Sight,
taste, and touch in Thee are each deceived;
The ear
alone most safely is believed.
I
believe all the Son of God has spoken:
Than Truth's own word there is no truer
token.
-St. Thomas Aquinas (Doctor)
Eucharist Defined
The Touchstone of Catholicism
Center of Christianity, Center of Life
Real Presence: “Truly, Really, Substantially”
Matter and Form; Transubstantiation
Miracle before our very eyes
Eucharist as Verb
Biblical evidence:
Both Old and New Testaments, but more so in the New.
Historical evidence
Contestations
Some Early Church Fathers
Other Church Fathers, Doctors of the Church, Councils, etc.
A Rational Argument
Aut deus
aut homo malus
Supernatural evidence
Some Early Miracles
Some Modern Miracles
What does it mean?
Mass: Beyond Time, beyond Space.
Holy Times, Holy Places, Holy Molecules
The Tabernacle (God’s House)
God’s Presence
Adoration: True Worship
Permanence of Real Presence
In the Presence of God Himself
Receiving Communion: Catholic “Right?” WRONG!
Subjective Worthiness (1 Cor. 11:26-19)
Objective Capacity
1. Human 2. status viatoris 3. Baptism
Receive Daily?
Decree of Pius X (20 Dec., 1905)
Summa Theologica (3rd Part, Article 80, Question 10)
St. Ambrose (De Sacram. iv)
Why can only Catholics receive it?
Sign of Unity (disunity)
In Defense of our Faith
Addendum:
Eucharist as verb
Verb: doing Mass! Going and Being and Participating in Mass
Mass: Gather, hearing, remembering what God has done
Then participate by praying :
Consecration = Eucharistic Prayer
Jesus’ prayer to the Father
Purpose of Real Presence
We partake of it, and then become Body of Christ for the world.
“Receive what you are, become what you receive.” –St. Augustine.
Epiclesis: Calling down of the Spirit
(1) for the bread and wine (2) for everyone (after “Christ has died, Christ has risen, etc.)
We become living tabernacles of the Lord.
We are nourished and strengthened by God.
An extremely short intro:
The Eucharist is probably THE touchstone of Catholic beliefs. When people usually think of differences between Christian faiths and compare them to Catholic beliefs, what comes to mind first is usually the issue of Mary. However, although it is a difference, the dogma of the Eucharist is much more important. What we hold as true doesn’t just set Catholics apart from Protestants, but also from all other religions as well. (Do you know of any other religion with an omnipotent God that humbles Himself into bread and wine?)
Catholic belief holds that the Eucharist is both “source and summit of the Christian Life” (CCC1324, CCC1406). What’s this mean? Let’s look at it this way: the Holy Mass that we attend on Sundays can be seen to be a summation or a summary of all Christian Faith as defined by the Catholic Church. In short, Mass sums up all Christianity. So, since the Eucharist is the focus, or climax of Holy Mass, it is quite literally, the summit of Christian Faith. It is also the source because it was instituted by God Himself!
But shouldn’t Christ be the “source and summit” of Christianity? Yes! And that’s exactly why the Eucharist is just that! The Eucharist is the Real Presence of Christ himself fully in the species of bread and wine. We believe that Christ is present “truly, really, and substantially” in the Eucharist (CCC1373, CCC1374). Christ is present in the priest, at Mass, in the people, in the Word of God, but most especially in the Eucharist! (see CCC1373). So, in short, the Eucharist that we are looking at, touching, and eating is in fact Christ, God of Heaven and Earth!
For the Eucharist to be valid both Matter and Form must be correct. The Matter must be wheaten bread (panis triticeus) and wine of the grape (vinum de vite).
Transubstantiation is the complete conversion of the whole substance and only the substance into another, while maintaining the outward appearance of the former.
So herein lies the miracle. If it looks like a duck, smells like a duck, feels like a duck, quacks like a duck, flies like a duck, tastes like a duck, the logical conclusion would be that it is a duck. This is not so with the Eucharist. All physical attributes that we can observe as humans tell us it is still a piece of bread and it is still a cup of wine with all the physical attributes of those things. However, we believe that they are changed wholly and completely into Flesh and Blood of Christ. Not partially (consubstantiation), nor symbolically. When we receive it, we receive God and His life.
Thus, the Eucharist is NOT a symbol of anything. It IS God. A pretty bold claim to make! How we can this be so?
Gospel of John, Chapter 6: Jesus, Bread of Life
1st Corinthians Chapter 11: Paul proclaims the Eucharist
For more, see http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/scrip/a6.html
Contestations to Real Presence
First major contestation in 1088 by Berengarius of Tours
against Real
Presence. Second was the Reformation (note that Luther
himself actually was the only
Reformer that stood by the old
Catholic doctrine on the Eucharist!) It
was
Zwingli of Zurich that reduced it
to a mere symbol. Later Calvin would
try to
find a middle ground between the
two extreme views on the Eucharist.
