EUCHARIST
The Eucharist as a Sacrifice
The sole difference between the sacrifice of the Cross and the Eucharist consists in the “ manner of offering.” The sacrifice of the Cross was a bloody immolation, while the Eucharistic sacrifice is of a ritual order and excludes any shedding of blood.
The Eucharistic sacrifice has the distinctive element of an offering of the body and blood of Christ under the species of bread and wine, which are sacramental signs.We can define the Eucharistic sacrifice as a sacramental sacrifice and in this it differs from the sacrifice of the Cross.
The Church’s worship multiplies the sacramental sacrifice, while that of the cross is unique. On Calvary, the sacrifice which obtains the salvation of the world was accomplished once and for all. It is no longer repeated as such. The sacramental sacrifice, on the other hand, is destined to be repeated to foster the growth of the Church.
In order to express the relationship between the Eucharistic sacrifice and that of the Cross, the term “re-presentation” is used. Represent here means, “render present” again the sacrifice of the Cross. It is not a “representation” that would be limited to remembering or celebrating the memory of an event in the past. The representation consists in a sacramental reproduction of the sacrifice of the Cross: it renders that sacrifice present in such a way as to apply its fruits to the Church.
Christ renews the offering of the sacrifice sacramentally through the ministry of the priest. In itself the sacrifice of the Cross was perfect and sufficed for obtaining all graces for salvation and the spiritual life of humanity .In its sacramental representation, it pours forth its fruits more widely.
The Christ who comes upon the altar is the risen Savior. And it is as risen Savior that he offers himself as food and drink in the Eucharistic meal. But it is true that he is the same Christ who was born of a virgin, that he lived a life on earth similar to ours, that he devoted himself to the discharge of his mission all the way to his raising up on the Cross.
This offering, considered simply in terms of the redemptive drama and with reference to the cruel sufferings undergone by the Savior, would have called for a climate of struggle; the memorial would have had to be essentially sorrowful. Instead, the contrary occurs because the offering is made by the glorious Christ. It, hence, implies the transformation of suffering into joy.
The Eucharist not only reproduces sacramentally the sublime, heroic offering on Calvary that changed the face of the world, obtaining the divine forgiveness in abundance. It is also nourished by the mystery of the Resurrection, which even today continues the work of creation of a new humanity.”(The Eucharist, Gift of Divine Life,p.93)
The Eucharist as a Meal
At the last Supper, Jesus’ fundamental intent was to give his disciples a meal that would continue forever to nourish them in his Church. With this meal, the Savior wished to communicate the fruit of his sacrifice in the ritual realization of the sacrificial offering…As Jesus wished to found a community animated by faith and love, it is understandable why he would have given a meal an important role in the formation and development of such a community.
The Eucharistic meal consists in his communicating his own life to human beings….the act of eating and drinking represents a deeper penetration of Christ’s life into the interior life of the individual, a more complete assimilation of one’s personal life to the higher life of the Incarnate Son.(Euch,Gift of Dv.Life,p.109)
Real Presence—Transubstantiation
St. Thomas Aquinas deals with the sacramental presence of the Body of Christ from the view point of the metaphysical nature of being….The Body of Christ contained in the Eucharist is not visible to any bodily eye, because visibility applies to the order of accidents, and not of substance.
The real distinction between substance and accidents is the philosophical datum that makes possible Thomas’ treatment of the Eucharist.(Mazza, P.204)
The starting point of the analogy that St. Thomas employed is the distinction between substance and accident in composite beings…what a thing is, is not identified with what moves the senses. Though it is generally known through sense perception, a reasoning process is necessary to come to this knowledge. Substance describes the core reality known to intellect, accidents whatever touches the senses. Aquinas uses this analogy to explain how the body and blood of Christ are known to faith and are indeed the reality present, though the sense perception points to bread and wine.(The Eucharistic Mystery,David N.Power,p.221)
The Council of Trent summarizes the Catholic faith by declaring: “Because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again, that by the consecration of bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation.” (CCC.1376) St.John Chrysostom:
“It is not man that causes the things offered to become the Body and Blood of Christ,but he who was crucified for us, Christ himself. The priest, in the role of Christ, pronounces these words, but their power and grace are God’s. This is my body, he says.This word transforms the things offered.” (CCC.1375)
St.Ambrose:
“Be convinced that this is not what nature has formed, but what the blessing has consecrated. The power of the blessing prevails over that of nature, because by the blessing nature itself is changed…Could not Christ’s word, which can make from nothing what did not exist, change existing things into what they were not before?
