V. The Sacramental Sacrifice Thanksgiving,
Memorial, Presence
1356
If from the beginning Christians have celebrated the Eucharist and in a form
whose substance has not changed despite the great diversity of times and
liturgies, it is because we know ourselves to be bound by the command the Lord
gave on the eve of his Passion: "Do this in remembrance of
me."181
1357
We carry out this command of the Lord by celebrating the memorial of his
sacrifice. In so doing, we offer to the Father what he has himself given us:
the gifts of his creation, bread and wine which, by the power of the Holy
Spirit and by the words of Christ, have become the body and blood of Christ.
Christ is thus really and mysteriously made present.
1358
We must therefore consider the Eucharist as: - thanksgiving and praise to the
Father;
- the sacrificial memorial of Christ and his Body;
- the presence of Christ by the power of his word and of his Spirit.
Thanksgiving
and praise to the Father
1359
The Eucharist, the sacrament of our salvation accomplished by Christ on the
cross, is also a sacrifice of praise in thanksgiving for the work of creation.
In the Eucharistic sacrifice the whole of creation loved by God is presented to
the Father through the death and the Resurrection of Christ. Through Christ the
Church can offer the sacrifice of praise in thanksgiving for all that God has
made good, beautiful, and just in creation and in humanity.
1360
The Eucharist is a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Father, a blessing by which
the Church expresses her gratitude to God for all his benefits, for all that he
has accomplished through creation, redemption, and sanctification. Eucharist
means first of all "thanksgiving."
1361
The Eucharist is also the sacrifice of praise by which the Church sings the
glory of God in the name of all creation. This sacrifice of praise is possible
only through Christ: he unites the faithful to his person, to his praise, and
to his intercession, so that the sacrifice of praise to the Father is offered
through Christ and with him, to be accepted in him.
The
sacrificial memorial of Christ and of his Body, the Church
1362
The Eucharist is the memorial of Christ's Passover, the making present and the
sacramental offering of his unique sacrifice, in the liturgy of the Church
which is his Body. In all the Eucharistic Prayers we find after the words of
institution a prayer called the anamnesis or memorial.
1363
In the sense of Sacred Scripture the memorial is not merely the recollection of
past events but the proclamation of the mighty works wrought by God for
men.182 In the liturgical celebration of these events, they become in a
certain way present and real. This is how Israel understands its liberation
from Egypt: every time Passover is celebrated, the Exodus events are made
present to the memory of believers so that they may conform their lives to
them.
1364
In the New Testament, the memorial takes on new meaning. When the Church
celebrates the Eucharist, she commemorates Christ's Passover, and it is made
present the sacrifice Christ offered once for all on the cross remains ever
present.183 "As often as the sacrifice of the Cross by which
'Christ our Pasch has been sacrificed' is celebrated on the altar, the work of
our redemption is carried out."184
1365
Because it is the memorial of Christ's Passover, the Eucharist is also a
sacrifice. the sacrificial character of the Eucharist is manifested in the very
words of institution: "This is my body which is given for you" and
"This cup which is poured out for you is the New Covenant in my
blood."185 In the Eucharist Christ gives us the very body which he
gave up for us on the cross, the very blood which he "poured out for many
for the forgiveness of sins."186
1366
The Eucharist is thus a sacrifice because it re-presents (makes present) the
sacrifice of the cross, because it is its memorial and because it applies its
fruit:
[Christ], our Lord and God, was once and for all to offer himself to God
the Father by his death on the altar of the cross, to accomplish there an everlasting
redemption. But because his priesthood was not to end with his death, at the
Last Supper "on the night when he was betrayed," [he wanted] to leave
to his beloved spouse the Church a visible sacrifice (as the nature of man
demands) by which the bloody sacrifice which he was to accomplish once for all
on the cross would be re-presented, its memory perpetuated until the end of the
world, and its salutary power be applied to the forgiveness of the sins we
daily commit.187
1367
The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single
sacrifice: "The victim is one and the same: the same now offers through
the ministry of priests, who then offered himself on the cross; only the manner
of offering is different." "In this divine sacrifice which is
celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody
manner on the altar of the cross is contained and is offered in an unbloody
manner."188
1368
The Eucharist is also the sacrifice of the Church. the Church which is the Body
of Christ participates in the offering of her Head. With him, she herself is
offered whole and entire. She unites herself to his intercession with the
Father for all men. In the Eucharist the sacrifice of Christ becomes also the
sacrifice of the members of his Body. the lives of the faithful, their praise,
sufferings, prayer, and work, are united with those of Christ and with his
total offering, and so acquire a new value. Christ's sacrifice present on the
altar makes it possible for all generations of Christians to be united with his
offering.
