4B Religious identity through diversity in Eucharist

Question 1

What is the most important sacrament?

Answer 1

• The Eucharist

Question 2

What is the English translation of the Greek, ‘Eucharist’?

Answer 2

• Thanksgiving

Question 3

What are four other names for the Eucharist?

Answer 3

• Mass
• Holy Communion
• Lord’s Supper
• Divine Liturgy

Question 4

Rather than ‘doing’ or ‘carrying out’ the Eucharist, what do Christians do?

Answer 4

• ‘Celebrate’ the Eucharist

Question 5

What did Jesus say regarding the bread?

Answer 5

• “This is my body”

Question 6

What did Jesus say regarding the wine?

Answer 6

• “This is my blood”

Question 7

Give the quote from 1 Corinthians 11:26.

Answer 7

• “For as long as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes”

Question 8

What does the Eucharist provide to the soul?

Answer 8

• Spiritual sustenance

Question 9

What is the Eucharist? (seven points)

Answer 9

• The physical re-enactment of Jesus’ last supper
• A meal which has the real presence of Jesus
• A source of grace to which all believers are invited
• A memorial of Jesus’ last hours on earth
• A celebration of Jesus’ resurrection
• A symbolic reminder of God’s love for humankind
• A fellowship or ‘communion’ of Christians

Question 10

What are the three Roman Catholic understandings of the Eucharist?

Answer 10

• Transubstantiation (approved)
• Transfiguration (condemned)
• Transfinalisation (condemned)

Question 11

What is transubstantiation?

Answer 11

• ‘Transformation of the substance’

* When consecrated by an ordaned priest, the bread and wine are changed into the actual body and blood of Christ

Question 12

When was the term ‘transubstantiation’ coined and by whom?

Answer 12

• 11th C.

* Hildebert de Lavardin

Question 13

Who reaffirmed transubstantiation?

Answer 13

• The 1551 Council of Trent

* “wonderful and singular conversion”

Question 14

What do the Orthodox church believe in?

Answer 14

• ‘transelementation’ or ‘re-ordination’
• Similar to transubstantiation
• The change = a ‘divine mystery’
• They consume ‘mysteriously’

Question 15

Who put forward the idea of transignification?

Answer 15

• Edward Schillebeeckx

Question 16

What is transignification?

Answer 16

• When consecrated, the bread and wine take on the real significance of Christ’s body/blood, but are not chemically changed
∴ sacramentally, not physically present

Question 17

What two concepts related to psychological reality does transignification draw upon?

Answer 17

• ‘Signifier’ and ‘signified’: signifier = the substance of the bread/wine; signified = substance of body/blood
• ‘Local’ and ‘personal’ presence: Jesus = personally, not locally present

Question 18

Who put forward the idea of transfinalisation?

Answer 18

• Karl Rahner

Question 19

What is transfinalisation?

Answer 19

• The purpose/finality have changed but not the substance
• They do not become to body/blood but serve the function of conjuring up the faith in the mystery of J’s redemptive love

Question 20

What did Pope Paul VI say about transignification and transfinalisation in his 1965, Mysterium Fidei?

Answer 20

• “the spread of these and similar opinions does great harm to belief in and devotion to the Eucharist”

Question 21

What are the three Protestant understandings of the Eucharist?

Answer 21

• Consubstantiation
• Memorialism
• Virtualism

Question 22

Who put forward the idea of consubstantiation and why?

Answer 22

• Late 16th C. Protestant reformers

* To challenge the RC understanding of transubstantiation

Question 23

What is consubstantiation?

Answer 23

• The bread/wine do not actually change into the body/blood when consecrated; they remain as bread/wine but J = spiritually present “with them and under them”
∴ bread/wine co-exist with body/blood

Question 24

What is the relationship between Martin Luther and consubstantiation?

Answer 24

• The term = erroneously employed to designate the view of the Eucharist held by Martin Luther, but it was never used by him + rejected by Lutheran churches as unbiblical

Question 25

What was Luther’s term for the Eucharist and when was the doctrine set out?

Answer 25

• “sacramental union”; asserted the “real presence” of Jesus in the bread/wine
• Lutheran Augsburg Confession of 1530

Question 26

What does ‘trans’ mean and how is this relevant to transubstantiation?

Answer 26

• ‘across’/’over’

* In t.sub., there is a literal change over in the bread/wine

Question 27

What does ‘con’ mean and how is this relevant to consubstantiation?

Answer 27

• ‘with’

* In c.sub., J co-exists with the bread/wine

Question 28

Who is memorialism associated with?

Answer 28

• Huldrych Zwingli

Question 29

What is memorialism?

Answer 29

• The real presence of J in Eucharist = denied
• The bread/wine do not communicate him to the recipient; they are symbolic representations of his body/blood
• Luke 22:19 = “Do this in remembrance/memory [anamnesis] of me”
• A commemorative ceremony
• J = present in sacrament only to the degree that each individual brings him to mind

Question 30

Who put forward the idea of virtualism?

Answer 30

• John Calvin

Question 31

What is virtualism?

Answer 31

• Related to predestination
• J’s body cannot be present in Eucharist as his body has ascended
• But, does not deny the presence of J’s unique power (Latin: ‘virtus’) in the bread/wine
• This power = only received by the elect

Question 32

What is virtualism also known as?

Answer 32

• receptionism