EUCHARIST - gale library.pdf

7/27/2019 EUCHARIST - gale library.pdf

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EUCHARIST. Liturgy,Page 2877The Eucharist, also known as the Mass, Communionservice, Lord's Supper, and Divine | among othernames, is the central act of Christian worship,

practiced by almost all denominations of Christians.Though varying in form from the very austere to thevery elaborate, the Eucharist has as its essentialelements the breaking and sharing of bread and thepouring and sharing of wine (in some Protestantchurches, unfermented grape juice) among the

worshipers in commemoration of the actions of JesusChrist on the eve of his death.The word eucharistis taken from theGreek eucharistia, which means "thanksgiving" or"gratitude" and which was used by the earlyChristians for the Hebrew berakhah, meaning "a

blessing" such as a table grace. When Christiansadopted the word from the Greek into otherlanguages, the meaning was narrowed to the specificdesignation of the ritual of the bread and wine.

HISTORY

The ritual attributed to Jesus by the writers of theNew Testament is portrayed as a Jewish Passoverseder meal in which Jesus reinterprets the symbolismof the traditional celebration (Paul in 1 Cor. 11:2326,Mk. 14:2225,Mt. 26:2629, andLk. 22:1420).Passover commemorates the liberation of the

Hebrews from slavery in Egypt, which was the firststep in their becoming a people in covenant with God.


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It is celebrated to this day by a lengthy ceremonialmeal with prescribed foods, in which the story of thedeliverance is symbolically reenacted (seeEx. 12:128). Selecting from the many symbolic foods

customary in his time, Jesus takes only theunleavened bread (the bread of emergency oraffliction) and the wine. The tradition of the earlywitnesses is that Jesus asks the traditional questionsabout the meaning of the ritual and answers, firstabout the bread he is breaking, "This is my body,

broken for you," and then about the wine, "This is myblood, the blood of the covenant, which is to bepoured out for many." It is clear that Jesus refers tohis death and is interpreting the significance of thatdeath in terms of the symbolism of the Exodus storyand the Passover ritual. He invites the disciples to

repeat the action frequently and thus enter into hisdeath and the outcome of that death. By placing hisdeath in the context of Passover, Jesus interprets it asa liberation bringing his followers into community asone people in covenant with God (see 1 Cor. 11:1734).

In the earliest Christian times, Eucharist wascelebrated rather spontaneously as part of anordinary meal for which the local followers of Jesuswere gathered in his name in a private home. By thesecond century it is clear that there were strongefforts to regulate it under the authority andsupervision of the local church leaders known asbishops. By the fourth century, Eucharist was


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celebrated with great pomp and ceremony in publicbuildings, and the meal was no longer in evidence. Atthat time, solemn processions emphasized the role ofa clergy arrayed in special vestments. The form of the

celebration included several readings from the Bible,prayers, chants, a homily, and the great prayer ofthanksgiving, in the course of which the words andactions of Jesus at his farewell supper were recited,followed by the distribution of the consecrated breadand wine to the participants.

The Orthodox and other Eastern churches retainedthis general format with some variations. The liturgyof the Western churches, however, went through along period of accretion and elaboration of secondarysymbolism which obscured the meaning of the action

and tended to leave the congregation passivespectators of what the clergy were doing. During theMiddle Ages there also emerged the private Mass, aEucharist celebrated by a priest without acongregation of worshipers present.

The sixteenth-century reformers took action to stripaway all accretions and elements that did not seem tobe in accord with the text of the Bible. Zwingli andCalvin were more radical in this than Luther. TheRoman Catholic church also instituted extensivereforms of the rite in the sixteenth century, leaving auniform pattern later known as the Tridentine Mass.This, however, was very substantially revised after theSecond Vatican Council (19621965), allowing more


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spontaneity and congregational participation as wellas offering more variety.

THEOLOGY

Eucharist is understood by all Christians tocommemorate the saving death and resurrection ofJesus, and to mediate communion with God andcommunity among the worshipers. Beyond this basicconcept, the theology of the Eucharist varies verywidely among the Christian denominations and has

often been a cause of bitter dispute between them.

Both Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christiansunderstand the presence of Christ very concretely,taking seriously the so-called words of institution,"This is my body this is my blood." However, theOrthodox insist that while there is an actual change inthe bread and wine that justifies these words, themanner of the change is a mystery not to be analyzedor explained rationally. Since medieval times CatholicChristians have attempted to give an intellectuallysatisfying explanation, focusing on the notion of a

transubstantiation of bread and wine. While theeucharistic theology of the various Protestantchurches varies widely, they are united in finding atheology of transubstantiation not in harmony withtheir interpretation of scripture.

The meaning and effect of the Eucharist have also

been discussed in Catholic theology under theterm real presence. This emphasizes that the


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presence of Christ mediated by the bread and wine isprior to the faith of the congregation. Protestanttheology has generally rejected the term realpresenceas one liable to superstitious interpretation.

Orthodox and Catholic Christians also agree on aninterpretation of the Eucharist in terms of sacrifice;that is, a renewed offering by Christ himself of hisimmolation in death. Again, there have beendetermined efforts in the Catholic theologicaltradition to give intellectually satisfying explanations

of this, while Orthodox theology tends to tolerate avariety of explanations at the same time as it insistson fidelity to the words of the liturgy itself.Protestants believe the theology of sacrifice lacksbiblical foundation and doctrinal (Page 2878 | Topof Article)validity, and prefer to emphasize the role

of the Eucharist as a memorial.It is paradoxical that the Eucharist is the sacramentof unity for Christians yet is a sign and cause ofdisunity among denominations. In generaldenominations exclude others from their eucharistictable, usually on account of theological differences.Contemporary initiatives reflect attempts to reconcilesome of these differences and to experimentcautiously with "intercommunion" among thechurches. Such initiatives appear to be far moreextensive among laity than in the official legislation ofthe churches.

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