EUCHARIST

REVIEW:
What is the Eucharist ?
EUCHARIST AS
A COMMUNION
A. PASCHAL BANQUET
Sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a
bond of charity, a Paschal Banquet

The Breaking of Bread

1. Sacred Meal
2. Sign of Unity and Bond of Charity
3. Elements of a meal
1. Coming together, a dialogue, a sharing of food and drink.
B. HUMAN HUNGERS
Basic Human Hungers for:
love and acceptance,
understanding,
purpose in life, and
justice and peace
C. LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST
Liturgy of the Eucharist is Patterned on the four solemn
actions of Christ at the last supper
He took (Preparation of Gifts), blessed (Eucharistic Prayer), broke
(Breaking of the Bread and gave (Communion)to his disciples.
Bread and Wine are the food and drink in the Eucharist.
o Bread - Staff of Human life
Unleavened bread
o Wine
Body and Blood
Jesus is present in his total personal reality
D. FRUITS OF THE RECEIVING COMMUNION

Union with Christ

Liberating from Sin
Reconciliation
E. THE EUCHARIST BUILDS BUILD
UP THE CHURCH
The Eucharist can only be realized and
celebrated within the Body of Christ, The
Church, whose members confess Jesus as their
lord. There is no Eucharist where there is no
church
EUCHARIST AS
A SACRIFICE
A.SACRIFICE
The Eucharist is a sacrifice because Christ is present
precisely as offering himself for us as a sacrifice to the
Father
The heart of the Eucharistic celebration is Christ, our
Lords perfect saving LOVE.
The Eucharist is a sacrifice because it:
represents, makes present, the sacrifice of the Cross;
is its memorial; and
applies its fruit
B. CHRIST IS THE KEY
The key to this UNITY of the Eucharistic sacrifice and the Sacrifice of the Cross is
Christ himself.
For Catholics, the Eucharist is more than just a sign of Christs sacrifice without
the reality of that sacrifice.
Christ is central to the Eucharist not just as SUPREME WORSHIPPER, but, more
importantly, as the PRIEST and VICTIM of the Eucharistic sacrifice.

1.
Understanding Christs New Sacrifice
2.
Death and Resurrection
C. THE CHURCH OFFERS
The call to actively participate in the Mass, sharing in Christs role both as
Priest offering sacrifice, and as Victim being
offered, by joining all our own activities to Christs redeeming work.
PCP II explains how the lay faithful live Christs priesthood in three
dimensions:
as a consecration to God;
as mediating Gods plan to transform the world; and
as a sacrifice of life together with Christ celebrated in the Eucharist
D. MEMORIAL
We know the Eucharist is a memorial of Christs Death and Resurrection. At the Last
Supper, Christ commanded his apostles: Do this in remembrance of me (Lk 22:19;
cf. 1 Cor 11:24).

So in Eucharistic Prayer IV the priest celebrant prays:

Father, we now celebrate this memorial of our redemption.
We recall Christs death, his descent among the dead,
his resurrection, and his ascension to your right hand;
and looking forward to his coming in glory,
we offer you his body and blood,
the acceptable sacrifice
which brings salvation to the whole world.
1. Biblical Sense of Remembrance
2. Christian Memorial
EUCHARIST AS
A SACRAMENT
PRESENCE-SACRAMENT

Besides being the sacrament of Christs sacrifice and of communion with him in the Paschal
Banquet, the Eucharist is also the sacrament of his Presence. Christs Eucharistic presence must be
seen against the many ways he is present in the Church. Paul VI elaborates on the Vatican II doctrine
by explaining that:
Christ is present in the Church:
when she prays, since Christ prays for us and with us;
as she performs her works of mercy (cf. Mt 25:40);
on her pilgrimage of struggle toward eternal life;
as she preaches the Word of God in the name of Christ, by the authority of Christ, and with
Christs help;
as she governs the People of God with power from Christ;
most effectively when she offers the Eucharist
A . C H R I S T S M U LT I P L E P R E S E N C E S

