Real Presence: Eucharist

The Eucharistic Presence also known as the communion and the Last Supper is a significant part of the Christian religion . The Protestants believe that the communion is merely for the remembrance and the thanksgiving of Jesus’s sacrifice for the people. However the Roman Catholics and the Orthodox believe that the ritual is a physical union, becoming one with Jesus by partaking in the eating of the body and bread. Jesus spoke “My flesh is true food, my blood is true drink,”(John 6:55) when the disciples were gathered for the Last Supper before Jesus died on the cross. The intention of Jesus’s saying was not of a metaphor but to be accepted literally which is done so by the Catholic church. The Eucharist is a sacrament of the last supper. It involves sacred elements that go through transubstantiation, a change in the substance, essence. This theological concept can be referred to as a Real Presence, in which the bread and wine changes its substance into body and blood along with the soul and divinity of Jesus. The concept of Real Presence was opposed during the reformation period of 1500 when there was a division within the church. Before the concept of transubstantiation was officially codified, the term was already assumed and accepted in the literal sense. The oppositions and the divisions in the church lead the church into forming an Ecumenical council in Trent and the Vatican Council of 1962 where Episcopal powers aimed to defend and reinforce the belief in Real Presence. The Eucharist as the Real Presence of Christ can be seen through the Eucharistic dogma provided by the the Council of Trent, Vatican II. Certain excerpts from scripture can be used to display the consistency of belief in the Eucharist as the literal blood and body of Jesus Christ. John Macquarrie in “Paths in Spirituality” consist of concepts of temporal, spatial, and personal presence can be used to support the dogma of Eucharist as Real Presence. The Eucharist involves a theological

Citations: - Pope Paul VI, Encyclical Mysterium Fidei. 1965, St. Paul Books and Media, Boston, MA. p. 354. - Foster, Paul. 2006. "Jesus, The Real Presence of God (John 6:35, 41-51)." Expository Times 117, no. 10: 416-417. - Macquarrie, John. Paths in Spirituality. New York: Harper & Row, 1972. p. 83-93 -------------------------------------------- [ 1 ]. Pope Paul VI, Encyclical Mysterium Fidei. 1965, St. Paul Books and Media, Boston, MA. p. 354. [ 3 ]. Macquarrie, John. Paths in Spirituality. New York: Harper & Row, 1972. p 84 [ 4 ] [ 5 ]. Macquarrie, John. Paths in Spirituality. New York: Harper & Row, 1972. p 84 [ 6 ] [ 7 ]. Foster, Paul. 2006. "Jesus, The Real Presence of God (John 6:35, 41-51)." Expository Times 117, no. 10: 416-417.