Share Your Catholic Faith: Eucharist-Faith

The Seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church

The Mass: Liturgical Parts and Purposes

Why Can’t I Go to Communion?

http://calvin2catholic.com/?p=348

What lies beneath this question is an often unstated assumption about the meaning of the Church and the sacraments.

when the Catholic Church says, “No, we’re sorry, you can’t come to communion,” the Protestant assumes we are writing him off completely, that we are denying he is really a Christian.

fathers of the Second Vatican Council repeatedly affirmed that elements of truth and sanctification are found among non-Catholic Christians, and that their communities “have been by no means deprived of significance and importance in the mystery of salvation. For the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as means of salvation.” (Unitatis redintegratio)

The problem, rather, is that Catholics do not share the Protestant conception of Church.

Christ founded one Church, in which there is but one faith and “one baptism.” (Ephesians 4:5, Ephesians 5:23, Matthew 16:18) When St. Paul writes on the Church, he insists on both doctrinal and liturgical uniformity. (1 Corinthians 1:10, 11:16)

n the confessional, likewise, the priest is a kind of icon of Christ as well as Christ’s minister. He is the visible representation of that authority: ” Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them.” (John 20:23) To receive these Sacraments is to say, “I believe the Church that offers me these sacraments.”

Catholic Church doesn’t say to Protestants, “you’re not a Christian,” but rather, “you’re missing something. You are missing that full, visible communion with Christ’s faithful to which we are all called.” (John 17:21)

When Protestants ask me about receiving Catholic sacraments, I usually ask them a question: Do you believe everything the Church teaches? Do you understand that taking the Eucharist is a pledge of your faith and obedience to the Catholic Church? If you do believe that, then why on earth aren’t you a Catholic? But if you don’t believe that, then why would you want to testify by your actions to a faith you reject? Once I put it in these terms they usually rethink their objections.

Sacrifice of the Mass

The 12 Mysteries of the Mass: http://taylormarshall.com/2014/07/theology-mass-thomas-aquinas.html

Mass with 2 Protestants and 1 Crucifix

SOURCE: http://www.catholicconvert.com/blog/2014/05/08/mass-with-2-protestants-and-a-crucifix/

A while ago we went to Mass with two Protestants. As we walked in the door — there it was, as big as life — a CRUCIFIX with the Body of Our Lord hanging over the altar.

I knew what the Protestants were thinking — I used to think the same – ”CATHOLICS ARE WRONG, JESUS IS NO LONGER ON THE CROSS, HE HAS RISEN FROM THE DEAD AND IS IN HEAVEN.” Of course they think Catholics are wrong to keep Jesus on the cross as though he had not risen and ascended into heaven.

Are they right? Well, YES and NO. Jesus DID rise and ascend into heaven and He IS glorified at the right hand of the Father and we are mystically seated there with him (1 Pet 3:22, Eph 2:6).

BUT the Catholic Church is ALSO correct to show Jesus on the Cross — not only to remind us of His suffering and death and to show what happens during the Mass — but because in a mystical way He IS STILL on the Cross.
God the Father sits on His throne in heaven. And what does God see from his throne every time he “opens his eyes”? He sees Jesus on the Cross! Really? Yeah, really!

Jesus is our Passover Lamb (1 Cor 5:7). In the Old Testament the lambs were slain on Passover to save the Israelites from death. The lamb was held over the altar, his neck was slashed with a knife and the blood was drained onto the altar.
This is why we have an altar in the Catholic Church! The altar represents the Cross (among other things). An Altar is where a Sacrifice takes place! Jesus was slain as our Passover Lamb to save us from eternal death and to appease the wrath of God. That sacrifice is re-presented at the Mass (see my talk Defending the Eucharist!).

Take a look at Revelation 5:5 and ask yourself — what John is telling us? It reads,

Between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain . . .“

Who IS the slain Lamb that is still standing? Jesus is the Lamb! Standing on a altar before the throne of God the Father is a Lamb still bearing the wounds of slaugher. Jesus is that Lamb and he still bears the wounds of His sacrifice. That is what God sees when He “opens his eyes” – Jesus the sacrifice — Jesus on the altar — Jesus on the Cross.

Charles Wesley, the great Methodist minister and hymn writer agrees. In his hymn “Arise, My Soul, Arise” in which he says the very same thing in very poetic terms.

“Arise, my soul, arise; shake off thy guilty fears; The bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears, Before the throne my surety stands, My name is written on His hands. He ever lives above, for me to intercede; His all redeeming love, His precious blood, to plead: His blood atoned for all our race, And sprinkles now the throne of grace.”

But wasn’t Jesus crucified once and for all, never to sacrificed for sins again? Yes, of course! In space and time Jesus was crucified once and for all in AD 30.

