Eucharist The Sacrament of Salvation - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Eucharist

The Sacrament of SalvationSlide2

In this session:

Eucharist –

‘

the

source and summit of

the entire Christian life

’ SC n11

Eucharist as constituting Church

Rite of Christian Initiation of AdultsSlide3

Different names

Mass – from the dismissal –

ite

missa

est

Holy Communion – sharing together in a common act

The Liturgy

–

Orthodox description

Early Church – the offering or sacrifice

Eucharist – ‘thanksgiving’ in Greek (

efaristo

)Slide4

Jewish roots

Passover meal – Seder

Special in all ways

Special food

Special drink

Special graces and psalms

The story requested by the youngest participant

The community context Slide5

Seder

The anamnesis - bringing the past into the present

Exodus - the story

Re-presentation of the liberation of the Hebrew people from slaverySlide6

Synagogue worship

Sequence of:

Scripture readings

Sermon

Prayer

The chair of Moses for the Rabbi

Possibly the basis of the early Eucharist? Initially the first people of the Way attended Synagogue on Saturday and celebrated Eucharist on SundaySlide7

New Testament

‘the Lord’s supper’ oldest term in 1

Cor

11:20

4 variant versions:

1

Cor

11:23-25

Mark 14: 22-25

Matthew 26: 26-29

Luke 22: 15-20

Paul’s written round 54-56 but beginning of mission was around 49. Received from the Lord but never repudiated by other apostlesSlide8

Jesus the Jew and his meals

Daily meals with his followers: implying peace, trust and community

Meals shared with outcasts as a sign of the

Reign of God

Last Supper (Passover or farewell?)

Celebrated as an introduction to the Kingdom

Clear Jewish structure

But here Jesus identifies himself with the bread and the wineSlide9

Last Supper

It is Jesus’ body which is broken and His blood which is poured out

In atonement for sin

And to establish a new covenant

All four texts clear about this

Jewish belief saw the death of an innocent one as having the character of atonement and Jesus may have seen his death in this way

Also eating and drinking were seen as communicating divine gifts – those who received could share in the power of his deathSlide10

OT resonances

The sacrifice of the old covenant Ex 24:8,11

The new covenant

i

n Jeremiah 31:31-34

Atoning sufferings of the Servant in Isaiah

Is 53:12

So the NT authors interpret Jesus’ death as an atoning death

Establishing a new covenant

Bringing redemption to all

Recipients share in the sacrifice and the power of His atoning deathSlide11

John 13 - 17

No description of the meal

A farewell super

The washing of feet and the injunction - ‘you must wash each others’ feet’

The Supper DiscourseSlide12

Post Resurrection

The growing communities gathered early on Sunday morning (before work) to celebrate the Eucharist

In the complete conviction that Jesus was thereby in their midst

There was joy in the new fellowship around the presence of Christ (Mt 18:20)

And also in the reality of the coming of the Kingdom of God (Acts 2:46)

They were following what Jesus told them to do

Reference to the Last Supper – (1

Cor

11:24-25)Slide13

But...

To be effective the Eucharist must engender a sense of community

If there is no fellowship, if there is division, to real community then the Supper of the Lord

brings judgement , not grace (1

Cor

11: 17-34)Slide14

Early Church

Didache

-9.1,2,3,4,5 --

10.7

We give you thanks our Father

for the holy vine of your servant David

which you revealed to us through your servant Jesus.

To you is the glory forever. Slide15

Didache

As this broken bread was scattered over the mountains and when brought together became one, so let your Church be brought together from the ends of the earth into your kingdom; for yours are the glory and the power through Jesus Christ for evermore.Slide16

Justin Martyr first apology 67

And on the day called Sun-day an assembly is held in one place of all who live in town or country , and the records of all the apostles or writings of the prophets are read for as long as time allows

.

(mid second century)Slide17

Justin cont

Then when the reading has finished the president in a discourse admonishes and exhorts us to imitate these good things.

Then we all stand up together and offer prayers.Slide18

Justin Martyr First Apology 65-

When we have ended the prayers, we greet one another with a kiss. Then bread and a cup of water and of mixed wine are brought to him who presides over the brethren, and he takes them and offers praise and glory to the Father of all in the name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and gives thanks at some length that we have been deemed worthy of these things from him. Slide19

cont

When he has finished the prayers and the thanksgiving, all the people present give their assent by saying ‘Amen’.

And when the president has given thanks and all the people have assented, those whom we call deacons give to each one present a portion of the bread and wine over which thanks have been given, and take them to those who are not present. Slide20

Origen (185-255) Egypt

You who are wont to take part in the divine mysteries know how carefully and reverently you guard the body of the Lord when you receive it, lest the least crumb of it should fall to the ground, lest anything should be lost of the hallowed gift

Homily on Exodus 13.3Slide21

St Augustine of Hippo

"The Eucharist is our daily bread and our power for good which is shown forth therein; [it] is unity, that is to say that we are made into his own body and having been made into his body we ourselves become what we receive"

sermon on the Lord's supper to the

competentesSlide22

Augustine cont

when Augustine gives catechesis on Eucharist to the newly baptized

He does NOT speak of real presence nor participation in the crucified, resurrected and glorified Christ.

He only speaks of

one thing

:

BECOMING ONE with one another and with Christ, thus

becoming one body and blood

Slide23

Augustine

“we ourselves become what we receive”Slide24

Scholastism

Berengar

of Tours (1010-1088) asserted that Christ was present

mystically

not truly.

