A History of Eucharist Real Presence

1
A History of EucharistReal Presence

• A transcendent reality, of someone or something
  beyond the natural world, is not unique to
  Christianity.
• It is found in every religion both ancient and
  modern though quality and intensity vary
• A feeling of another presence that seems more
  than natural
• Localizable in space and time
• During certain times of the year
• During prayer
• Sacred places
• In particular objects
• All are sacraments in the broad sense

2
A History of EucharistReal Presence

• Often sacred times, places, and objects become
  permanent sacraments to those who believe
• Primitive religions - the sky, the sun, the moon
  are perennial symbols of the divine
• They have no known beginnings
• Christianity - the cross, the Bible
• Others must be consecrated, made sacred.
• Through ceremony and ritual of initiation and
  blessing, they are transformed into sacred
  realities.
• Monuments are dedicated, animals, altars,
  vestments, ornaments, books, and beads.

3
A History of Eucharist - Sacrifices

• Sacrifices ritually dramatize the meaning of
  human life in relation to transcendent realities.
• The sacrifice characterizes our dependence and
  expresses that life is fragile and insecure and
  contingent on forces beyond our control.
• Sacrifices can sometimes be attempts
• to control the gods
• to influence the gods
• to maintain or restore a proper relationship
• to acknowledge the proper order
• to conform to the will of the gods
• They can be formalistic and mechanical or
• They can be entered into more deeply
• by those who seek sacred experience

4
A History of Eucharist -Sacrifices

• Common sacrifices in ancient times were
• Gift offerings
• People acknowledged their dependence on
  transcendent reality for the things they possess
  and enjoy.
• The offering was sacrificed completely by being
  burned, buried or surrendered
• It was performed either as an act of gratitude or
  a gesture of prayer

5
A History of Eucharist - Sacrifices

• Common sacrifices in ancient times were
• Shared offerings
• People acknowledge their need for union with a
  transcendent reality in order to live or to live
  rightly
• It was a food offering
• It affirmed a communal bond between the god and
  those sharing the meal
• It could be to assimilate the symbolic qualities
  of the food eaten.
• By eating animals that symbolized courage,
  wisdom, swiftness or strength you could take on
  their attributes

6
A History of Eucharist -Sacrifices

• Common sacrifices in ancient times were
• Sin offerings
• People acknowledge their past disregard of the
  transcendent reality and their disobedience of
  the transcendent order
• The sacrifice was offered for deliberate
  disobedience or inadvertent transgression of the
  moral law
• Sometimes sin or guilt of the participants was
  symbolically transferred to an animal whose
  ritual death represented the destruction of their
  sins and guilt
• It could be looked on as paying a debt or
  soothing the anger of a god or as a desire to
  live rightly in the future

7
A History of Eucharist- Sacrifices

• All three types of sacrifice were practiced in
  ancient Israel
• The Mosaic law commanded farmers to sacrifice the
  first part of each years crops as a gift to God
  in gratitude for the harvest and for the land (Dt
  26)
• For shared offerings the Israelites were
  instructed to burn the fat and vital organs of
  animal sacrifices before the rest was eaten (Lv
  3)
• When offering sacrifice for the forgiveness of
  sins the priest was to transfer the peoples
  guilt to the animal by laying his hands on it
  before it was killed. On the Day of Atonement
  each year Israelites were to offer a sacrifice
  which would remit the guilt for their
  transgressions of the law. (Lv 3, 16)
• The covenant between Yahweh and his people is
  represented in the Jewish scriptures as being
  solemnized by burnt offering and blood. (Ex 24)

8
A History of Eucharist - Meals

• Ritual meals in the ancient world were connected
  with food which had been sacrificed or
• consecrated in some other way
• As a sacramental event the sacred meal engaged
  the whole person
• It affected all the senses
• It involved memory and imagination
• Internal sensations of hunger and satisfaction
• Social interaction among the participants
• The function of the meal
• was to affirm and intensify a bond of unity among
  the participants, those who were not present,
• and the god who created them

