Encyclopedia
The
Eucharist or
Communion or
The Lord's Supper, is the rite that
Christians perform in fulfillment of
Jesus' instruction, recorded in the
New Testament, to do in memory of him what he did at his
Last Supper.
Jesus gave his disciples bread, saying "This is my body," and wine, saying "This is my blood." Christians generally recognize a special presence of Christ in this rite, though they differ about exactly how, where, and when Christ is present. The word "Eucharist" is also applied to the bread and wine consecrated in the course of the rite.
The word "Eucharist" comes from the Greek noun , meaning
thanksgiving. This noun or the corresponding verb is found in 55 verses of the New Testament. Four of these verses recount that Jesus "gave thanks" before presenting to his followers the bread and the wine that he declared to be his body and his blood. The Gospel of John affirms this.
Most Christians classify the Eucharist as a
sacrament, but many Protestants avoid the term
sacrament, preferring
ordinance. In these traditions, the ceremony is seen not as a specific channel of
divine grace but as an expression of faith and obedience of the Christian community.
Names for the Eucharist
- Eucharist is the term with the earliest established historical use. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, who was martyred in Rome in about 110, used the term "Eucharist", referring to both the rite and the consecrated elements, three times in his Letter to the Smyrnaeans and once in his Letter to the Philadelphians . Justin Martyr, writing around 150, gave a detailed description of the rite, and stated that "Eucharist" was the name that Christians used: "This food is called among us the Eucharist..." . Today the term "Eucharist" is used by Catholics, the Eastern Orthodox, the Oriental Orthodox, Anglicans, United Methodists, Lutherans. Most other Protestant traditions use this term rarely, but few reject it entirely.
- Communion is a term used by Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Anglicans, and many Protestants; Holy Communion is also prevalent. Catholics and Orthodox typically apply it to the partaking of the consecrated bread and wine, and to these consecrated elements themselves, rather than to the Eucharistic rite as a whole. In their understanding, it is possible to participate in the celebration of the Eucharistic rite without "receiving Holy Communion" . On the other hand, groups that originated in the Protestant Reformation usually apply this term to the whole rite. Many, especially Anglicans, prefer the fuller term "Holy Communion" rather than just "Communion". The term Communion holds further ambiguity in that it also refers to the relationship of Christians, as individuals or as a Church, with God and with other Christians , and can also refer to the relationship between the Three Divine Persons within the Trinity, a relationship known as perichoresis which is considered the archetype of the other forms of communion.
- The Lord's Supper and the Breaking of Bread are terms that the New Testament applies to celebration of the Eucharist. The first of these terms tends to be preferred by "minimalist" traditions, especially those strongly influenced by Huldrych Zwingli and the Restoration Movement. The Lord's Supper is also a common term among Lutherans, as is the sacrament of the altar. Other Churches and denominations also use these terms, but generally not as their basic, routine term. The use is predominant among Baptist groups, who generally avoid the use of the term Communion due to its use by the Roman Catholic Church. In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the term The Sacrament is used.
- Certain terms are limited to the Orthodox Christian and Catholic traditions, and are typically applied to the rite as a whole. The Divine Liturgy is used by Orthodox and the Eastern Catholic Churches, who also, especially for the consecrated elements, use the Divine Mysteries. Roman Catholics use many other terms, including the Mass, Holy Mass, the Memorial of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of the Lord, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and the Holy Mysteries. The Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar are also common terms for the consecrated elements, especially when reserved in the Church tabernacle. "Mass" is also used by Anglo-Catholics and the Church of Sweden.
Eucharist in the Bible
The three synoptic Gospels as well as
Saint Paul's first Letter to the Corinthians contain versions of the Words of Institution spoken by
Jesus at the
Last Supper: "Take, eat, this is my body ... Take, drink, this is my blood ... Do this in remembrance of me." All subsequent celebration of the Eucharist is based on this injunction. John 6 is also interpreted in connection with the Eucharist: " For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him."
See also: Historical roots of Catholic Eucharistic theologyChristian theology
The Eucharist has always been at the center of Christian worship, though theological interpretations vary. In general, the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Orthodox traditions see the Eucharist as the fulfillment of God's plan for the salvation of humanity from sin , a commemoration and making present of Jesus'
Crucifixion on
Calvary and his
Resurrection, the means for Christians to unite with God and with each other, and the giving of thanks for all these things. Differences in Eucharistic theology tend to be related to differences in understanding of these areas.
