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While surfing I once came across a quote I believe was from St. Augustine regarding the Eucharist. I tried but just cannot recall the site. It was a beautiful quote, which my memory will butcher, and went something like this: In the Eucharist He who is all knowing gave us all that he knew to give, He who is all loving gave us all that he had to give. To Catholics, the Eucharist is the central act of worship. Which is as it should be. Prayer, reading scripture, and preaching are all important. But the Eucharist is the only thing by which Christ said he was to be remembered. Here's my view on the Eucharist. It is not a mere memorial or re-enactment of the Last Supper. It is the Last Supper! Picture a long table, extending from the Upper Room of Christ and the Apostles and extending through time and space to the present time. At this table, the whole Church through the ages sits gathered with Christ and the Apostles at the same Last Supper. In the Eucharist, we are not at a different event each Sunday than was Christ and the Apostles. The Apostles, in the Upper Room with Christ, do not sit at something more than us, while we sit at something less. It is, literally, the same event, with Christ at the head of the table. Nor are there many different Eucharists. There is only one Eucharist, only one table, extending through time and space. Furthermore, whatever Christ did with the bread and wine at the Last Supper he does today in the Eucharist. You may argue whether or not Christ's words "this is my body; this is my blood" should be taken literally as to the real presence. But nobody, I think, can doubt that Christ has the power to so transform the bread and wine, if he wishes. The analogy of the long table extending through time and space helps answer the charge of the Eucharist being a re-crucifying of Christ. In the Eucharist, I picture the cross as still standing through time and space, in a sense, not taken down. It is as if the cross, with Christ still on it, is plucked out of the ground, transported through time and space, and planted in your parish Church each Sunday. I have never understood the charge of the Mass being a re-crucifying or re-sacrifice of Christ. It is the same sacrifice. Now, you may not believe the Eucharist to be the very same Last Supper or picture it as Christ still hanging on the cross. But you will have to admit that if it were true, it is a damnable condemnation for everyone who stays home Sundays for football. Finally, after the above, I obviously do not buy the notion that the Eucharist, a sacrament, is somehow a less direct way to worship, be with or experience God. Look at it this way. Suppose a Catholic and Protestant could both go back in time with their Bibles to the Last Supper. The Catholic would go inside the Upper Room to celebrate the Eucharist with Christ and the Apostles. The Protestant would be content to wait out in the hallway and read about it in the Bible. And that's a shame.
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