9
A History of Eucharist -Meals

• Passover - The passing over of Yahweh, who slew
  the first born of the Egyptians. And, the
  crossing over of the Hebrews from slavery to
  freedom through the Red Sea.
• Yahweh ordered the Hebrews to sacrifice a lamb,
  to sprinkle its blood on their door-posts to
  protect them against death, to eat their last
  meal in Egypt with unleavened bread because they
  would not have time to see the dough rise (Ex 12)
• The meal was commemorated each spring
• It began with a prayer of thanksgiving
• The sharing of bitter relish which symbolized
  Hebrew slavery
• The reading of the story of the first Passover
• Roasted lamb was eaten with wine and unleavened
  bread
• Further prayers of blessing and thanks were
  offered
• The meal ended with a psalm of praise and a final
  thanksgiving over the last unconsumed cup of wine

10
A History of Eucharist -Meals

• The Passover supper was a sacramental
• A reenactment of a sacred event in which those
  events became real and present to the people who
  shared it
• It enabled the Hebrews to reenter past events and
  to experience vividly the meaning of their
  salvation
• It made the God of Israel present to them and
  they to him in a fuller and richer way than in
  the ordinary sense
• The meal was a complex symbol into which Jews
  could enter and encounter the God of their
  fathers
• It was a door to the sacred
• through which they could pass
• into the sacred space and time of exodus.

11
A History of Eucharist -Meals

• Religious groups within Judaism were accustomed
  to sharing meals of fellowship on the vigils of
  religious feasts
• There was a ritual washing of hands
• A formal blessing in which the leader offered
  thanks to God
• A breaking and distribution of bread
• The meal was served
• After supper there was another washing
• The leader again offered a prayer of Thanksgiving
  over a cup of wine which was then passed around
  to all those present
• Before returning home the group sang a psalm
  together
• These groups would meet together regularly for
  religious devotion or works of charity in
  addition to the regular synagogue services
• Jesus and his disciples
• formed one of many such groups in ancient
  Palestine

12
A History of EucharistFrom the Last Supper to
the Liturgy

• The evening before he died
• The day before the feast of Passover
• Jesus shared his last fellowship meal with his
  disciples
• Jesus departs from the usual ritual
• He takes the basin intended for hand washing and
  washes the feet of the disciples as a sign that
  they should serve one another
• He breaks the bread indicating that it is his
  body
• When he says the blessing over the cup he says it
  is the new covenant of his blood
• They forever remember the changes

13
A History of EucharistFrom the Last Supper to
the Liturgy

• Jesus continued to appear to his disciples after
  death but even after he was gone they continued
  to sense his presence in their weekly fellowship
  meal
• They continued the meal in memory of Him
• More than a simple memorial it becomes a
  sacramental meal which brings into real presence
  the risen messiah
• As the breach between follower of Jesus and
  Orthodox Jew becomes wider this meal becomes the
  center of their religious life
• Pauls letter to the Corinthians is the earliest
  record of the Last Supper 57CE
• Gentiles lacking Jewish upbringing begin taking
  liberties with the supper getting drunk with the
  wine and not sharing food
• Paul moves quickly to correct the situation

14
A History of EucharistFrom the Last Supper to
the Liturgy

• I Corinthians 10-11
• The cup they shared was a communion with the
  blood of Christ and the bread that they broke was
  a communion with the body of Christ
• At their meal they were to be united in a single
  body, not divided into selfish little groups
• When they ate and drank together they were
  supposed to do it for the glory of God, so if
  they were doing it just to have a good time it
  was no longer the Lords supper
• The Lords supper was a memorial of the last
  supper and so it was not only a celebration of
  his resurrection but a commemoration of his death
  as well
• Those who came to the meal should reflect on what
  they were doing so that in their sharing of the
  bread and cup they could recognize the body into
  which they were united

15
A History of EucharistFrom the Last Supper to
the Liturgy

• The Debates of the Present Are Born in the Past
• In Pauls Use of the Word Body
• Sometimes he refers to the Bread
• Other times he refers to the community
• This ambiguity led to disagreement among scholars
  as to whether Paul believed in Christs presence
  in the bread in the same way he saw his presence
  in the community
• The meal, the bread, the cup were undoubtedly
  sacramental in that through sharing them a
  presence of the risen Christ was felt
• But some argued that his presence may not have
  been seen as in the food itself.

