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I. Theology of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist A. Eucharist As Sacrifice and Meal B

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I. Theology of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist A. Eucharist As Sacrifice and Meal B Sacrament of The Holy Eucharist | 1 MODULE III-A: SACRAMENT OF THE HOLY EUCHARIST By: Jojimar Kenneth M. Gonowon Our Lady of the Angels Seminary Pre Postulancy – Formation Year I. Theology of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist a. Eucharist as Sacrifice and meal b. Eucharist as the sacrament of Love i. Offertory: Love of the poor ii. Breaking of bread: love through sacrifice iii. Holy communion: sharing with the poor iv. The washing of the feet: love through humble service a. Eucharist as Sacrifice and Meal In the sacrament of the Eucharist, we can describe it by sacrifice and meal and by word and sacrament. We can also speak about the liturgical sequence made up of the liturgy of the word and liturgy of the Eucharist. The anamnesis or the memorial of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is considered as the heart of Eucharistic theology. It is a culmination of the entire history of salvation on the cross and there alone God redeemed us, reconciled us to Himself and favoured us with participation in the divine life.1 It is actually the reflection of the past making present here and now. We all know that the last supper was celebrated in the intertwining effect of the Passover feast, most probably of the yearly Passover meal itself. Looking through the exodus event, we saw how God led the Israelites out of slavery and bringing them to the promise land. But instead of going back to the exodus event, the Eucharist is considered as the anticipation of Jesus looking forward to his death on the cross which is His Passover from this world to the Father. 1 Chupungco, The Eucharist and Sacrament of Love, Scientia Liturgica, San Beda Graduate School of Liturgy research Journal, II no. 1. 2005 p. 1 Sacrament of The Holy Eucharist | 2 Salvatore Marsili said that our Eucharistic celebration is the “sacrament of Christ sacrifice” or the sacramental celebration of his paschal sacrifice.” It is the memorial and the anamnesis of Christ’s sacrifice. What the Last Supper that was instituted by Christ anticipated as a future event of our redemption, our Eucharist commemorates as a past event not only commemorates but also making present reflecting the past event. The Eucharistic celebration is highlighted as a form of a meal which is patterned after the basic plan of the Last Supper: “He took bread/cup, he said a prayer of blessing, and he broke the bread, and gave the broken bread and the blessed cup to his disciples. This meal signifies the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. We must remember that the concept of death and sacrifice on the cross theology includes separably the concept of the resurrection and glorification of Jesus. The stress however is on the cross.2 The Eucharistic liturgy must not reduce to a mere fellowship meal nor a purely sacrificial action because what we are doing in the Eucharistic celebration has components: assembly and presider, word around the table, offering of gifts by the assembly, meal prayer or Eucharistic prayer and a communion. These were the meal components. However, there were also sacrificial components which completed the Eucharistic celebration. These are: the presider performs the priestly role, the table symbolizes the altar of sacrifice, and the bread and wine are the sacrament of the pierced body of Jesus and of his blood shed on the cross. These components must work together as one fundamental meaning – the anamnesis and memorial of Christ sacrifice on the cross.3 b. Eucharist as Sacrament of Love 2 Chupungco, The Eucharist and Sacrament of Love, Scientia Liturgica p 1 3 Chupungco, The Eucharist and Sacrament of Love, Scientia Liturgica p .2 Sacrament of The Holy Eucharist | 3 Let us now recall how God loved us so much during in the Old Testament. God manifested His love for the Israelite people. He freed the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt which primarily represented the unending love of God despite of their murmuring and experience of hunger and thirst in the desert. However, God is a patient God who always has confidence for the sake of the common good. “It was before the Passover and Jesus knew that the hour had come for Him to pass from this world to the Father. He had always loved those who were in this world, but now he showed them how perfect his love was.”4 Let us remember that the Last supper, the washing of the feet, and the crucifixion are his expressions of perfect