The Resurrection & The Eucharist

The Resurrection & The Eucharist by Fr. Rodney Kissinger S.J. (Former Missouri Synod Lutheran) http://www.frksj.org/homily_ressurection_and_the_eucharist.htm There is an important connection between the Resurrection and the Eucharist. The Eucharist IS the Risen Jesus.

Therefore, the Eucharist makes the Resurrection present and active in our lives and enables us to experience the joy and the power of the Resurrection.  The Resurrection is the reason for the observance of Sunday instead of the Sabbath. According to the Gospel it was early in the morning on the first day of the week that the Risen Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene.

It was also on the evening of that first day of the week that the Risen Jesus appeared to the Apostles when Thomas was not present. Then a week later, on the first day of the week, he appeared again when Thomas was present.

So the Apostles began to celebrate the first day of the week, Sunday, as the beginning of the re-creation of the world just as they had celebrated the Sabbath as the end of the creation of the world. Originally the Liturgical Year was simply fifty-two Sundays, fifty-two celebrations of the Eucharist, fifty-two celebrations of the Resurrection. Today the Eucharist is still the principal way of celebrating the Resurrection and proclaiming the Mystery of Faith: “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.”

As we have seen the joy and the power of the Resurrection is not found in the empty tomb or in the witness of some one else it is found only in a personal encounter with the Risen Jesus. The Eucharist, the Risen Jesus, gives us an opportunity for this personal encounter. Will all who receive the Eucharist have a personal encounter with the Risen Jesus? Yes they will. Unfortunately, not all will recognize the Risen Jesus.   Mary Magdalene had a personal encounter with the Risen Jesus but did not recognize him. She thought it was the gardener. It was not until she recognized Jesus that she experienced the joy and the power of the Resurrection. The two disciples on the road to Emmaus had a personal encounter with the Risen Jesus and thought that it was a stranger. It was not until they recognized him in the “breaking of the bread” that they experienced the joy and the power of the Resurrection.

The Eucharist is also a pledge of our own resurrection. “I am the living bread come down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” The Eucharist tells us that in death life is changed not ended. It is not so much life after death but life through death. Death is the door to life. This takes away the fear of death and gives us consolation at the death of a loved one.

The Eucharist also continues the two fold effect of the Resurrection which is to confirm the faith of the Apostles and to create the Christian Community. These are two sides of the same coin. To believe is to belong. Community was an integral part of the life of the first Christians. They were of one mind and one heart. When the Apostles asked the Lord to teach them how to pray, he taught them the “OUR Father.” In the Creed we say, “WE believe.” It is a personal commitment made in the community of believers.

The Eucharist also confirms the faith of the recipient and is the principle of unity and community. Without the Christian Community we lose our roots and our identity and our ability to survive in our culture which is diametrically opposed to Christ.

Through the Eucharist the Risen Jesus continues his two fold mission of proclaiming the Good News and healing the sick. Every celebration of the Eucharist proclaims the Good News and heals the sick. The Liturgy of the Word proclaims the Good News and the Liturgy of the Eucharist heals the sick. If people were healed simply by touching the hem of His garment how much more healing must come from receiving His Body and Blood?

How ridiculous it is then when people ask, “Do I have an obligation to go to Mass on Sunday?” If obligation is going to determine whether or not you go to Mass forget the obligation. You have a greater problem than that. Your problem is faith, you don’t believe. You don’t believe that the Eucharist IS the Risen Christ.

You just don’t realize the connection between the Resurrection and the Eucharist.  In just a few moments we will receive the Eucharist and once again have an opportunity for a personal encounter with the Risen Jesus.

Let us ask for the faith to recognize him in the “breaking of the bread” so that we are able to say with Thomas, “My Lord and my God,” and in so doing experience the joy and the power of the Resurrection.

"But why even have a "secondary" or third or fourth, dedication to someone other than God? It totally confuses the issue."

Ah, now we're getting closer to the point, I think.

People rightly have all kinds of good dedications. It is not wrong to be dedicated to Adult Literacy, or to the well-being of one's marriage and family, or to honesty on the job, or Constitutional Government, or Bible-publishing.

But none of these secondary dedications should rival our primary dedication, which is to God. They should, rather, support that primary dedication.

It's a bit paradoxical. Jesus said (Luke 14:26)“If any man come to Me and hate not his father and mother, and wife and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple." But St. Paul said, "But if any does not provide for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." (1 Tim 5:8)

So there is a proper place for dedication to one's family, but the primary dedication is to Christ, which could (in an extreme situation) lead to turning one's back and leaving ("hating") everything else, including your family and including, even, your own life.

So it's a matter of proper order. To order all of one's loves and loyalties in the right way, with God at the top, everything else in some kind of proper descending order, and dedication to God pervading every part of it: this is true wisdom.