16
A History of EucharistFrom the Last Supper to
the Liturgy

• The Synoptic Gospels
• Luke like Paul relates Jesus words over the wine
  as This cup is the new covenant in my blood and
  does not definitively relate the wine to his own
  blood
• Matthew and Mark definitively make the connection
  for both the bread and wine This is my body,
  This is my blood
• Protestants argue
• That in Jesus language, Aramaic there is no
  equivalent of the verb is
• Greek-speaking Christians may have related the
  blood to the wine but for Jews this would have
  been repulsive and forbidden by Mosaic law
• Jews were already familiar with the practice of
  eating symbolic foods it is more likely Jesus was
  just giving the bread and wine a new symbolic
  meaning

17
A History of EucharistFrom the Last Supper to
the Liturgy

• John 6 - By 90CE Christians definitively
  identified the bread and wine with the body and
  blood of Christ.
• Johns Gospel was written to refute the Gnostic
  philosophy that matter was evil and God would
  never contaminate himself with human flesh or
  created matter.
• Jesus was really God just appearing to be human.
  
• The Eucharist was not a sharing in Christs body
  and blood
• John places emphasis on the literal humanity and
  divinity of Jesus
• My flesh is real food and my blood is real
  drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood
  lives in me and I in him (655-56).
• Interesting enough protestants prefer to take
  these Gospel passages figuratively rather than
  literally

18
A History of EucharistFrom the Last Supper to
the Liturgy

• His crucifixion was understood as a sacrificial
  death,
• an offering of himself to God,
• as a commemoration of his death and triumph over
  death
• the Lords supper is seen as a sacrificial meal.
• Three Gospel accounts refer to the blood of
  Christ being poured out for others
• Matthew speaks of Christs blood be shed for the
  forgiveness of sins
• Paul refers to a new covenant sealed in blood,
  a covenant sacrifice
• The sharing of food connected the supper to the
  Jewish shared offering
• The proximity to the Passover suggested the
  similarities between Jesus and the paschal lamb
• Hebrews 412-1018 Christ is both everlasting
  Priest and victim
• The view of the Lords supper as sacrifice is
  uncontested

19
A History of EucharistFrom the Last Supper to
the Liturgy

• Early Developments
• Because of abuses and the size of the assembly
  the sharing of a fellowship meal gradually
  disappeared from Christian communal worship
  (Rarely mentioned after 200CE)
• By 100CE the symbolic meal that remained was
  referred to regularly as Eucharist (prayer of
  praise and thanks)
• Around 112 Pliny the Younger, Roman proconsul of
  Bythinia in Asia Minor sent a letter to emperor
  Trajan concerning some people accused of being
  Christian
• They met before dawn on a fixed day each week
• Sang a hymn to Christ their God
• Bound themselves by an oath to do no wrong
• Then met later in the day for a religious meal

20
A History of EucharistFrom the Last Supper to
the Liturgy

• Its format resembled the Jewish communitys
  Sabbath morning prayer service
• The Lord be with you,..And with your spirit are
  Hebrew forms of address and were used as the
  opening greeting
• The congregation brought forward offerings of
  bread and wine
• Prayers of praise and thanks to God were said
  over the gifts. Usually these prayers included
  reference to Christs words at the last supper
• The leader broke the bread and shared it and the
  wine
• A dismissal prayer was said
• Since the entire action was done in memory of him
  some early forms of worship did not include what
  came to be known as the words of institution.
• The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (Didache 150
  Syria)

21
A History of EucharistFrom the Last Supper to
the Liturgy

• Ignatius, Second Bishop of Antioch around 113
  wrote letters to other churches in which he
  mentioned
• Sunday had been chosen to take the place of the
  Sabbath
• Only the bishop should preside over the
  eucharistic worship
• Justin, Palestinian philosopher and convert wrote
  around 150 a defense of Christian practices.
• He describes two kinds of eucharistic services in
  Rome
• The yearly initiation included an offering of
  bread and a cup of wine with water, prayers of
  praise and thanksgiving to which the people
  responded Amen and a sharing of the bread and
  wine
• The weekly gathering on the day of the Sun
  included the same but also readings of the
  prophets and apostles along with an explanation
  and exhortation by the leader

22
A History of EucharistFrom the Last Supper to
the Liturgy

• Hippolytus of Rome around the year 215 wrote a
  liturgical book, The Apostolic Tradition.
• He outlines the order of service for the
  consecration of a bishop and for initiation of
  catechumens
• Each of these is followed by a eucharistic
  service whose pattern is basically the same as
  Justins
• Hippolytus include prayers that could be said but
  emphasized the bishop should pray according to
  their own ability
• In the third part of his book is a format for a
  fellowship meal not considered to be a form of
  eucharistic worship
• Tertullian, a north African
• staying in Rome around this time,
• Mentions in his writings that those who wished
  could take the eucharist home to be eaten before
  their own meals

23
A History of EucharistFrom the Last Supper to
the Liturgy

• Ignatius - The eucharist is the flesh and blood
  of our savior, the flesh which suffered for our
  sins and which the Father raised from the dead.
• Justin - The food which has been made eucharist
  through the prayer formed out of the words of
  Christ and which nourishes and becomes our flesh
  and blood, is the flesh and blood of the same
  Jesus who was made incarnate.
• Irenaeus - When the bread from the earth
  receives the invocation of God it is no longer
  common bread but eucharist, having both an
  earthly and a heavenly reality.

