- For the related aspects with the liturgical ceremony, to see the article Mass.
The first term to indicate the eucharistie was “the fraction of the bread”, term employed three times in the New Testament, plus five times like verb.
Eucharistie is as commonly called communion , word of the same significance as the word cene , but of Latin origin ( cena , the evening meal, of communis , “commun run”). Wrongly, the word “eucharistie” is employed to indicate the elements eucharistic; however the eucharistie is not a thing, but an action and a sacrament.
Biblical bases
The celebration of Jewish Passover
The biblical origin of Eucharistie places in the context of the Jewish Passover, festival commemorating the exit of Egypt by the Hebrew (Exodus delivers). This festival was spread out normally over 7 days. Today, this bond is pointed out each year at the time of the Pascale liturgy: the bonds between these two festivals are thus strong and current.
It is during this festival that Jesus will institute the eucharistie: the first day of the unleavened breads, the disciples said to Jesus: Where do you want that we prepare you the meal of Passover? (Matthieu 26:17 and Marc 14:12)
The Cène
For the Christian tradition, Eucharistie was instituted by Christ the evening of the Maundy Thursday , within the framework of a meal Pascal which was going to take a new direction. The synoptic Gospels (Matthieu, Marc, Luc) bring back the account of the institution, which is pronounced by the priest in any celebration of the eucharistie (except at the Assyrian S):
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the night even where it was delivered, it took the bread, and while returning grace it blesses it, it broke it and gave it to its disciples, while saying: “ Take, and eat all: this is my body delivered for you. ”
- In the same way, at the end of the meal, it took the cut (the Saint Chalice), and while returning grace it blesses it, and gave it to its disciples, while saying: “ Take, and drink all, because this is the cut of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal alliance which will be versed for you and for the multitude in remission of the sins. You will do that, in memory of me. ”
Memorial of the redemption
The great eucharistic prayer of Jean 17 devotes the bond between the gesture of the memorial, instituted by Christ at the time of the Cène, and death on the cross which will follow: It gives to this death its direction, a cosmic direction, that of a sacrifice redeemer for all humanity.
By this bond, the repetition of Cène becomes the support by which the effect of the sacrifice permanently is brought up to date and made present in the world.
Bread of life in the Gospel
Eucharistie is at the same time a sacrament and a sacrifice . The “speech of the Bread of Life” (Gospel according to Jean, 6,30-40) indicates the significance and the importance of Eucharistie, which is in the center of the Christian life:
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They said to him then: “Which sign do you thus make, so that at its sight we believe you? Which work accomplished you? Our fathers ate the basket in the desert, according to what is written: It gave them to eat bread come from the sky. ”
- Jesus answered them: “In truth, truth, I say it to you, not, it is not Moïse which gave you the bread which comes from the sky; but it is my Father who gives it to you, the bread which comes from the sky, truth; because bread of God, it is that which goes down from the sky and gives the life to the world. ”
- They said to him then: “Lord, always gives us this bread. ” Jesus says to them: “I am the bread of life. Who comes to me will be never hungry; who believes in me will be never thirsty. But I said it to you: you see me and you do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and that which comes to me, I will not throw it outside; because I am descended from the sky to make my will not, but the will of that which sent to me. However it is the will of that which sent to me that I do not lose anything of all that it gave me, but that I it ressuscite at the last day. Yes, such is the will of my Father, that whoever sees the Son and believes in him has the eternal life, and I will ressusciterai it at the last day. ”
- Jesus answered them: “In truth, truth, I say it to you, not, it is not Moïse which gave you the bread which comes from the sky; but it is my Father who gives it to you, the bread which comes from the sky, truth; because bread of God, it is that which goes down from the sky and gives the life to the world. ”
Significance
Making a literal reading of the words of the institution, in the light of the Speech of the Bread of Life (cf above), all the Christian Churches, except for the disciples of Zwingli (Protestant liberals and some evangelic) profess the real presence of Christ, in her body and its blood, under appearances (“species”) of the bread and the wine. It is the doctrines of the transsubstantiation. These doctrines were elaborate during the Middle Ages. It was declined various manners as from the 16th century.
