why is the eucharist the most important sacrament

Therefore it is that spiritual writers recommend frequent Communion as the most effective remedy against impurity, since its powerful influence is felt even after other means have proved unavailing (cf.

In the first sense a thing or action is necessary because without it a given end cannot be attained; the eye, e.g.

Were the Greeks justified in maintaining this position, the immediate result would be, that the Latins who have no such thing as the Epiklesis in their present Liturgy, would possess neither the true Sacrifice of the Mass nor the Holy Eucharist. After the Second Vatican Council (196265), the form of the A second explanation is based, not upon the enacted Consecration, but upon the approaching Communion, inasmuch as the latter, being the effective means of uniting us more closely in the organized body of the Church, brings forth in our hearts the mystical Christ, as is read in the Roman Canon of the Mass: Ut nobis corpus et sanguis fiat, i.e.

Such a numerical identity could well have been denied by Ratramnus, Rabanus Maurus, Ratherius, Lanfranc, and others, since even nowadays a true, though accidental, distinction between the sacramental and the natural condition of Christs Body must be rigorously maintained. Since the Schismatics had before the Council of Florence entertained doubts as to the validity of the Latin custom, a brief defense of the use of unleavened bread will not be out of place here. The Churchs Magna Charta, however, are the words of Institution, This is my bodythis is my blood, whose literal meaning she has uninterruptedly adhered to from the earliest times. If it be true that a few Catholic theologians (as Cajetan, Ruardus Tapper, Johann Hessel, and the elder Jansenius) preferred the figurative interpretation, it was merely for controversial reasons, because in their perplexity they imagined that otherwise the claims of the Hussite and Protestant Utraquists for the partaking of the Chalice by the laity could not be answered by argument from Scripture.

While Roman Catholic theology maintains that the recitation of the words of institution (This is my Body and This is my Blood) constitutes the Eucharist as a sacrament, Eastern theology has taught that the invocation of the Holy Spirit upon the elements (Greek epiklsis) is part of the essential form of the Eucharist.

earn., viii) as well as later patristic writers, insisted so strongly upon our future resurrection, was the circumstance that it is the door by which we enter upon unending happiness. the coexistence of the substance of the bread with the true Body of Christ. Since in the process of corruption those elementary substances return which correspond to the peculiar nature of the changed accidents, the law of the indestructibility of matter, notwithstanding the miracle of the Eucharistic conversion, remains in force without any interruption.

It is consecrated

Against the Greeks it suffices to call attention to the historical fact that in the Orient the Maronites and Armenians have used unleavened bread from time immemorial, and that according to Origen (In Matt., XII, n. 6) the people of the East sometimes, therefore not as a rule, made use of leavened bread in their Liturgy.

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In St. Thomass time (III, Q. lxxxii, a.

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1), that the idea is to be rejected as unbecoming, as though the Body of Christ, in addition to its own accidents, should also assume those of bread and wine.

It is not only that God became man to redeem the world by His death on Calvary.

WebThey are the Sacraments of Initiation (Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist), the Sacraments of Healing (Penance and the Anointing of the Sick), and the Sacraments at the Service of Communion (Marriage and Holy Orders).

By the very fact that the Eucharistic mystery does transcend reason, no rationalistic explanation of it, based on a merely natural hypothesis and seeking to comprehend one of the sublimest truths of the Christian religion as the spontaneous conclusion of logical processes, may be attempted by a Catholic theologian. In the early Church, the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament was restricted chiefly to Mass and Communion, just as it is today among the Orientals and the Greeks. viii; Sess.

Council of Trent, Sess.

3-73) succeeded in producing no less than forty Syriac expressions conveying the meaning of to signify and thus effectually exploded the myth of the Semitic tongues limited vocabulary. Both ideas are often verified in one and the same effect of Holy Communion.

The custom of the annual Corpus Christi procession was warmly defended and recommended by the Council of Trent (Sess.

Rising as it were out of a dense fog and laboring to take on a definite form, the incomplete eschatological explanation would make the Eucharist a mere anticipation of the future heavenly banquet.

Eccl., VI, xliv).

viii). The third and the sharpest controversy was that opened by the Reformation in the sixteenth century, in regard to which it must be remarked that Luther was the only one among the Reformers who still clung to the old Catholic doctrine, and, though subjecting it to manifold misrepresentations, defended it most tenaciously. and, especially, from the words of Institution as recorded in the Synoptics and St. Paul (I Cor., xi, 23 sqq.).

Since according to St. Pauls teaching (Rom., viii, 1) there is no condemnation for those who have been baptized, every child that dies in its baptismal innocence, even without Communion, must go straight to heaven.

Therefore the above-mentioned appositional phrases directly exclude every possibility of a figurative interpretation.

lxxxii (lxxxiii), in Matt., 1 sqq.