Efforts at mutual understanding of the range of theologies led in the 1980s to the consultations on
through the World Council of Churches, which included the
Roman Catholic Church.
Roman Catholic: Sacrifice; Transubstantiation
In the teaching of the
Roman Catholic Church, the Eucharist is one of the seven
sacraments, but is also considered the "queen of the sacraments" and "the blessed sacrament", and the institution of the Eucharist is one of the Luminous Mysteries of the
Rosary. The Eucharist is a commemoration, or, in Greek,
anamnesis of the Passion,
Death, and
Resurrection of Christ , understood in the fullest sense given to it in Biblical tradition. In other words, it is a memorial which does not just bring to mind the event celebrated, but also makes it truly present. The Eucharist is therefore understood to be not simply a representation of Christ's presence, or a remembrance of his Passion and Death, but an actual participation in the Sacrifice of Christ, the manifestation, in the present, of an event that occurred once for all in time. The Eucharist makes present that one sacrifice, not a different sacrifice. The priest and victim of the sacrifice are one and the same; the only difference is in the manner in which it is offered—the Church teaches that the Mass is the sacrifice at Calvary made present in an unbloody manner.
The only minister of the Eucharist, that is, one authorized to celebrate the rite and consecrate the Eucharist, is a validly ordained
priest acting in the person of Christ . In other words the priest celebrant represents Christ, who is the Head of the Church, and acts before God in the name of the Church. The matter used must be wheaten bread and grape wine; this is essential for validity.
According to the Roman Catholic Church, when the bread and wine are consecrated in the Eucharist, they cease to be bread and wine, and become instead the body and blood of Christ. The empirical appearances are not changed, but the reality is. The consecration of the bread and wine represents the separation of Jesus's body from his blood at Calvary. However, since he has risen, the Church teaches that his body and blood can no longer be truly separated. Where one is, the other must be. Therefore, although the priest says, "The body of Christ", when administering the host, and, "The blood of Christ", when presenting the chalice, the communicant who receives either one receives Christ, whole and entire.
The mysterious change of the reality of the bread and wine used in the Eucharist, a change to which patristic writers had given other equivalent names, began to be called "transubstantiation" in the
twelfth century. In the judgement of the Catholic Church, this term, with its accompanying unambiguous distinction between "substance" or underlying reality, and "
accidents" or humanly perceptible appearances, still best safeguards against the opposite extremes of a cannibalistic interpretation or of a merely symbolic interpretation of the Eucharist.
The definition of the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, which concerns
what is changed, not
how the change occurs, is given in the following words of the Council of Trent, quoted in of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church: "Because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again, that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation."
The Eucharist is given to Catholics who wish to receive either at Mass or outside of Mass. This is called the administration of
Holy Communion. When it is given at Mass, it may be given under one kind , or under both kinds . Regular use of Communion under both kinds requires the permission of the bishop, but bishops in some countries have given blanket permission to administer Holy Communion in this way. The ordinary ministers of Holy Communion are Bishops, Priests and
Deacons, the latter traditionally ministering the chalice. Members of the laity may also be commissioned as extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, but only where there is a necessity.
The hosts are kept in a
tabernacle after the celebration of the Mass, so that they can be brought to the sick and dying outside the time of Mass, and also so that the Eucharistic presence may be worshipped and adored. On occasions, the Eucharist is exposed in a
monstrance, so that it may be the focus of prayer and adoration.
Eastern Christianity: true sacrifice and objective presence but pious silence on the particulars
The
Eastern Orthodox and the Oriental Orthodox Churches and the
Assyrian Church of the East agree with the Roman Catholic Church that Christ is really, fully, uniquely, and permanently present in the Eucharistic elements, and that, in the Divine Liturgy, the one sacrifice of Christ is made present; and that the exact means by which the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ, through the work of the Holy Spirit, is a mystery. They are not particularly interested in the precise moment the change occurs, although this "change" or "fulfillment" of the bread and wine is usually identified with the Epiklesis. As in the Roman Catholic Church, the change is regarded as permanent, and any of the consecrated elements, or "gifts," that remain at the end of the Divine Liturgy are normally consumed by a priest or deacon.
