"The Real Presence"
Pilgrimsarbour reminds me in his comment on a recent post that a lot of my writing (and podcasting now) seems to come back to the Eucharist. Come to think of it, he's right!
Susie from ReCon had a nice post about the term Real Presence. Dwight Longenecker, the author of the piece warns that real presence originally came from an Anglican source and does not convey the Catholic belief that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist, body, soul and divinity.
What struck me in the article was that the Eucharistic doctrine of Catholicism continues the very important incarnation, God's intrusion into our world. From the very beginning of Christianity, Jesus birth, life, death and resurrection informs the world that God is here with us in a very real sense and continues to use the material world to bring his grace.
The Eucharist is not a novel concept but continues to promote the incarnational aspect of Christianity. The same God that has the power to come to earth as a man, continues to come to us in the appearances of bread and wine yet is truly the substance of Jesus; body, soul and divinity. Yes, it definitely takes faith to accept this.
Thomas Aquinas, said this :
"I answer that, The presence of Christ's true body and blood in this sacrament cannot be detected by sense, nor understanding, but by faith alone, which rests upon Divine authority. Hence, on Lk. 22:19: "This is My body which shall be delivered up for you," Cyril says: "Doubt not whether this be true; but take rather the Saviour's words with faith; for since He is the Truth, He lieth not."
Susie from ReCon had a nice post about the term Real Presence. Dwight Longenecker, the author of the piece warns that real presence originally came from an Anglican source and does not convey the Catholic belief that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist, body, soul and divinity.
What struck me in the article was that the Eucharistic doctrine of Catholicism continues the very important incarnation, God's intrusion into our world. From the very beginning of Christianity, Jesus birth, life, death and resurrection informs the world that God is here with us in a very real sense and continues to use the material world to bring his grace.
The Eucharist is not a novel concept but continues to promote the incarnational aspect of Christianity. The same God that has the power to come to earth as a man, continues to come to us in the appearances of bread and wine yet is truly the substance of Jesus; body, soul and divinity. Yes, it definitely takes faith to accept this.
Thomas Aquinas, said this :
"I answer that, The presence of Christ's true body and blood in this sacrament cannot be detected by sense, nor understanding, but by faith alone, which rests upon Divine authority. Hence, on Lk. 22:19: "This is My body which shall be delivered up for you," Cyril says: "Doubt not whether this be true; but take rather the Saviour's words with faith; for since He is the Truth, He lieth not."
posted by Russ Rentler, M.D. | 3:34 PM
Tiber Jumper wrote in part...
"The same God that has the power to come to earth as a man, continues to come to us in the appearances of bread and wine yet is truly the substance of Jesus; body, soul and divinity. Yes, it definitely takes faith to accept this."
I comment...
Well said, Tiber! You remind me of a conversation I had some thirty years ago with a very good Calvinist friend. He considered me to be some sort of anomaly: a "Christian Catholic;" whereas I described myself as a "Catholic Christian" which I considered no more anomalous than "Reformed Christian" or "Evangelical Christian."
Though he accepted my Christianity as genuine, he was dismayed by my persistent belief in transubstantiation. "Do you honestly believe," he would ask me, "that Almighty God could change store-bought bread and store-bought wine into Himself?" (I don't know why he felt "store-bought" somehow made the notion even less believable.)
My reply was , "Do *you* honestly believe that Almighty God could not?"
With humble prayers,
--Theo