In the catacombs the Church is often represented as a woman in prayer,
arms outstretched in the praying position. Like Christ who stretched out his
arms on the cross, through him, with him, and in him, she offers herself and
intercedes for all men.
1369
The whole Church is united with the offering and intercession of Christ. Since
he has the ministry of Peter in the Church, the Pope is associated with every
celebration of the Eucharist, wherein he is named as the sign and servant of
the unity of the universal Church. the bishop of the place is always
responsible for the Eucharist, even when a priest presides; the bishop's name
is mentioned to signify his presidency over the particular Church, in the midst
of his presbyterium and with the assistance of deacons. the community
intercedes also for all ministers who, for it and with it, offer the
Eucharistic sacrifice:
Let only that Eucharist be regarded as legitimate, which is celebrated
under [the presidency of] the bishop or him to whom he has entrusted
it.189
Through the ministry of priests the spiritual sacrifice of the faithful
is completed in union with the sacrifice of Christ the only Mediator, which in
the Eucharist is offered through the priests' hands in the name of the whole
Church in an unbloody and sacramental manner until the Lord himself
comes.190
1370
To the offering of Christ are united not only the members still here on earth,
but also those already in the glory of heaven. In communion with and
commemorating the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints, the Church offers the
Eucharistic sacrifice. In the Eucharist the Church is as it were at the foot of
the cross with Mary, united with the offering and intercession of Christ.
1371
The Eucharistic sacrifice is also offered for the faithful departed who
"have died in Christ but are not yet wholly purified,"191 so
that they may be able to enter into the light and peace of Christ:
Put this body anywhere! Don't trouble yourselves about it! I simply ask
you to remember me at the Lord's altar wherever you are.192
Then, we pray [in the anaphora] for the holy fathers and bishops who
have fallen asleep, and in general for all who have fallen asleep before us, in
the belief that it is a great benefit to the souls on whose behalf the
supplication is offered, while the holy and tremendous Victim is present.... By
offering to God our supplications for those who have fallen asleep, if they
have sinned, we . . . offer Christ sacrificed for the sins of all, and so
render favorable, for them and for us, the God who loves man.193
1372
St. Augustine admirably summed up this doctrine that moves us to an ever more
complete participation in our Redeemer's sacrifice which we celebrate in the
Eucharist:
This wholly redeemed city, the assembly and society of the saints, is
offered to God as a universal sacrifice by the high priest who in the form of a
slave went so far as to offer himself for us in his Passion, to make us the
Body of so great a head.... Such is the sacrifice of Christians: "we who
are many are one Body in Christ" the Church continues to reproduce this
sacrifice in the sacrament of the altar so well-known to believers wherein it
is evident to them that in what she offers she herself is offered.194
The
presence of Christ by the power of his word and the Holy Spirit
1373
"Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the
right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us," is present in many ways
to his Church:195 in his word, in his Church's prayer, "where two
or three are gathered in my name,"196 in the poor, the sick, and
the imprisoned,197 in the sacraments of which he is the author, in the
sacrifice of the Mass, and in the person of the minister. But "he is
present . . . most especially in the Eucharistic species."198
1374
The mode of Christ's presence under the Eucharistic species is unique. It
raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as "the perfection of the
spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments tend."199
In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist "the body and blood,
together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore,
the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially
contained."200 "This presence is called 'real' - by which is
not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they could not be
'real' too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it
is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly
and entirely present."201
1375
It is by the conversion of the bread and wine into Christ's body and blood that
Christ becomes present in this sacrament. the Church Fathers strongly affirmed
the faith of the Church in the efficacy of the Word of Christ and of the action
of the Holy Spirit to bring about this conversion. Thus St. John Chrysostom
declares:
It is not man that causes the
things offered to become the Body and Blood of Christ, but he who was crucified
for us, Christ himself. the priest, in the role of Christ, pronounces these
words, but their power and grace are God's. This is my body, he says. This word
transforms the things offered.202
and St.
