HOLY

EUCHARIST
Source and Summit of the Christian Life
Why is the Holy Eucharist the Source and
Summit of the Christian Life?
HOLY EUCHARIST
Sacraments 101(How we receive)
Sacraments 201(What we believe)
Biblical Foundations
Form and Matter
Recipient and Minister
Effects
Communication Under Both or One Kinds
Trans-substantiation
BIBLICAL FOUNDATIONS
Holy Eucharist
 Is considered “Source and summit of the Christian
life” among all the sacraments.
 Is the efficacious sign and sublime cause of the
communion in the divine life and that unity of the
People of God by which the Church is kept in being.
 Is the culmination both of God’s action sanctifying the
world in Christ and of the worship of men offer to
Christ and through him to the Father in the Holy
Spirit.
BIBLICAL FOUNDATIONS

As believers , we confess that Jesus is our

Lord and Savior who saved us all from sin
through his liberating love that culminated
in his passion, death and resurrection.
But such life-changing event and salvific
offering of Jesus has remained and will
continue to reach all ages…
BIBLICAL FOUNDATIONS

…as we faithfully receive Him in person

and commit into memory his act of
redemption in the celebration of bread and
wine, the HOLY EUCHARIST.
BIBLICAL FOUNDATIONS
New Testament Passages
◦ Matthew 26:28-28
 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and giving it to the disciples said, “Take and eat; this
is my body.” Then he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to
them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood
of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the
forgiveness of sins.”
◦ Mark 14:22-24
 While they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them and said, “Take it; this is my
body.” Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and they all drank
from it. He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant,
which will be shed for many.”
BIBLICAL FOUNDATIONS
◦ Luke 22:17-20
 Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and said, “Take this and share it
among yourselves; for I tell you [that] from this time on I shall not drink
of the fruit of the vine until the Kingdom of God comes.” Then he took
the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This
is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me.”

◦ 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
 For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the
Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over , took bread, and,
after he had given thanks, broke it and said, “This is my body that is for
you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way also the cup, after
supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as
often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat
this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he
comes.”
BIBLICAL FOUNDATIONS
Pertaining to the institution of the Holy Eucharist by
Jesus Christ by Jesus, the Catechism of the Catholic
Church elaborates:
 The Lord, having loved those who were his own, loved them to the
end. Knowing that the hour had come to leave this world and return to
the Father, in the course of a meal he washed their feet and gave them
the commandment of love. In order to leave them a pledge of this love,
in order never to depart from his own and to make them sharers in his
Passover, he instituted the Eucharist as the memorial of his death and
Resurrection, and commanded his apostles to celebrate it until his
return; “thereby he constituted them priests of the New Testament.”
• Thus, we can truly be certain that Jesus deliberately
instituted the Holy Eucharist.
• But it would be in vain without Jesus’ disciples and
followers preparing and partaking the Eucharist.
BIBLICAL FOUNDATIONS
The Gospel of Luke explicitly indicates the
necessity:
◦ Invitation: “Take this and share it among
yourselves.”
 The Lord addresses an invitation to us, urging us to
receive him in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist:
“Truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of
man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”
◦ Response:
 We humble ourselves before God with contrite and
repentant hearts, as we say, “Lord, I am not worthy to
receive you but only say the word and I shall be healed.”
BIBLICAL FOUNDATIONS
The Holy Eucharist unites us to:
1. Jesus Christ
2. One another in the sacred communion of bread
and wine
• And in view of this end,
 “the Church obliges the faithful to take part in the Divine
Liturgy on Sundays and feast days” and prepared by the
Sacrament of Reconciliation, to receive the Eucharist at least
once a year, if possible during the Easter season. But the
Church strongly encourages the faithful to receive the
Eucharist on Sundays and feast days, or more often still, even
daily.”
FORM AND MATTER

Matter: Bread and Wine

◦ The bread must be wheaten only, and recently made, so that there is no
danger of corruption.
◦ The wine must be natural, made from grapes of the vine, and not corrupt.
Form: Prayer of Consecration
◦ FOR THE BREAD:
 “Take this, all of you, and eat it: this is my body which will be given up for
you.”
◦ FOR THE WINE:
 “Take this all of you, and drink from it: this is the cup of my blood,
 the blood of the new and everlasting covenant.
 It will be shed for you and for all men
 so that sins may be forgiven.
 Do this in memory of me.”
RECEPIENT AND MINISTER