Thus considered, the Epiklesis refers us back to the Consecration as the center about which all the significance contained in its words revolves. The Eucharist is a portrayal of the Last Supper; or the last meal that Jesus Christ had with his disciples before he was taken away, and later crucified.

For such a necessity could be established only on the supposition that Communion per se constituted a person in the state of grace or that this state could not be preserved without Communion.

iii) rightly raised this truth to the dignity of a dogma.

Even the above-mentioned separability of quantity from substance gives us no clue to the solution, since according to the best-founded opinions not only the substance of Christs Body, but by His own wise arrangement, its corporeal quantity, i.e.

By the modal accidents were understood such as could not, being mere modes, be separated from their substance without involving a meta-physical contradiction, e.g. Fellowship meals continued in association with the postapostolic Eucharist, as is shown in the Didach (a Christian document concerned with worship and church discipline written c. 100c.

Were the words of Institution a mere declarative utterance of the conversion, which might have taken place in the benediction unannounced and articulately unexpressed, the Apostles and their successors would, according to Christs example and mandate, have been obliged to consecrate in this mute manner also, a consequence which is altogether at variance with the deposit of faith.

Emery, Paris, 1811), expressed the opinion, that the identity of Christs Eucharistic with His Heavenly Body was preserved by the identity of His Soul, which animated all the Eucharistic Bodies. vi).

Those accidents were designated absolute, whose objective reality was adequately distinct from the reality of their substance, in such a way that no intrinsic repugnance was involved in their separability, as, e.g., the quantity of a body.

Even in his time Cyril of Jerusalem insisted just as strongly as did Ambrose and Augustine on an attitude of adoration and homage during Holy Communion (cf. The second food, that offered by the Heavenly Father, is the bread of heaven, which He dispenses hic et nunc to the Jews for their spiritual nourishment, inasmuch as by reason of the Incarnation He holds up His Son to them as the object of their faith.

with the permission of the bishop or priest.

Transubstantiation, however, is not a conversion simply so called, but a substantial conversion (conversio substantialis), inasmuch as one thing is sub stantially or essentially converted into another.

Lucifer., n. 21), that for want of celebrants they no longer retained the Eucharist. XIII, can. ii).

Such language, of course, could be used only by a God-man; so that belief in the Real Presence necessarily presupposes belief in the true Divinity of Christ.

It is clear that the earliest Christians regularly enacted the Eucharist.

The reason the physicality of the sacrament is important is because, in the action itself, we witness to our heart of faith.

They continue to hold a deep spiritual significance for Christians around the world.

The first view considers the Epiklesis to be a mere declaration of the fact, that the conversion has already taken place, and that in the conversion just as essential a part is to be attributed to the Holy Spirit as Co-Consecrator as in the allied mystery of the Incarnation. v, n. 21) obliged communicants to observe the most scrupulous care in conveying the Sacred Host to their mouths, so that not even a crumb, more precious than gold or jewels, might fall from their hands to the ground; how Caesarius of Arles taught that there is just as much in the small fragment as in the whole; how the different liturgies assert the abiding integrity of the indivisible Lamb, in spite of the division of the Host; and, finally, how in actual practice the faithful partook of the broken particles of the Sacred Host and drank in common from the same cup. XXIII, can. A new impetus was given to the adoration of the Eucharist through the visits to the Blessed Sacrament (Visitatio SS. Nothing hinders our interpreting the first part [John, vi, 26-48 (51)] metaphorically and understanding by bread of heaven Christ Himself as the object of faith, to be received in a figurative sense as a spiritual food by the mouth of faith. Is., xlix, 26; Apoc., xvi, 6); but, in the present text, this interpretation is just as impossible here as in the phrase, to eat some ones flesh.

the accidents of bread do remain without a subject. Just as material food banishes minor bodily weaknesses and preserves mans physical strength from being impaired, so does this food of our souls remove our lesser spiritual ailments and preserve us from spiritual death.

This again is a purely arbitrary explanation, an invention, unsupported by any objective foundation. This is St. Paul (I Cor., xi, 27 sq.

The necessity of wheaten bread is deduced immediately from the words of Institution: The Lord took bread (ton arton), in connection with which it may be remarked, that in Scripture bread (artos), without any qualifying addition, always signifies wheaten bread.

As regards the philosophical possibility of the accidents existing without their substance, the older school drew a fine distinction between modal and absolute accidents.

If the act of conversion is not to become a mere process of substitution, as in sleight-of-hand performances, the terminus ad quem must unquestionably in some manner newly exist, just as the terminus a quo must in some manner really cease to exist. On this last truth are based especially the permissibility and intrinsic propriety of Communion only under one kind for the laity and for priests not celebrating Mass (see Communion under Both Kinds).