24
A History of EucharistFrom the Last Supper to
the Liturgy

• 313 Constantine lifts the ban on Christian
  worship
• Eucharistic worship evolved from a comparatively
  brief and simple ritual meal into a richly
  elaborate ceremonial ritual
• Christianity was seen as a means of religiously
  unifying and increasingly disunited empire
• 380 Theodocius proclaims Christianity the
  official religion of the Roman state
• Eucharistic worship became a state function as
  well as a religious ritual
• Liturgy was performed in the common language of
  the people the most common of which was Greek.
• Knowledge of Greek declined after the fourth
  century when the liturgy was translated into
  several other languages including Latin in the
  west

25
A History of EucharistFrom the Last Supper to
the Liturgy

• Arianism
• Arius teaches that Jesus is not really God but a
  superior being, the incarnation of Gods Word. He
  was more than an ordinary man but not equal to
  God.
• Constantine called the council at Nicaea in 325
  because the theological debate was splitting the
  empire
• Jesus was declared one in being with the Father
• A later council declared the same of the Holy
  Spirit
• To counteract Arianisms continuing spread the
  church fathers stressed the divinity of Christ in
  their sermons and theological writings
• Eucharistic worship began to reflect this change.
  Instead of sharing in Christs prayer of
  thanksgiving to the Father, Christians began
  praying directly to Christ Himself as a member of
  the divine Trinity.

26
A History of EucharistFrom the Last Supper to
the Liturgy

• A change in vocabulary
• Eucharist came to refer specifically to the
  sacred elements of bread and wine which were
  offered to God
• Liturgy (a work done for the good of the people)
  came to refer to the religious service that
  surrounded the Eucharistic celebration presided
  over by the Bishop.
• Bishops still determined there own style of
  service but the population centers of the empire
  gradually began to set the predominant style of
  worship for their region
• In the east Jerusalem, Constantinople, Antioch
• In the west Roman and Gallic
• Still the basic format sketched by Justin
  remained the same.
• Adult catechumens began to be dismissed after the
  readings

27
A History of EucharistFrom the Last Supper to
the Liturgy

• Constantine set a precedent by financing a large
  meeting hall for the faithful in Rome
• Built in the style of a basilica, a rectangular
  building with a raised floor on one end used for
  ceremonies of state.
• Increasing wealth led to ornate wall decorations
  to accommodate the new official public ritual
• In 321 Constantine set Sunday aside as a day of
  rest
• New festival days were added to the calendar and
  celebrated with liturgies
• West- Christmas replaced the birthday of the sun
  December 25th
• East- Christs appearance on earth replace the
  Egyptian epiphany of the sun god Osiris on
  January 6th

28
A History of EucharistFrom the Last Supper to
the Liturgy

• Because Bishops were usually educated men
  Constantine gave them authority as judges.
• They were given special signs of their rank a
  cape, headgear, footwear and a ring.
• Judges were allowed to sit on a throne
• They were regularly accompanied by incense, torch
  bearers in procession.
• Judges were also greeted with a genuflection as a
  sign of subordination and respect.
• Liturgy as official public worship gradually
  incorporated these elements.

29
A History of EucharistFrom the Last Supper to
the Liturgy

• By the end of the fourth century many basilicas
  offered liturgies on almost every day of the
  week.
• In most cases additions and changes of prayers to
  the liturgy simply extended older practices (387)
• Prayers of petition for Gods blessing and
  protection covered the emperor, government, the
  local congregation and the universal church
• The bringing of bread and wine became a
  procession in which people brought food,
  clothing, wax for liturgical candles etc.
• By the end of the fourth century recitation of
  the Lords prayer prior to communion became
  customary