RECEPIENT
The Code of Canon Law 912
◦ Article on the Precipitation in the Most Holy Eucharist
 “any baptized person who is not forbidden by law may and
must be admitted to Holy Communion.”
 The Code of Canon Law 913
◦ Emphasizes the necessity of catechetical and spiritual
preparation of children:
 For Holy Communion to be administered to children, it is
required that they have sufficient knowledge and be accurately
prepared, so that according to their capacity they understand
what the mystery of Christ means, and are able to receive the
Body of the Body of the Lord with faith and devotion.
RECEPIENT AND MINISTER

MINISTER
Ordinary ministers
◦ “only validly ordained priests can preside at the
Eucharist and consecrate the bread and wine so that
they become the Body and Blood of the Lord.”
Lay ministers
◦ Allowed by the Catholic Church to distribute the
Holy Eucharist to the faithful, as long as proper
“formation and instruction of the lay ministers, and
rite of commissioning by the Local Ordinary (or by
the priest) are satisfied.”
EFFECTS
CFC 494-95
1. Union with Christ
 The first effect of receiving Holy Communion
worthily is to “unite us with Christ” (cf. CCC
1391). “The man who feeds on my flesh and
drinks on my blood remains in me and I in him”
(Jn. 6:56). This communion with Christ brings us
true life.
EFFECTS
2. Liberating from Sin
 A second effect of Holy Communion is to “separate us from
sin,” since we receive Christ whose life-giving blood was
“poured out in behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins”
(Mt. 26:28; cf. CCC 1393).
 This communion in the risen Christ “gives life through the
Holy Spirit” restores our physical energies, so the Eucharist
is a “remedy to free us from our daily faults and to preserve
us from mortal life” (Council of Trent, ND 1515;| cf. CCC
1395). It strengthens our life of loving service, weakened
by our disordered desires, self-centered attitudes, and sins.
 PCP II states simply that the “Eucharist is the primary
source of renewal and the center of community” (PCP II
457)
EFFECTS
3. Reconciliation
 To reconcile and be reconciled is a major effect of the Holy
Spirit as the “sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of
charity” (SC 47; cf. CCC 1394, 1398).
 Without displacing in the least the Sacrament of
Reconciliation, the Eucharist thus constitutes the ordinary
means of the Lord, uniting us in the sharing of food and
drink in a sacred meal hosted by Christ Himself.
 The Eucharist thus “educates us in active labor for
neighbor. [For] if Christ offers himself equally to each one,
it shows us what value each person, our brother and sister,
has in God’s eyes. It makes us grow in awareness of the
dignity of each person…[and] becomes the deepest motive
of our relationship with our neighbor” (DC 6).
COMMUNION UNDER ONE OR
BOTH KINDS

If Christ is truly present under both species of

bread and wine, why do we only receive the sacred
bread during the Communion? Does it diminish
our reception of Christ and lessen the efficacy of
the sacrament of the Eucharist?
COMMUNION UNDER ONE OR
BOTH KINDS

Wilfredo C. Paguio answers the questions in his citations

of the Code of Canon Law, and related official church
documents:
 Canon 925:
◦ Holy Communion is to be given under the species of bread alone
or, in accordance with liturgical laws, under both species or, in
case of necessity, under species of wine alone.
 The General Instruction of the Roman Missal 242
◦ Reasons for Communion with Both Kinds – The reason for
Communion in both kinds is the more perfect significance it
carries as a sign.
COMMUNION UNDER ONE OR
BOTH KINDS
 Bread Alone

◦ Theological Reason
 The dogmatic definition of the presence of the entire Christ in each
of the sacramental species (Trent, Sess. XXII)
◦ Practical Reasons
 To avoid the danger of spilling the sanguis; for hygienic reasons
against drinking the same chalice.
 Wine Alone
◦ In 1983 Code: There should be a case of need for administering
Communion under the form of wine alone. This is demonstrated
whenever a person is physically or psychologically unable – whether
permanently or temporarily – to consume the Eucharistic bread.
TRANS-SUBSTANTATION
In the Eucharist, then, the bread and wine as
food and drink take on a new, deeply personal
meaning and purpose: Christ’s personal-giving
presence for our salvation…This simply means
that by the power of the Holy Spirit, the earthly
substance of bread and wine is changed into a
reality of a different level: the glorified Body
and Blood of Jesus Christ, crucified, risen.

CFC,498