Gifts reserved for the communion of the sick are specially consecrated on
Holy Thursday, or at other times as needed, and are not simply leftovers from the previous Divine Liturgy. Since the Eucharistic gifts are regarded primarily as food, Eucharistic adoration is unknown outside the Liturgy itself, except among those Orthodox Christians who worship according to a Western Rite.
Anglicans/Episcopalians: Real Presence with opinion
- Main article: Anglican Eucharistic theology
The historical position of the
Anglican Communion is found in the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1571, which state "the Bread which we break is a partaking of the Body of Christ"; and likewise that "the Cup of Blessing is a partaking of the Blood of Christ" . The fact that the terms "Bread" and "Wine" and the corresponding words "Body" and "Blood" are all capitalized may reflect the wide range of theological beliefs regarding the Eucharist among Anglicans. However, the Articles also state that adoration, or worship
per se, of the consecrated elements was not commanded by Christ and that those who receive unworthily do not actually receive Christ but rather their own condemnation.
Anglicans generally and officially believe in the
Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, but the specifics of that belief range from transubstantiation, sometimes with Eucharistic adoration , to something akin to a belief in a "pneumatic" presence, which may or may not be tied to the Eucharistic elements themselves . The normal range of Anglican belief ranges from Objective Reality to Pious Silence, depending on the individual Anglican's theology. There are also small minorities on the one hand which affirm transubstantiation, or on the other hand, reject the doctrine of the Real Presence altogether. The classic Anglican aphorism with regard to this debate is found in a poem by
John Donne : "He was the Word that spake it; He took the bread and brake it; And what that Word did make it; I do believe and take it."
Anglican belief in the Eucharistic Sacrifice is set forth in the response of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to
Pope Leo XIII's Papal Encyclical .
Anglicans and Roman Catholics declared that they had "substantial agreement on the doctrine of the Eucharist" in the and the .
Lutherans - the Sacramental Union: "in, with, and under the forms"
The
Book of Concord assumes the weekly celebration of the Eucharist as a confessional standard for Lutheran churches. However, adherence to this assumption varies. Lutherans believe that the Body and Blood of Christ are "truly and substantially present in, with and under the forms" of the consecrated bread and wine , so that communicants eat and drink both the elements and the true Body and Blood of Christ Himself in the Sacrament of Holy Communion. The Lutheran doctrine of the Real Presence is more accurately and formally known as "the Sacramental Union." This theology was first developed in the Wittenberg Concord. It has been called "consubstantiation" by some, but this term is rejected by Lutheran churches and theologians as it creates confusion with an earlier doctrine of the same name.
For Lutherans, there is no sacrament unless the elements are used according to Christ's institution . This was first formulated in the Wittenberg Concord of 1536 in the formula:
Nihil habet rationem sacramenti extra usum a Christo institutum . As a consequence of their belief in this principle, some Lutherans have opposed in the Christian Church the reservation of the consecrated elements, private masses, the practice of Corpus Christi, and the belief that the presence of Christ's body and blood continue in the reliquæ . This interpretation is not universal among Lutherans. The consecrated elements are treated with respect, and in some areas are reserved as in Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Anglican practice, but Eucharistic adoration is not typically practiced. To remove any scruple of doubt or superstition the reliquæ traditionally are either consumed or poured into the earth, except that a small amount may be kept for delivery to those too ill or infirm to attend the service. In this case, the consecrated elements are to be delivered quickly, preserving the connection between the communion experienced by the ill person, and the communion of the rest of the congregation.
Lutherans use the terms "in, with and under the forms of [consecrated] bread and wine" and "Sacramental Union" to distinguish their understanding of the Lord's Supper from those of the Reformed and other traditions. More liberal Lutheran churches tend to practice open communion, inviting all who are baptized to participate. Conservative Lutheran churches such as the Confessional Lutherans are more likely to practice closed communion , restricting participation to those, who are more or less in doctrinal agreement with them. This might involve the formal declaration of "altar and pulpit fellowship," another term for eucharistic sharing coupled with the acceptance of the ministrations of one another's clergy.