We all depend on the canon of the Bible, and we all can thank God for providing that the Church, through Sacred Tradition, would preserve it through the centuries.

Passing the scriptures from one generation to the next is not tradition...Besides, there are two lines of bibles that come down thru history...One Catholic and the other is not Catholic...

It would have been lost, as the vast majority of ancient manuscripts of all sorts were lost, unless it were handed on (which is what "tradition" means: to hand on, tra - ducere.)

But we also know that THAT tradition of passing along the written scriptures is not what the Catholic religion refers to when it speaks of Tradition...

The other very important parts of Sacred Tradition would be the first links of the Apostolic Succession,
the basic forms of the Apostolic Hierarchy,
the basic forms of the Seven Sacraments,
the basic form of the Sacred Liturgy, and
the teachings of the Magisterium which the contain and communicate the truths of faith and morals God intended to make known for mankind's salvation.

Naw...Lumping Catholic tradition with scripture and calling both Sacred Tradition is not at all accurate...

You call this "...none, nein, nada, zero, not one, zip, nil, zilch" when actually it's as plain as the nose on your face, and has not been shrouded in silence at all. There are libraries of scholarly books tracing the ancient origins of all these elements of Sacred Tradition.

And yet you can't provide a single one that goes back to the Apostles...(I don't believe the authors of the gospels counts as Catholic tradition)...

BlueDragon’s reference that Prof. Francis J. Beckwith reverted to Catholicism makes for a far stronger case of Catholic belief. He’s studied both sides of it and after all he was so well esteemed by his colleagues that he became president of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS), an association of 4,300 Protestant theologians. He was prepared to leave this prestigious pedestal and with humility go back to the truth.

You and others in your group try telling us that the Eucharist is not the true body and blood of Christ without realizing for a moment the sheer absurdity of this assertion. This counters FIFTEEN CENTURIES of belief by the very same early Church fathers who with their infallible authority pronounced their selection of the canonical texts as God’s word with their labors inspired by the Holy Spirit and under Petrine authority.

Indisputable confirmation of this belief has been canvassed on this thread many times over and was one was shared by saints and martyrs. You don’t split infallible authority in the light of Christ’s explicit command that upon establishing ONE Church, He will make certain that His ONE teaching will remain until the consummation of the world.

This infallible Petrine authority did not take flight with the arrival of Martin Luther.

Indeed no sooner did Protestantism began to question this infallibility, like a cancer cell it began dividing itself to the point that now mainline Protestant and Lutheran denomination ordain married gay and lesbian pastors based on “their” interpretation of Scripture. Look around and will you find thousands of Protestant sects and sub-sects rproviding us with “their” own interpretations of scripture from the Moonies to the Grahams to the Creflo Dollars.

That there is either only ONE truth based on infallible Petrine authority or you must absurdly admit to the fact that the church “you” have in mind is some amorphous group of followers holding different and conflicting views. In short, the Moonies, Grahams, Jim Jones will all have a claim to “their” truth!

To say that each such person can invoke the “Holy Spirit” not only contradicts fifteen centuries of unbroken Catholic teaching, beliefs, and practices, it flatly contradicts the command of Christ to “Go forth and TEACH…..” This is not a teaching on historical maters. It is as Benedict says of the Resurrection, an “ontological” matter. This is not about a dead man coming to life. It has to do with life everlasting in the “Living Bread” of the Eucharist.

If one makes room for parsing or accommodating differences in scriptural interpretation between the Moonies, the Grahams, the Jim Jones and the Jeremiah Wrights we have a contradiction in itself: several “truths.”

This is why America’s pre-eminent Lutheran theologian at the time, Rev. Richard Newhaus who upon converting to Catholicism said he found “the fullest expression of Christ in the Catholic Church.”

Apparently the folks here know more about scripture that their own former Lutheran theologians.

Boatbums having cut and pasted a random blogger’s comment on the Eucharist now invites us to dispute the blogger’s interpretations despite having assailed this before. And this is how serious discussion is to be conducted by one with a B.A. degree in Divinity?

Surely we can agree that if this Catholic belief and practice in the Eucharist were considered unsupportable, there would have been a major schism of seismic proportions during these fifteen centuries. But there is not a scintilla of such evidence. On the contrary, Catholics re-affirmed this belief with the Feast of Corpus Christ publicly celebrated on city streets around the world.

We continue to hear ealgone and CynicalBear doing what they do. Ignoring in-depth analyses and instead offering a random quote of scripture from here and there, or let loosing a tsunami of scriptural interpretations.

Here’s Cynical Bear in typical fashion. He quotes Luke “He who hears you, hears me; and he who rejects you, rejects me” and follows it up with “ So why do you reject what Paul wrote? You never prove that what you teach is what the apostles taught.”

