What is the Eucharist?

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Bryan

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Can someone just spell it out to me in plain speech, possibly backed up by doctrine? Does it have another name in the protestant church? Is it communion? I have already researched this in the Catholic Encyclopedia, but I want answers from you guys. 🙂

-Bryan
 
What wasn’t “plain speach” in what you read in the Catholic Encyclopedia?
 
Eucharist comes from the Greek languange and means thanksgiving. The Eucharist is the body and blood of Christ which brings us enternal life, for which we give thanks.

It is similar to Protestant communion and is refered to as communion often. However protestants beleive the bread and wine are merely symbols, Catholics do not. We believe they are the body and blood of Christ.
 
Protestants will never have the Eucharist as we Catholics have in our churches because they have no legitimate priesthoood to consecrate the bread and wine…

There is only one real consecration of the bread and wine. That is when the bread and wine have been consecrated they become the actual body, blood, soul and divinity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

That one real consecration is in the Catholic Church “alone” for 99.9999999% part, with the special exception of in extreme crisis times, the Orthodox’s consecration in their church is acceptable if you cannot reach a Catholic Church in a reasonable distance.
 
Bryan,

It’s hard to give you a simple answer because the term is complex. In part, the Eucharist is the Mass or the Divine Liturgy or the Quorbono or … well, you get the idea. Within the Mass the Eucharist is “confected” – that is, the bread and wine are consecrated and become, through the power of Jesus working through the priest, the Body and Blood of Jesus. So, in a sense, the Eucharist is “communion” – but it is also much more than that.

What Protestants do at “communion” is to commemorate the actions of Jesus at the Last Supper. But they do so in the modern sense of the word “remember.” As Catholics, we use the ancient sense which is not to “reflect back upon” but, rather, “to bring forward.” Consider, for a moment, the Jewish Seder meal. The youngest child asks the question “Why is *this *night different from all other nights?” It’s not, “Why was that night…” – the events of the Passover are brought forward and lived again. This is what we do in the Mass. We “bring forward” the crucifixion of Christ and re-present it. We do not crucify Jesus again and again, but rather we stand at the foot of the cross when Jesus was crucified that one and only time and we watch when “Christ died once for all.”

So, aside from lacking the sacramental priesthood, the entire vision of what Protestants do is removed from the Catholic understanding.

Deacon Ed
 
Dear friend

Just to add the Eucharist is the body, blood, soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ and may only be received when a person is without mortal sin and is a Catholic.

The Eucharist is life giving, eternal life. ‘I am the bread of life’ . The Eucharist is the unity of the church, the height and summit of our faith.

The Eucharist is the food of your human spirit. (People feed their bodies and neglect to nourish their spirit in Christ…)

God Bless you and much love and peace to you
 
I want to thank everyone for answering my question. I understand completely now, but I do have a further question…

Why do Catholics see it not as a symbol, but at the true body and blood of Christ? Does it say to do this in the Bible? Is that what Christ meant when he offered the bread as his body?

-Bryan
 
Dear Bryan

In Judaism, every passover the paschal lamb was offered as a sacrifice to God in atonement for sins and to glorify God. The Eucharist propechy runs throughout the whole of the bible and Jesus speaks of His own death and His own body in propehcy also, before it happened. Jesus Christ is the ‘new and eternal’ paschal lamb. His body and blood is mystical in that it is a ‘living’ sacrifice for all people for all eternity, in receiving the Eucharist we also become part of the mystical body of christ, by whom only ressurection and everlasting life is possible.

Prior to the Last Supper, (which was the first Mass) Jesus spoke of His body being life John 6 53-58 ‘Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and i will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.As the living Father sent me, and I because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such asthe fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.’ After hearig this many fell away from Jesus because they could not accept eating a human body as they saw it, yes Jesus is human but He is also divine, unique in all history and this is the mystical nature of His body, it is life, redemption between Man and God, the God-man!

At the last supper this is the first Mass where Jesus shows the disciples how His body will come to them under the elements of bread and wine, to do this in rememberance and to eat His flesh and blood. Jesus said ‘This IS my body’…‘This IS my blood’ not this represents it, the elements of bread and wine are by the power of Jesus Christ at every Mass and at the Last supper were made into the body and blood of Jesus, this is because at calvary, the death, that eternal and joyous, sorrowful sacrifice was in eternity, eternal and for all eternity,that transcends all time, we at Mass remember His death and eternal sacrifice and at the same time are present at calvary. The Mass is a non bloody sacrifice of the same Jesus Christ as at Calvary, it is not a repetition of Jesus’ crucifixtion, that single death of Jesus was salvific for all eternity and we enter into it every time Mass is celebrated. In every Eucharistic host is Jesus’ full and real Presence in body blood, soul and Divinity, this is what the miracle of the feeding of the Five Thousand teaches us, that Jesus from His own self can feed and from His own body and blood in the Eucharist, feeds all of humanity forever until the end of time for those who would come to Him who humbles Himself under the small elements of bread and wine to give us eternal life in Him.

