The Mass - Meal and Sacrifice - The Eucharist as a Sacrament - PART 6



PART 6 - THE EUCHARIST AS A SACRAMENT



The Eucharist is a true Sacrament instituted by Christ” (De Fide)


Christ is present in the Eucharist in a sacramental manner. Anyone who denies this is going head-on into one of the most serious difficulties, for he is forgetting that the Eucharist is a mystery of Faith. The Eucharist contains Christ in person, in a lasting manner.


The Mass is a sacrifice, but it’s vitally important  to understand how the Mass is a sacrament as well. The Eucharist is a sacrament, therefore it is a sign and a symbol. The classic definition of a sacrament is “an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace.” So, in order for a sacrament to be a sacrament, it must be a twofold reality. It must be an outward or visible sign, and it must convey an internal invisible thing (grace). If it does not have both, it is not a sacrament.


That which appears to be bread is the sacrament of Christ’s Body.

That which appears to be wine is the sacrament of Christ’s Blood.


We know that Christ is wholly present, body, blood, soul, and divinity under both species. Nevertheless, it is with good reason that, when distributing Communion to the faithful, the priest gives the Host, calling it the Body of Christ, and he gives the chalice, calling it what it contains, the Blood of Christ. The Host is a sacrament of the Body. The species in the chalice is the sacrament of the Blood.


So, it’s necessary to not only know that Jesus is ‘truly’ present, but we must also confess that the Lord is “sacramentally” present as well. The sacramental presence of Christ in the Eucharist is the foundation of all others, since if the Eucharist were not a sacrament, Christ would not be present in any manner whatever. To phrase it another way, without the outward sign (of the bread and wine), there can be no consecration, and no ‘inner grace’ delivered.


Too often we tend to get caught up the in the disagreements about the “real” presence, like transubstantiation vs consubstantiation. All of these types of disagreements can only be understood after affirming that the Eucharist is a Sacrament. Without this affirmation, one could get the impression that any talk of the Eucharist as a ‘sign’ or a ‘symbol’ (which was quite common the the early Church), is incorrect, to suspect of heresy. As we have seen earlier, some will even start to speak of the Eucharist in highly physical terms, as though the presence of Christ were physical. This citation from Pope Benedict corrects this error:


“But this [the doctrine of transubstantiation]  is not a statement of physics. It has never been asserted that , so to say, nature in a physical sense is being changed. The transformation reaches down to a more profound level. Tradition has it that this is a metaphysical process. Christ lays hold upon what is, from a purely physical viewpoint, bread and wine, in its inmost being, so that it is changed from within and Christ truly gives Himself in them. […] [The Eucharist] is not a thing. I don’t receive a piece of Christ. That would indeed be an absurdity”


The Sacrifice of the Mass is a sacramental sacrifice. The mere fact that a change is sacramental does not mean it is not real. Actually, the most real things this side of heaven are the sacraments! The species of the Host is the sacrament of Christ’s Body, and is substantially Christ’s glorified Body. The species contained in the chalice is the sacrament of Christ’s Blood, and is substantially Christ’s glorified Blood. However, the scholastic doctors (notably St. Thomas Aquinas) go further and state that the glorified body of Christ, substantially present in the Host, is itself a sacrament of another reality: it is the sacrament of Christ’s dead body hanging upon the Cross. Morever, the glorified and living blond of Christ, substantially present in the chalice, is itself a sacrament of Christ’s dead blood which was poured forth from his lifeless Body.


This is how the Mass is a sacrifice. As the body and blood of the Christ were separated  when he hung dead and pierced through upon the Cross, so too in the Mass, the sacrament of Christ’s body and blood are separated upon the altar.


Here we have a sacrament: in outward sign that gives grace. As the bread and wine have become the sacrament of Christ’s body and blood, so too the substantial presence of Christ’s body and blood have become the sacrament of the Cross. The separation of the Host and the chalice is the sacrament of the sacrifice, it is this separation which makes the Mass to be a sacrifice.


Many catholics deny the sacrificial nature of the Mass because they deny the sacramental nature of the Mass. If we do not believe that a sacramental presence is a real presence, and if we do not accept that a sacrament is real, then we will soon fail to believe that that sacramental sacrifice of the Mass is a real sacrifice. If our whole understanding of the Eucharist is fixed on some notion of physicality, we will have no place for Calvary, for surely, we are not physically present at Calvary when we attend Mass. Moreover, if we lose the notion of the Eucharist as a sacrament, we will soon fail to believe in the reality of the other sacraments. With regard the the sacraments which bestow a character (Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders), it is not uncommon the hear theologians speak of this character as ‘substantial’ change, as though the indelible mark were called a “substantial” rather than a “sacramental” character. Then, the whole idea of “substantial” change is easily reduced to physical change. This all starts when people begin to say that Christ is physically present in the Eucharist; recall that the Church states He is really, truly, substantially and sacramentally present, but she never said that He is physically present (though he is present in his physical reality)


SACRAMENT AND SACRIFICE - AN IMPORTANT DISTINCTION


The Eucharist is a Sacrament in so far as in it Christ is partaken as nourishment for the soul. The Eucharist is a sacrifice in so far as in it Christ of offered as a sacrificial gift to God. It has the nature of a sacrifice in that it is offered up, and it has the nature of a sacrament in that it is received, and hence it has the effect of a sacrament in him who receives it, and the effect of. A sacrifice in him who offers or in those for whom it is offered. The Sacrament is directed immediately to the sanctification of men, the sacrifice to the glorification of God. As a Sacrament, the Eucharist is a permanent reality, as a sacrifice, it is a transient action.


The Sacrament (Jesus’ Glorified Body) travels from God to us.

The Sacrifice (Jesus’ dead Body) travels from us, through the priest, to God.


In summation, one could say that the Glorified Body of Jesus is hidden in the species of bread and wine, and the sacrificed Body of Jesus is hidden in the separation of the 'glorified’ sacramental species.


END OF PART 6


END OF PART 6



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