Talk #3 HOLY EUCHARIST:
REAL PRESENCE OF JESUS, FLESH & BLOOD

THE MASS

A MEMORIAL OF THE LORD’S SUPPER.

The mass, also known as the Eucharist and a memorial of the Lord’s Supper, repeats what happened at the Last Supper and allows us to enter into the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in Calvary. The term memorial in the Catholic understanding means a great deal more than “simply a memorial service”. Christ instructed the apostles, “Do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19; 1 Cor. 11:24-25). Do what? Celebrate this Last Supper, this new Passover of His Body and Blood, this sacrificial offering. And how? As a memorial.

The Jewish understanding of memorial was not simply to bring to mind a past event. It involved actually making present that past event. Thus, the past is not only remembered, but also relived i.e.. made present here and now in the celebration and we enter into the event of the sacrifice in Calvary. This is consistent with the Jewish tradition. The Jews celebrating Passover at the time of Jesus thought of themselves as one with their ancestors – as though they themselves had fled from Egypt. As one ancient Jewish commentator explained, “In every generation a man must so regard himself as if he came forth himself out of Egypt.” We now consider ourselves to have been delivered from our own Egypt (bondage from sin) and thus truly united in God’s covenant family. Just as the Jews really participated in their ancestors’ exodus through the Passover feast, Christians participate in the new exodus, Christ’s victorious death on the cross, through the new Passover, the Eucharist. The mystery of Christ’s “going to the Father” through His suffering, death, resurrection and ascension is called the “Paschal Mystery”. Through the mass, the sacrifice of Christ on the cross is perpetuated throughout the centuries until he should come again. The Church teaches that the Mass is the re-presentation of the sacrifice of Calvary, which also is invariably misunderstood by non-Catholics. The Catholic Church does not teach that the Mass is a re-crucifixion of Christ, who does not suffer and die again in the Mass. In the Mass, there is no real shedding of blood, no real death; but the separate consecration of the bread and wine symbolizes the separation of the body and blood of Christ and thus symbolizes his death upon the cross.

The Sacrifice of the Mass was prefigured in the Old Testament in which it was predicted that Christ would offer a true sacrifice to God in bread and wine – that he would use those elements. Mechizedek, the king of Salem and a priest, offered sacrifice under the form of bread and wine (Gen. 14:18). Psalm 110 predicted Christ would be a priest “according to the order of Mechizedek”, that is, offering a sacrifice of bread and wine. The prophet Malachi, after foretelling the rejection of the Jewish priesthood, predicted a new sacrifice would be offered in every place. “From the rising of the sun, even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles; and in every place there is a sacrifice and there is offered to my name a clean oblation.” (Malachi 1:10-11) Note that he speaks of one sacrifice, not many sacrifices, but one that is offered everywhere. Hebrews also stresses that the bloody sacrifices of animals in the Old Testament prefigured the bloody sacrifice of Christ for the remission of sin. (Heb. 9:11-28)

BA SACRIFICE, AN OFFERING OF OURSELVES

The Mass is also called a sacrifice because, as Vatican II explains, “Acting in the person of Christ, and proclaiming His mystery, they (priests) join the offering of the faithful to the sacrifice of their Head. . . .” (The Church, 28)

A dimension to the Mass sees in the gifts of bread and wine an offering of our own lives. These gifts, “which earth has given and human hands have made” (Offertory of the Mass), signify our daily struggles to put to death our own selfishness so that we might love as Christ loves.

Fundamentalists reject the Catholic teaching on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for two reasons. They claim that the Mass violates many passages in Hebrews that tell us Jesus was only sacrificed once, and that, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. (Heb. 9:22, 25, 28, 10:11-12). They think Catholics teach Jesus is sacrificed again at every Mass. They cite Catholic catechisms that teach that in the Mass Jesus is offered in an unbloody manner. They completely miss the context under which the book of Hebrew was written, i.e. the many sacrifices of the Old Testament religion, which could not atone for sin nor reconcile mankind to God since the one sacrifice of Christ alone did atone for all sins and reconcile mankind to God. Catholic doctrine affirms that the one death of Jesus broke the hold of sin. It is precisely from this one sacrificial death that the Lord’s Supper, and hence, the Mass, draws its significance. The Mass is celebrated because the Lord commanded us to remember him together by eating and drinking his Body and Blood (Luke 22:19; 1 Cor. 11:25). The Mass is therefore no mere ritualistic contrivance, invented by the Catholic Church to waste everyone’s time, but an obedient response to Christ’s final command.

