The Most Blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ

While on the subejct of salvation and the sacramental economy, I here publish the Joint Orthodox-Old Catholic Theological Commission Statement on the Holy Eucharist, 3 October 1985, a brilliant summation of catholic eucharistic doctrine and praxis. I particularly love the references to the Damascene and Nicea II, which teach that the Blessed Sacrament is not an icon of Christ because It is Christ Himself, His true Body and Blood...

1. The sacrament of Holy Eucharist is the focal point of the entire life of the Church. In this sacrament Christ is present in reality and essence: He offers himself in a bloodless way and shares himself with the faithful in an ever new and real representation of his bloody sacrifice on the cross offered once and for all. So the Eucharist is at the same time sacrament and real sacrifice. In this sacrament the faithful receive the Body and Blood of Christ and by it are united with him and through him with one another and take part in the power of his work of salvation that has its climax in his sacrifice on the cross and in his resurrection.

2. The Lord himself instituted the Eucharist. Before the Passover during the meal, the Lord took bread, gave thanks, broke it and gave it to the disciples saying: 'This is my body.' And he took the cup, gave thanks and gave it to them saying: 'Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood, the blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in remembrance of me' (Saint Matthew 26.26-29; Saint Mark 14.22-25; Saint Luke 22.14-23; 1 Corinthians 11.23-25).

3. In bread and wine, which are consecrated and changed in the Eu­charist, the Lord himself is really and truly present in a supernatural way and imparts himself to the faithful. Bread and wine are, after the consecration, the Body and Blood of Christ and not mere symbols of his body and blood. 'The bread and the wine are not images of the Body and Blood of the Lord - certainly not! - but the deified Body of the Lord himself; the Lord himself said: "This is not the image of my body but 'my body' and not the image of my blood, but 'my blood'"'. (Saint John of Damascus, Orthodox Faith 86). According to the proclam­ation of the Seventh Ecumenical Synod 'neither the Lord nor the Apostles and Fathers have called the bloodless sacrifice offered by the priest an image, but the Body and the Blood themselves ... before the consecra­tion they were called images, after the consecration they are called, in an actual sense, Body and Blood of Christ; this is what they are and believed to be'.

4. The Eucharist represents the whole work of the divine economy in Christ that has its climax in his sacrifice on the cross and in his re­surrection. The eucharistic sacrifice stands in direct relationship to the sacrifice on the cross. The sacrifice of Calvary is certainly not repeatable. It happened once and for all (Hebrews 7.27). But the Eucharist is much more than a symbolic image or an image that reminds us of that sacrifice. It is the same sacrifice celebrated sacramentally. It is cele­brated as a commemoration of the Lord ('Do this in remembrance of me') and is not a mere, but a true and real commemoration and re­presentation of Christ's sacrifice. Before us are the Body and Blood of the Lord themselves. 'That sacrifice we now also offer, namely the one once offered, the inexhaustible one. This happens to commemo­rate that which once happened; for he says "Do this in remembrance of me". Not an ever different sacrifice as the Jewish high priest of those times, but we always offer the same one; or rather we effect a memorial of the sacrifice' (Saint John Chrysostom, Homily 17.3 in Hebrews). 'And as we commemorate his suffering in all our celebrations of the sacrifice - for the suffering of the Lord is the sacrifice that we offer - we may not do anything else than what he has done' (Saint Cyprian of Carthage, Epistle 63.17).

5. The priest officiating at each Eucharist is the Lord himself. 'You are the one who offers and is offered, who accepts and is imparted, Christ, our God' (Prayer of the Cherubic Hymn). 'He is the priest; it is he himself who offers, and he himself is the offered gift" (Saint Augus­tine, City of God 10.20; Saint Ambrose of Milan, enarr. 25 in Psalm 38; 9/38). The whole eucharistic community, clergy and people, has an organic part in the performance of the eucharistic celebration. The liturgists of the sacra­ment are bishop and priest. The practice of the Church and the canons forbid deacons 'to offer' (First Ecumenical Synod, Canon 18).

6. According to apostolic tradition and practice, leavened bread is used in the Eucharist. The use of unleavened bread in the West is a la­ter practice. In addition wine is used - 'the fruit of the vine' (Saint Mark 14. 25) - that from ancient times is mixed with water (Saint Irenaeus of Ly­ons, Against Heresies 5.2.3; Saint Cyprian of Carthage, Epistle 63).

7. The consecration of bread and wine in the Eucharist takes place through the entire eucharistic prayer. The words of the Lord 'Take, eat... drink ye all of it' in the eucharistic prayer, which has a consecratory character as a whole, do not themselves effect the transforma­tion of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. The transformation is effected by the Holy Spirit whose descending is be­ing prayed for in the epiclesis.

8. After appropriate preparation all believers take part in the Eu­charist; for who does not take part at the table of the Lord does not take part in the life in Christ: 'unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you' (Saint John 6.53). Accord­ing to the practice of the Church prevailing since ancient times not even infants and much less children are kept away from the Eucharist. Only the unbaptized, heretics, those separated from the Church and those restrained by Church discipline for any reason are excluded from the partaking of the sacrament (Saint John of Damascus, Orthodox Faith 86). The faithful communicate under both kinds as was the case at the Last Supper.

9. In the Eucharist the faithful are united with their Lord and with one another by the communion in his Body and Blood and together form one body. 'Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread' (1 Corinthians 10.17). 'Because we partake in the one bread, we all become one body of Christ and one blood and members amongst each other and are thus united with Christ in one body' (Saint John of Damascus, Orthodox Faith 86). In union with Christ, the believer is filled with grace and with all spiri­tual gifts and blessings that union with Christ involves. He makes pro­gress in spiritual life, grows in perfection and thus has the hope of re­surrection to eternal life and the full participation in the glorious and blessed Kingdom of Christ.