Within the Eucharistic celebration itself, Christ is really present in the assembly it
self, gathered in his name, in the person of the minister, in his Word and indeed
substantially and unceasingly under the Eucharistic species. Christs presence in
the consecrated bread and wine is called real not to exclude all other types of
presence, but because it is presence in the fullest sense, a substantial presence by
which Christ, the God-Man, is wholly and entirely present

1. Qualities of Christs Presence - In the Eucharist, the Risen Christ is

present not like one physical thing to another. Rather, through the consecrated
hosts and wine the Risen Christ is personally present to us.
 How then can we describe this personal presence of Christ in the Eucharist? In its
essentials,
Christs presence is:
a) sacramental: an objective presence, through the signs of bread and
wine, seen through the eyes
of FAITH of the faithful;
b) personal: a real, substantial presence in order to enter into personal
communion with his Church and each member of his Body, in spirit;
c) in his glorified body: not in his earthly condition, but in his RISEN
glorified body. The one risen Body of Christ __ the spiritual body which St.
Paul contrasts with the natural body is sacramentally present at the
same time in all the tabernacles of the world.
d) dynamic and lasting: in the consecrated bread/wine, which are dynamic
and lasting effective signs of his love for us, and inviting us to respond in
love.
 2. Limitations
Yet there are obvious limitations to Christs presence in the Eucharist. We do not encounter
him bodily, as we do with our friends, but only through the sacramental signs of bread
and wine. Contrary to what happens when we speak to a friend, we have
difficulty at times distinguishing between what Christ is saying to us from what
we might be saying to ourselves. Our dialogue is within a faith encounter, and we
need to test what we think we hear from Christ in the wider context of our
personal and social responsibilities as Christians. Finally, these limitations of the
Risen Christs presence in the Eucharist lead us to pray for full, perfect
communion with him: Marana tha__ come Lord Jesus! (1 Cor 16:22)
B. T RA N SFO RM ATIO N OF BRE A D A N D WINE

Christs real presence in the bread and wine has challenged belief from the time
of Christs own promise to be the food and drink of his disciples.
The Gospel therefore stresses both the realism of Christs presence, and the spiritual
eating of Christs glorified body and blood. It is the spirit that gives life . . . the
words I spoke to you are spirit and life (Jn 6:63). Thus two extremes are
avoided:
a crude, materialistic understanding of the change of bread and wine into
Christs earthly flesh and blood that would make communicants equivalent to
cannibals; and
the opposite extreme of a merely symbolic interpretation of the change, which would reject
the real eating and drinking of the Lord
 1. The Eucharistic Change
1727. In the Eucharist, then, the bread and wine as food and drink take on a new, deeply personal
meaning and purpose: Christs personal self-giving presence for our salvation. Both new meaning and
purpose are based on a radical change in the reality of the bread and wine, which is known in the
Catholic tradition as trans-substantiation (Trent, ND 1519,1527; cf. CCC 1376). This simply means that
by the power of the Holy Spirit, the earthly substance of bread and wine is changed into a reality of a
different level: the glorified Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen.

2. Eucharistic Change and the Risen Cosmic Christ

1728. Thus, in the Eucharist ordinary bread and wine, products of nature and culture, are transformed
to make present to us the Risen Christ precisely in his redeeming sacrifice. They take on an
eschatological form since they are no longer food that perishes, but the food that remains unto life
eternal (Jn 6:27). This change
of the bread and wine must be seen in terms of the Risen Christ as Redeemer and Unifying Center of
all creation. In him everything continues in being (Col 1:17), since in his own glorified body Christ
sums up and recapitulates all things in himself. The changed bread and wine, then, prefigure the
glorification of all matter in the new age, begun already in the Resurrection of Christ but
taking place fully only at his Second Coming.
C. COSMIC REDEMPTION

We know that all creation yearns to be freed from its slavery

to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children
of God (Rom 8:21). We too, graced with the Spirit, groan
inwardly while we await the redemption of our bodies (Rom
8:23). Now Christ instituted the sacramental celebration of his
sacrifice on the Cross precisely to carry out his mission of
universal redemption. In the Eucharistic change effected by the
power of the Holy Spirit, the bread and wine become the
symbols of the already, but not yet complete universal
Redemption of all of creation.