EUCHARIST

also called Holy Communion, or Lord's Supper a Christian sacrament commemorating the action of Jesus at his Last Supper with his disciples, when he gave them bread saying, This is my body, and wine saying, This is my blood. The story of the institution of the Eucharist by Jesus on the night before his Crucifixion is reported in four books of the New Testament (Matt. 26:2628; Mark 14:2224; Luke 22:1720; and I Cor. 11:2325). The letters of Paul and the Acts of the Apostles make it clear that early Christianity believed that this institution included a mandate to continue the celebration as an anticipation in this life of the joys of the banquet that was to come in the Kingdom of God. The Eucharist has formed a central rite of Christian worship. However, although the Eucharist is intended as a symbol of the unity of the church and as a means of fostering that unity, it has been a source of disunity and contention as well. All Christians would agree that it is a memorial action in which, by eating bread and drinking wine (or, for some Protestants, grape juice), the church recalls what Jesus Christ was, said, and did; they would also agree that participation in the Eucharist enhances and deepens the communion of believers not only with Christ but also with one another. The breaking of the bread and the pouring of the wine are recognized by every Christian denomination as the central symbols of the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross. Most Christian traditions teach that Jesus is present in the Eucharist in some special way, though they disagree about the mode, the locus, and the time of that presence. In short, there is more of a consensus among Christians about the meaning of the Eucharist than would appear from the confessional debates over the sacramental presence, the effects of the Eucharist, and the proper auspices under which it may be celebrated. According to the eucharistic doctrine of Roman Catholicism, the elements of bread and wine are transubstantiated into the body and blood of Christ; i.e., their whole substance is converted into the whole substance of the body and blood, although the outward appearances of the elements, their accidents, remain. Such practices as the adoration and reservation of the Host follow from this doctrine that the whole Christ is really present in his body and blood in the forms of bread and wine. During the 19th and 20th centuries the Roman Catholic Liturgical Movement put new emphasis on the frequency of communion, on the participation of the entire congregation in the priestly service, and on the Real Presence of Christ in the church as the fundamental presupposition for the Real Presence in the Eucharist. The eucharistic beliefs and practices of Eastern Orthodoxy have much in common with those of Roman Catholicism, differing principally in the area of piety and liturgy rather than doctrine. The major difference includes the use of leavened rather than of unleavened bread. While Roman Catholic theology maintains that the recitation of the words of institution constitutes the Eucharist as a sacrament, Eastern theology has taught that the invocation of the Holy Spirit upon the elements (Greek epiklesis) is part of the essential form of the Eucharist. Among other Western Christians, those that adhere most closely to the traditions of Catholic eucharistic doctrine and practice are the Anglicans and the Lutherans. Early Anglican theology vigorously opposed Roman Catholic teaching on the sacraments, but, from the beginning of and, especially, since the 19th century, Anglican liturgical practice has retained much of the Catholic tradition. In the 16th century, Lutheranism unequivocally affirmed the Real Presence of the body and blood of Christ in, with, and under the bread and wine and emphasized that the reason for the Eucharist is the remission of sins. In their liturgies both Anglicanism and Lutheranism worked within the framework of the mass, adopting certain elements and rejecting others; the liturgical movements in both traditions during the 19th and 20th centuries restored additional elements, even though the theological interpretation of the Lord's Supper continued to display great variety. In Reformed Christianity, Huldrych Zwingli emphasized the memorial aspect of the Eucharist. John Calvin, however, taught a real but spiritual presence of the living Christ, but in the sacramental action rather than in the elements. In other traditions within Protestantism the sacraments have become ordinances, not channels of grace but expressions of faith and obedience of the Christian community. Among Baptists the practice of close communion has restricted the ordinance to those who are baptized properly; i.e., as adults upon a profession of faith. The Society of Friends (Quakers) dropped the use of the Eucharist altogether in its reaction against formalism. As a result of these variations in both doctrine and practice, the Eucharist has been a central issue in the discussions and deliberations of the ecumenical movement.