Methodism - Real Presence as "Holy Mystery"
There is no definitive
Methodist statement on how the real presence of Jesus Christ is experienced in
Holy Communion. Nevertheless, the followers of
John Wesley , himself an Anglican clergyman, have typically affirmed that the sacrament of Holy Communion is an instrumental Means of Grace through which the real presence of Christ is communicated to the believer, but have otherwise allowed the details to remain a mystery. In particular, Methodists reject the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation . In 2004, the
United Methodist Church more clearly defined its view of the sacrament and its belief in the Real Presence in an official document entitled
. Of particular note here is the church's unequivocal recognition of the anamnesis as more than just a memorial but, rather, a
re-presentation of Christ Jesus:
- Holy Communion is remembrance, commemoration, and memorial, but this remembrance is much more than simply intellectual recalling. "Do this in remembrance of me" is anamnesis . This dynamic action becomes re-presentation of past gracious acts of God in the present, so powerfully as to make them truly present now. Christ is risen and is alive here and now, not just remembered for what was done in the past.
This affirmation of Real Presence — of what is sometimes called
anamnetical real presence — can be seen clearly illustrated in the language of the United Methodist Eucharistic Liturgy where, in the epecletical portion of the Great Thanksgiving, the celebrating minister prays over the elements:
- Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.
For most United Methodists — and, indeed, for much of Methodism as a whole — this reflects the furthest extent to which they are willing to go in defining Real Presence. They will assert that Jesus is really present, and that the means of this presence is a "Holy Mystery"; the celebrating minister will pray for the Holy Spirit to make the elements "be the body and blood of Christ," and the congregation will even sing, as in the third stanza of
Charles Wesley's hymn
Come Sinners to the Gospel Feast:
- Come and partake the gospel feast,
- be saved from sin, in Jesus rest;
- O taste the goodness of our God,
- and eat his flesh and drink his blood.
However, beyond this degree of specificity most Methodists will not go. For them, the affirmation of Real Presence, as in the above references, is sufficient for them to know and partake of the sacrament in a worthy manner.
Calvinist Reformed: spiritual feeding, "pneumatic" presence
Many Reformed Christians, particularly those who follow
John Calvin, hold that Christ's body and blood do not come down to inhabit the elements, but that "the Spirit truly unites things separated in space" .
Following a phrase of Augustine, the Calvinist view is that "no one bears away from this Sacrament more than is gathered with the vessel of faith". "The flesh and blood of Christ are no less truly given to the unworthy than to God's elect believers", Calvin said; but those who partake by faith receive benefit from Christ, and the unbelieving are condemned by partaking. By faith , and in the Holy Spirit, the partaker beholds God incarnate, and in the same sense touches him with hands, so that by eating and drinking of bread and wine Christ's actual presence penetrates to the heart of the believer more nearly than food swallowed with the mouth can enter in.
Calvin specifically rejected adoration of the Eucharistic bread and wine as "idolatry", however. Leftover elements may be disposed of without ceremony ; they are unchanged, and as such the meal directs attention toward Christ's bodily resurrection and return.
Zwinglian Reformed: no Real Presence
Some Protestant groups see Communion as a symbolic meal, a memorial of the
Last Supper and the Passion in which nothing miraculous occurs. This view is known as the Zwinglian view, after
Huldrych Zwingli, a Swiss leader during the
Reformation. It is commonly associated with
Baptists,
Disciples of Christ, and the Latter-day Saints. As with the Reformed view, elements left over from the service may be discarded without any formal ceremony, or if feasible may be retained for use in future services.
Some of the Reformed hold that Calvin actually held this view, and not the
Spiritual feeding idea more commonly attributed to him; or that the two views are really the same.
Summary of views
Because Jesus Christ is a person, theologies regarding the Eucharist involve consideration of the way in which the communicant's personal relationship with God is fed through this mystical meal. However, debates over Eucharistic theology in the West have centered not on the personal aspects of Christ's presence but on the metaphysical. The opposing views are summarized below.
- Transubstantiation – the substance of the bread and wine is transformed in a way beyond human comprehension into that of the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ, but the accidents of the bread and wine remain; this view is held by the Roman Catholic Church and many Anglicans, especially in Anglo-Catholic circles.
- "In, with and under the forms" - the body and blood of Jesus Christ are substantially present in, with and under the substance of the bread and wine, which remain. This is the view held by most Lutherans, and some Anglicans. Some non-Lutherans refer to this view as consubstantiation, but Lutherans almost universally if not universally reject this term.