Eucharist as a Sacrament of Transformation and Healing
Theodore E.Dobson:
The Eucharist is, at its roots, a sacrament of transformation. The rite itself is speaking the language of renewal and transformation.
The Lord’s supper is the ultimate rite of ‘humanization”, that is, of becoming the best that a human being can be physically, psychologically, and spiritually.
(As Eucharist is a sacrifice, our participation it makes us sacrificial).To sacrifice …means to make something sacred by giving it to God, in such a way that it changes, and at least feels as if it were being destroyed. We are given the opportunity to make this kind of sacrifice in the Eucharist with all the parts of our human selves—to make them sacred by giving them to God so freely that we feel as if they were being destroyed.
( Here we try to find how our participation in different parts of the mass can be opportunities of transformation as well as healing for us).
To praise God…means that we focus on Him with our entire selves—body, mind and spirit. When we come together for worship, we are often caught up in the concerns of our own lives—our problems, our pains and illnesses, and our hurt feelings. Immediately, God begins to change us through praise. He draws us out of ourselves and out of our selfish concern to enjoy the wonder of Him…In praise we begin the work of self-sacrifice by giving to God concerns that keep our vision narrow and our faith weak.(P.25)
The Eucharist is God’s sign of His unconditional affection for us. It is the celebration of His victory over all that is destructive in this world. As such, it confronts all that would destroy or mutilate our human natures. Through the Eucharist, our isolationism, privatism, fear of people who are different from ourselves, and the loneliness that comes from all of these are themselves destroyed, for they bring psychological and spiritual death.(p.37)
The heart of the mystery of the Eucharist is this: as the bread and wine are transformed and made sacred, so are we transformed and made sacred, if we unite ourselves consciously and prayerfully with these symbols of sacrifice.
When we sacrifice, we are giving away something that belongs to us without expecting anything in return. A sacrifice comes from a deeper love and commitment, and it expresses the true intentions of the heart.(p.45)
But even after we give our gift to God, it is not a sacrifice if we are expecting something in return. Many times we sacrifice to God thinking we are buying His love or forgiveness for our sin.
Celebrating the Eucharist means being poor. It means giving our lives as a gift and not receiving anything back but a relationship.
The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper encourages us to immerse into this kind of spiritual poverty through continuous sacrifice of our selfishness…At each Eucharist, Jesus calls us to celebrate with Him…he asks us to become conscious of various parts of ourselves we have not yet given to the Father, and to sacrifice them to Him.(p.51)
On Easter morning all that had looked and felt like suffering, death, hopelessnes, and despair was revealed as joy, life, hope, and the continuing promise of renewal. In every Eucharistic celebration, Jesus offers the same opportunity for transformation and renewal to us in every part of our lives that we choose to sacrifice with Him to our Father.
When we sacrifice ourselves for the Eucharist, then, we need to become aware of some element of our lives which we will sacrifice to God—some talent, quality, spiritual gift, relationship, weakness, illness, goal… and we give one part of ourselves to God each time we come to Him. Often the sacrifice we make to God on a particular day is determined by the most important goal we have at that time, or by the most pressing problem. Whatever it is,we bring it to God for transformation,healing,and renewal.