Eucharistie is at the same time a meal, commemorating the Sainte Cène Maundy Thursday and anticipating the “banquet of the weddings of the Lamb” promised in the book of the Apocalypse - and, for the Catholique S, the Orthodoxe S, the Anglican S, the Swedes and for the other Churches of Porvoo, the memorial or the actualization of the single sacrifice of the Christ, who offered her body and poured her blood on the cross.
Sacramental articulation
The eucharistic celebration generally superimposes three important aspects of the spiritual life:
- Specifically, the clean character of the Mass resides in the actualization of the sacrifice of Christ achieved by a priest. It is by the Mass that the Church answers the order of Christ, " made this in memory of me " , and returns obviously presents in the world the eternal presence of this sacrifice.
- the general framework is that one moment of collective prayer , like are the offices of the liturgy of the hours. For this reason, the assembly requests and sings, and hears readings and comments.
- Enfin, the Mass is the occasion to manage with the faithful ones which assists a sacrament to with it, the sacrament of communion. It is in a strict sense this sacrament which the word " indicates; eucharistie ".
Memorial of the sacrifice of Christ
This Liturgie has as a finality to express, concretely and in the moment present, the eternal presence of the sacrifice of the Christ. The Mass, as a liturgical celebration, can be defined: The eucharistic celebration is the participation of the Église in the Sacrifice redeemer of the news and eternal Alliance, that the Christ offers to her Father, in the dedication of the bread in its Body and the wine in its Blood.
By evoking this presence of Christ eternal, the catholic Messe is celebrated " AD laudem and gloriam nominis sui, quoque nostram, totiusque AD utilitate ecclesiae suae sancte" (Pour the Praise and the glory of its name, for our good, and that of all its holy église): like a Thanksgiving and of Praise with God, which has his own legitimacy, but also like propitiatory offering, i.e. which makes it possible to lodge the requests of the assembly near God, in a manner which points out its engagement to Him to act favorably for the spiritual safety of its people.
Dedication
In the catholic Mass, the actualization of the sacrifice results in the Consécration Pain and Vin, which become the body and the Sang of the Christ; this transformation carries the term of Transsubstantiation (the bread and the wine change substance and not of natural ). On the liturgical level, the Messe finds its achievement in the memorial eucharistic and the prayer of épiclèse, its top in the final Doxologie accompanied by rise, and its conclusion in the sacramental Communion of celebrating with the two species, so that, by the latter, the Église receives the communication of the Holy Spirit for the construction of its unit by the Rémission of the Péchés.
Communion
The catholic Mass is thus dependant on the sacrament of the Communion, where " fidèles" are invited to divide the body and the blood of Christ in the shape of the Pain and the wine. There cannot be mass without communion, since the priest communie necessarily, but the communion of faithful is not obligatory (while being recommended). Conversely, the communion is possible apart from the Mass (typically, for the communion of the patients), but the species are necessarily devoted during a Mass.
The communion is a sacrament, i.e. the visible sign of a spiritual reality: the effect which the passion of Christ produced in the world, sacrament of the eucharistie the product in the man. The eucharistie nourishes and makes grow in the faithful one sufficiently laid out the virtues " théologales" , i.e. the virtues on which the growth does not depend on the action of the man, but of the work of God: faith, the Hope and Charity.
Practical aspects
The Hostie which is devoted is a made bread of flour of corn without Levain. Also, the hosts are preserved well and take little space. It is also possible to use raised bread if hosts are missed (except at the period of Easter). For several centuries, the Catholic church has used white wine, the red wine being likely to stain the crowned linens.
The communion is valid under one or the other of the species, or under both, and can always be carried out under each one of these three forms. Concretely, for practical reasons, the communion is usually limited to the bread, in the form of host. The communion with the blood of Christ, in the form of wine, is more complicated and raises questions of hygiene (to drink with the chalice the ones after the others). However, this communion with the wine is restored for the faithful ones in certain ceremonies in particularly exceptional matter (marriage, confirmation, etc).