In God’s eyes — in eternity which is not limited by space and time — Jesus was crucified before the foundations of the world (see endnote 1) and in ”eternity future” He is still seen by the Father as a slain lamb on the alter in heaven, as the crucified Lord on the Cross. All salvation past, present and future is based on this one historical event.

In the Mass, Jesus is NOT re-crucified, but we partake in a mystical way in the re-presentation of the ONE ETERNAL SACRIFICE which is ever before the eyes of the Father (see Endnote 3).

I used to say “Jesus WAS our sacrifice. He cannot be crucified again on Catholic altars, so Catholics are wrong!” But the Bible says, Yes, he WAS our sacrifice, but he also IS our Sacrifice. Look at what John says in his first epistle:

“[Jesus] is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (RSV-Catholic Edition). The Protestant NIV renders this “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

The Greek word for IS (eimi) is in the present tense. Today, right now He IS our propitiation, our sacrifice. After His resurrection with His new spiritual body Jesus still has the wounds of his crucifixion (Jn 20:27). He has a body in heaven and still bears the wounds of the Sacrifice. He is presented before God as slain sacrifice — yet now alive.

So, what does God see when He “opens his eyes”? He sees Jesus on the Cross! If this is what God sees in heaven, then it is certainly proper for us to show Jesus on a Cross to remind us what he did for us — and to see what God sees every day and has from eternity. So Catholic are right after all. Suprise! Surprise!

By the way, once a Baptist said to me, “You are wrong, Jesus is no longer on the cross, He is in heaven.” It happend to be Christmas and I noticed they had a Manger Scene (creche) on their table. I said, “Why do you have Jesus in the manger? He is no longer in the manger — he is in heaven.
“And oh,” I said, “isn’t that a cute statue of Mary! I thought you Protestants considered statues to be idols? Why do you have a statue of Mary in your house?”
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Endnote 1: There are two ways to translate this verse, but either way it comes out making the point. The best Protestant translations of Revelation 13:8 read: “All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world” (NIV – New International Version). “All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (NKJV – New King James Version).

Endnote 3: Catechism paragraph 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.’ ‘And since 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 offered in an unbloody manner. . . this sacrifice is truly propitiatory’.”

Holy Eucharist

Thing that is being repeated is the celebration of Mass, not the Crucifixion

Source: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/jimmy-akin/are-we-re-crucifying-jesus-in-the-mass/

The Masses (the first one and contemporary ones) make present the sacrifice of the Cross in a special sense.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (quoting the Council of Trent): 1367 The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice: [1] The victim is one and the same: [2] the same [Priest] now offers through the ministry of priests, who then offered himself on the cross; [3] only the manner of offering is different.
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."
Christ offered himself on the Cross by the shedding of his blood (i.e., in a bloody manner) but today he offers himself without shedding his blood (i.e., in an unbloody manner).
the Mass, celebrated by the priest representing the person of Christ by virtue of the power received through the Sacrament of Orders, and offered by him in the name of Christ and the members of His Mystical Body, is the sacrifice of Calvary rendered sacramentally present on our altars.
the bread and wine consecrated by the Lord at the Last Supper were changed into His body and His blood which were to be offered for us on the cross, likewise the bread and wine consecrated by the priest [today ]are changed into the body and blood of Christ enthroned gloriously in heaven [CPG 24].
Jesus says "Do this," the "this" he is referring to is the act of: · Taking bread · Giving thanks/blessing it (the word here in Greek is eucharistesas–"gave thanks"–from which we get "Eucharist") · Distributing it In other words, he told them to say Mass.
in fulfilling Jesus’ command to "Do this" what the Catholic priests are doing is to saying Mass, just as Jesus did, not nailing him to a Cross.
the thing that is being repeated is the celebration of Mass, not the Crucifixion.
If Jesus didn’t have a problem with having the Last Supper pre-presenting what he would do on the Cross–and if he told us to keep doing it after the Crucifixion–then we should have no problem with the Mass re-presenting the sacrifice of the Cross

Understanding the Eucharist

	Understanding the Eucharist
	http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/44/Understanding_the_Mass__Part_I____Christ_s_Sacrifice.html

		The Mass (also called the Eucharist or the Divine Liturgy) has two main parts, the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist.

		Church teaching reiterates what Scripture states very clearly: there is no other sacrifice except the one offered by Jesus on Calvary.

		Mass, therefore, is not a repetition; it is a re-presentation of that sacrifice.

		He was a human being, so it was an act that took place in history and is therefore past. He is God, who is outside of time: past and future are always present to Him.

		His death and resurrection are eternal acts that can be made present by the power of the Spirit.

		power of Calvary — the sacrifice that takes away sins, heals, and transforms — becomes present and available to us.

		Resurrection, too, is made present every time the Eucharist is celebrated.

		Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice in order to bring us salvation and give us His Spirit.

		Pentecost is the fruit of the sacrifice of the Cross and the victory of the Resurrection.

		every Mass is a new Pentecost, a new opportunity to receive the Spirit afresh

		Mass is Christ’s sacrifice made present again. It’s not recalled, as if it had been absent or were merely a past event. It’s re-presented.

	Understanding the Mass, Part II
	http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/46/Understanding_the_Mass__Part_II____Our_Sacrifice.html

		the Eucharist is our sacrifice too. The New Testament calls us "priests," and priests are those who offer sacrifice.

		If there is only one sacrifice, then somehow our priesthood associates us with Christ’s act of self-offering to the Father.

		The Mass is also our sacrifice in that we join our own offerings to Christ’s.

		"Eucharist means first of all ‘thanksgiving

		In the Eucharistic Prayer, a long prayer of thanks to the Father uttered toward the middle of every Mass

		Animals were very precious to the Israelites, and only the best were considered worthy for offering to God. These unblemished, perfect, animals represented — even substituted for — the life of the person who offered them. Sacrificing them was a sign of the worshiper’s complete gift of self to the Lord

		The laity at Mass should not be silent spectators. Offering the Immaculate Victim [that is, Christ] not only through the hands of the priest but also together with him, they should learn to offer themselves

		In the Eucharist the Church enters into this total self-giving of Christ, and we individually attempt to enter into it as fully as possible. Merely to go through the motions of the Mass without this serious and complete gift of self would simply be hypocrisy

		Offering thanks to the Lord and giving our whole selves to the Father together with Christ is what the Eucharistic sacrifice is about.

		during the preparation of the gifts, we should be putting everything important to us on the altar. This includes our precious treasures of time, ambitions, desires, relationships, work accomplishments, family matters, trials, and temptations.

		Our offerings are added, then, to the personal sacrifice of Christ our head, giving us the privilege of sharing in His sacrifice to the Father. This is symbolized beautifully just before the consecration, when the priest mixes a small amount of water with the wine.

		The paltry sacrifice that is our life is like the water that is absorbed into the rich sacrifice of Christ, which is symbolized by the wine.

	Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Mass
	http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/47/Understanding_the_Mass__Part_III____Real_Presence_in_Priest_and_People.html

		the Church teaches that Christ is really present in the Eucharist

		People may arrive distracted and preoccupied, but as they enter that church they’re no longer just scattered individuals, but members of Christ’s body.

		At Mass we deepen our communion with the whole Church, as well as with the Lord. That’s what the sign of peace is about.

		The sign of peace is not so much intended as a opportunity for back-slapping fellowship as a sign that we hold nothing against anyone. It means we renounce all bitterness, resentment, and jealousy as we come as one body to receive the Lord together.

		Christ is present in our fellow worshipers at Mass, and what we do or don’t do to the least of them, we do or don’t do to Christ

		Christ is present at Mass in the person of the priest.

		Many of our priests are in fact inspiring in holiness and powerful in their preaching. Others are not. But the good news is that Christ’s presence doesn’t depend on the priest’s personal virtue.

		Christ makes Himself present through the charism that the priest has been given through ordination.

		Catholic priest wears vestments when he celebrates the Eucharist: it signifies that he’s acting in the person of Christ, not in his own person.

		Jesus is the only priest. Thomas Aquinas put it straightforwardly: “Only Christ is the true priest, the others being only his ministers”

		The ordained priest is an icon or image of Christ. Through him, Jesus makes His priesthood present in a very special way.

		Francis always thanked God for being able to receive the sacred Body and Blood from the hands of a priest, whether worthy or unworthy.

	Real Presence of the body and blood of Jesus Christ \| Transubstantiation
	http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/72/Understanding_the_Mass_Part_IV___His_Presence_in_Word_and_Sacrament.html

		the first part of the Mass centers on readings from scripture: one passage, a psalm response, sometimes another passage, and then a reading from one of the Gospels.

		Through the readings, the Lord wants to speak to us personally, cutting through all our defenses and penetrating to the depths of our hearts with a nourishing, challenging word leading us to conversion. This has happened time and time again in the Church’s history.

		The Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures just as she venerates the body of the Lord, since from the table of both the word of God and of the body of Christ she unceasingly receives and offers to the faithful the bread of life, especially in the sacred liturgy

		We read the Scriptures first because they build up our faith. Christ is present in them, preparing us to discern the Real Presence of His Body and Blood under the signs of bread and wine.

		In addition to the readings, the word of God comes to us through the prayers of Mass.