These contestations were answered by the Council of Trent (Dec.13, 1545
- Dec. 4, 1563) that decreed Christ is 'truly, really, and substantially'
present under the appearances of bread and wine. Protestants would argue that Christ had established a Church and
Catholics “Romanized” it by adding things like dogmas about the Eucharist. However, from history, we can see that this
was not so. Real Presence and other
dogmas held about the Eucharist had been generally accepted in the Early Church
before it was declared a dogma.
Some
of the Church Early Fathers
Didache (Doctrine of the
Twelve):(ix, x, xiv)
St. Ignatius of Antioch(Ad.
Smyrn., vii; Ad. Ephes., xx; Ad. Philad., iv)
St. Justin Martyr (Apol., I,
lxvi),
St. Irenæus (Adv. Hær., IV, xvii,
5; IV, xviii, 4; V, ii, 2),
Tertullian (De resurrect. carn.,
viii; De pudic., ix; De orat., xix; De bapt., xvi),
St.Cyprian of Carthage
For more, see http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/father/a5.html
Some
of the other Church Fathers:
St. Gregory of Nyssa (Orat.
catech., xxxvii),
St.Cyril of Jerusalem
[Doctor](Catech. myst., iv, 2 sqq.),
St.Chrysostom [Doctor] [Hom.
lxxxii (lxxxiii), in Matt., 1 sqq.; Hom. xlvi, in Joan.,
2
sqq.; Hom. xxiv, in I Cor., 1 sqq.; Hom. ix, de pœnit., 1],
St.Hilary of Poitiers [Doctor]
(De Trinit., VIII, iv, 13)
St. Ambrose [Doctor] (De myst.,
viii, 49; ix, 51 sq.)
Other information on the Eucharist include Decrees from other many other Councils, Letters from different Popes, etc. One current example is the ENCYCLICAL LETTER ECCLESIA DE EUCHARISTIA OF HIS HOLINESS POPE JOHN PAUL II TO THE BISHOPS, PRIESTS AND DEACONS, MEN AND WOMEN IN THE CONSECRATED LIFE AND ALL THE LAY FAITHFUL ON THE EUCHARIST IN ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE CHURCH, April 17, 2003.
By now, I think most of us have heard the age old argument on the divinity of Christ. That is, from the historical evidence and his claims, we can only come to one of two conclusions: He was either Son of God (God), or a bad man (liar or lunatic). This kind of argument can also be applied to the claims that the Church has made regarding the Eucharist. That is, either the Church’s claim is true (the Eucharist is in fact really, truly, and substantially Christ our Lord) and we must bow and worship Him. Or, the Christians (Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholics as well as the Anglicans) that believe so are committing gross idolatry worshiping a piece of bread and some wine. But how is this possible when some of the greatest people that have ever lived were crowned as Saints of the Catholic Church? (It’s been said that the only argument for Christianity that has no answer are the Saints -(Peter Kreeft). Yet, it’s also been said that the best argument against Christianity are Christians –(G.K.Chesterton, C.S.Lewis)).
Throughout history, there have been supernatural events, that have shown that what the Church holds true about the Eucharist is in fact Real. A few have been declared to be miracles worthy of belief by the Catholic Church. Others are still being reviewed. These events have been occurring right up to the present and some are even occurring in the US!! (Why is it that we hear so little if at all about these things?!)
Some Early Miracles
Lanciano, Italy -- 8th century A.D.
A priest doubts Real Presence and performs the consecration and the bread turns to real human flesh and the wine into human blood. Tests have been performed since 1571 and through 1970-71. The blood was found to be type AB, flesh seems to consist of human heart muscle. Micrographs (pictures through a microscope) confirms the scientific findings. Both the Flesh and Blood are perfectly preserved and remains fresh even after exposure to normal atmospheric conditions.
Assisi, Spoleto Valley, Italy – 1234 A.D.
“When, in 1234, the army of Frederick II was devastating the
valley of Spoleto, the soldiers, preparatory to an assault upon Assisi, scaled
the walls of San Damiano by night, spreading terror among the community. Clare,
calmly rising from her sick bed, and taking the ciborium from the little chapel
adjoining her cell, proceeded to face the invaders at an open window against
which they had already placed a ladder. It is related that, as she raised the
Blessed Sacrament on high, the soldiers who were about to enter the monastery
fell backward as if dazzled, and the others who were ready to follow them took
flight. It is with reference to this incident that St. Clare is generally
represented in
art bearing a ciborium.” -from the Catholic Encyclopedia
Bolsena-Orvieta, Italy –1263 A.D.