This picture is my father).

We reach the same conclusion from a consideration of the concomitant circumstances, taking into account both the hearers and the Institutor.

The species undoubtedly belong to the essence of the sacrament, since it is by means of them, and not by means of the invisible Body of Christ, that the Eucharist possesses the outward sign of the sacrament. the Transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor).

Scripturally considered, the necessity of a special priesthood with the power of validly consecrating is derived from the fact that Christ did not address the words, Do this, to the whole mass of the laity, but exclusively to the Apostles and their successors in the priesthood; hence the latter alone can validly consecrate.

Communion is the anticipation of the coming glory of heaven.

For if, as has been seen above, Divine omnipotence can in a supernatural manner impart to a body such a spiritual, unextended, spatially uncircumscribed mode of presence, which is natural to the soul as regards the human body, one may well surmise the possibility of Christs Eucharistic Body being present in its entirety in the whole Host, and whole and entire in each part thereof.

There is, furthermore, a fourth kind of multilocation, which, however, has not been realized in the Eucharist, but would be, if Christs Body were present in its natural mode of existence both in heaven and on earth.

It brings salvation to the soul.

The rite is the memorial of the original sacrifice of Christ. The contention that the words of the Epiklesis have a joint essential value and constitute the partial form of the sacrament, was indeed supported by individual Latin theologians, as Toute, Renaudot, and Lebrun. Originally, the rite was a repetition of the common meal of the local group of disciples with the addition of the bread and the cup signifying the presence of Jesus. It only remains for us to ascertain with clearness the manner in which this preservative influence against relapse into mortal sin is exerted.

Not many theologians, however, followed him in this regard, among the few being Ambrose Catharinus, Cheffontaines, and Hoppe, by far the greater number preferring to stand by the unanimous testimony of the Fathers. 2. Regarding tradition, the earliest witnesses, as Tertullian and Cyprian, could hardly have given any particular consideration to the genetic relation of the natural elements of bread and wine to the Body and Blood of Christ, or to the manner in which the former were converted into the latter; for even Augustine was deprived of a clear conception of Transubstantiation, so long as he was held in the bonds of Platonism. Tertullian, Ad uxor., II, v; Cyprian, De lapsis, xxvi) or upon long journeys (Ambrose, De excessu fratris, I, 43, 46), while the deacons were accustomed to take the Blessed Sacrament to those who did not attend Divine service (cf. haer., V, ii, 3), Gregory of Nyssa (Or.

The old covenant was given by God to Israel when he While from Scripture we may only judge it improbable that Christ consecrated separately each particle of the bread He had broken, we know with certainty, on the other hand, that He blessed the entire contents of the Chalice and then gave it to His disciples to be partaken of distributively (cf. xlix), in which were received the Sacred Hosts that had been consecrated one or more days previously. When we participate in communion, we are receiving the flesh and blood of Jesus in the form of bread and wine.

Synod of Agde (506), c. xviii]. The Precious Blood was in early times received directly from the Chalice, but in Rome the practice after the eighth century, was to receive it through a small tube (fistula); at present this is observed only in the popes Mass. Concil., XXXI 106). iii). All Christians would agree that it is a memorial action in which, by eating bread and drinking wine (or, for some Protestants, grape juice or water), the church recalls what Jesus Christ was, said, and did.

Funk, Der Kommunionritus in his Kirchengeschichtl.

This condition excludes not only irrational animals, but angels also; for neither possess human souls, which alone can be nourished by this food unto eternal life. For all these reasons, theologians consider the physical reality of the accidents as an incontrovertible truth, which cannot without temerity be called in question.

Through the celebration of the Eucharist, we are joined to Christ's sacrifice and receive its inexhaustible benefits. XIII, can.

No doubt this last conclusion directs the attention of philosophical and scientific inquiry to a mode of existence peculiar to the Eucharistic Body, which is contrary to the ordinary laws of experience.

Aristotle himself taught (Metaphys., VI, 3rd ed.

It is true, that Pope Innocent III (De Sacro altaris myst., IV, vi) before his elevation to the pontificate did hold the opinion, which later theologians branded as temerarious, that Christ consecrated without words by means of the mere benediction.

(b) The second problem arises from the Totality of Presence, which means that Christ in His entirety is present in the whole of the Host and in each smallest part thereof, as the spiritual soul is present in the human body [see above, (2)]. And precisely this latter analogy from nature gives us an insight into the possibility of the Eucharistic miracle. Christ is really present in the Holy Eucharist, even when not being received.

Now, neither from the nature of the case nor in common parlance is bread an apt or possible symbol of the human body. We respect the Blessed Sacrament because we believe that Jesus is truly present there. XIII, can.