		Take the greeting that the priest usually gives us when he walks in: “May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” That’s a direct quote from St. Paul: 2 Corinthians 13:14.

		the Gloria that we pray on most Sundays: “Glory to God in the highest and peace to His people on earth.” That’s Luke 2:14.

		we sing “Holy, holy, holy, Lord, God of power and might.” That’s Isaiah 6:3

		What about “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world”? That’s what John the Baptist said (Jn 1:29)

		centurion who told the Lord he wasn’t worthy to welcome him under his roof (cf. Mt 8:8); we quote him every time we pray, “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you....”

		The final and most special way that the Lord is present in the Eucharist is in His Body and Blood, present to us under the signs of bread and wine.

		Jesus is God, and so He is omnipresent. But Jesus is man as well as God; His humanity can’t be present everywhere in the same way as His divinity.

		Jesus’ glorified humanity is at the right hand of the Father. In the Eucharist and only in the Eucharist, though, He makes His Body and Blood present to us in a totally real way.

		This is why the sacramental presence of Christ’s Body and Blood is so extraordinary.

		In all of the other sacraments Jesus gives us His grace, says St. Thomas Aquinas, while in the Eucharist, the “sacrament of sacraments,” He gives us His whole self, His divinity and His humanity.

		the transformation of bread and wine into Christ’s Body and Blood happens the same way Mary’s virginal conception did: through the power of the Word and the power of the Spirit.

		God spoke and the world was made out of nothing through the power of the Word and the Spirit.

		n the Eucharist, the One who said “let there be light” says “this is My Body” and “this is My Blood.” Through the power of the Spirit invoked upon the gifts, an awesome change takes place.

		In theology, though, substance means something that underlies what you can see and touch; it’s the unchanging essence of the thing that resides under its appearances.

		Transubstantiation, therefore, means that while everything looks the same on the surface, the underlying essence of a thing is changed.

		In the Eucharist, though, the underlying, invisible substance is transformed from bread and wine to Christ’s Body and Blood. Everything looks the same as before.

		in the Eucharist, Christ is as truly present in His Body, Blood, soul, and divinity as when He walked the roads of Galilee, healing and preaching.

	Understanding the Mass as a Meal
	http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/73/Understanding_the_Mass_Part_V___A_Meal_Like_No_Other.html

		The Eucharist is a meal. It’s the Lord’s Supper, as well as a holy sacrifice.

		Christ becomes present so that we can not only see Him under the appearances of bread and wine, but also receive Him into ourselves.

		The Our Father’s “give us this day our daily bread” is a petition for all our needs and necessities. The Fathers of the Church also understood it as a prayer for the spiritual nourishment we need on a daily basis — the Eucharist and the word of God.

		Jesus tells the crowd, “I am the bread of life,” presenting Himself as the bread “which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world”

		His words connect the Eucharist with the manna that God rained down from heaven to sustain the people of Israel on their Exodus journey.

		Bread, then, is the sign of our daily nourishment, both physical and spiritual.

		Wine is the blood of the grape, obtainable only by crushing the grape. It symbolizes the cup of suffering, the price Jesus paid for us so that we might be free.

		Wine also symbolizes the cup of joy. In both Old Testament and New Testament times, wine was associated with festivity and special celebrations.

		By evoking suffering, wine points back to Jesus’ death on the cross; by evoking joy, it points forward to the messianic banquet in heaven.

		symbol of wine — the blood of the grape that becomes the Blood of Jesus — is even richer in light of the Old Testament. There, blood is equated with life. It’s not seen as sustaining life; rather, for the Jew, blood is life, and it belongs to God alone.

		In the Eucharist, Jesus gives us a share in God’s divine life by giving us His own blood.

		What is this divine nature? Essentially, it’s the inner life of the Trinity: three Persons eternally pouring themselves out in self-giving love for each other. This is agape, or charity, and drinking Jesus’ Blood gives us an opportunity to share in it.

		In order for us to stay alive, every cell in our body needs to be bathed with the blood that nourishes, cleanses, and purifies our system. Similarly, taking the Blood of Christ in Communion will bring us to full spiritual vitality. It will strengthen and cleanse our entire being — spiritually and even physically, if it be God’s will.

		The One we take upon our lips and into our bodies in the Eucharist is the same Jesus who raised Lazarus and healed the man born blind.

		At Communion we receive Jesus, the risen Lord who will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.

		sharing a meal with someone is a way of expressing and deepening a relational bond. The Eucharist does this in a way no other meal can. We eat with God, He gives Himself as our food, and we’re transformed into Him. When we receive Him and consume Him under these signs of bread and wine, we become Him.

		We come forward, put our humble gifts on the altar — our little sacrifices, imperfect good works, our need and brokenness — and what do we get back in return? We receive the Lord’s own life, bursting with power to heal and transform us.

Share Your Catholic Faith

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The Wilderness Tabernacle, Herodian Temple and the Roman Catholic Mass

The Catholic Processional Cross and the Roman Standard

The Meaning of the Mass