The Eucharist Vs. Greek Orthodox Church

Communion is the liturgical act celebrated by Christians in honor of Jesus Christ’s death. Through bread and wine, members of the church reenact Jesus’ last supper, remember his sacrificial death, anticipate their reunion in Heaven, and reconfirm their unity with other members of the church. Communion is a central unit of worship in almost all Christian churches, but communion has been a source of conflict among Christians. The Eucharist can vary in tradition among the many denominations of Christianity. Because I attended the Catholic Church and Greek Orthodox Church, I will be focusing on one difference and two similarities between them. Both of these branches of Christianity do not agree on what the bread and wine actually represent or mean.
Both churches understand the presence of Jesus Christ, so they say “This is my body. This is my blood,” however, the phrases have different meanings to each of them. In the Catholic Church, they teach transubstantiation, which means that they believe that the bread and wine are changed into the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ through the act of consecration (Bass 1999). The Catholic Church attempts to explain the Eucharist in an intellectual way, while focusing on transubstantiation. The Orthodox Church refers to the communion as a mystery and tries to avoid the reasoning behind what the body and blood truly represents. They believe that there is an actual change in the bread and wine that justifies those words, but that change is a mystery that does not need to be analyzed or explained. They instead teach that the bread and wine become Christ’s body and blood and participation in the mystery is central to Christian holiness (Hellwig 2005). They insist on “real presence” in the Eucharist. The Orthodox church believes that Jesus Christ is presented in a mysterious way that resists final definitions. Both the Orthodox Church and Catholic church agree that the Eucharist is a renewed offering by Jesus Christ, but like before, the Catholic Church attempts of explain this, while the Orthodox Church tolerates a variety of
Because the bread and wine are cherished, only priests, ministers, or other trained people are ordained or licensed to serve communion. John Calvin was a pastor who taught the subject of communion. He rejected both the Catholic Church’s and Greek Orthodoxy’s idea of what the bread and wine represented. Calvin believed the Jesus Christ’s body remained in Heaven during the communion while his spirit manifested in the Eucharist to those who received in faith. He treated communion very seriously, and because of this, he insisted that the communion only be served the trained parishioners or ordained ministers. It is possible that early members of the Greek Orthodox Church and Catholic Church had similar views, thus creating this standard of having priests and minister perform the