Real Presence in the congregation?

[mcliffor]

The pastor of my parish recently published this statement in the parish bulletin advertising a Benediction, the first in our parish since Vatican II:

“With the Liturgical reform of the 1950’s and early 1960’s and the work of Vatican Council II there was a renewed appreciation of the four presences of Christ, i.e. Christ present in the people gathered for worship, Christ in the priest presiding, Christ in the Word proclaimed, and Christ present in the consecrated bread and wine. There was also a clarion call from the Council to invite the people of God to have a full and active role in the celebration of the liturgy. Now people began to participate in Mass in a whole new way. The language was the vernacular, the priest faced the people, roles such as Lector and Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist were introduced. These and other reforms of the liturgy gave a new focus to our worship of God at mass and consequently to our worship of God outside of the mass. Recognizing the teaching of Vatican II that declared the celebration of the mass as the ‘source and summit’ of our worship life, devotions such as Forty Hours, Benediction and Corpus Christi were put in the background…Plan to remain after the Mass and spend some time in one of the many Real Presences of Jesus Christ.”

Is this true? I mean, how can we compare Christ’s presence in the congregation with the Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament? Is this teaching, the four presences of Christ, sanctioned by the Church? Is it orthodox? I often hear people justify the anthropocentric nature of our liturgies with the quote, “when two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

 

[cameron_lansing]

mcliffor:

… Is this teaching, the four presences of Christ, sanctioned by the Church? Is it orthodox? …"

Perhaps paragraph 7 from the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum concilium) from the Second Vatican Council will be of assistance.

To accomplish so great a work, Christ is always present in His Church, especially in her liturgical celebrations. He is present in the sacrifice of the Mass, not only in the person of His minister, “the same now offering, through the ministry of priests, who formerly offered himself on the cross” (20), but especially under the eucharistic species. By His power He is present in the sacraments, so that when a man baptizes it is really Christ Himself who baptizes (21). He is present in His word, since it is He Himself who speaks when the holy scriptures are read in the Church. He is present, lastly, when the Church prays and sings, for He promised: “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20) .

And how wonderful that your parish will enjoy the riches of Benediction.

Dcn John Cameron
Lansing

 

[Orionthehunter]

mcliffor:

The pastor of my parish recently published this statement in the parish bulletin advertising a Benediction, the first in our parish since Vatican II:

“With the Liturgical reform of the 1950’s and early 1960’s and the work of Vatican Council II there was a renewed appreciation of the four presences of Christ, i.e. Christ present in the people gathered for worship, Christ in the priest presiding, Christ in the Word proclaimed, and Christ present in the consecrated bread and wine. There was also a clarion call from the Council to invite the people of God to have a full and active role in the celebration of the liturgy. Now people began to participate in Mass in a whole new way. The language was the vernacular, the priest faced the people, roles such as Lector and Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist were introduced. These and other reforms of the liturgy gave a new focus to our worship of God at mass and consequently to our worship of God outside of the mass. Recognizing the teaching of Vatican II that declared the celebration of the mass as the ‘source and summit’ of our worship life, devotions such as Forty Hours, Benediction and Corpus Christi were put in the background…Plan to remain after the Mass and spend some time in one of the many Real Presences of Jesus Christ.”

Is this true? I mean, how can we compare Christ’s presence in the congregation with the Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament? Is this teaching, the four presences of Christ, sanctioned by the Church? Is it orthodox? I often hear people justify the anthropocentric nature of our liturgies with the quote, “when two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

I think that these two paragraphs from the Catechism supports that Christ is present in many ways but it is only in the Eucharist that He is pre-eminently present, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.

1373
“Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us,” is present in many ways to his Church:197 in his word, in his Church’s prayer, "where two or three are gathered in my name,"198 in the poor, the sick, and the imprisoned,199 in the sacraments of which he is the author, in the sacrifice of the Mass, and in the person of the minister. But "he is present . . . most especially in the Eucharistic species."200

1374
The mode of Christ’s presence under the Eucharistic species is unique. It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as "the perfection of the spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments tend."201 In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist "the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained."202 "This presence is called ‘real’—by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they could not be ‘real’ too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present."203

 

[Verbum_Caro]

I agree with Orion. In fact, it seems to me that this advertisement is quite confusing. On the one hand it is advertising Benediction but on the other:

Recognizing the teaching of Vatican II that declared the celebration of the mass as the ‘source and summit’ of our worship life, devotions such as Forty Hours, Benediction and Corpus Christi were put in the background…Plan to remain after the Mass and spend some time in one of the many Real Presences of Jesus Christ."

Huh? That certainly was not the authentic intent of Vatican II. Quite the contrary, putting these devotions in the background was antithetical to Vatican II.

Note, also, that the advertisment describes the other three presences of Christ as REAL PRESENCES, which is certainly misleading. In fact, I am surprised that the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is relegated to last place on the list.

Something is amiss?
VC

 

[Confiteor]

mcliffor:

.Plan to remain after the Mass and spend some time in one of the many Real Presences of Jesus Christ."

It is in this statement he goes a bit overboard…Real Presence is a particular term pertaining to the Eucharist…

 

[Andreas_Hofer]

He is correct in pointing out that Christ is present in those other areas, but equating all four as Real Presence is not accurate and is at best misleading, if not an outright intentional misrepresentation of the faith. The priest may not be culpable, however, for his seminary perhaps did not offer a course in Catholic doctrine.