THE HOLY EUCHARIST AND CATHOLIC SACRAMENTALS

INTRODUCTION

The Catholic Church is the world’s largest and Christianity’s oldest religious body. She has about 1.2 billion members inhabiting the width and breadth of the earth, comprising a large percent of human population. She is far and away the most popular religious concept the world has ever known. Paradoxically, the Catholic Church is also the world’s most controversial religious concept. She is embedded with mysterious enigmas, religious riddles and theological puzzles. She has been challenged severally by protesters who viewed her faith as illogically unreasonable or as a religious delusion or emotional depravity or at best a hopeless hypothesis. Most of those even in the faith are gullibly treading on an unconscious path coloured in their conjectural answers about their faith. In charades, many Catholics cannot even elucidate on themes or articles of their faith. The Catholic doctrines and teachings are therefore characterized as unexplainable dogmas and mysterious pedagogies.

The Holy Eucharist and Sacramentals are such of those teachings that have torn veils in Christendom. Starting with Jesus’ teaching on the Holy Eucharist in John’s gospel, there have been many divides as to the sanity in these doctrines. More so, in this contemporary age, religious wars have been stirred based on these teachings and more heretics have been identified based on their own ridiculous memorabilia of the sacrifice of Jesus.

The focus of this lecture therefore, is to examine thoroughly, though briefly, the Catholic understanding of these two articles of belief. We are a people of faith and as St. Anselm puts it, understanding God is basically “faith seeking intelligence” (Fides qauerens intellitetum) not the other way round.   

A MEMORABILIA IN THE CHRISTIAN WORSHIP: DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME!

Eucharist is from the Greek word eucharistein and eulogein meaning thanksgiving and that recalls the Jewish blessing that is proclaimed especially during a meal. Eucharist is an action of thanksgiving to God. CCC 1328.   

What is a memorabilia? In the first instance, memorabilia is an object connected with a famous person. In another instance, memorabilia are personal souvenirs of important personal events or experiences. In the two instances, Jesus left for us a memory of himself which should turn into his perpetual presence in the world. (cf. Matt.28:19)

The Eucharist is the centre and the heart of the entire Liturgy of the Catholic Church. For in it she fulfils, day after day and all over the world the command that Christ gave to his apostles on the night before he suffered, when he said to them: “Do this in memory of me”. And so our celebration is rooted in the commemoration of the Last Supper of Jesus, in a sacred tradition to which Saint Paul testifies:

For this is what I received from the Lord and in turn passed on to you: that on the same night that he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and thanked God for it and broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this as a memorial of me”. In the same way he took the cup after supper and said, ‘this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do this as a memorial of me’ (1 Cor. 11:23-25).

Furthermore, the Eucharist is not only a memorial of the Last Supper of Jesus, it also commemorate his sacrifice on the cross. Also, it is not simply a matter of recalling past events but of making these events truly present. In each Eucharist, Christ is present and active in the very act of his Passover, that is to say, in his death and resurrection, by which he saves us, gives us his life and unites us to himself. In the epiclesis, the Church asks the Father to send his Holy Spirit on the bread and wine, so that by his power they may become the body and blood of Jesus Christ and so that those who take part in the Eucharist may be one body and one spirit.

Hence, with a special power given only by God to only ordained priests, the injunction of Jesus at the Last Supper is made possible. This is TRANSUBSTANTIATION as it is technically known “The change of the entire substance of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ”. 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. (C.C.C 1375).

St. Ambrose corroborates this conversion saying:

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. (C.C.C 1375).        

THE HOLY EUCHARIST IN THE CHRISTIAN TRADITION: A SCRIPTURAL EXEGESIS.

Prefiguration in the Old Testament: In the Old Covenant, bread and wine were offered in sacrifice among the fruits of the earth, as a sign of grateful acknowledgement to the creator. But they also received a new significance in the context of the Exodus: the unleavened bread that Israel eats every year at Passover commemorates the haste of the departure that liberated them from Egypt; the remembrance of the manna in the desert will always recall to Israel that it lives by the bread of the word of God; (Dt 8:3) their daily bread is the fruit of the promised land, the pledge of God’s faithfulness to his promises. The “cup of blessing” (1 Cor 10:16) at the end of the Jewish Passover meal adds to the festive joy of wine an eschatological dimension: the messianic expectation of the re-building of Jerusalem.

