Corpus Christi Essays On The Church And The Eucharist

He is a priest “forever” in the fullest sense, for he never dies.

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7), I suddenly realized that the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist was and is the constant belief of the Church from apostolic times to the present day: They have no regard for love, no care for the widow, or the orphan, or the oppressed; of the bond, or of the free; of the hungry, or of the thirsty.

They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again.

In this recitation of the Eucharistic “Institution Narrative” by St.

Paul (which most closely resembles Luke of all the Gospels), we see the first three in this verbal sequence: “take,” “give thanks” (Gk eucharisteo), and “break.”Twelve baskets full are picked up afterwards, which (1) foreshadows the care for every particle of the Eucharist that later will be manifest by the Church, and (2) denotes by the number twelve the fullness of the tribes of Israel.

(2) But does this happen when any Christian, at any time, prays over bread?

Does every Christian have the power and authority to make bread into the true Body of the Lord?

Jewish tradition held that Melchizedek was none other than Shem, son of Noah, based on the fact that Shem lived into the lifespan of Abraham, and who else would be qualified to invoke a blessing upon Abraham.

The text, however, connects the bread and wine to Melchizedek's priesthood and the conferral of the blessing, so it would be better to understand the bread and wine as liturgical offerings (i.e. This does not exclude a practical use for the refreshment of those present, because liturgical offerings in the ancient world were often consumed by the worshipers as part of the ritual.

Surely that would be ridiculous, and lead to abuses of all kinds: persons confecting the Eucharist in sacrilegious ways, and treating the Eucharistic Lord without proper reverence.(6) Therefore, the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist inevitably requires that there be a class of persons marked out from among the ranks of believers who are set aside and entrusted with the authority to celebrate the Eucharist at the proper times.

This line of reasoning could surely be stated better and more succinctly by others, but I hope I have made it somewhat clear why a Real Presence doctrine of the Eucharist, in which the bread and wine are truly transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ, requires a new covenant priesthood.