30
A History of EucharistFrom the Last Supper to
the Liturgy

• Others were Theological additions
• Especially due to Arianism
• Prayers once addressed to God the Father began
  being addressed directly Jesus or to the Trinity
• In doxologies Father, Son and Holy Sprit all were
  put on the same level
• Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy was added to
  penitential rite
• The bread and wine began being identified as
  Christ

31
A History of EucharistFrom the Last Supper to
the Liturgy

• In the western church a popular designation for
  the liturgy was missarum solemnia.
• The ceremony of dismissal due to the
  catechumens being dismissed after the readings
  and the entire congregation being dismissed after
  communion.
• This was later shortened to missa.
• This became the most commonly used name in the
  west by the fifth century even though the
  catechumenate all but disappeared due to infant
  Baptism
• By the fifth century prayers and directions for
  performing the missa were written down
• Spontaneity all but disappeared
• Gregorian Sacramentary (600)

32
A History of EucharistFrom the Last Supper to
the Liturgy

• Theodore of Mopsuestia first began explanation of
  the liturgy allegorically
• the bringing out of the bread and wine
  represented Christ being led to his passion
• the gifts being offered to God symbolized Christ
  being offered on the cross to his Father
• The gifts resting on the altar was like Christs
  body resting in the tomb
• The invoking of the Holy Spirit corresponded to
  the transformation of his body into its
  incorruptible glorious form
• His being given in communion paralleled his
  coming to the disciples after resurrection
• He saw the liturgy as a sacramental
  representation of Christs passion and
  resurrection

33
A History of EucharistFrom the Last Supper to
the Liturgy

• By the fifth century the pressing question was
  when exactly in the liturgy Christ became
  present?
• The early Fathers were unspecific saying Christ
  was felt during the entire celebration
• In the west emphasis was placed on the words of
  consecration
• Ambrose of Milan - This bread was in fact bread
  before the sacramental words were spoken but at
  the moment of consecration it becomes the flesh
  of Christ
• Augustine of Hippo - Once the bread you see on
  the altar is sanctified by the word of God, it is
  the body of Christ. And once the chalice is
  sanctified by the word of God, what the chalice
  contains is the blood of Christ.

34
A History of EucharistFrom the Last Supper to
the Liturgy

• By the fifth century the pressing question was
  when exactly in the liturgy Christ became
  present?
• In the east emphasis was placed on the invoking
  of the Holy Spirit as the point which made Jesus
  words effective
• Cyril of Jerusalem - We pray that God in his
  mercy will send his Holy Spirit down upon the
  gifts lying before him so that the Spirit might
  make the bread the body of Christ and the wine
  the blood of Christ, because if the Holy Spirit
  touches anything it is certainly sanctified and
  changed
• John of Damascene - After an extensive study of
  the liturgical texts concluded that The words of
  Jesus become effective only when the Holy Spirit
  is called down upon the bread and wine.

35
A History of EucharistFrom the Last Supper to
the Liturgy

• The liturgy gradually lost its concept of a
  shared offering and became an offering of
  atonement for sin
• Many people because of the mass conversions and
  lack of education attended the liturgy out of
  custom rather than conviction
• Though responses were still called for the
  liturgy became something to be observed rather
  than participated in.
• For the fathers the liturgy was an internal
  experience but for the people it was an external
  experience, a public religious function

36
A History of EucharistFrom the Last Supper to
the Liturgy

• Reception of Eucharist began to decline
• People felt unworthy to receive
• Or unwilling to risk direct contact with the
  creator and judge of the universe.
• This became a major concern
• John Chrysostom - We stand before the altar in
  vain no one comes to partake.
• Augustine - If you are the body of Christ and
  his members , it is your mystery which has been
  placed on the altar of the lord you receiive
  your own mystery.
• Cyril of Alexandria - Let us share in the body
  and blood of Christ so that by sharing in the
  body and blood of Christ you may become one body
  and blood with Christ.