Another priest doubts Real Presence and during consecration, the Host starts to bleed. He talks to the Pope, who was residing nearby. The blood stained corporal is kept in a shrine in the Cathedral of Orvieto. Because of this miracle, after talking with the priest, the Pope then institutes the feast of Corpus Christi, honoring the Holy Eucharist as the Body of Christ.
Blanot, France -- March 31, 1331 A.D.
A woman receiving communion, drops the Host from her mouth and onto a piece of cloth (that was used at the time for receiving Communion because of the way they received it back then). When the priest went to recover the Host, he saw that the Host had dissolved and all that was left was a stain of blood, the same size as the Host. After the Mass, he filled a basin with clean water and tried to wash the stain off. However, he found that the stain only grew larger. Upon looking into the basin, he saw that the water in the whole basin had turned to blood. This piece of cloth with the stain is still preserved at the church where it occurred.
Amsterdam, Holland – 1345 A.D.
A dying sick man requested to receive Holy Viaticum (Holy Communion given to those in danger of death). Since the man had been throwing up, the wife was instructed that if he were to throw up after receiving Communion, she was to throw the contents into the fire. Later, he threw up and she did as she was instructed. In the morning, one of the women went to rake the fire that was still burning and saw the Blessed Sacrament in the form of a host in the middle of the fire with a light surrounding it. She reached in to take the Host and to her surprise found it cold. Neither was she burned! The Host was preserved and a church built on the spot where the miracle happened called the Holy Room. Many miracle cures have happened to those that visited, even to Archduke Maximilian in 1480, before he became a Roman Emperor. However, Amsterdam fell under Protestant persecution and in 1910, the church was torn down.
Sienna, Italy -- August 17, 1730 A.D.
Thieves
steal a golden ciborium containing 348 whole Hosts and 6 halves from the Church
of St. Francis. Two days later, at a
nearby church, someone notices something white in the alms box. The offering box was opened in the presence
of many priests and the representative of the Archbishop. They found every one of the lost Hosts. Since there was some dirt and cobwebs on the
hosts because the alms box is opened only once a year, the priests decided
instead of consuming the Hosts, as during Mass, they were allowed to
deteriorate naturally. They have not
deteriorated in any way even up to today.
In 1914, scientific examinations of the Hosts were performed under the
authority of Pope St. Pius X. They
found that normal unleavened bread exposed to natural atmospheric conditions
deteriorated after only a few years.
Hosts, if kept in sterile, airtight, antiseptically clean containers
could be kept much longer, but this was ridiculous since these hosts were kept
as normal Hosts are kept. Acid tests, starch
tests, and microscopic tests concluded that these were normal Hosts made from
roughly sifted wheat flour.
Some Modern Miracles:
A priest who had lost his reverence
for the Holy Host was called to administer the Sacrament to a sick
peasant. He irreverently placed the
Host between the pages of his breviary and went on his way. Upon opening the book, he found that the
Host had turned red with fresh blood and stuck to the two pages. He sought out for counsel and found another
priest, Blessed Simone Fitadi. The two
pages were taken and one was placed in a tabernacle in Perugia
andthe other in Cascia. Some that look
about the blood stained page and see the image of Christ.
Blessed Imelda Lambertini
(9 years old) studying at the Dominican Convent of Valdi-Pietra in Bologna was kneeling in prayer when
suddenling a Holy Host was seen floating in front of her. A priest was called over and he gave her her
first Communion. Upon receiving it, she
fell into a state of ecstacy and died.
Her body is incorrupt and is kept in church of San Sigismondo near the University of
Bologna. She was named Protectress of
First Holy Communicants by Pope St. Pious X.
Woodbridge, NewJersey, 1997
Joe Fabics took a
picture during an exposition of the Blessed Sacrament in Woodbridge. However, in the picture a crucifix appears
in the picture on the Host.
In short, this just means that Mass is no ordinary celebration! The reality and significance of Holy Mass is out of the scope of the topic I’m writing on today, but our topic of the Eucharist does touch upon it. Since the Eucharist is literally Christ himself, that means every time we celebrate Mass, we are back on Calvary, watching our Lord die for our Sins. The very Host we take in our hands is the very Body that hangs on the Holy Cross! The Blood in the cup is just as real as the Blood that would fall upon us if we stood at the foot of His True Cross!! This means that Mass transcends both space and time and unites us with Christ’s One Sacrifice for all. An interesting note here is that the song that we sing (Holy Holy Holy) right before consecration is the very song that the angels are singing before the Throne of God in praise (Rev. 4)!! Now, why would we be doing that if the host were just a piece of bread?!