We unite the physical aspects of our life-situation(our labor and the money we earn from it) with the bread, and the emotional and spiritual aspects(our attachment to our work,our feelings , the money earned from it etc.)with the wine.The bread and wine become vehicles for our sacrifice…Now our labor and its fruits are transformed and spiritualsed into something greater than they ever were before are joined with His sacrifice...(p.69)
Eucharist--the Sacrament of Healing:
Eucharist can be our healing service too…We need to sacrifice our weaknesses to God. When we speak of our weaknesses and illnesses we mean things like our darker emotions,our neediness, our painful memories, our emotional and spiritual confusion, our sinfulness, our broken relationships, our physical pain and diseases and all the parts of our personalities that we reject… He loves our weaknesses more, simply because they need His love more.(p.77)
God loves our weaknesses and He desires that His love will bring them into wholeness(healing).However, He wants and needs our trust to do it,and that is the great gift we give Him when we sacrifice our weaknesses to Him.When we sacrifice our weaknesses to God, we are trusting His love….When we give God our attachments to our weaknesses, then, we are giving Him the great gift of freedom to make of our lives whatever He wants them to be.Therefore,essentially when we give God our weaknesses we are giving Him the same gift as when we give Him our strengths,namely ,openeness to growth,maturity and grace. (We bring this weakness as our personal theme.p.82)
An Outline of Participation:
1.Become quiet within, and center on the power of Jesus in your life.
2.Decide on your personal theme for the Eucharist
3.Bring to mind all the aspects of this issue that you can think of, both physical and interior
4.Prayefully and intentionally , unite the physical aspects of this issue with the bread
5.Unite the psychological and spiritual aspects with the wine
6.Be aware of how much your gift means to you and give it to God precisely because it means so much to you.
7.At the Words of consecration, believe that what you have prayerfully united with the bread and wine enters into the heart of Jesus
8.Continue to give control of this issue to Jesus,so that His love can permeate it and transform it
9.During the Our Father, sacrifice your ego as you allow His values preeminence in your life
10.At the communion, believe that Jesus can bring the renewal you need, physically and emotionally.
11. As you pray after communion, ask God to reveal to you what he is doing for the renewal of your personal theme so that you can cooperate with Him as He does it.
12.At the dismissal, thank God for what he has done
13.Gratefully receive His commission to give Eucharistic love to others(p.127)
Different forms of the Eucharistic Prayer
In the beginning of the Christian Church, we find the development of several Eucharistic prayers and they were all associated with the major cities where the Church took deep roots. Different rites arose, hence, as a result of these various ways of offering the Eucharistic prayers.
Early Eucharistic prayers were associated with Rome, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch, and Constantinople (J&C). Four of these cities –Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, and Constantinople –were the birthplaces of major liturgical families within Christianity. Jerusalem did not give rise to a major liturgical family. Outside of the Roman empire was another important center, Edessa in East Syria. It became a great center for Syriac-speaking Christians. Edessa as a kingdom was founded by the generals of Alexander in about 130 B.C. and continued up to 214 A.D.
The major liturgical rites of the Christian East developed at Antioch,Alexandria,Constantinople and Edessa.
These centers gave rise to the following rites in the Church:
Edessa(Syriac influence)—East Syrian:Syro-Malabar(India) and Maronite
Antioch(Gk influence)—West Syrian: Syro-Malankara(India)
Alexandria(Gk)—Coptic and Ethiopian
Armenia(Gk)—Armenian
Constantinople(Gk)—Byzantine:Gk and Melkite (East.Cath.Churches,p.11)
The Pattern of the Anaphora:
“By the end of the fourth C., the pattern of anaphora( Eucharistic Prayer) has been standardized as follows:
Sursum Corda,Preface,Pre-sanctus,Sanctus,Post-Sanctus,Institution Narrative,Anamnesis,Offering,Epiclesis,Intercessions and Doxology.
This pattern is now usually called “West Syrian” though sometimes, “Antiochene”.It is found in St.John Chrysostom,St.Basil,St.James, and the Apostolic Constitutions.
The two main variations are the East Syrian (Chaldean) which places Epiclesis(Invocation of the Holy Spirit)after the intercessions and the Egyptian which places intercessions after the Preface.(J&C,p.5)
St.Justin, who was martyred in Rome in 165 gives the following structure of the eucharistic prayer in his book Apology(150 A.D.):
Readings from the Apostles or Prophets; Discourse on the readings by the President; Common Prayers; Kiss of peace; Presentation of bread and wine; Prayers and thanksgiving by the President and Distribution (J&C,p.20).