C. A MEAL

The Passover sacrifice of the Paschal lamb and other sacrifices made in the Jewish Temple attest to the practice of having the sacrifice also as a meal. One of these sacrifices was the Zebah Todah in which a meal was shared with God. Part of the Zebah Todah sacrifice was burnt up at the altar, and part of it was given back to the offeror who then ate it with friends. Even in the Passover sacrifice, it was commanded that the lamb be consumed. Thus, anyone who considers the Mass a sacrifice and not a meal, or a meal and not a sacrifice, has lost touch with the Jewish roots of the mass. The meal is a sacrifice in the tradition of the Jewish Todah and the Passover meal. The Lord’s Supper, now celebrated in memory of Jesus at every Mass, turns our attention back to Calvary and forward to his ultimate coming. The last supper mysteriously anticipated Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary.

Eating is an affirmation of life. Every time we eat, we agree somewhere deep inside of ourselves to continue life. Eating together is even more significant, because it entails all kinds of consequences. It weaves you together with the people with whom you are sharing the meal. In a way, eating always has a symbolic meaning. You eat only with people you associate with in one way or another.

D. PARTS OF THE MASS.

The mass consists of two principal divisions: the Liturgy of the Word, which proclaims and explains God’s message to His people, and the Liturgy of the Eucharist, which focuses on the essential act of sacrifice in the Consecration and on the Eucharistic Banquet of Holy Communion.

1Liturgy of the Word:

At the beginning of the mass, the priest and the people prepare to enter into God’s presence by a common confession of unworthiness. This is followed by the “Kyrie Eleison” asking for God’s mercy and the singing or praying of “Glory to God in the Highest” which was sung by the angels on the first Christmas.

The Liturgy of the Word proper usually contains three lessons from the bible. The first of these is ordinarily taken from the Old Testament followed by the Responsorial Psalm that is intended to be a meditation of the Word of God. The second lesson is always taken from the New Testament and is usually from one of the Epistles. Then we have the reading of the Gospel selected from Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. The Gospel and the previous Scripture lessons are arranged on a three year cycle so that once every three years the entire Bible is proclaimed. After reading the Gospel, the celebrant may give a homily in which he elaborates, explains, and shows practical application of the Gospel message. The congregation then recites the Creed, which is the profession of faith in all that God has taught us. It is the summary of Christian Doctrine and our proclamation of belief in it. The prayers of petition of the people conclude the Liturgy of the Word. We have carefully listened to God’s message, we have professed faith in it, and we have asked God for mercy and help in fulfilling it.

2Liturgy of the Eucharist:

The Eucharistic part of the Mass begins with the Offertory, which is the offering of our lives in union with Christ to our heavenly Father. Typically, the Offertory is divided into two parts. In the first part, we are invited to make our offering of money for the work of the church. And in the second part, a few members of the church bring the gifts of bread and wine – as well as our offerings – up to the priest. Our offering of course is more than money. It is a symbol of our whole lives. We too were being taken to the altar and being offered to God as an “acceptable sacrifice.” As the priest offers the bread and wine to God, so do we offer ourselves. As water became one with wine, in like manner we would wish to be united with Christ. This is a way of prayer that transforms us and lifts us up. It changes us from spectators in the pews to an integral and necessary part of the whole celebration of the Mass. We can then become the very thing that we receive. We are transformed as we join ourselves to the offering upon the altar. In fact, the more fully we offer ourselves on the altar, the more fully we will experience God’s power and grace when we receive Communion.

The washing of the hands is symbolic of the purification of the soul, so that the priest may approach the great sacrifice without blemish.

The heart of every Mass is the Eucharistic Prayer. “Eucharist” means “thanksgiving.” In this prayer, we thank God for the blessing of salvation that has come to us through Jesus. During this prayer also, we recall the words and deeds of Jesus at the Last Supper when He gave us a living memorial of His redemption. Then the bread and wine is consecrated and we believe that the bread and wine truly become the glorified Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. In the Consecration, the celebrant repeats the very words of Jesus at the Last Supper as He blessed the bread, broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying “Take this and eat it, this is My Body.” He does the same thing in the consecration of the wine. We then pray for intercessions for the Church, for Communion with the saints, for all of us, and for our needs and for the deceased. The Eucharistic Prayer is concluded with the “doxology” (through Him, with Him, and in Him in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all honor and glory is Yours, almighty Father, forever and ever”) followed by the Great Amen considered as important for the laity as the words of consecration are for the priest.