37
A History of EucharistThe Middle Ages

• The eastern church
• The culture of the Byzantine Roman empire
  remained more or less stable through the ninth
  century.
• The liturgies of the great fathers continued to
  be used and in fact are still in use today
• The western church
• Liturgy continued to evolve through the sixth
  century
• Rome imposed liturgical uniformity on the
  Catholic church
• Reformers developed non-traditional forms of
  worship within Protestant churches

38
A History of EucharistThe Middle Ages

• Monasteries and mission territories
• Bishops could not keep up with the number of
  masses required or the mission territories
• Bishops ordained monks as missionaries and
  extended the power of consecration
• Monasteries filled with monks could not have them
  all stand around a single altar to exercise this
  new privilege
• Single priests with no congregation began saying
  private masses referred to as low-mass
• Low mass became the norm for Europe.
• Only on Sundays was mass celebrated communally

39
A History of EucharistThe Middle Ages

• Private masses eliminated the need for
  translation of the mass into the common language
• Wherever the missionaries or monks celebrated
  mass it was done in Latin
• Only the clergy new latin so the mass became
  something to be watched and listened to not
  something participated in. It became a religious
  performance.
• As the Germanic invasions effected even the
  vernacular Italian the liturgy frozen in the
  written word did not change
• Priests instead of leading the mass said it for
  the people
• People only new about the mass what they were
  told
• It was a sacrifice in which the flesh and blood
  of Gods Son became present on the altar, was
  offered for their sins, and was eaten and drunk.

40
A History of EucharistThe Middle Ages

• Charlemagne - Uniformity of liturgy (784)
• Alcuin of York monk and chief scholar of his
  court translates Gregorys sacramentary with a
  few subtle changes
• Roman style mass becomes the obligatory form in
  the Frankish empire and supplants the Celtic
  style in England
• Eventually this new liturgy made its way back to
  Rome

41
A History of EucharistThe Middle Ages

• By the thirteenth century what was once a
  communal prayer was now a clerical ritual
  separated by language and architecture
• A ritual confession of sins was added to the
  introductory rite
• A recitation of the creed of Nicaea was added
  after the Gospel to affirm the divinity of Christ
  and his unity with the Father
• Prayers formerly shared by all were now said
  solely by the priest with hands folded rather
  than outstretched
• Parts of the liturgy formerly done by other
  ministers were taken on by the priest since he
  was most often alone
• Altars with reliquaries forced the priests back
  to the people
• The sermon was seen as superfluous and even when
  used they did not coincide with the readings
• The readings were done in latin so that few
  understood. Rather than processing the book the
  priest simply moved the book from the epistle to
  the gospel side

42
A History of EucharistThe Middle Ages

• The role of the laity changed from active
  participation to passive inspiration and
  adoration
• Because it was a private mass there was no
  procession of gifts
• The priest now made numerous signs of the cross
  over the bread and wine and genuflected before
  them in adoration
• Prayers of the eucharistic rite were regulated
  and canonized
• Lay people were discouraged from taking communion
  lest it bring damnation rather than salvation
  upon their sinful souls
• Those who dared to receive could not touch the
  sacred species with their hands rather they were
  communicated to by a priest while kneeling which
  propagated communion rails
• Since few shared in the eucharist, a small
  unleavened wafer took the place of the loaf of
  bread. This followed the belief that Christs
  meal was a Passover meal. The wafer became
  referred to as host which is the latin word for
  sacrificial victim

43
A History of EucharistThe Middle Ages -
Physicalism

• Amalar of Metz, proposed the meaning of the mass
  was the life of Christ. He took every minute
  detail of the mass and attempted to relate it to
  a particular instance in Christs life. This
  theory was rejected.
• Paschase Radbert, abbot of the monastery of
  Corbie 831 concluded that the real flesh and
  blood of Christ must be physically present on the
  altar during the mass.
• Berengar of Tours 200 years later concluded that
  if the eucharistic bread and wine were a
  sacrament they had to be a sign of Christs body
  and blood not identical with it. Christ then did
  not have to be physically present in the
  eucharist
• A local council of bishops in 1059 cited Berengar
  for heresy to them a reality was one thing, a
  symbol was another, and so to call the eucharist
  or the mass symbolic was to deny their reality.

44
A History of EucharistThe Middle Ages

• This 200 year long debate
• resulted in two key teachings of the Church
• The concept of sacramentum et res, the
  sacramental reality, which allowed the
  eucharistic bread and wine to be referred to as
  both a sign (sacred symbol) and a reality.
• The churches doctrine that when the host is
  broken Christ is not divided but the whole Christ
  is present in every piece of bread and in every
  drop of wine.

