ON Nov. 8 BISHOP DAVID M. O’CONNELL, C.M., issued the fourth installment in his five-part catechetical series on the Eucharist.
An excerpt follows: At the Last Supper, on the night when He was betrayed, our Savior instituted the eucharistic sacrifice of His Body and Blood. He did this in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout the centuries until He should come again, and so to entrust to His beloved spouse, the Church, a memorial of His death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a paschal banquet in which Christ is eaten, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us (art. 47).
Here we see major “Eucharistic themes” that had accompanied – not changed – the development of the Catholic Church’s Eucharistic doctrine throughout much of its history: Eucharist as the “sacrifice” of the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, continuing the sacrifice of his Cross; Eucharist as” sacrament” of love; Eucharist as “bond of unity and charity;” Eucharist as “paschal meal;” echoing the prayer of St. Thomas Aquinas, Eucharist as pledge of future glory.
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