EUCHARISTISCHE EREDIENST EN KERKELIJKE EENHEID

Abstract

SUMMARY As the christian idea „church” cannot be pluralized, the same is appropriate to christian worship. There is only one Mediator between God and men and only one act of mediation namely the selfsacrifice of our Lord. We can only enter into the holiest by the sacrifice of Jesus, by the new and living way, which he has consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh (Hebr. 10, 20). This unique mediation is the contents of all christian worship. The biblical and ancient-christian vision on faith was keenly aware of the fact, that there was (1) one Body, in which our Lord interceded for us, (2) one sacramental Body, in which He presented to us this unique mediation sacramentally, and (3) of the ultimate and definite result, namely the Body of Christ, i.e. the Church. The Eucharist has always been regarded as the central sacrament of Christian worship; it is the means through which the whole common life of the Church, as a participation in Christ, is corporately manifested and given in its full significance and actuality. The Christians participate jointly with their fellow-communicants in the life of Christ, as that life is imparted to the Church. That life in which we are joint-partakers is presented to us as the life which was offered once for all upon Calvary, as the body which is broken for us. The traditional testimonies of the Fathers and the Liturgy as regards the one Bread and the one Body are superfluous: we being many are one bread, and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread (1 Cor. 10, 17). After the period of mediaeval Scholasticism this realisation of faith decreases. The essential connection between Christ's Eucharistie Body and his Mystical Body recedes into the background. The theological manuals preserve the theme indeed, but they deal with it almost as a pious corrolarium. The theme is not to be found in the catechisms of the faithfull. The ancient vision does not return in the official ecclesiastical documents, before the Council of Trent, in an encyclical letter by Pope Leo XIII. The beginning of our century brings the turn of the tide: the rising liturgical movement and the revival of spiritual Church-awareness cooperate here. These two movements are not only noticeable in the Catholic Church, but also in the other Churches. These movements within the Catholic Church reveal different characteristics, which are also typical for these movements outside our Church. The essential relation between the Eucharistical Body and the Ecclesiastical Body of Christ is re-discovered everywhere by returning to the original biblical and ancient-Christian testimony. The Eucharistie Body is a sacrament, namely an effective symbol of the communion of the baptised with Christ and with each other. As regards the Catholic Church the re-discovery of the ecclesiastical tendency of the Holy Eucharist involves at least the three following views. (1) The celebration of the Holy Eucharist should be distinctly recognisable as a sacramental act of the ecclesiastical community, as a joint-participation in Christ. (2) The priestly office has not so much the disposal of the Eucharistie Body of our Lord, as a serving function regarding this Body for the sake of the brethren, the comembers of the Mystical Body. (3) The celebration is carried out under visible and audible signs, but is not less an activity of our heavenly Lord and his Holy Ghost; it is not a question of „things”, but of events and acts in virtue of the Ghost of our Lord. These three views have found a certain development in the different orthodox churches of the Christian East and the churches of the Reformation. We should avail ouselves of their opinions and experiences in matters of faith. Thus, together with them, we shall find the way along which our Lord will call us together to his one Body.