After the communion, the priest must finish the wine and carry out a purification of the empty containers to eliminate the traces from them from devoted matter. If there remain hosts, they can be placed in a Ciboire covered locked up in the gate vault. Except in a small box (the custode generally carried out in a noble metal) special for the communion of the patients or the Blessed Sacrament intended for the worship, it is rigorously prohibited to make leave a host devoted the church where it is. If the priest cannot place the hosts devoted in the gate vault, it is necessary that it eats them (or makes them eat with the faithful ones).
Discusses at the time of the Reform
It is the Concile of Thirty which clarified and officialized for the Roman Catholic church the dogma of the Transsubstantiation, in reaction against the Protestant theses which were discussed at that time.
At the time of the Protestant Reform, the sacrificial aspect of the Messe was rejected by certain reformers. The dogma was disputed and the Sunday celebration took a more or less different direction in the various confessions Protesting are. Others, like Laurentius $petri (Sweden) and Thomas Cranmer (England) preserved it and taught well.
The Lutherans kept the essence of the catholic liturgy but redefined the dogma, speaking about Consubstantiation (under the appearance of the bread and the wine, there is simultaneously the reality of the body of Christ and the bread, respectively of the blood of Christ and the wine).
Following Zwingli in particular, the reformed first disputed more radically the mass, the eucharistie, seeing only one symbolic gesture there; consequently, the reading and the explanation of the Word of God (the Bible) took a place much more central in the Sunday celebration. The “holy Cène” (of the Greek κοινός/ koinos , “commun run”, from where: meal taken jointly or of Latin cena , evening meal) is not celebrated the every day, nor even every Sunday.
Jean Calvin, for its part, and the reformed Churches and evangelic which follows it, confess in the sacrament the real presence of the Christ which chairs it, but on a spiritual world (by the action of the Holy Spirit) and not material. The reformed Churches, nowadays, tend towards a weekly celebration of Cène.
Eucharistie and oecumenism today
In all the Christian confessions, one perceives better today the bond with the Jewish traditions of recognition towards works of God, and particularly in the blessings during the meal, in particular that of the shabbat (bread and wine). This common origin makes it possible to give in prospect the practices for each one, and is a factor of union.
; Catholicism and orthodoxy orthodoxe Catholiques and shares the same doctrines about Eucharistie and mutually recognizes the validity of its celebration in one and the other Church. There are differences in the liturgy (communion under one or two species, etc) and in the forms of devotion (processions of the Blessed Sacrament: current practice in Catholicism, not in orthodoxy), as in the vocabulary (the catholics speak rather about “Sacrement”, the orthodoxe ones of “Mystère”). Intercommunion is possible in the cases of need expressed in gun 844 of the Canon law of the Roman Church.
; Reform In the same way, and in spite of secondary divergences, the reformed and the Lutherans is, in Europe at least, full communion, and divides without problem Eucharistie and their Pasteur S.
The dissension is deep between them and the Protestant , and the terms used always do not have the same significance.
; Points of disagreement The question of the real Presence (within the meaning of material ) remains a point of major obstacle, with multiple consequences which return inenvisageable for the Roman Catholic church intercommunion between Protestants on the one hand and catholics and orthodoxe of the other. It is impossible to find a compromise between those which literally adore Eucharistie like presence of God and those which see only one simple symbol there.
Moreover, divergences about priesthood (ministerial priesthood reserved with the men or not, which must be priests ordered or not) and of the ecclesiastical organization (apostolic Succession) widen the ditch on the question of the presidency of the sacrament.
Biblical symbolism of Eucharistie
Significance of the lamb (1)
Jesus is the Lamb described by chapter 53 of the prophet Isaïe (verse 5 to 7): But it was transpierced because of our crimes, Écrasé because of our faults; The punishment which gives us peace is (fallen) on him, And it is by its bruises that we are cured. We all were wandering like ewes, Each one followed its own way; And the Eternal made fall down on him the fault of us all. He was maltreated, he humiliated himself And did not open the mouth, Semblable to the lamb which one leads to butchery, has a dumb ewe in front of those which mow it; He did not open the mouth.
