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From the Associate&
Life Giving Bread and Saving Cup
This time of the year is transitional, with eighth grade and high school graduations, kids looking to begin summer employment, families heading up to the cabin on weekends, or planning a summer adventure camping trip. There are many new "beginnings" in life, which often follow a grief or loss of what has been. There is, of course, that constant, namely God Who is always with us on our pilgrimage through this world. Today's feast, Corpus Christi (meaning, The Body of Christ) is a sign of His abiding presence. It is a tangible way by which Jesus fulfills His promise to us recorded in the last verse of Matthew's Gospel 28:20, "And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." How beautiful it is, this gift of receiving Jesus so powerfully in the Blessed Sacrament.
Recently several individuals have asked me the difference between the Lutheran and Catholic understandings of the Eucharist. Before responding to that question here, it should be noted that while Catholics and Orthodox believe in seven Sacraments, most Protestant denominations do not believe in Sacraments at all. Martin Luther (1483-1546) (and hence all Lutherans), however, while separating himself from the Catholic Church, argued for the validity of only two Sacraments: baptism and Eucharist. So for Lutherans, while confirmation and marriage are religious activities, they do not carry the weight of a Sacrament: defined by Catholics as "An outward sign, instituted by Christ, to give grace." What is the difference between Lutherans and Catholics with regard to the Eucharist?
Catholics speak of Transubstantiation, whereas Lutherans define the Eucharist in terms of Consubstantiation. Transubstantiation can be described in this way. While certain attributes of bread and wine remain, e.g., whiteness and roundness for bread, effervescence and redness for wine, the "substance" of what one might call "breadness" or "wineness" has been "trans"-formed into the "substance" of the "bodiness" and "bloodness" of Jesus Christ. So it is not really bread and wine at all anymore, even though attributes of bread and wine remain. For Lutherans, the "substance" of "breadness" and "wineness" remains, just as the "substance" of "bodiness" and "bloodness" of Jesus are added to it (hence, "con"-substantiation, which means "with" in Latin). Furthermore, for Lutherans, the Body and Blood of Jesus is only such when received by the Christian in faith. Thus, when the congregation is finished receiving communion, the bread and wine return to what they were originally: simply bread and wine. Catholics, however, believe the elements are still the body and blood of Jesus even after Mass, which is why we have Tabernacles (small houses if you will), where the Eucharist is reserved for the sick or homebound who could not attend Mass, and for adoration. Significant for Catholics also, is the fact that an ordained priest or bishop must be present to confect the Eucharist through prayer. It is really Jesus Who is offering and miraculously transforming the bread and wine. The priest stands in persona Christi, or in the person of Christ. Thank you Jesus for the gift of your very body and blood!
Fr. Michael Becker
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