- Objective reality, but pious silence about technicalities - the view of all the ancient Churches of the East, including the Eastern Orthodox, the Oriental Orthodox, and the Assyrian Church of the East as well as perhaps most Anglicans. These, while agreeing with the Roman Catholic belief that the sacrament is not merely bread and wine but truly the body and blood of Christ, do not usually employ the "substance" and "accidents" terminology, preferring not to scrutinize the technicalities of the transformation.
- Real Spiritual presence also called "pneumatic presence" - not only the spirit, but also the true body and blood of Jesus Christ are received by the sovereign, mysterious, and miraculous power of the Holy Spirit , but only by those partakers who have faith. This view approaches the "pious silence" view in its unwillingness to specify how the Holy Spirit makes Christ present, but positively excludes not just symbolism but also trans- and con-substantiation. It is also known as the "mystical presence" view, and is held by most Reformed Christians, such as Presbyterians, as well as some Methodists and some Anglicans, particularly Low Church Reformed Anglicans. See , ch. 29. This understanding is often called "receptionism." Some argue that this view can be seen as being suggested—though not by any means clearly—by the "invocation" of the Anglican Rite as found in the American Book of Common Prayer, 1928 and earlier and in Rite I of the American BCP of 1979 as well as in other Anglican formularies:
And we most humbly beseech thee, O merciful Father, to hear us, and of thy almighty goodness, vouchsafe to bless and sanctify, with thy Word and Holy Spirit, these thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine; that we, receiving them according to thy Son our Savior Jesus Christ's holy institution, in remembrance of his death and passion, may be partakers of his most blessed body and blood.
Symbolism
- the bread and wine are symbolic of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, and in partaking of the elements the believer commemorates the sacrificial death of Christ. This view is also known as "memorialism" and Zwinglianism
after Ulrich Zwingli and is held by several Protestant and Latter-day Saint denominations, including most Baptists.Suspension - the partaking of the bread and wine was not intended to be a perpetual ordinance, or was not to be taken as a religious rite or ceremony . This is the view of
Quakers and the
Salvation Army, as well as the hyperdispensationalist positions of
E. W. Bullinger, Cornelius R. Stam, and others.
Ritual and liturgy
The Agape feast
The Eucharistic celebrations of the early Christians were embedded in, or simply took the form of, a meal. While centered on the ritual of the bread and wine, it also included various other actions, including sometimes elements of the
Passover seder and of Mediterranean banquets, funerary and otherwise. These were often called
Agape Feasts, although terminology varied in the first few centuries along with other aspects of practice.
Agape is one of the Greek words for
love, particularly applied to selfless love.
This ritual was apparently a full meal, with each participant bringing a contribution to the meal according to their means. Perhaps predictably enough, it could at times deteriorate into merely an occasion for eating and drinking, or for ostentatious displays by the wealthier members of the community. This was criticized by St. Paul in the New Testament . The
Eucharist proper was detached from the
Agape meal between the first and third centuries for such reasons, and the
Agape was definitively dropped by the Church between the 6th and 8th centuries. There have been various survivals and revivals, however. Monastic communities continued to share communal meals in a spirit similar to those of the ancient Church. In the 18th century,
Pietist Christians began to hold
Love Feasts that looked back to the ancient
Agape. Many Christians today after celebrating the Eucharist or another liturgy, now routinely participate in a sharing of light refreshments and conversation in an informal ritual that is functionally an Agape. This post-Eucharistic gathering is often called "fellowship hour" or "coffee hour" and is regarded by many clergy as a particularly opportune time for engaging adults in Christian education.
Today some contemporary Christians participate in
Agape meals on rare occasions, to experience this historical form of the Eucharist. Others, particularly among the House Church movement, practice the love feast weekly as the observation of the Lord's Supper--a full meal provided by and shared among the members. The bread and wine are taken as part of the meal, either at the end or the meal may be opened with the bread and ended with the wine.