There was a massive reaction to this stressing the

reality

– ‘the real body’ - ‘the real presence ‘

Focus of study became

how

Christ was present in the Eucharist

The Eucharist had been ‘a mystery to understand ‘ and now became ‘the miracle to believe’ (de

Lubac

, 1988)Slide25

Transubstantiation

Substance of bread and wine transformed into the substance of the body and blood of Christ

First talked about by Pope Innocent 111 in 1202 then taken up by the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 which said:

The body and blood of Christ

are ‘truly contained in the sacrament of the altar under the forms of bread and wine’

Normative Catholic teachingSlide26

Eucharist: one of seven

The Council of Lyon (1274) listed the Eucharist simply as one of the seven sacraments of the Church.

So the emphasis had shifted from –

‘

the Eucharist makes the Church ‘

to

‘the Church makes the Eucharist’Slide27

Reformation

Christ not really present

Consubstantiation –

the substance of bread and wine remains

together with

the Body and Blood of Christ

A memorial only of Christ’s

sacrifice – rejecting the (false) idea that the sacrifice of Christ was repeated at the EucharistSlide28

Trent - transubstantiation

Emphasises

‘that marvellous and unique change of the whole substance of the bread into the body and of the whole substance of the wine into the blood

, while only the appearance of the bread and wine remains, a change which the Church most aptly calls transubstantiation: let him be anathemaSlide29

Transubstantiation cont

McPartlan

– what we say about the Eucharist is strongly linked to what we believe about the Church

The bread and wine are transformed

As we ourselves hope to be transformed

And ‘truly share the divine nature’ (2 Pet 1:4 and CCC 1000 quoting St

Irenaeus

)Slide30

Trent (1545 – 1563)

Continued a scholastic way of thinking about the Eucharist where sacrament and sacrifice were treated separately.

Trent produced the

Decree on the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist

in 1551 and the

Decree on the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

in 1562 – totally

separatly

.

Trent did not fit these essential, unified elements together (

McPartlan

2004; 1995)Slide31

Vatican 11:

[In the Body of Christ]

‘the life of Christ is communicated to those who believe and who ,through the sacraments, are united in a hidden and real way to Christ in his passion and glorification’

Really sharing in the body of the Lord in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread, we are taken up into communion with him and with one another’ (LG 7)

Eucharist makes us ChurchSlide32

Actions of Christ through the Church

The Church is “The Sacrament of Universal Salvation” (LG 48)

the fundamental sacrament of God's promise and deliverance of the Kingdom of God in Jesus Christ.

The sacraments are acts of God

acts of Christ

Immediately acts of the ChurchSlide33

Sacraments – the life of the Church

Sacraments are directly ecclesiological in character.

Christ is mediated through the Church.

The Church is the sign and instrument of God’s Reign

Christian moral life is Christian existence, i.e.,

our way of being Church.

As Church the life of Christ is mediated to us

As Church we mediate the life of Christ to othersSlide34

Sacraments – where the Church

happens

Sacraments are expressions of the nature and mission of the Church.

The sacraments are not simply actions which the Church performs, or means by which the Church makes grace available. They are moments when the Church becomes Church, manifesting itself as Church to itself and to others.

Sacraments do not only relate participants to God they also relate them immediately to the Church.

The lasting effect of the sacrament is one of relationship to the Church.

Slide35

Christ is indeed present and active in every sacramental celebration. Yet it is the Church which makes that celebration available and which mediates the presence and action of Christ.

Slide36

Initiation

The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults

Ad

Gentes

- Vatican 11 -

Decree on the Church's Missionary Activity

Takes the Catholic Church back to early

Christian practiceSlide37

Decree on Missionary Activity...

Christian initiation through the

Catechumenate

should be taken care of not only by catechists or priests, but by the entire community of the faithful, especially by the sponsors. Thus, right from the outset, the catechumens will feel that they belong to the People of God.....For since they are joined to the Church, they are already of the household of Christ’.Slide38

Didache training

See flow chart Aaron

Milavec

(2003)Slide39

Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults [R.C.I.A

.]

Rite

to prepare adults for

baptism

Becomes

normative -

other forms of baptism are adaptations

C.I.C.C.A. Christian Initiation for Children of a Catechetical Age.

Post 7 till about 16 or maybe older.

Adapts process for children.Slide40

RCIA characteristics

Is rooted in the life of the community

Is a process not a program

Periods

StepsSlide41

Periods or steps in RCIA

Period or Evangelization and

Precatechumenate

Step One: Rite of Acceptance into the Order of Catechumens

Period of the

Catechumenate

Step Two: Election or Enrolment of Names

Period of Purification and Enlightenment

Step Three: Celebration of the Sacraments of Initiation

Period of

Postbaptismal

Catechesis or

Mystagogy

.Slide42

Optional Rites

Exorcism and Renunciation of False Worship

Giving of a New Name

Presentation of a CrossSlide43

Rites Belonging to the Period of the

Catechumenate

Celebrations of the Word of God

Minor Exorcisms

Blessing of the Catechumens

Anointing of the CatechumensSlide44

Rites Belonging to the Period of Purification /Enlightenment

First Scrutiny

Presentation of the Creed

Second Scrutiny

Third Scrutiny

Presentation of the Lord’s Prayer

Preparation Rites on Holy Saturday

Recitation of the Creed

Ephphetha

Rite

[Choosing a Baptismal Name]

Concluding Rites