The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum

=> Re: My goodness...

Re: My goodness...
Posted by St. Me (Guest) - Sunday, October 17 2004, 3:41:03 (CEST)
from 4.42.18.169 - lsanca1-ar51-4-42-018-169.lsanca1.dsl-verizon.net Network - Windows XP - Internet Explorer
Website:
Website title:

The Holy Eucharist

It can doubtlessly be said that the central sacrament of the Church
is Holy Eucharist. It is the sacrament of sacraments. It was
established by Christ Himself: "When it was evening," Jesus "took
bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and
said, `Take, eat; this is My body, broken on behalf of all for the
forgiveness of sins,' and "He took the cup, and when He had given
thanks He gave it to them, saying, `Drink of it, all of you; for this
is My blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for many for the
forgiveness of sins.'" Christ added, "Do this in remembrance of Me"
(Matthew, 26:20-9; Mark, 14:17-25; Luke, 22:14-38; John, 6:27-69; 1
Corinthians, 11:23-26).

From these words of Christ we see that the Holy Eucharist is truly
the body and blood of Christ. It is not a symbol. It is truly the
body and truly the blood of Christ. Christ did not say that "this
symbolizes My body" and "this symbolizes My blood." He said, "this is
My body" and "this is My blood." Of course, even after the
celebration of the Holy Eucharist, all we see with our human eyes is
bread and wine. Even the taste on our tongues is that of bread and
wine. In reality and in essence, though, that which we see and that
which we taste is truly the body and blood of Christ. How does this
happen? How does this change occur? No one can say. It is done in a
mysterious way with the intervention of the Holy Spirit. As the
celebrant says: "And make this bread the precious Body of Your
Christ, and that which is in this cup the precious Blood of Your
Christ."

Therefore, from the above words of Christ we see that this sacrament
was established by Christ "for the forgiveness of sins." The main
purpose of the sacrament then is the forgiveness of man's sins. Along
with the forgiveness, though, come the sanctification and glory,
eternal life. This is why when the celebrant gives Holy Communion, he
says to each person: "the Body and Blood of Christ, for the
forgiveness of your sins and life eternal."

Even from the words of Christ it appears that this sacrament of Holy
Eucharist is preeminently the sealing of the New Covenant between God
and man. It is the testament of reconciliation and friendship.

Beyond the above statements, the very words of Christ reveal that
this sacrament has to be repeated "in remembrance" of Christ, of His
incarnation, sacrifice on the cross, burial, resurrection, and of His
ascension into Heaven to be seated at the right hand of the Father,
and His second glorious coming.

In other places in Holy Scripture, Christ has assured us that His
Body is "truly food" and His Blood is "truly drink." Moreover, this
is shown by the fearsome saying that "whoever does not eat My body
and does not drink My blood, has no life in him." This proves that
the Holy Eucharist is the spiritual nourishment of man. Just as man
cannot live without natural nourishment, so neither can he live
without spiritual nourishment--the body and blood of Christ--without
Holy Eucharist. Christ makes this very clear. He says that "unless
you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you have no
life in you; he who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal
life" (John, 6:53-54).

Holy Eucharist unites man with God. It deifies him. Since man unites
with God, he also unites with other people. St. Paul says
that "because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for
we all partake of the One Bread" (1 Corinthians, 10:17). This
unifying of the people among themselves into one body is like the
unity of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit.

We could say that the fruits of Holy Eucharist are the following:
forgiveness of sins, cleansing, sanctification, justification, unity
with God and with each other, spirituality, eternal life, glory,
theosis.

In order for man to have all the fruits and benefits of the Holy
Eucharist, he needs first to partake of it often. How often? Every
time he attends the Divine Liturgy; and secondly, he needs
to "approach with the fear of God, faith, and with love." In other
words, to approach worthily, with reverence and faith in God, and
with total love towards God and man.

Holy Eucharist is celebrated in the Church, but it can be celebrated
in an open space or anywhere for that matter in times of necessity.
It can be celebrated once per day. It is performed during the Divine
Liturgy. Bread and wine are offered. This bread and wine are
sanctified and, though they are physical substances, through the
intervention of the Holy Spirit they are transformed into spiritual
things--into the body and blood of Christ. God created, out of
nothing, the visible (physical) and invisible (spiritual) world. From
physical things--bread and wine--He makes the body and blood of
Christ.



---------------------


The full topic:



Content-length: 5810
Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Accept: image/gif, image/x-xbitmap, image/jpeg, image/pjpeg, application/x-shockwave-flash, application/vnd.ms-excel, applicatio...
Accept-encoding: gzip, deflate
Accept-language: en-us
Cache-control: no-cache
Connection: Keep-Alive
Cookie: *hidded*
Host: www.insideassyria.com
Referer: http://www.insideassyria.com/rkvsf3/rkvsf_core.php?Re_My_goodness-8Cpv.JLsw.REPLY
User-agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)



Powered by RedKernel V.S. Forum 1.2.b9