Eastern Christianity
Among Eastern Christians, the Eucharistic service is called the
Divine Liturgy. It comprises two main divisions: the first is the
Liturgy of the Catechumens which consists of introductory litanies, antiphons and scripture readings, culminating in a reading from one of the
Gospels and often, a
sermon; the second is the
Liturgy of the Faithful in which the Eucharist is offered, consecrated, and received as
Holy Communion. Within the latter, the actual Eucharistic prayer is called the
anaphora . In the Byzantine Rite, two different anaphoras are currently used: one is attributed to
St. John Chrysostom, and the other to
St. Basil the Great. Among the Oriental Orthodox, a variety of anaphoras are used, but all are similar in structure to those of the Byzantine Rite. In the Byzantine Rite, the Anaphora of St. John Chrysostom is used most days of the year; St. Basil's is offered on the Sundays of Great Lent, the eves of
Christmas and Theophany,
Holy Thursday,
Holy Saturday, and upon his feast day . At the conclusion of the Anaphora the bread and wine are held to be the Body and Blood of Christ.
Conventionally this change in the elements is understood to occur at the
Epiklesis by which the
Holy Spirit is invoked and the consecration of the bread and wine as the Body and Blood of Christ is specifically requested, but since the anaphora as a whole is considered a unitary prayer, no one moment within it can be readily singled out.
Roman Catholicism
See
Mass for Catholic worship in the Latin Rite and Divine Liturgy for worship in the
Eastern Catholic Churches.
Anglican
In the
Episcopal Church in the United States of America , the Eucharist is designated as the principal service of the Church. The service for Holy Eucharist is found in the
Book of Common Prayer for each national church in the
Anglican Communion. The
Anglican Church holds the Eucharist as the highest form of worship, the Church's main service. Daily celebrations are now the case in most
cathedrals and many parish churches, and there are few churches where Holy Communion is not celebrated at least once every Sunday. The nature of the ritual with which it is celebrated, however, varies according to the churchmanship of the individual parish.
See
Book of Common Prayer and
Ritualism.
Lutheran
The Lutheran Eucharistic service is similar in form to the Roman Catholic and "high" Anglican services. Administration of the bread and wine varies between congregations. The bread can be a thin wafer, or leavened or unleavened bread. The wine or grape juice may be administered via a common cup , or through individual cups that may be either prefilled or filled from the chalice during the communion. Intinction is acceptable, but rarely used. Some congregations that use wine make grape juice available for those who are abstaining from alcohol, and some will accommodate those with an allergy to wheat or grapes.
Reformed/Presbyterian
Though Presbyterianism has its own subset of denominations, the Eucharist is usually administered as unleavened bread with options of wine and grape juice, served not from a chalice, but from individual cups, and passed around throughout the congregation by the Presbyters , though occasionally the people will "come to table". The elements can be either served together, or occasionally separately with 'consecration' for each element respectively. Communion is open to all Baptised believers, although usually reserved for those who are members of a Bible believing church.
Minimalist
The elements of the
Lord's Supper are most commonly unleavened bread and wine. In traditions in which
temperance movements have had strong influence, grape juice is substituted for wine. The term "grape juice" is usually not used in services; instead terms such as "unfermented wine," "wine," "the fruit of the vine," or simply "the cup" are used. Teachers from such movements often assert that
, the Greek word which is used in the New Testament, and which is usually understood as meaning "wine", may mean "either fermented or unfermented wine", a claim unknown prior to the temperance movement. A few Holiness bodies, as well as the
Mormons, substitute water for wine, as did the Marcionites, Ebionites, Aquarians and other groups that opposed alcohol before Welch's first pasteurized grape juice to preserve it unfermented. The use of grape juice instead of wine is unknown outside of churches influenced by the American Temperance Movement.
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses commemorate Christ's death as a ransom or propitiatory sacrifice by observing The Lord's Evening Meal, or Memorial, each year on Nisan 14 according to the ancient Jewish calendar. They believe that this is the only celebration commanded for Christians in the Bible. In support, they often quote Jesus' words: "'Keep doing this ... in remembrance of me.' For as often as
you eat this loaf and drink this cup,
you keep proclaiming the death of the Lord, until he arrives." Of those who attend the Memorial a small minority worldwide will partake of the eating of the unleavened bread and the drinking of the wine.
Jehovah's Witnesses believe that only a small minority, called the "anointed," can partake of the bread and wine. Those who actually partake are generally considered to be among the "anointed," though Jehovah's Witnesses believe that some of them may be in error.