The preparation for Holy Communion then begins with the Lord’s Prayer, our prayer for daily bread, for our Eucharistic bread and its fruits.

Then follows the “breaking of the bread”. In the New Testament, the name given to the Mass came from the rite of breaking bread. The first Christians had their communal life in the breaking of the bread. Acts 2:21 states – “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ instruction and the communal life, to the breaking of bread and the prayers”. The breaking of the bread is a sign that all, though many, were one loaf, one bread, one Body of Christ. The “Agnus Dei” is then sung and the celebrant uses the words first used by St. John the Baptizer: “Behold the Lamb of God; behold Him who takes away the sins of the world”. The congregation answers in a paraphrase the words of the humble centurion “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you but only say the word and I shall be healed.” During the Holy Communion, the priest or the lay minister declares: “The Body of Christ!” and “The Blood of Christ” and in both instances, each communicant replies: “Amen” professing his or her belief that the bread or the wine is truly the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Since our lives too have been offered, we too can become the very thing that we receive. But we are transformed only as we join ourselves to the offering upon the altar. In fact, the more fully we offer ourselves on the altar, the more fully we will experience God’s power and grace when we receive Communion.

At the end of the mass, the priest sends the congregation forth to live the spirit of the Lord: “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.”

As Jesus has offered Himself for us, forgiven us, restored us to the grace of the Father, so now we resolve that we shall be the light of the world and the salt of the earth; that we shall lead all men to Him by our lives of sacrificial love.

During the mass, our physical senses are constantly being engaged. We sit, kneel, and stand. We sing, pray out loud, and embrace one another. God wants to work in us during the mass in ways that involve our bodies and our spirits equally. Many spiritual realities are given bodily expression at Mass.

THE HOLY EUCHARIST

The greatest treasure in the Catholic Church is the Eucharist. In it, Jesus humbly assumes the appearance of bread and wine proving his desire to be with us always and never to be separated bodily from us. The Eucharist is the heart of the Catholic faith. The new Catechism of the Catholic Church calls the Eucharist the “source and summit of the Christian life” and the “sum and the summary of our faith”. (CCC, 1324 and 1327). Why? Because the Eucharist is both the origin and the end of that supernatural reality which is the point of everything in the Catholic religion. That reality consists in participating in the very life of God. The Eucharist is the most intimate union between us.

It is alarming, however, that in the 1992 Gallup poll, the majority of Catholics are confused in their beliefs about Christ’s presence in the Eucharist. Nearly 70% of all Catholics in this country hold erroneous beliefs about Christ’s presence in the Eucharist!

29% believe they are receiving the bread and wine that symbolize the body and blood of Christ (which is the predominant Protestant belief!).

10% believe they receive bread and wine in which Jesus is also present (which is Luther’s position called “consubstantiation” or “with” or “alongside” the substance of bread and wine).

24% believe they are receiving what has become Christ’s body and blood because of their personal belief (holding of some other Protestants like the Calvinists).

Only 30% believe they are really and truly receiving the body, blood, soul and divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ!

There are three (3) different ways by which Jesus can be present:

He is present everywhere as God (omnipresent).

He is present spiritually in those who are in the state of grace.

He is present in his flesh and blood in the Eucharist.

The presence of God in His Word is a true presence, of course, but qualitatively different from Christ’s Presence in the Eucharist. Christ’s presence in the Eucharist is sacramental but still physical (although not in the normal sense of the word) in that it is a material presence. Pope Paul VI explained this in Mysterium Fidei no.46, stating that “Christ is present whole and entire in His physical ‘reality,’ corporeally present, although not in the manner in which bodies are in place.” In his glorified human body, Jesus is present only in two places: at the right hand of the Father in heaven, and in the Holy Eucharist on earth.

ICATHOLIC TEACHING ABOUT THE EUCHARIST

The Church has always taught from the very beginning Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The early Church Fathers, our link to early Christianity, testify to this teaching as follows:

1. St. Ignatius of Antioch, a disciple and contemporary of the Apostle John, wrote around 110 A.D. : “I desire the Bread of God, which is the Flesh of Jesus Christ . . . and for drink I desire His Blood, which is love incorruptible”.

2. St. Justin Martyr wrote in his apology to the emperor at Rome (around 150 A.D.): “We call this food Eucharist; and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true . . . 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 set down by Him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nourished, is both the Flesh and the Blood of that incarnated Jesus.”