#30 The Eucharist as a Renewal of the New Covenant in Christ. Understanding the Mass and Its Parts.

I continue to explore the meanings in the Consecration before moving on to other aspects of the Mass. Today I look at the whole concept of "Covenant" found in the Old Testament an continued in the New. I examine this to help us appreciate the meaning of the words of Jesus found in the Consecration of the wine in the Eucharistic Prayer:

 

The Priest (Taking up the Chalice of wine) says:

 

"TAKE THIS, ALL OF YOU, AND DRINK FROM IT,

FOR THIS IS THE CHALICE OF MY BLOOD,

"THE BLOOD OF THE NEW AND ETERNAL COVENANT,

WHICH WILL BE POURED OUT FOR YOU AND FOR MANY

FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS.

"DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME."

 

In the Scriptures a covenant establishes a relationship which is deeply committed, faithful and loyal. It is similar to one party becoming related to another. Marriage is a type of Covenant. The word "Covenant" literally means "a coming together."

 

In the Middle Eastern culture of Biblical times , a king could establish a covenant between himself and his people. So it is for God and his people, but it is a relationship that is not legalistic but deeply personal. It sets up promises and obligations between God and God’s People.

 

Biblical studies mention what is sometimes called "The Classic Covenant Formula." It is expressed in any statement (explicit or implied) where God establishes his Covenant by saying: "I shall be your God and you shall be my People." For example, in the Book of Leviticus 26:12: "I will walk among you; I will be your God, and you will be my people."

 

In the case of the Book of Leviticus, God is saying this to the People of Israel, delivered from the slavery of Egypt through Moses. God establishes Israel and his Covenant with them on Mt. Sinai.

 

 

Signs would be given when a covenant was made: usually something involving blood. This was to signify that the covenant made the two parties like family, "the same blood" as we would say today. So we read in the Book of Exodus 24:6-8:

 

"And Moses took half of the blood [of sacrificed oxen] and put it in basins,

and half of the blood he threw against the altar [which represents God].

Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people.

And they said, "All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient."

And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said,

"Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you

in accordance with all these words."

 

"Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up,

and they saw the God of Israel. ...And God did not lay his hand

on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank."

 

Note that the Sinai Covenant was ratified with blood and that there was also a "covenant meal" where the elders ate in the Presence of God. Sharing a meal together was a sign of being ‘family." So Israel is the family of God.

 

 

Throughout time, the People of Israel did not always keep the Covenant. They did not act as God’s People. They would either fall into idolatry or into injustice, not treating each other as God’s People. So God makes a further promise to his People through the Prophet Jeremiah 31:31-34:

 

"The days are surely coming, says the Lord,

when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors

when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt

—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord.

"But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel

after those days, says the Lord:

I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts;

and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord’,

for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord;

for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more."

Now let’s see what happens with the New Covenant that Jesus brings us. It’s actually a renewal of "the Old Covenant." Jesus came to initiate us into a Covenant relationship with God. We are to be in the deepest kind of personal and communal relationship with God, to be his People and he our God.

 

For the Israelites the "mark of the Covenant" was circumcision, a type of initiation into the People of God by all Jewish males. In the New Covenant, we are Baptized (which "marks" our soul), an initiation into Christ and his Body the Church. It is an inclusive sign of the Covenant, for men and women alike.

 

The Eucharist is our "Covenant Meal," the renewal of our Covenant in Baptism. We eat and drink together as the family of God. We are baptized only once; the renewal is in participating in the Mass continuously, each Sunday.

 

 

This new Covenant is established particularly in the "Blood of Christ." This is a Covenant "for the forgiveness of sins," as the words of Consecration over the wine proclaim. It was sin with its disobedience that made the Israelites break the Covenant in the past. So Christ came to deliver us from the slavery of sin and empower us to live that "New Covenant" spoken of through the Prophet Jeremiah. A Covenant ‘written on our hearts,’ now in our souls.

 

The words of Consecration over the wine remind us of the "Blood of the Covenant," used in the Sinai Covenant to symbolize the deep and familial relationship of God with the People. It also reminds us of Jeremiah’s promise of "the New Covenant." So at the Consecration we hear:

 

TAKE THIS, ALL OF YOU, AND DRINK FROM IT,

FOR THIS IS THE CHALICE OF MY BLOOD,

THE BLOOD OF THE NEW AND ETERNAL COVENANT,

WHICH WILL BE POURED OUT FOR YOU AND FOR MANY

FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS.

 

When we hear these words spoken by the Priest, representing Christ, we can recall all that the Covenant means. We have been made God’s People, his own beloved children and family. We are to love him and obey him and live in the forgiveness of sins. We can always claim our Covenant relationship with God, and live as his People in this world.

 

As 2 Corinthians 6:16 says: "For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

 

(For an extensive treatment about the Covenant see this citation "Lesson One: The Master Key that Unlocks the Bible " HERE)

 

Next Week: The Eucharist as the Christian Passover.

 

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# 28 The Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Understanding the Mass and Its Parts.