Jesus meant all of the words in these two instances literally, when some of His disciples fell away it was not because they thought He meant a representation, why fall away at this? They fell away because they could not take what He had said about actually eating His body and his blood.

God Bless you and much love and peace to you.

Teresa
 
Why do Catholics see it not as a symbol, but at the true body and blood of Christ? Does it say to do this in the Bible? Is that what Christ meant when he offered the bread as his body?
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Bryan,

Christ said; “This is my Body… this is my Blood.” Nowhere can you find in the Gospels that He says “This is the symbol of my Body… this is the symbol of my Blood.”

He always refer to himself as “the Bread of Life”. His Flesh is real food and His Blood real drink. (see John chapter 6).

Pio
 
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Bryan:
I want to thank everyone for answering my question. I understand completely now, but I do have a further question…

Why do Catholics see it not as a symbol, but at the true body and blood of Christ? Does it say to do this in the Bible? Is that what Christ meant when he offered the bread as his body?

-Bryan
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For those not accepting the teaching authority of the Catholic Church there are other Scriptures to use which supports our viewpoint on what the words of Jesus actually meant. John 6:48-66 will bring out what Jesus meant at the Last Supper. I will give you a quick synopsis of these verses. This passage starts out with Jesus telling His disciples that He is the bread of life and that if people eat His flesh that, unlike their ancestors who ate manna and died, they would live for ever. This statement upsets many of His disciples because of the words used by Jesus in John’s Gospel. For the word “eat” Jesus used “phago” which means to literally eat, chew or consume. For the word “flesh” Jesus used “sarx” which can only be translated or mean literal flesh. Many began questioning each other saying; "How can this be possible? “Who could accept such a teaching?” To end any confusion they might have, Jesus becomes more emphatic as he continues to preach. Now when He makes any statements pertaining to eating His flesh (starting with verse 54) He uses the word “trogo” which means to “gnaw or crunch with your teeth.” As he finishes He asks, “Does this upset you?” Many of His disciples began to leave but Jesus didn’t call them back and say, Wait, you are misunderstanding me. He didn’t grab anyone and say, Please stop. He didn’t say, I meant that statement only figuratively not literally. He doesn’t do that because the words he used made it perfectly clear what he meant. Someday His disciples would literally eat His flesh.

Hope this helps from members.cox.net/sfobro/RP.html
 
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Bryan:
Can someone just spell it out to me in plain speech, possibly backed up by doctrine? Does it have another name in the protestant church? Is it communion? I have already researched this in the Catholic Encyclopedia, but I want answers from you guys. 🙂

-Bryan
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If it’s the 1911 Encyclopedia you are using then proceed with caution. As my diocese webpage puts it on its links webpage "Some articles are still useful’. It’s of its time.

Many articles have the pre Vat II ‘fortress’ mentality and are pretty uncharitable when read today.

Your first point of reference should be the Catechism of the Catholic Church

scborromeo.org/ccc/ccc_toc.htm

and read

scborromeo.org/ccchelp.htm

and

christusrex.org/www1/CDHN/apostol.html

Those kind folks in the Ask an Apologist Forum are pretty obliging!

forums.catholic-questions.org/forumdisplay.php?f=4
 
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aSaintoneday:
That one real consecration is in the Catholic Church “alone” for 99.9999999% part, with the special exception of in extreme crisis times, the Orthodox’s consecration in their church is acceptable if you cannot reach a Catholic Church in a reasonable distance.
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Whoa!

The CCC states that the Orthodox have valid Apostolic Succession & Sacraments, and that communion is not merely possible, but encouraged, not just ‘in extereme crisis!’

CCC 838
With the Orthodox Churches, this communion is so profound "that it lacks little to attain the fullness that would permit a common celebration of the Lord’s Eucharist."324

CCC1399

The Eastern churches that are not in full communion with the Catholic Church celebrate the Eucharist with great love. “These Churches, although separated from us, yet possess true sacraments, above all - by apostolic succession - the priesthood and the Eucharist, whereby they are still joined to us in closest intimacy.” A certain communion in sacris, and so in the Eucharist, "given suitable circumstances and the approval of Church authority, is not merely possible but is encouraged."238
 
:rotfl: Is there an echo in here or did I not say what those after me have posted with exception of the Orthodox church???

Never mind

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa
 
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Teresa9:
In Judaism, every passover the paschal lamb was offered as a sacrifice to God in atonement for sins and to glorify God.
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This lamb had to be male and without blemish, it had to be slaughtered, and it had to be completely consumed (see usccb.org/nab/bible/exodus/exodus12.htm). This is why Jesus, who made the ultimate sacrifice once and for all, is called Lamb of God.
 
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