The New Testament: When Jesus instituted the Eucharist, he gave a new and definitive meaning to the blessing of the bread and cup. The miracles of the multiplication of the loaves, when the Lord says the blessing, break and distribute the loaves through his disciples to feed the multitude, prefigures the superabundance of this unique bread of his Eucharist.(Mt. 14:13-21, 15:32-39) The sign of water turned into wine at Cana already announces the Hour of Jesus’ glorification. It makes manifest the fulfillment of the wedding feast in the Father’s kingdom, where the faithful will drink the new wine that has become the Blood of Christ. (Jn 2:11). The first announcement of the Eucharist divided the disciples, just as the announcement of the Passion scandalized them: “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” (Jn 6:60).       

The Institution of the Holy Eucharist: The Lord, having loved those who were his own, loved them to the end. Knowing that the hour had come to leave this world and return to the Father, in the course of a meal he washed their feet and gave them the commandment of love. (Jn 13:1) in order to leave them a pledge of this love, in order never to depart from his own and to make the sharers in his Passover, he instituted the Eucharist as the memorial of his death and Resurrection and commanded his apostles, and commanded his apostles to celebrate it until his return; thereby he constituted them priests of the New Testament.   

HOLY EUCHARIST AS THE CENTER OF OUR FAITH: CULMEN ET FONS

It is good to remind us that the Holy Eucharist completes Christian Initiation. Those who have been raised to the dignity of his royal priesthood by Baptism and configured more deeply to Christ by confirmation, participate with the whole community in the Lord’s own sacrifice by means of the Eucharist. CCC 1322.

The Eucharist is the “source and summit of the Christian life”. The other sacraments and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the Blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch. In brief therefore, the Eucharist is the sum and summary of our faith: our way of thinking is attuned to the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn confirms our way of thinking.”       

Holy Eucharist as Sacrifice: Because it is the memorial of Christ Passover, the Eucharist is also a sacrifice. The sacrifice character of the Eucharist is manifested in the very words of institution: This is my Body which is given for you…” 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. (C.C.C 1365).  

The sacrifice of Jesus is what makes the community of the Church. When the Church- each individual community, and in particular each parish celebrates the Eucharist, all should be aware that she is a community brought into being by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Thus, she is also a community of thanksgiving and praise, a community united in shared communion. The Holy Eucharist is a sacrament and a sacrifice. In the Holy Eucharist, under the appearances of bread and wine, the Lord Christ is contained, offered, and received.

Uniting power of the Eucharist: When we receive the Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion, we, as Christians are united individually with Christ, and we eat of the same Bread, which is the very Body of Christ, we are equally united, as Christians, with one another in the deepest and most intimate manner possible. That is why the Eucharist makes the Church. Our union in the Eucharistic Body establishes the mystical Body of Christ.   

Fruits of the Holy Eucharist:

·         Holy communion augments our union with Christ

·         Holy communion separates us from sin

·         The unity of the Mystical Body of Christ

·         The Eucharist commits us to the poor

·         The Holy Eucharist preserves us from future mortal sin

·         The Holy Eucharist wipes away venial sins

SIGNS THAT GIVE GRACES: THE SACRAMENTALS

Sacramentals are sacred signs which bear a resemblance to the sacraments. They signify effects, particularly of a spiritual nature, which are obtained through the intersession of the church. By them men are disposed to receive the chief effect of the sacraments, and various occasion in life are rendered Holy. (CCC 1667).     

In addition, according to the Council of Trent, sacramentals are material objects, things or actions (sacramentalia) set apart or blessed by the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Churches, the Anglican Churches, and Old Catholic Churches to manifest the respect due to the Sacraments, and so to excite good thoughts and to increase devotion, and through these movements of the heart to remit venial sin, (Session XXII, 15).[i] Sacramentals consist of material things or of actions that the Church uses after the manner of Sacraments, so as to achieve though the merits of the faithful certain effects, primarily of a spiritual nature.[ii] They should not be misconstrued with the sacraments; they are different just as its definition tells us. While the sacraments confer graces ex opere operato, i.e. by the virtue of the action performed, the sacramentals confer graces ex opere operantiis, i.e. by the virtue of the person performing the action. While the sacraments are directly instituted by Christ, the sacramentals are instituted by the Church. There are two main categories of sacramentals namely; permanent sacramentals (blessed objects) and transitory sacramentals (actions which have a sacred significance when performed, i.e., ceremonies, independent religious actions and the religious use of blessed objects).[iii] Sacramentals may also refer to times, places, and gestures.