The Roman Canon:
The Eucharistic prayer of the Roman Church—the Roman Canon—is attested for the first time in the fourth c, in De Sacramentis of Ambrose, the bishop of Milan. Even though it seems that the Roman Canon had no affinity with any of the liturgical families, on a deeper reflection, it becomes clear that it has similarities with the Alexandrian anaphora(Mazza,62)
The Roman Canon appears as one of the most venerable witnesses of the oldest tradition of the eucharistic prayer, at least contemporary in its totality with the most archaic forms of the Alexandrian eucharist.(Bouyer,p.243)
The Roman Church had known but a single Eucharistic Prayer, the Roman Canon, a text which had received its definitive formulation between the end of the fourth c. and the seventh c.and which had undergone no significant change since the time of Pope Gregory the Great(d.604)(p.269)
Reform of the Eucharistic Prayer after the 11Vat.Council (Pope PaulV1):
The text was left unchanged except a shortening of a few of the prayers. The text lacks a thanksgiving of its own and the preface is variable. The Roman canon in its entirety is a lengthy intercession, based entirely on the themes of offering and sacrifice(p.270).
Eucharistic Prayer 11:
This prayer derives verbatim from the anaphoral text in the Apostolic Tradition(Hippolytus).The model is the Antioche anaphora.The first epiclesis since it comes before the account of the institution is called a consecratory epiclesis.The second epiclesis is taken directly from the epiclesis in the anaphora of Hippolytus and is built on the theme of unity.
Eucharistic Prayer 111:
The authors of this anaphora , while following the usual pattern of the Antiochene anaphora composed the text using the sacrificial themes proper to the Roman canon.The epiclesis is sanctificatory in the sense that Holy Spirit is invoked to bring those who receive communion into unity.
Eucharistic Prayer1V:
The thanksgiving gives way to the first epiclesis which is constructed in the usual manner and this in turn leads to the account of the institution by way of a citation of John 13:1.
This is entirely a new composition.
The Eucharistic Prayer of Addai and Mari
R.C.D.Jasper and G.J.Cuming:
This liturgy originated in Edessa(a city of northeastern Syria, near the frontier between the Roman Empire and Persia)— which is one of the earliest centers of Christianity.
After the Council of Ephesus (A.D.431),the area became Nestorian, and was later occupied by the Arabs. The anaphora is one of those still in use among Nestorian Christians, the others being Theodore the Interpreter and Nestorian. Portugueese explorers found Addai and Mari still in use in the 16th c. in Kerala, South India.
This anaphora is closely related to the third anaphora of St.Peter which is also known as the Sharar (Maronite).The present form dates from about the 6th c. This would be among the oldest surviving Eucharistic prayers.
Louis Bouyer:
Everything leads us to believe that this prayer is the most ancient Christian Eucharistic composition to which we can have access today. It is molded after the pattern of the Jewish prayers for the last cup of the meal.(p.147)
The redundancies we observe, and the accumulation of synonyms called for by parallelism, are characteristic traits of Jewish prayers.
But the most primitive trait of this Eucharistic prayer is the fact that we do not yet find in it any technically sacrificial formula. There is no mention of either sacrifice or offering.
The Eucharist of Addai and Mari is basically Semitic, in that it is obvious that its wording is not a translation from Greek into Syriac,but a composition that was originally produced in a Semitic idiom. The Eucharist of Addai and Mari remains based on the Jewish meal berakoth ,to the point that like them it is still composed not of one but three prayers.
The Structure of the Anaphora:
Gahanta 1(a prayer said in a low voice and with an inclined head): the first prayer of praise and Thanksgiving.
Sursum Corda dialogue
Kusappa(a private prayer of the celebrant said kneeling and in a low voice): asking the Lord to free the celebrant from all evil thoughts)
Gahanta 2: Second Thanksgiving prayer—emphasizing the works of the Holy Trinity—praising God for creation—Sanctus--Kusappa: acknowledging one’s impurity
Gahanta 3:Emphasizing the redemptive work of the Son—Institution Narrative, Anamnesis, Intercession:Gahanta 4: Economy of the Spirit—Epiclesis, Doxology, Kusappa., Peace and Communion
