a foretaste of the banquet feast of Heaven.
The Eucharist is the “source and summit” of the life of the Church.
SCRIPTURE
This is my Body... this is my Blood.
Matthew 26: 26-27, Mark 14: 22-24, Luke 22: 19-20,
1st Corinthians 11: 24-25
Sinning against the Body and the Blood.
1st Corinthians 11: 26-30
The Bread of Life discourse
John 6: 32-58
Melchizedek and his sacrifice.
Genesis 14: 18, Psalm 110: 4, Hebrews 7: 1-17
The Christian community devoted themselves
to the Eucharist (“the breaking of bread.”)
Acts 2: 42
Symbolic interpretation of John 6 wrong.
Psalm 14: 4, Psalm 53: 4, Isaiah 9: 18-20, Isaiah 49: 26,
Micah 3: 2-3, Revelation 17: 6, 16.
The Paschal Lamb must be eaten.
Exodus 12: 8, 46
Jesus is the Paschal Lamb, the Lamb of God.
John 1: 29, 1st Corinthians 5: 7
Instances of Jesus using food as a symbol.
John 4: 31-34, Matthew 16: 5-12