Eucharist and Trinity

[Minerva]

Today at Mass I was thinking about this…awhile ago I was discussing the Eucharist with a non-Catholic friend and trying to explain it to her. She grasped the concept that the Eucharist is God, but asked if it is the whole Trinity or just the second person. My first response is that it is only the second person, but I’m not so sure. The sacrifice of the mass is accomplished via all 3 persons for one thing. Another thing is Jesus said He is in the Father and the Father is in Him (to paraphrase). Also, at Benediction one of the songs sung to the Blessed Sacrament has a line “to your great name be endless praise, immortal Godhead, one in three…” So can anyone help here? When I receive the Eucharist, am I receiving the Triune God? Or just God Incarnate as the second person of the Trinity? Thanks!

 

[JimG]

Hmmm. We believe that in the Eucharist we receive Jesus Christ whole and entire, body and blood, soul and divinity. By “divinity” I think we mean his divine nature, and there is but One divine Nature, which is totally possessed by all three persons. So by receiving Jesus in both His humanity and His divinity, I think we do receive all three persons.

Of course, anyone in a state of grace already has the three divine persons of the Trinity indwelling in his soul; we first receive this indwelling by Baptism.

JimG

 

[elgom]

This is interesting. I was reading how many people don’t understand the concept of Sanctifying Grace, stay with me here, it does apply to the Eucharist. Sanctifying Grace is God’s life within us. We cannot enter Heaven unless we are filled with God’s life in us. I read the following analygy.

If you always wanted to go to the Moon and a friend of yours called and said he had a space ship and wanted you to go to the Moon. If you went there without preparing, you would not be able to survive there. You didn’t have any air to breathe. Well the whole point of the Church that Jesus gave us here on earth was for us to be able to prepare to be with God. Each of the Sacraments (name removed by moderator)art to us Sanctifying Grace, or God’s life within us. Without this preparation and without this grace we could not abide with God. Purgatory is a place of continued preparation for those who have not completed the process here, yet abide in an imperfect way with God already.

So, I do believe that the Eucharist is the supreme gift of God’s life within us. Sorry for the long reply.

God bless.

 

[Didi]

I have read that wherever the Son is, so also is the Father and the Holy Spirit; wherever the Father is, so also is the Son and the Spirit, etc. Yet it is God Incarnate; Word Made Flesh, that we receive in Holy Communion. But is not the Trinity also present?