love for His disciples. The love shown by Jesus in the Last supper, the washing of the feet, and the crucifixion is now re-expressed or finds resonance in the celebration of the Eucharist. i. Offertory Rite: Love of the poor In the seventh century, the Roman Ordo gave descriptions about the offertory rite. These were the assembly offering bread and wine; the presider chose a loaf and took an amount of wine just enough for communion. The other was placed on the credence table for the distribution of the poor. According to the testimony of Justin the Martyr, the said offerings and other material things were offered for the distribution of the orphans, widows and especially the poor.5 The poor, in the third century we saw that they offered and brought gifts of bread and wine. St. Cyprian of Carthage rebuke a rich lady who never offered and brought gift for the community’s Eucharist yet “dared to eat the bread of the poor. In line with the offering of the poor is the practice of adding water to the wine (watered wine or poterion)6 because during the old centuries, the wine 4 From the Gospel of John 13:1, New American Bible 5 Chupungco, The Eucharist and Sacrament of Love, Scientia Liturgica p .3 6 Justin Martyr Sacrament of The Holy Eucharist | 4 coming from the poor definitely manifests a poor class of wine. The product of their wine taste like vinegar, it lacks fermentation process. The Romans did not mix good wine with water. Now we continue in practicing it not about the wine is poor in quality but we are trying to participate and affirm the reality of the church of the poor. We should also remember that the offerings that were made, furthermore, that on Holy Thursday the offerings at the Evening mass of the Lord’s Supper are to be given to the poor. ii. Breaking of Bread: Love Through sacrifice. Brokenness entails pain. When something breaks there is pain. When we experience this, sometimes, we tend to lurk in the ground and cry but in many other instances there is a need to break in order to share: we break bread, slice it, cake or pizza. Unless we break we cannot share, unless we share we cannot express our love.7 In this expression, it reminds us that breaking does not separate but it unites. This brokenness expresses and transforms the unification of peoples.8 At the meal that Jesus instituted, he broke the break and gave the broken pieces to his disciples as a sign of his ultimate love for them. They partake the body by which Christ himself signifies his unending love for men. In the mass, the Eucharist, the priest breaks the bread in order to signify the love of Christ whose body is broken for all of us. 7 Chupungco, The Eucharist and Sacrament of Love, Scientia Liturgica, San Beda Graduate School of Liturgy research Journal, II no. 1. 2005 8 Chupungco, The Eucharist and Sacrament of Love, Scientia Liturgica p. 3 Sacrament of The Holy Eucharist | 5 Every time we celebrate the Eucharist, every time the bread is broken we are reminded of the pain endured by Christ on the cross. We are reminded on how God offered His only Son to all of us in order to redeem us from our sins. This is the perfect love and a model of sacrificial love to all men. Every time the priest breaks the bread, he identifies himself with Christ, who broke himself for others; every time the faithful receive communion, they are reminded that they have also a mission – a mission to be broken like Christ whom they receive. This significant event is gradually weakened when the priest breaks the bread and consumes all by himself, forgetting that he breaks in order to share. But due to practicality, we use pre-broken bread called small hosts, but the significance of sharing must be put in our hearts and minds. In the breaking, sharing and loving, they perfectly describe the Eucharist. We break in order to share; and we share in order to express love. iii. Holy Communion: sharing with the poor9 Going back to the early Christians, they were forgetting the significance of the Eucharist. St. Paul reminded them that when they meet together, he said “it is not Lord’s supper that you are eating, since when the time comes to eat everyone is such hurry to start his or her own supper that one person goes hungry while another get’s drunk. Surely you have homes for eating and drinking in? Surely you have enough respect for the community of God not to make poor people embarrassed?”10 In the seventh-century Roman Ordo, during the offertory rite the presider took a loaf and a quantity of wine just enough to distribute to the assembly for the communion. The rest was place on the credence table for the option for the poor. 9 Chupungco, The Eucharist and Sacrament of Love, Scientia Liturgica p.
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