Sacramental Presence in Eucharist

[Vico]

And this change is by the power of the Holy Spirit?

H.H. Pope Benedict XVII, Post-Synodal Exhortation On the Eucharist as the Source and Summit of the Church’s Life and Mission (Prot. 0) Sacramentum Caritatis
March 13, 2007

**The Holy Spirit and the eucharistic celebration

1. Against this backdrop we can understand the decisive role played by the Holy Spirit in the eucharistic celebration, particularly with regard to transubstantiation. An awareness of this is clearly evident in the Fathers of the Church. Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, in his Catecheses, states that we “call upon God in his mercy to send his Holy Spirit upon the offerings before us, to transform the bread into the body of Christ and the wine into the blood of Christ. Whatever the Holy Spirit touches is sanctified and completely transformed” (25). Saint John Chrysostom too notes that the priest invokes the Holy Spirit when he celebrates the sacrifice: (26) like Elijah, the minister calls down the Holy Spirit so that “as grace comes down upon the victim, the souls of all are thereby inflamed” (27). The spiritual life of the faithful can benefit greatly from a better appreciation of the richness of the anaphora: along with the words spoken by Christ at the Last Supper, it contains the epiclesis, the petition to the Father to send down the gift of the Spirit so that the bread and the wine will become the body and blood of Jesus Christ and that “the community as a whole will become ever more the body of Christ” (28). The Spirit invoked by the celebrant upon the gifts of bread and wine placed on the altar is the same Spirit who gathers the faithful “into one body” and makes of them a spiritual offering pleasing to the Father (29).

w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_ben-xvi_exh_20070222_sacramentum-caritatis.html
w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_ben-xvi_exh_20070222_sacramentum-caritatis.html**

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I just think Jesus had more on his mind then eating the host. I think he was talking about an entire life committment to him crystallized in the signs of Holy Communion and never to be viewed without that life committment.

We are called to commit our lives to Christ to the extent we are able to do so. Obviously some people will be able to do this more than others.

But He doesn’t somehow exclude Himself in the Real Presence from a person who (by your standards) is making less than a “full commitment”. It may very well be that those people are the ones most in need of Him because they are struggling. He is just as present for them and in their lives as He is for the person who is outwardly holy in your eyes.

And as far as seeing an outward sign in a person’s life of their commitment to Christ, first of all we shouldn’t be judging others and second of all even if we did then we have no idea of everything going on in a person’s mind, heart and life. We need to watch out for the sin of pride where we are thinking that either we are better than others or we have some ability to “see” the commitment of others to Christ.

 

[Michael_Mayo]

We are called to commit our lives to Christ to the extent we are able to do so. Obviously some people will be able to do this more than others.

But He doesn’t somehow exclude Himself in the Real Presence from a person who (by your standards) is making less than a “full commitment”. It may very well be that those people are the ones most in need of Him because they are struggling. He is just as present for them and in their lives as He is for the person who is outwardly holy in your eyes.

And as far as seeing an outward sign in a person’s life of their commitment to Christ, first of all we shouldn’t be judging others and second of all even if we did then we have no idea of everything going on in a person’s mind, heart and life. We need to watch out for the sin of pride where we are thinking that either we are better than others or we have some ability to “see” the commitment of others to Christ.

I didn’t intend that Jesus excludes himself from anyone, much less anyone we might make an external judgement on. My point is that when Jesus said, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst." and “Eat my body. Drink my blood.” He was referring to much more than the easy consumption of the species. And when we do receive the Sacrament we recommit ourselves to Him, mindfully and with full consent to try our best to make every aspect of our lives a reflection of His.

All the concern about what is meant by transubstantiation is missing the point. Yes, he is there. But how he is there is a sacred mystery. How else do we eat his body? Feed on his flesh? Drink his blood? I think those questions make a good reflection throughout the day. We eat his body when, in his name, we let our own agenda take less priority than the needs of someone needing our attention. We feed on his flesh when, in his name, we exercise patience and restraint when someone is pushing our buttons. We drink his blood when, out of love, we sacrifice in a meaningful way for the good of others. Then, when we go up to Communion to eat his Body and drink his blood it is consistent with our lives. And fortunately, we first have the Penitential Rite for all the times we fail.

 

[Nelka]

The Body of Christ in Holy Communion, must exist without division and extension – the whole Host and entirely in each part and on every altar, simultaneously. The Body of Christ is present in the sacrament per the mode of substance not per the mode of quantity, so we see that Pope Paul VI refers to this multi-location. A natural body is restricted to one position in space.

For what now lies beneath the aforementioned species is not what was there before, but something completely different; and not just in the estimation of Church belief but in reality, since once the substance or nature of the bread and wine has been changed into the body and blood of Christ, nothing remains of the bread and the wine except for the species—beneath which Christ is present whole and entire in His physical “reality,” corporeally present, although not in the manner in which bodies are in a place.

w2.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_03091965_mysterium.html

USCCB states in The Real Presence Of Jesus Christ In The Sacrament Of The Eucharist: Basic Questions And Answers: “The presence of the risen Christ in the Eucharist is an inexhaustible mystery that the Church can never fully explain in words.”

usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/the-mass/order-of-mass/liturgy-of-the-eucharist/the-real-presence-of-jesus-christ-in-the-sacrament-of-the-eucharist-basic-questions-and-answers.cfm

H.H. Pope Benedict XVII, Post-Synodal Exhortation On the Eucharist as the Source and Summit of the Church’s Life and Mission (Prot. 0) Sacramentum Caritatis
March 13, 2007

**The Holy Spirit and the eucharistic celebration

1. Against this backdrop we can understand the decisive role played by the Holy Spirit in the eucharistic celebration, particularly with regard to transubstantiation. An awareness of this is clearly evident in the Fathers of the Church. Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, in his Catecheses, states that we “call upon God in his mercy to send his Holy Spirit upon the offerings before us, to transform the bread into the body of Christ and the wine into the blood of Christ. Whatever the Holy Spirit touches is sanctified and completely transformed”** (25). Saint John Chrysostom too notes that the priest invokes the Holy Spirit when he celebrates the sacrifice: (26) like Elijah, the minister calls down the Holy Spirit so that “as grace comes down upon the victim, the souls of all are thereby inflamed” (27). The spiritual life of the faithful can benefit greatly from a better appreciation of the richness of the anaphora: along with the words spoken by Christ at the Last Supper, it contains the epiclesis, the petition to the Father to send down the gift of the Spirit so that the bread and the wine will become the body and blood of Jesus Christ and that “the community as a whole will become ever more the body of Christ” (28). The Spirit invoked by the celebrant upon the gifts of bread and wine placed on the altar is the same Spirit who gathers the faithful “into one body” and makes of them a spiritual offering pleasing to the Father (29).

w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_ben-xvi_exh_20070222_sacramentum-caritatis.html
w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_ben-xvi_exh_20070222_sacramentum-caritatis.html

Very informative.