It does not occur to Cynicalbear that Catholics turn this around on Protestants because it confirms that Christ wants us to hear and listen to ONE truth. Thus, Hillaire Belloc aptly noted in his book The Great Heresies that Protestantism “spawned a cluster of heresies.”

Seriously, is this the level of theology we are now dealing with? Apparently for fifteen centuries before Protestantism came along, the Catholic Church got it all wrong, and it was not only Catholic theologians, scholars, saints, and martys but even a stellar group of Protestant theologians who have decamped the Protestant falsity.

Finally, Iscool apparently has either not understood early Church practices and liturgies, nor has he taken the trouble to learn them. Instead, he invites us to weigh his opinion against the brilliant scholarly work of an Oxford-educated Protestant whose work informs the curriculum of theological departments even at Protestant colleges. So just for him, maybe it is worth repeating and reproducing the relevant texts of J.N.D. Kelly who writes.

“[W]here in practice was [the] apostolic testimony or tradition to be found? . . . The most obvious answer was that the apostles had committed it orally to the Church, where it had been handed down from generation to generation. . . . Unlike the alleged secret tradition of the Gnostics, it was entirely public and open, having been entrusted by the apostles to their successors, and by these in turn to those who followed them, and was visible in the Church for all who cared to look for it.” (“Early Christian Doctrines” p. 37.)

Without belief in the Eucharist, the Resurrection collapses into a mere historical story drained of all its meaning. One may as well flock to the beach for whatever goes under the name of “Easter Sunrise Services,” pack a picnic lunch, with dog in tow, sings hymns and do a kumbaya. This is a feel good exercise for sure, but where’s the “Living Bread”?

John 6: 53 “Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you.”

And just what kind of a "thanksgiving" sacrifice does a catholic offer that could possibly equal the cross??

O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever. Let Israel now say, that his mercy endureth for ever. Let the house of Aaron now say, that his mercy endureth for ever. Let them now that fear the Lord say, that his mercy endureth for ever. I called upon the Lord in distress: the Lord answered me, and set me in a large place. The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me? The Lord taketh my part with them that help me: therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. All nations compassed me about: but in the name of the Lord will I destroy them. They compassed me about; yea, they compassed me about: but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them. They compassed me about like bees: they are quenched as the fire of thorns: for in the name of the Lord I will destroy them. Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall: but the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and song, and is become my salvation. The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous: the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is exalted: the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death. Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord: This gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter. I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation. The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. This is the Lord's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord: O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity. Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord: we have blessed you out of the house of the Lord. God is the Lord, which hath shewed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar. Thou art my God, and I will praise thee: thou art my God, I will exalt thee. O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
Psalms, Catholic chapter one hundred eighteen, in its entirety,
as authorized, but not authored, by King James

The Apostle's Creed is not necessary for salvation.

Are you publicly denying the Apostles' Creed ?

I think you explained it quite well. The REAL issue I see going on here in this never-ending dialog is that some religionists want to make this about their "church's" authority over everything and they are bound by an oath to defend them else see the house of cards fall all around them. The Council of Trent made this a defining issue separating Rome from "Protestants" more than had ever been in the past. With their anathemas and excommunication threats, the leaders declared several doctrines as "settled" when they weren't then nor even afterward.

Asserting an authority that presumes to be ABOVE the very word of God instilled in them a heady sense of power that has not really settled anything dogmatically even to this day. That the observance of the Lord's Supper is a common and ongoing tradition of ALL Christians and Jesus' command to, "This do in remembrance of me.", is obeyed to this day, seems to be forgotten by some of the more vociferous posters. If the exact same process and surrounding points do not match up to theirs, they will proudly and smugly boast they are ineffectual and not "real". The Roman Catholic church has made of this remembrance a matter of a salvific imperative. IF you don't have a "valid" priest, IF you don't have the exact words of "consecration" spoken, IF you don't have the same order and gestures, IF you don't have the specifically made bread and wine, IF you don't all believe in it the way they do...the list goes on...then you aren't "doing" it right and God won't honor your actions. When the Eucharist (which meant Thanksgiving) was decided to be an actual expiatory act and had to follow a valid confession before ones currently committed sins were fully forgiven, the Catholic church placed herself smack dab in the middle between the Christian and God. Jesus was no longer the mediator, the priest was - IN HIS PLACE.

How I pray that the blinders come off and those trapped in a false version of the gospel begin to see the true light of life and come to know the gentle Savior who loved us before we loved Him and who, while we were YET sinners, died for us. He said His yoke is easy and His burden is light. I know it is. He desires that all be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. We shouldn't allow men to erect barriers to that knowledge.

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