For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed (John, vi, 54-56). Finally He turned to His twelve Apostles with the question: Will you also go away? Then Peter stepped forth and with humble faith replied: Lord, to whom shall we go? Since they have not as yet attained to the use of reason, they are free from the obligation of positive laws; consequently, the only question is whether Communion is, like Baptism, necessary for them as a means of salvation.

While the three foregoing theses contain dogmas of faith, there is a fourth proposition which is merely a theological conclusion, namely, that even before the actual division of the Species, Christ is present wholly and entirely in each particle of the still unbroken Host and in each drop of the collective contents of the Chalice. haer., IV, xviii, 4), and Tertullian (De resurr.

are valid, inasmuch as they can be proved botanically to be genuine wheat. St. Cyril of Alexandria (Hom.

The case is not much better in regard to the parabolical interpretation, which would discern in the pouring out of the wine a mere parable of the shedding of the Blood on the Cross. The pious custom of the faithful of offering their Communion for relations, friends, and the souls departed, is to be considered as possessing unquestionable value, in the first place, because an earnest prayer of petition in the presence of the Spouse of our souls will readily find a hearing, and then, because the fruits of Communion as a means of satisfaction for sin may be applied to a third person, and especially per modum suffragii to the souls in purgatory.

Since Descartes (d. 1650) places the essence of corporeal substance in its actual extension and recognizes only modal accidents meta-physically united to their substance, it is clear, according to his theory, that together with the conversion of the substance of bread and wine, the accidents must also be converted and thereby made to disappear. (Cf. The bread and wine we receive at communion is the body and blood of Jesus.

And rightly so; for just as Christ promised His Flesh and Blood as meat and drink, i.e.

By the restrictive clause, separatione factae, the Council of Trent (Sess.

This teaching of the real presence is intended to emphasize the intimate relationship between Jesus and the communicant. It is the Church alone, the pillar and ground of truth, imbued with and directed by the Holy Spirit, that guarantees to her children through her infallible teaching the full and unadulterated revelation of God.

Thus were condemned as contrary to faith the antiquated view of Durandus, that only the substantial form (forma substantialis) of the bread underwent conversion, while the primary matter (materia prima) remained, and, especially, Luthers doctrine of Consubstantiation, i.e.

During the

This view is supported, not only by the solemn and earnest words of Christ, when He promised the Eucharist, and by the very nature of the sacrament as the spiritual food and medicine of our souls, but also by the fact of the helplessness and perversity of human nature and by the daily experience of confessors and directors of souls.

5), since the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar was not instituted as a means of satisfaction; it does, however, produce an indirect effect in this regard, which is proportioned to the communicants love and devotion.

annihilation and creation, but of one single act, since, according to the purpose of the Almighty, the substance of the bread and wine departs in order to make room for the Body and Blood of Christ. lxxvii, 25) is a mere metaphor, which indicates that in the Beatific Vision where He is not concealed under the sacramental veils, the angels spiritually feast upon the God-man, this same prospect being held out to those who shall gloriously rise on the Last Day. (Cf.

Consequently, eating and drinking are to be understood of the actual partaking of Christ in person, hence literally.

Both ideas are mutually reciprocal.

WebWhat is the most important sacrament? The case would be different if the reading were: This is the bread of my Body, the wine of my Blood. WebWhy is the Eucharist the most important? pro Armenis: aqua modicissima), a practice, whose legitimacy the Council of Trent (Sess. All Christians would agree that it is a memorial action in which, by eating bread and drinking wine (or, for some Protestants, grape juice or water), the church recalls what Jesus Christ was, said, and did.

eucharistia, thanksgiving), the name given to the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar under its twofold aspect of sacrament and Sacrifice of the Mass, and in which, whether as sacrament or sacrifice, Jesus Christ is truly present under the appearances of bread and wine.

Nevertheless a turning-point occurred in his life.

in Joan., IV, xvii) beautifully represents this mystical union as the fusion of our being into that of the God-man, as when melted wax is fused with other wax.

Later theologians (as Rossignol, Legrand) resorted to the unseemly explanation, according to which Christ is present in diminished form and stature, a sort of miniature body; while others (as Oswald, Fernandez, Casajoana) assumed with no better sense of fitness the mutual compenetration of the members of Christs Body to within the narrow compass of the point of a pin. Thus, St. Thomas Aquinas maintained that a complete change occurred in the substance of each of the species, while the accidents, or outward appearances, remained the same. For the chief difficulty of the latter appears to be that the same Christ is present in two different parts, A and B, of the continuous Host, it being immaterial whether we consider the distant parts A and B joined by the continuous line AB or not.

Both recognized the centrality of the Eucharist to Christian life, yet they broke not only with Roman Catholic teaching but also with fellow reformer Martin Luther, who maintained belief in Christs real presence.