45
A History of EucharistThe Middle Ages

• Practically it led to a sense of realism about
  the eucharistic elements
• Consecrated bread had usually been kept in a
  cupboard near the altar as viaticum
• (food for the journey to the next world)
• It was customary for bishops to bow toward this
  cupboard the this tradition gave way to a more
  reverent genuflection
• To give it more prominence the sacrament was now
  placed in a tabernacle on the altar, a lamp was
  lit to remind visitors that Christ was present
• Priests were required to genuflect each time they
  touched the host and to keep their fingers joined
  lest a crumb drop
• Priests stopped passing the chalice in fear of a
  spill
• During the elevation a bell was wrung to allow
  adoration by those who were privately praying

46
A History of EucharistThe Middle Ages

• Scholastic theologians came to regard the
  extremely physical view as unnecessary and
  regained the metaphysical concept of reality
• The focus of scholastics was the sacrament of
  eucharist not the liturgy of the mass
• They wanted to know exactly when and how the
  bread and wine were changed
• They never came to any concise agreement on the
  when
• But for the how they developed the necessary
  vocabulary to come to agreement

47
A History of EucharistThe Middle Ages

• Transubstantiation
• A change in substance or reality
• Hildebert of Tours - first used the term in the
  early 13th century at the University of Paris
• The reality or substance of the elements changed
  while their appearances remained those of bread
  and wine.
• A substance was anything that could exist on its
  own it was a reality in and of itself
• Properties of a substance (color, shape, size,
  etc.) were considered accidents
• Fourth Lateran Council used the same terminology

48
A History of EucharistThe Middle Ages

• Aquinas developed it into a work of art
• He placed the Eucharist at the center of his
  sacramental system
• He saw the Eucharist as sacred object rather than
  sacred action
• The mass was a sacred action during which this
  sacred object was produced for the spiritual
  benefit of the Church
• The matter was the bread and wine. The form was
  Christs words of consecration.
• The physical appearance of the bread and wine was
  only a sacrament, a sacred sign of a spiritual
  reality

49
A History of EucharistThe Middle Ages

• And set the focus on reception of the sacrament
• Eucahrist was only a reality in the consumation
• Gods purpose in giving the eucharist was not to
  make bread and wine an object of worship but to
  give Christians a means of spiritual nourishment.
• The reality of the sacrament was a grace that
  could only be experienced in the reception of
  communion
• The experience depended on the inner disposition
  and openness to Gods grace of the individual
  recipient
• The only thing automatic in the eucharist was the
  effect of the act of consecration on the elements

50
A History of EucharistThe Middle Ages

• Consubstantiation became the debate (14th
  century)
• The substance of the bread and wine exists after
  the consecration side by side with the substance
  of Christs body and blood but is not changed
  into it
• William of Ockham, father of legalism and
  nominalism, agreed but felt the Fourth Lateran
  Council had already made transubstantiation a
  dogma by ecclesiastically endorsing the
  philosophical view
• The Council of Constance in 1415 declared John
  Wycliffe a heretic for teaching that the bread
  and wine remained in the sacrament of the altar
• Popular piety turned completely to adoration of
  the host

51
A History of EucharistThe Middle Ages

• The mass was transformed from an act of public
  worship to a form of clerical prayer
• It was offered many times a day in private
• It was no longer concelebrated by a bishop but
  said simultaneously by many priests
• It no longer contained scriptural readings or a
  communion service. It was a symbolic sacrifice.
• Sunday masses were still said but were paid for
  through mandatory stipends by the people
• The mass had become a good work performed by the
  priest for the spiritual benefit of the church
• This is the mass the reformers rejected

52
A History of EucharistThe Lords Supper and the
Modern Mass

• The Protestant Dilemma
• The private low mass was obviously nothing like
  the Last Supper but nothing was known about
  eucharistic worship in the first few centuries
• Luther left the mass the same other than
  translating the Latin into German and offering
  communion to the laity
• Accepted the concept of consubstantiation
• Calvin and Zwingli split the mass into a liturgy
  of the word and a liturgy of communion
• Interpreted Christs words figuratively rather
  than literally
• Anglicans initially changed nothing.
• Other than the Pope they still considered
  themselves catholic
• Excommunication left them free to reform the mass
  but no vision existed for how to reform it

53
A History of EucharistThe Lords Supper and the
Modern Mass

• Protestants did not reject the eucharist.
• The laity were not used to frequent communion so
  it was only offered anywhere from once a month to
  once a year
• The Sunday worship became a non-eucharistic
  prayer service
• They rejected what were seen as superstitious
  beliefs and practices concerning the consecrated
  host
• They no longer reserved the sacrament in their
  churches
• They reinterpreted the words of institution
• Most rejected the Roman mass
• They brought back sermons
• Rejected the name mass and chose new names the
  Lords supper and the Lords table
• Rejected the notion of mass as sacrifice, seeing
  it as a sign of Christians sins being forgiven
  through Christs death on the cross