These verses recover many parallels with the life of Jesus:
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It was transpierced : Alors I will spread on the house of David And the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication, And they will turn the glances towards me, That which they transpierced . They will carry its mourning As one carries the mourning of one (wire) single, They will cry bitterly over him, As bitterly as over first-born. (Zacharie 12:10) and But one of the soldiers bored to him the side with a lance , and at once, it left water and blood. (Jean 19:34)
- It gives us peace : Because it rained (with God) to make live in him any plenitude and all to reconcile with itself, as well what is on the ground as what is in the skies, by making peace by him, the blood of its cross . (Colossiens 1:19 - 20)
- We were wandering like ewes : Me, I am the good shepherd. the good shepherd gives his life for his ewes . (Jean 10:11) and When it left the boat, Jesus saw a large crowd and compassion had some, because they were as ewes which do not have a shepherd ; and it was put to teach them lengthily. (Marc 6:34)
- It did not open the mouth : Jesus kept silence . And the sovereign sacrificator says to him: I entreat you by alive God, to say to us if you are Christ, the Son of God. (Matthieu 26:63, Marc 14:61)
- Similar to the lamb : the following day, it saw Jesus coming to him and known as: Here the Lamb of God , who removes the sin of the world. (Jean 1:29)
Significance of the lamb (2)
The second most known passage is the association made with the sacrifice of the son of Abraham: God known as: Thus take your sons, your single, that which you like, Isaac; go away in the country of Moriya and there, it in holocaust offers on one of the mountains that I will indicate to you. … The angel known as: Do not extend your hand on the young man and do not do anything to him; because I recognized now that you fear God and that you did not refuse me your sons, your single. Abraham raised the eyes and lives by behind a ram retained in a bush by the horns; then Abraham went to take the ram and offered it in holocaust to the place of his/her son. (Genesis 22:2, 12-13)
- the son of Abraham is the image of the son of God: Here: you will become pregnant, you will give birth to a son, and you will call it name of Jesus. He will be large and will be called Fils of the Almighty, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David, his father . (Luc chapter 1, verse 31 and 32). It is besides because of this only assertion that it will be crucifié: the Jews answered him: We have a law, and according to the law, it must die, because it was made Sons of God. - (Jean 19:7).
- the ram which Abraham finds becomes the Lamb of God: the following day, it saw Jesus coming to him and known as: Here the Lamb of God, who removes the sin of the world. (Jean 1:29)
- But this death leads to resurrection: Jesus consequently started to show with his disciples that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, to suffer much on behalf of the old ones, of the principal sacrificateurs and the scribes, to be put at dead and ressusciter the third day. (Matthieu 16:21) but that one also finds in (Matthieu 20:19 - Luc 9:22 - Luc 13:32 - Luc 18:33 - Luc 24:46).
Significance of blood
The blood of the rams was used as sign to save Hebrew during the delivery and of the exit of Egypt: When the Eternal crosses Egypt to strike and that he will see blood on the lintel and the two posts, the Eternal will pass over the door and will not let the destructor enter your houses for (you) striking . (Exodus 12:23).
This same blood allows the relation with God via Christ: This is why Jesus also, to sanctify the people by his own blood , suffered out of the door . (Hebrews 13:12)
One will be able to bring closer “out of the door” with the injunction of God for Easter: Because the bodies of the animals whose blood was offered for the sins in the sanctuary by the sovereign sacrificator, are burned out of the camp . This is why Jesus also, to sanctify the people by his own blood, suffered out of the door. Thus let us leave out it camp to go to him, while carrying its opprobrium. (Hebrew 13:11 - 13)
Significance of Egypt
Jesus and his disciples (all Jews) thus naturally celebrated this event all while giving him a major direction (for the Christians), because comparing the exit of Egypt to the final delivery of disobedience to God (one of the significances of the sinned word): And their corpses (will remain) on the place of the big city, which is called in a spiritual direction Sodome and Egypt , there even where their Lord was crucifié . (Apocalypse, chapter 11, verse 8)
See too
- Cène
- Coterie of Jerusalem
- Communion
- Mass
- Ecclesia de Eucharistia
- Sacramentum Caritaris
- Miracle of the loaves and fishes
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catholic Eucharistie and the Holy-Cène Protestant woman
Simple: Eucharist
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