It is the Glorified and Risen Christ
in the Eucharist

Last week I wrote about the Epiclesis (calling upon the Holy Spirit) and the Consecration of the bread and wine in the Eucharist. I wrote:

 

"The ancient understanding of the Mass is that the Risen and Glorified Christ is Really Present in the worship under the appearances of bread and wine that have been duly consecrated. There is a wondrous transformation of the ordinary bread and wine where the Risen Christ becomes present in a way he was not before the Consecration."

 

I also noted the teaching of the Catechism (#1333): "At the heart of the Eucharistic celebration are the bread and wine that, by the words of Christ and the invocation of the Holy Spirit, become Christ's Body and Blood." (#1333)

 

The sacramental presence of the Crucified and Risen Christ through the bread and wine after the Consecration is called his Real Presence. By this we mean it is not a symbolic presence only, or psychological (in our mind only), or an imagined presence, or present only spiritually, if by spiritually we wrongly mean "only figuratively, or ‘not quite really.’"

 

The Catholic Church teaches and believes that the Risen Christ is really and entirely present under the appearances of consecrated bread and wine: "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.’" (CCC#1374)

 

Over the centuries, many in the Church have tried to explain how it is that the bread and wine are changed to become really the Body and Blood of Christ. The Church has favored an explanation called "transubstantiation" ( a change, trans-, of substance). The term "substance" is used in a very philosophical way, meaning "essence," what a thing is (esse). One can see the challenge of saying the bread and wine are the Body and Blood of Christ when after the Consecration bread and wine are still there on the Altar.

 

But according to the idea of transubstantiation the appearances of the bread and wine, that is, the physical properties of bread and wine, do remain after the Consecration, but the very essence or reality of the bread and wine are replaced (changed) by the essence and reality of the Crucified and Risen Christ. The Eucharist is the only time such a thing happens, and ultimately, this is a mystery.

 

 

To say that Christ is also bodily present under the appearances of the Consecrated bread and wine has to also be understood carefully. It is the Risen and glorified Christ who is Really Present. In other words, his is not a physical reality like that in time and space here on earth (or throughout the universe). Some have proposed the word "transphysical" to describe the Risen Body and Blood of Christ (For an extensive reflection of mine on this go HERE). The Body of Christ "is present in the eucharist not in the usual, natural, visible, local ways bodies are normally present, but rather in a spiritual, non-visible, substantial and sacramental manner." (Nathan Mitchell, Real Presence, p.100).

 

So what we see and taste in the Consecrated bread and wine are the physical properties of bread and wine, but the true reality we receive is not bread and wine but the Crucified and Risen Body and Blood of Christ. Also, we do not receive only part of Jesus in the Eucharist. We receive the whole Christ, his whole reality, "body and blood, soul and divinity."

 

In the ritual practice of the Mass, it is only after the bread is Consecrated that the Priest shows the Host for adoration and genuflects, not to bread which would be absurd, but to Christ Really Present, and the same for the Consecrated wine. The elements which we now call the Body and Blood of Christ must be handled with the greatest care and reverence and will be given as Communion in the Mass. Some of the Consecrated bread will be reserved in the Tabernacle for the Sick and we genuflect whenever we pass by the Tabernacle. Thus we express our belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

 

Next Week: The Four actions mentioned in the Consecration.

 

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#27 The Epiclesis and the Consecration. Understanding the Mass and Its Parts.

 

Jesus instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper

The ancient understanding of the Mass is that the Risen and Glorified Christ is Really Present in the worship under the appearances of bread and wine that have been duly consecrated. There is a wondrous transformation of the ordinary bread and wine where the Risen Christ becomes present in a way he was not before the Consecration.

Thus Christ, through the ministry of the ordained Priest, truly offers his Body and Blood (his entire self) in his One eternal Sacrifice, sacramentally through the Consecrated Bread and Wine.

How is the bread and wine transformed through the ministry of the ordained Priest for the benefit of all who offer themselves with Christ in the Eucharist? The Catechism teaches that "At the heart of the Eucharistic celebration are the bread and wine that, by the words of Christ and the invocation of the Holy Spirit, become Christ's Body and Blood." (#1333)

The ordained Priest, by virtue of his ordination, is given a permanent role to represent Christ the High Priest and the Head of the Church (the supreme expression of this role is that of the Bishop). The Priest through his ordination is invested with a "sacred power" (an authority and service) to consecrate the bread and wine in the Eucharist to become Christ’s Body and Blood.

However, this "power" is accomplished by the Holy Spirit and the words of Christ which he spoke at the last Supper ("...this is my Body...this is my Blood...").

 

I. The Epiclesis

After the Sanctus is sung (and in the United States the Assembly kneels) there are a few words that serve as a transition to the Epiclesis. Epiclesis is a Greek word meaning "to call upon or from above," thus "to invoke," in this case the Holy Spirit. The Priest extends his hands over the bread and wine to be consecrated. This signifies the coming of the Holy Spirit by whose power Christ the High Priest will transform the bread and wine.

