If the Eucharist is the true body and blood of Christ in his divinity and humanity, is it then appropriate to worship the Eucharist?
To worship, rather than venerate, the Eucharist would seem (to me) to be idolatry.
Do we, as Catholics, worship the Eucharist?
Yes we worship the Eucharist as Christ is truly, substantially, sacramentally present in the consecrated species, hidden under the appearance of bread and wine, Body, Blood, Soul And Divinity, whole and undivided, in his glorious resurrected state. We worship Christ, we adore Jesus himself-not a piece of bread.
If it were not true that he is present, as he promised, then yes it would be idolatry. For instance, the communion species used in a service of the Lord’s Supper in a church other than Catholic or Orthodox, which does not have valid apostolic succession and so does not have a valid priesthood, would NOT in fact be Eucharist, Christ would not be present on anything more than a symbolic level, so to worship that bread would indeed be idolatry.
Sorry to drag up my old thread, but more questions come to mind:
- Is it appropriate to pray to the Eucharist for a miracle, rather than praying to the spiritual God (like most people do when they pray to God)? Is there a “conflict of interest”, or is one as good as the other?
- If it’s the humanity and divinity of Jesus, then it’s not the Holy Spirit or God the Father being present in the Eucharist–is that right? It seems as if it’s only the “Jesus” aspect of God. (I suppose I’m getting at “the nature of the Eucharist”.)
- On a more “out-there” level: does the Eucharist, therefore, have intelligence (as Christ would presumably have); does it have knowledge, wisdom, etc.?
Probably silly questions.
sorry I bit again on an old thread, but be that as it may since you have new questions
- You are not praying “to the Eucharist” as if you were talking to a piece of bread covered by glass, you are praying to Jesus Christ. There is no conflict of interest, the 3 persons of the Trinity are not jealous of each other. Where one is present and one acts, all are present and all act. Christ does not have a separate existence outside his glorified body, we believe as the Creed said he rose from the dead and ascended, body and soul, to heaven, and is present through his grace and the action of the Holy Spirit in his one sacrifice, continued and present in perpetuity on all the altars of the world in every celebration of Eucharist, offered to the Father.
In Eucharistic adoration we recall that sacrifice and our participation and presence in it.
- Your question is really about the nature of the Trinity, read up the first part of the Catechism for a better understanding.
- you persist in speaking of Eucharist as if it were some entity separate from Christ. read again the first part of my post.
My suggestion. When you are next in front of the Blessed Sacrament, don’t dizzy yourself with theological speculation. Simply talk to Jesus, have a conversation, as you would if he were sitting in the chair in front of you.