The celebration of the Memorial of Christ's Death proceeds as follows: In advance of the Memorial, Jehovah's Witnesses invite anyone that may be interested to attend this special night. The week of the Memorial is generally filled with special activity in the ministry , such as door-to-door work. A suitable hall, for example a
Kingdom Hall, is prepared for the occasion. The Memorial begins with a song and a prayer. The prayer is followed by a discourse on the importance of the evening. A table is set with wine and unleavened bread. Jehovah's Witnesses believe the bread stands for Jesus Christ's body which he gave on behalf of mankind, and that the wine stands for his blood which redeems from sin. They do not believe in transubstantiation or consubstantiation. Hence, the wine and the bread are merely symbols , but they have a very deep and profound meaning for Jehovah's Witnesses. A prayer is offered and the bread is circulated among the audience. Only those who are "anointed" partake. Then another prayer is offered, and the wine is circulated in the same manner. After that, the evening concludes with a final song and prayer.
It is common for the bread and wine to be passed and have no partakers.
Open and closed communion
Christian denominations differ in their understanding of whether they may receive the Eucharist together with those not in full communion with them. Closed communion was the universal practice of the early Church. The famed apologist
St. Justin Martyr wrote: "No one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true...." For the first several hundred years of Church history, non-members were forbidden even to be present at the sacramental ritual; visitors and catechumens were dismissed halfway through the liturgy, after the Bible readings and sermon but before the Eucharistic rite. The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, used in the Byzantine Churches, still has a formula of dismissal of catechumens at this point.
The ancient Churches, such as the
Roman Catholic and the
Eastern Orthodox exclude non-members from Communion under normal circumstances, though they may allow exceptions, e.g. for non-members
in danger of death who share their faith in the reality of the Eucharist and who are unable to have access to a minister of their own religion. Many conservative Protestant communities also practice closed communion, including conservative
Lutheran Churches like the
Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod and the
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. The
Mennonites and the Landmark Baptist Churches also practice closed communion, as a symbol of exclusive membership and loyalty to the distinctive doctrines of their fellowship.
Most Protestant communities practice open communion, including some
Anglican, Reformed, Evangelical,
Methodist, and more-liberal
Lutherans . Some open communion communities adhere to a symbolic or spiritual understanding of the Eucharist, so that they have no fear of sacrilege against the literal body and blood of Christ if someone receives inappropriately. Others feel that Christ calls
all of his children to his table, regardless of their denominational affiliation. Many churches that practice open communion offer it only to
baptized Christians , although this requirement is typically only enforced by the recipients' honesty.
Alleged association with Greco-Roman pre-Christian tradition
The Bacchae, a play by the Athenian tragedian
Euripides, speaks of bread and wine as basic gifts to humanity from the Greek gods
Demeter and
Dionysus. In his very loose translation of this play Michael Cacoyannis instead presents these two gifts as means for entering into communion with the divine:
- Next came the son of the virgin. Dionysus.
- bringing the counterpart to bread. wine
- and the blessings of life's flowing juices.
- His blood, the blood of grape,
- lightens the burden of our mortal misery...
- it is his blood we pour out
- to offer Thanks to the Gods. And through him.
- we are blessed.
This, with its references to "the son of the virgin", "his blood", "the blessings of life's flowing juices", is the Christianity-inspired work of Michael Cacoyannis. What Euripides, who lived centuries before Christianity, actually wrote is as follows:
- For mankind, young man, two elements hold the first place.
- The goddess Demeter - that is the soil, whatever name you may wish to call it -
- this gives solid nourishment to human beings.
- A later arrival, the son of Semele, invented and introduced to mortals
- the corresponding liquid drink of the grape-bunch.
- It relieves the grief of wretched human beings,
- when they are replenished with what flows from the vine.
- It bestows sleep, oblivion of each day's troubles.
- No other remedy is there for woes.
- This, having become a god itself, is poured in libation to the gods,
- with the result that it is through it that men have benefits.
Euripides thus merely states the fact that bread and wine, the two elements Christianity sees as chosen by Jesus for the action to be done in his memory, were the basic forms of nourishment in the Mediterranean culture in which Christianity arose.
Professor Stephen L Harris declared that "long before Jesus linked wine and bread as part of the Christian liturgy the two tokens of divine favor were associated in the Dionysian tradition. In the
Bacchae , the Athenian playwright Euripides has the prophet Tiresias observe that Demeter and Dionysus, respectively,
gave humanity two indispensable gifts: grain or bread to sustain life and wine to make life bearable. Like Cacoyannis, he claimed that Tiresias urges his hearers to see in Dionysus's gift of wine a beverage that brings into communion with the divine.
