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(Gr.
eucharistia, thanksgiving).
The name given to the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar in
 its twofold
aspect of sacrament and Sacrifice of Mass, and in which Jesus Christ is
truly present under the bread and wine. Other titles are used, such as
"Lord's Supper" (Coena Domini), "Table of the Lord" (Mensa
Domini), the "Lord's Body" (Corpus Domini), and the "Holy of
Holies" (Sanctissimum), to which may be added the following
expressions, and somewhat altered from their primitive meaning: "Agape"
(Love-Feast), "Eulogia" (Blessing), "Breaking of Bread", "Synaxis"
(Assembly), etc.; but the ancient title "Eucharistia" appearing in
writers as early as Ignatius, Justin, and Irenĉus, has taken precedence
in the technical terminology of the Church and her theologians. The
expression "Blessed Sacrament of the Altar", introduced by Augustine, is
at the present day almost entirely restricted to catechetical and
popular treatises. This extensive nomenclature, describing the great
mystery from such different points of view, is in itself sufficient
proof of the central position the Eucharist has occupied from the
earliest ages, both in the Divine worship and services of the Church and
in the life of faith and devotion which animates her members.
The Church honors the Eucharist as one of her most exalted mysteries,
since for sublimity and incomprehensibility it yields in nothing to the
allied mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation. These three mysteries
constitute a wonderful triad, which causes the essential characteristic
of Christianity, as a religion of mysteries far transcending the
capabilities of reason, to shine forth in all its brilliance and
splendor, and elevates Catholicism, the most faithful guardian and
keeper of our Christian heritage, far above all pagan and non-Christian
religions.
The organic connection of this mysterious triad is clearly discerned,
if we consider Divine grace under the aspect of a personal communication
of God. Thus in the bosom of the Blessed Trinity, God the Father, by
virtue of the eternal generation, communicates His Divine Nature to God
the Son, "the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father"
(John, i, 18), while the Son of God, by virtue of the hypostatic union,
communicates in turn the Divine Nature received from His Father to His
human nature formed in the womb of the Virgin Mary (John, i, 14), in
order that thus as God-man, hidden under the Eucharistic Species, He
might deliver Himself to His Church, who, as a tender mother, mystically
cares for and nurtures in her own bosom this, her greatest treasure, and
daily places it before her children as the spiritual food of their
souls. Thus the Trinity, Incarnation, and Eucharist are really welded
together like a precious chain, which in a wonderful manner links heaven
with earth, God with man, uniting them most intimately and keeping them
thus united. By the very fact that the Eucharistic mystery does
transcend reason, no rationalistic explanation of it, based on a merely
natural hypothesis and seeking to comprehend one of the sublimest truths
of the Christian religion as the spontaneous conclusion of logical
processes, may be attempted by a Catholic theologian.
The modern science of comparative religion is striving, wherever it
can, to discover in pagan religions "religio-historical parallels",
corresponding to the theoretical and practical elements of Christianity,
and thus by means of the former to give a natural explanation of the
latter. Even were an analogy discernible between the Eucharistic repast
and the ambrosia and nectar of the ancient Greek gods, or the haoma of
the Iranians, or the soma of the ancient Hindus, we should nevertheless
be very cautious not to stretch a mere analogy to a parallelism strictly
so called, since the Christian Eucharist has nothing at all in common
with these pagan foods, whose origin is to be found in the crassest
idol- and nature-worship. What we do particularly discover is a new
proof of the reasonableness of the Catholic religion, from the
circumstance that Jesus Christ in a wonderfully condescending manner
responds to the natural craving of the human heart after a food which
nourishes unto immortality, a craving expressed in many pagan religions,
by dispensing to mankind His own Flesh and Blood. All that is beautiful,
all that is true in the religions of nature, Christianity has
appropriated to itself, and like a concave mirror has collected the
dispersed and not infrequently distorted rays of truth into their common
focus and again sent them forth resplendently in perfect beams of light.
It is the Church alone, "the pillar and ground of truth", imbued with
and directed by the Holy Spirit, that guarantees to her children through
her infallible teaching the full and unadulterated revelation of God.
Consequently, it is the first duty of Catholics to adhere to what the
Church proposes as the "proximate norm of faith" (regula fidei
proxima), which, in reference to the Eucharist, is set forth in a
particularly clear and detailed manner in Sessions XIII, XXI, and XXII
of the Council of Trent. The quintessence of these doctrinal decisions
consists in this, that in the Eucharist the Body and Blood of the
God-man are truly, really, and substantially present for the nourishment
of our souls, by reason of the transubstantiation of the bread and wine
into the Body and Blood of Christ, and that in this change of substances
the unbloody Sacrifice of the New Testament is also contained.
Please contact
Father Howard Remski, F.S.S.P. if you have questions
regarding the Holy Eucharist.
Phone:
405.440.9168
Fax:
405.782.0767
email:
admin@okclatinmass.com
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