This would also mean that Mass is a Holy time. And that churches are Holy places, and the Host and all that’s associated with it are Holy too! But you’d ask, how can some things be holier than others? I ask you, how can they not be? If you touch the Pope, he is only human. If you were able to touch any of the Saints, they are only human. And so is Moses and the Prophets. But if you touched Christ, you were healed. This means his very molecules were Holy. The places he walked on, is Holy. (We still call it the Holy Land). If that’s true, then his presence in the Holy Eucharist must be just as Holy if He is indeed “really, truly, and substantially” present. That would make the church building Holy, especially the alter where the host is consecrated. Also, the tabernacle where the Hosts are kept. And all things associated with the Holy Eucharist are then Holy (ie: the ciborium, corporals, etc.). The physical church building containing the Holy Eucharist is then, quite literally, God’s House. And he is home (when we see the red candle near the tabernacle lit, usually everyday except the three days of Good Friday to Easter).
That would also mean when we’re in church, we are literally in God’s presence, and we’re not always sinless. So how is it that we can remain alive, sinful in the presence of the Creator of all things?! That’s how much he loves us. A lot of people think why should we be respectful when we enter the church? What we’re supposed to think is, how is it that I’m not dead being allowed this physically close to the One Holy God?? What an absolute honor that is!
The Church also holds that Real Presence holds for as long as the Holy Eucharist is intact. That means that it is no longer true in the physical sense when the Host is either digested or deteriorates naturally. That means we are able to truly worship Him. Bow down and kneel and really worship him as if He was really present. Because He is! It’s been said that when Ghandi looked at the beliefs of our Church, he said that if he really believed it, he would remain in worship in front of the Holy Eucharist for the rest of his life. A Muslim responded to a Catholic after hearing about our beliefs and replied, “I wonder whether you really believe that or only say you do….Because if I really believed that, once I entered a Catholic church, I don’t see how I could ever get up off my knees again.” (Kreeft,164).
Receiving Communion: Catholic Right? Wrong!
In this day of human rights over-zealousness, we start to think everything as a “right.” Just so we’re clear: receiving Holy Communion is not a right. You can’t have it “just because you’re Catholic.” It is a gift of God. We are able to receive it and not fall dead because of God’s Grace. We are also able to even approach the Holy Eucharist and not fall dead on our way up (see as how irreverent a lot of us are, even me) because of God’s Grace. On our part, some requirements should be met before receiving. Two terms need to be defined: subjective worthiness (dignitas), and objective capacity (capacitas, aptitudo). The first is a moral and theological issue that each person, in good counsel should work out for himself. St. Paul called for a rigorous “self-examination” to avoid the offense of “eating and drinking unworthily” the Body and Blood of Christ (1 Cor. 11:26-29). The second is a dogmatic issue. It’s been decreed that objective capacity must meet three different conditions: 1. human, 2. status viatoris or “state of pilgrimage” to the next life, and 3. baptism. Only humans can receive Holy Communion. This means animals and angels cannot. The second condition means that the human must be alive. This condition was made clear to those that wanted to give Holy Communion to dead loved ones. In the 4th Century, the Synod of Hippo (393) forbade giving Communion to the dead because “corpses were no longer capable of eating.” The third is because baptism is the “gateway” Sacrament that completes, or makes valid all others of the Seven Sacraments.
It must be noted here that Pope St. Pius X issued a decree (Dec., 1905) where he allows and even recommends the daily receiving of Communion to the entire laity. He only gave two conditions: the state of grace and a right and pious intention. St. Thomas Aquinas also states in his Summa Theologica (3rd Part, Article 80, Question 10) that “profitable to receive it daily so as to receive its fruits daily.” St. Ambrose also says (De Sacram. iv): "If, whenever Christ's blood is shed, it is shed for the forgiveness of sins, I who sin often, should receive it often: I need a frequent remedy." So we are thus encouraged to go and receive Holy Communion, especially when we are in frequent sin! Though technically, we should go to confession before we receive Communion!
Let’s look at it this way: if you want to swim in the ocean, you have to learn how to swim first and foremost! Even after that, you’d have to enter the ocean gradually, as the shore gradually gets deeper. If you just dive into the open ocean, you’ll find yourself in something deeper than you can ever imagine! If the ocean were the Sacraments, Baptism would be the waves lapping at the shoreline. For any of the Sacraments to be valid, a person has to be Baptized, one way or another (keep in mind you can be baptized in different ways, not just the “formal” way). So then, why would a Catholic knowingly allow someone that did not believe or even respect the belief that Catholics hold for the Eucharist? It is theirs if they want it, but they need to be baptized first. Non-Catholics are denied the Eucharist because they aren’t Catholic. But becoming Catholic is encouraged by the Church! In that sense, everyone in the world is encouraged by the Church to receive Communion as well as the other Sacraments!
A Few References:
Kreeft, Peter. Ecumenical Jihad. Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1996. pp 145-164.
http://www.peterkreeft.com/topics/history.htm
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04004a.htm
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05572c.htm
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10006a.htm
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05584a.htm
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05573a.htm
http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/father/a5.html
http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/scrip/a6.html
Ecclesia De Eucharistia, Encyclical from Pope John Paul II
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,"199
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