This gesture of the Bishop or Priest extending hands over some thing or person is a type of "laying on of hands" whereby the Holy Spirit comes to act upon that thing or to act in that person. Thus there is an epiclesis also in Confirmation, in Ordination, and in the Anointing of the Sick and in the Sacrament of Reconciliation when one goes "face to face" with the minister.

With the Eucharistic Epiclesis the Priest also makes the Sign of the Cross over the bread and wine when it is indicated. Thus in Eucharistic Prayer III the Priest prays:

"Therefore, O Lord, we humbly implore you: by the same Spirit graciously make holy these gifts we have brought to you for consecration, that they may become the Body and + Blood of your Son our Lord Jesus Christ at whose command we celebrate these mysteries."

We should remember a principle stated in the Catechism: "When the Father sends his Word, he always sends his Breath." (#689). The Word is Christ Jesus and the Breath is the Holy Spirit (note the play on words: the breath carries the spoken word, so the Spirit brings Christ and Christ comes with the Spirit). We are accustomed to believe that we receive Christ in the Eucharist; we also receive the Holy Spirit anew in the same Eucharist.

II. The Consecration

The act of Consecration signifies a dedication and a making holy. The words of Jesus spoken at his last Supper are given in a "Eucharistic version" and repeated by the Priest over the bread and the wine. Since it was at the Last Supper that Jesus instituted (i.e. established) the Eucharist to be done in his memory, this moment of the Mass is also called "the Institution Narrative."

The function of the Consecration as discussed earlier is to bring about the transformation of the bread and wine to become the Risen Body and Blood of Christ in the manner of a sacrament. But these words also tell God why we are doing what we are doing in the Eucharist. In the course of telling God we are also being reminded of why we do what we do.

There is always some short introduction to the words of Consecration. Thus in Eucharistic prayer III the Priest says:

"For on the night he was betrayed he himself took bread, and giving you thanks he said the blessing, broke the bread and gave it to his disciples, saying:..."

As the priest is saying the introduction, he takes the bread (a Host, from Latin for sacrifice or that which is sacrificed) in his hands and then when saying the words of Consecration he bows slightly (in reverence) and says:

"...TAKE THIS, ALL OF YOU, AND EAT OF IT: FOR THIS IS MY BODY WHICH WILL BE GIVEN UP FOR YOU."

The Priest elevates the Host slightly above the altar so that those present may adore Christ Really Present." Then putting the Host back on the altar, he makes a sign of reverence by genuflecting (going down on one knee and then rising back up). The People are already kneeling after the Sanctus.

Then he introduces the Chalice filled with wine. Again in Eucharistic Prayer III:

 "In a similar way, when supper was ended, he took the chalice, and giving you thanks he said the blessing, and gave the chalice to his disciples, saying..."

The Priest takes up the Chalice of wine while saying this and then again bowing slightly says:

"TAKE THIS, ALL OF YOU, AND DRINK FROM IT: FOR THIS IS THE CHALICE OF MY BLOOD, THE BLOOD OF THE NEW AND ETERNAL COVENANT; WHICH WILL BE POURED OUT FOR YOU AND FOR MANY FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS. DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME."

He lifts the Chalice slightly above the altar so that the People may adore Christ. The Priest genuflects after showing the Chalice.

III. Who is Addressed in the Consecration?

 

We must remember who is being addressed in this Institution Narrative. It is God the Father who is being addressed. Some Priests will take the bread and while they are saying the introduction to the Consecration they show the bread from right to left or left to right to the Assembly, obviously saying the words to the Assembly. The words "gave it to his disciples" is being used to include those in the pews, as the Priest says these words to them.

First, there is nothing in the guidelines of the Mass which says "At the Consecration, address the Assembly and show them the bread (or Chalice) while doing this." If the Assembly is being addressed in this introduction, then the words "and when he was giving you thanks" would mean he thanked his disciples! Then is the Consecration also addressed to the Assembly? If the Priest follows the guideline to bow at these words, then at least that mistaken possibility is avoided (no eye contact with the Assembly).

Instead, the Priest is addressing God in the Institution Narrative. He relates how Jesus gave God thanks and what he did with the bread and wine. We are telling God what God already knows! But this is the way we are to pray. Let me expand what is done in this way:

As the priest takes the bead  it is as if he is saying: "Father, we do this Eucharist because, as you know, on the night Jesus was betrayed he took bread and thanked you and blessed it and broke it and said, ‘...TAKE THIS, ALL OF YOU, AND EAT OF IT: FOR THIS IS MY BODY WHICH WILL BE GIVEN UP FOR YOU.’"

The Priest prays a similar meaning with the Chalice, only adding "[Jesus said:] Do this in memory of me. And so we are doing this in his memory, Father."

Of course, as we tell God these things, we also are remembering it ourselves. The Eucharistic Prayer, as one revered liturgist said, is"both prayer and proclamation."

In the following weeks I want to explore some matters connected to the Epiclesis and Consecration, such as the teaching on the Real Presence of Christ in the Mass, the four actions of the Eucharist (take, give thanks/bless, break/give and eat/drink), the Paschal Mystery, and how the word "Memory" is used in the Consecration.

Next Week: The Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

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