Eucharist

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HolyCommunion?, LordsSupper?, Mass?, blah blah blah. So.
(proper definition would be useful at this point)

Is it that important? Some denominations do it every day, some a few times a year, some not at all. Are any of these bad? How much is it to do with symbolism, how much metaphor, how much remembrance, and how much is it something real?

: It's what distinguishes a Mass from a prayer meeting with a sing-song and a guest speaker. --Requiem

: PeterTaylor objects to the implication that remembrance is fake.

Eucharist as updated Passover

This is the main way in which PeterTaylor understands the Eucharist. When Jesus instituted the Eucharist, He did so at the Passover meal. The bread broken wasn't any bread, but matzot. (I believe that Passover wine was special as well, but I don't have any reference to back that up; certainly, however, the wine was an integral part of the meal rather than an arbitrary accompaniment). The instructions regarding future celebration of the Eucharist were "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me." (NIV: Lk 22: 19). Previously the disciples would have celebrated the Passover in remembrance of the exodus from Egypt: now they were to celebrate it in remembrance of the deliverance for which that was the type. (For those few who care, I think I would argue that the Eucharist as instituted was a reinterpretation of the Passover meal rather than an antitype thereof. The biggest objection I anticipate is that Paul's teaching on the Eucharist appears already to have dropped most of the Passover meal: am I therefore claiming that Paul got it wrong? I'm not: ISTM (although I haven't done any Patristic research to see whether there are discussions of the history of the Eucharist) that it was simplified for the Gentile believers. In the same way that they weren't required to observe New Moon festivals, etc., they weren't required to celebrate the full Passover.)

: Ah! That would explain the line I've always had trouble with - "Do this, as often as you eat it, in memory of me." (My italics). --Requiem

CategoryChristian OP=ChiarkPerson