Christ’s sacramental presence in the eucharist

Abstract

"The Eucharist is God’s fundamental gift to the church—as a body and in each of its members—whereby we come to know over and again ourselves as sharing, through the power of the Holy Spirit, in the very life and mission of Christ Jesus. To reflect theologically on the church’s traditional practice of the Eucharist is to delve into mystery, indeed, the mystery at the heart of Christian faith and the life of the church. The word mystery here is not meant to hinder believers’ use of reason and imagination as they seek a greater appreciation and joy in celebrating the Eucharist. On the contrary, to speak of the Eucharist as mystery is a promising invitation to engage Scripture and tradition, faith and intellect. Indeed, mystery was the preferred term of the earliest Christians for referring to not only the Eucharist and baptism but all the concrete ways in which they experienced God entering into and shaping their lives in Christ. While Orthodox Christianity never lost the language of mystery for the sacraments (at least in practice1), popularized scholastic metaphysical theologies in the West contributed to losing the biblical heart of sacramental tradition and, in the Reformation, the unity of the church. In wholeheartedly embracing the theology of paschal mystery borne of the Liturgical Movement, the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Liturgy proved a genuine source of reform and renewal for not only Roman Catholicism but also Anglican and Protestant communions as well. The present essay seeks to build on that momentum by turning to Scripture (especially John’s Gospel) and tradition (particularly pneumatology) to articulate a theology of Christ’s sacramental presence in the Eucharist"