Others have expanded on Harris's theory by declaring that an idea of theophagy , or at least of feeding on the life-force of a mystical entity, was characteristic of the central rites of some Greco-Roman and Near-Eastern mystery religions and claiming that the acts and ordinances of Jesus and his apostles were "memorialized" in that context. According to them, the Eucharist conveyed the purported mystical benefits of flesh-eating and blood-drinking that were proclaimed by the proponents of
animal sacrifices and of
cannibalism, and can be seen to translate the vestiges of ancient animal sacrifice and/or ritualisic cannibalism into the current age.
In contrast to these theories, it is pointed out that the first Christians were either Jews themselves or "the God-fearing"
See also
Footnotes
=References
- 1963 edition of The New Saint Joseph: First Communion Catechism, Baltimore Catechism
- Anderson, S. E. The First Communion
- Chemnitz, Martin. The Lord's Supper. J. A. O. Preus, trans. St. Louis: Concordia, 1979. ISBN 0-570-03275-X
- Dix, Dom Gregory. The Shape of the Liturgy. London: Continuum International, 2005. ISBN 0-8264-7942-1
- Elert, Werner. Eucharist and Church Fellowship in the First Four Centuries. N. E. Nagel, trans. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1966. ISBN 0-570-04270-4
- Felton, Gayle. This Holy Mystery. Nashville: Discipleship Resources, 2005. ISBN 0-88177-457-X
- Father Gabriel. Divine Intimacy. Rockford, IL: Tan Books and Publishers, Inc., 1996 reprint ed. ISBN 0-89555-504-2
- Grime, J. H. Close Communion and Baptists
- Jurgens, William A. The Faith of the Early Fathers. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1970. ISBN 0-8146-0432-3
- Kolb, Robert and Timothy J. Wengert, eds. The Book of Concord
- The Augsburg Confession [i] of 1530 [i]
...
: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000.
- Lefebvre, Gaspar. The Saint Andrew Daily Missal. Reprint. Great Falls, MT: St. Bonaventure Publications, Inc., 1999.
- Macy, Gary. The Banquet’s Wisdom: A Short History of the Theologies of the Lord’s Supper.
- McBride, Alfred, O.Praem. Celebrating the Mass. Our Sunday Visitor, 1999.
- Neal, Gregory. Grace Upon Grace 2000. ISBN 0-9679074-0-3
- Nevin, John Williamson. The Mystical Presence: A Vindication of the Reformed or Calvinistic Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist. 1846; Wipf & Stock reprint, 2000. ISBN 1-57910-348-0.
- Oden, Thomas C. Corrective Love: The Power of Communion Discipline. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1995. ISBN 0-570-04803-6
- Sasse, Hermann. This Is My Body: Luther's Contention for the Real Presence in the Sacrament of the Altar. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2001. ISBN 1-57910-766-4
- Schmemann, Alexander. The Eucharist. St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1997. ISBN 0-88141-018-7
- Stoffer, Dale R. The Lord's Supper: Believers Church Perspectives
- Stookey, L.H. Eucharist: Christ's Feast with the Church. Nashville: Abingdon, 1993 ISBN 0-687-12017-9
- Tissot, The Very Rev. J. The Interior Life. 1916, pp. 347-9.
- Wright, N. T. The Meal Jesus Gave Us
External links
- - Network of Eucharistic Adoration
- - Live Video Stream of the Eucharist
- - Eucharistic Miracles
- - Streaming Video of a United Methodist Celebration of the Holy Eucharist
Liturgical texts & services
- according to current edition of the Roman Missal
- Orthodox Divine Liturgy.
- , used by the Episcopal Church . Contains the liturgy for the Eucharist and other rites.
- , The Eucharistic Liturgy of The United Methodist Church.
History, theology, practice, etc.
- @ the Catholic Encyclopedia and @ the
- - Easy yet comprehensive website with Catholic Teaching on the Eucharist
- by John Wesley
- by Gregory S. Neal
- by Gregory S. Neal
- by Gregory S. Neal
- by Hermano Cisco of babylonfalls.org. Considers the symbolism of the wine.
- - by Ralph Waldo Emerson, rejecting the Lord's supper as a perpetual rite.
-