CHARACTERISTICS OF SACARMENTALS

·         Sacramentals are instituted for the sanctification of certain ministries of the church, certain states of life, a great variety of circumstances in Christian life and the use of many things helpful to man.

·         Sacramentals derive from the baptismal priesthood: every baptized person is called to be a blessing and to bless.

·         Sacramentals do not confer the grace of the Holy Spirit in the way the sacraments do but by the Church’s prayer, they prepare us to receive grace and dispose us to cooperate with it. 

THE ABUSE AND CRITICISMS OF SACRAMENTAL

Intriguingly, faced with the challenges of the 21^st century, the usage of sacramentals is tainted with irreligiousity and fashion-craziness. You will now see entertainer on TV screen wearing sacramentals not as what they are but as fashion-style. You will see them with their regular big dog chains and affixed to it are religious medals. Since the 21^st century has become an extended studio, young men and women, even Catholics are now copycats, de-sacramentalizing and desecrating and vandalizing the sacramentals. The story draws nearer to Armageddon with hawkers and especially the Moslems hawking supposed sacramentals at every corner of the street, as if they are artifacts and objects of beauty. I do not think however that we (Catholics) can do anything about this but we can do something about the disposition of those abusing them. We can do this by first having a change of heart; by showing a deep and rich appreciation of the sacramentals in the way we carry and use them. This is why Pope John Paul II in his Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte (No. 31) argues that; beholding the fact that negative influences of secularism, technology, science, and materialism continue to threaten the very existence of mankind, the time has come to rediscover the full practical significance of the Church's "universal call to holiness." The Holy Father asks, in Novo Millennio Ineunte "Can holiness ever be 'planned'? What might the word 'holiness' mean in the context of a pastoral plan"? Paul Kokoski, a renowned theologian responded that

In fact, the Catholic Church already provides the faithful with a wealth of ways to grow in holiness. Unfortunately, however, these treasures, sometimes called sacramentals, have been forgotten or even dismissed in recent years.

CATHOLICS AND YOUR UNIQUE WAY OF WORSHIP: A WRAPPING-UP NOTE

Catholics! Catholics!! Catholics!!! Your ways are different from ours, show us the light!

They say our ways are different from theirs and our belief quite dissimilar to theirs, we must be proud in what we belief in. If not for anything, believe because the Catholic Church is the church founded by Jesus Christ- the one true church of God. We have the fullness of salvation, the fullness of faith and it is to us that Jesus has revealed the truths of the Kingdom.

As members of St John the evangelist society, you must imitate your patron saint who is a theologian per excellence of the Holy Eucharist. You too must be advocates of the Eucharist- knights of our Eucharistic King. You must teach others about the prisoner of love who resides in the tabernacle always waiting for us to visit. You must also teach others about the meaning and use of sacramentals. You must teach all these by examples.    

Finally, the Eucharist is a foretaste of the Heavenly Banquet, a pledge of the life to come, the “Wedding Feast of the Lamb (Rev 19:9), And so, during Mass, the priest invites us to Holy Communion with the words “This is the Lamb of God; happy are those who are called to his supper”. Christ gives us His own body and blood in the Holy Eucharist: first, to be offered as a sacrifice commemorating and renewing for all time the sacrifice of the cross; second, to be received by the faithful in Holy Communion; third, to remain ever on our altars as the proof of His love for us, and to be worshipped by us. (Baltimore Catechism, Lesson 26).

Lecture delivered by Ibiyemi Victor on the 10^th of June, 2012.

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[i] Thomas O'Brian, An Advanced Catechism Of Catholic Faith And Practice (Michigan: Kessinger Publishers, 2005), p. 151

[ii] Russell Shaw (ed.), Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopaedia of Catholic Doctrine (Huntington: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, 1997), p. 593

[iii] E. Caparros, M. Theriault and J. Thorn (eds.), Code of Canon Law (Montreal: Wilson & Lafleur Limited, 1993), p. 732