54
A History of EucharistThe Lords Supper and the
Modern Mass

• Catholic solidification - The Council of Trent
• The council produced three documents on the
  eucharist
• The Blessed Sacrament (1551)
• The Reception of Communion (1562)
• The Mass as a Sacrifice (1562)
• All three taught using the scholastic approach to
  theology which acted to set this approach as
  definitive and final
• The division of sacrament, communion, and mass
  resulted in Catholics continuing to consider
  these things separately

55
A History of EucharistThe Lords Supper and the
Modern Mass

• Sacrament was the consecrated bread and wine
• The Blessed Sacrament (1551)
• Our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and man, is
  truly, really, and substantially contained under
  the appearance of bread and wine. By the
  consecration of the bread and wine the whole
  substance of the bread is changed into the
  substance of the body of Christ our Lord, and the
  whole substance of the wine is changed into the
  substance of his blood.

56
A History of EucharistThe Lords Supper and the
Modern Mass

• Communion was not looked upon as a sacramental
  action in itself but as receiving the sacrament
• The Reception of Communion (1562)
• Catholics did not have to receive both bread and
  wine to receive Christ in communion because he
  was fully present in either element
• Children did not have to receive eucharist before
  the age of reason

57
A History of EucharistThe Lords Supper and the
Modern Mass

• Mass was seen as instituted by Christ but was
  regarded as a sacrifice not a sacrament
• The Mass as a Sacrifice (1562)
• The bishops explained that at the last supper
  Christ had offered a sacrifice of his body and
  blood to God the Father, and had commanded that
  it be continued so that through it his sacrifice
  on the cross could be present in the church
  forever.
• Christ offered himself in an unbloody manner
• Since it was Christ it was a clean oblation not
  able to be defiled by unworthiness of the
  minister and therefore effective even without the
  peoples participation
• Its spiritual benefits were available to the
  church for the atonement of sins

58
A History of EucharistThe Lords Supper and the
Modern Mass

• In 1570 a normative version of the Roman Missal
  was issued under authority of Pius V and made
  mandatory.
• A ban was placed on translation of any texts from
  the approved Latin
• Books of private devotional prayers were
  published
• For those who could not read the rosary was
  suggested
• So that the sacrifice would not be disturbed Holy
  Communion was distributed before or after mass to
  fulfill the annual obligation
• For the most part this norm stayed in effect
  until 1960

59
A History of EucharistThe Lords Supper and the
Modern Mass

• In the late 1800s a renewed interest in
  historical investigation began
• Ancient manuscripts were searched out.
  Benedictine monks in France and Germany tried to
  find out where the Tridentine mass had come from
  hoping to increase their understanding of the
  mass
• What they discovered was that in the early days
  people were actually expected to participate
• They brought Gregorian chant back into their
  masses. Interest in the rediscovered form of
  prayer skyrocketed.
• In order for people to understand they had to
  translate the music. In 1880 missals used by lay
  people were first published. Some had
  translations
• In 1897 the official ban on translating the Roman
  missal was lifted for the first time in 1000
  years all Catholics could follow the mass

60
A History of EucharistThe Lords Supper and the
Modern Mass

• Pius X in 1903 gave papal approval for greater
  participation in the mass through chant and more
  frequent reception of communion.
• 1910 He established the age for first communion
  at seven. First communion began to rival
  Confirmation in popularity.
• First communion became a modern day unofficial
  sacrament, an almost universally practiced
  childhood ritual closely associated with the mass
  and the official sacrament of eucharist.

61
A History of EucharistThe Lords Supper and the
Modern Mass

• Historical research continued through both world
  wars
• 1946 Gregory Dix and Josef Jungmann published
  lengthy historical studies of the mass
• 1947 Pius XII issued a papal encyclical warning
  priests against tampering with the liturgy but
  approving attempts to make it more relevant to
  the laity
• The 1950s saw modest reforms in liturgies
• Permission to celebrate evening masses on Sunday
  and Holy Days
• Liturgies oof Holy Week were modified to more
  closely match the patristic period
• The hours of fasting were shortened from 12 to 3
  to 1
• January 1959 John XXIII announced the Second
  Vatican Council
• Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy was approved
  as the first conciliar document