Ambrose says about this conversion:
Be convinced that this is not
what nature has formed, but what the blessing has consecrated. the power of the
blessing prevails over that of nature, because by the blessing nature itself is
changed.... Could not Christ's word, which can make from nothing what did not
exist, change existing things into what they were not before? It is no less a
feat to give things their original nature than to change their
nature.203
1376
The Council of Trent summarizes the Catholic faith by declaring: "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."204
1377
The Eucharistic presence of Christ begins at the moment of the consecration and
endures as long as the Eucharistic species subsist. Christ is present whole and
entire in each of the species and whole and entire in each of their parts, in such
a way that the breaking of the bread does not divide Christ.205
1378
Worship of the Eucharist. In the liturgy of the Mass we express our faith in
the real presence of Christ under the species of bread and wine by, among other
ways, genuflecting or bowing deeply as a sign of adoration of the Lord.
"The Catholic Church has always offered and still offers to the sacrament
of the Eucharist the cult of adoration, not only during Mass, but also outside
of it, reserving the consecrated hosts with the utmost care, exposing them to
the solemn veneration of the faithful, and carrying them in
procession."206
1379
The
tabernacle was first intended for the reservation of the Eucharist in a worthy
place so that it could be brought to the sick and those absent outside of Mass.
As faith in the real presence of Christ in his Eucharist deepened, the Church
became conscious of the meaning of silent adoration of the Lord present under
the Eucharistic species. It is for this reason that the tabernacle should be
located in an especially worthy place in the church and should be constructed
in such a way that it emphasizes and manifests the truth of the real presence
of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.
1380
It is highly fitting that Christ should have wanted to remain present to his
Church in this unique way. Since Christ was about to take his departure from
his own in his visible form, he wanted to give us his sacramental presence;
since he was about to offer himself on the cross to save us, he wanted us to
have the memorial of the love with which he loved us "to the
end,"207 even to the giving of his life. In his Eucharistic
presence he remains mysteriously in our midst as the one who loved us and gave
himself up for us,208 and he remains under signs that express and
communicate this love:
The Church and the world have a great need for Eucharistic worship.
Jesus awaits us in this sacrament of love. Let us not refuse the time to go to
meet him in adoration, in contemplation full of faith, and open to making
amends for the serious offenses and crimes of the world. Let our adoration
never cease.209
1381
"That in this sacrament are the true Body of Christ and his true Blood is
something that 'cannot be apprehended by the senses,' says St. Thomas, 'but
only by faith, which relies on divine authority.' For this reason, in a
commentary on Luke 22:19 ('This is my body which is given for you.'), St. Cyril
says: 'Do not doubt whether this is true, but rather receive the words of the
Savior in faith, for since he is the truth, he cannot lie.'"210
Godhead here in hiding, whom I
do adore
Masked by these bare shadows,
shape and nothing more,
See, Lord, at thy service low
lies here a heart
Lost, all lost in wonder at
the God thou art.
Seeing, touching, tasting are in thee deceived;
How says trusty hearing? that shall be believed;
What God's Son has told me, take for truth I do;
Truth himself speaks truly or there's nothing true.211
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