Eucharist – Christ’s Action in the Church

“Indeed, as we have seen, since the Reformation the emphasis has been placed upon the meal, upon the act of communion and upon the real presence.  All this is quite right, but the almost exclusive insistence upon these aspects has tended to rivet the attention of theologians in the tradition of the Reformation, on the problem of Christ’s presence, as long as they have not been led astray into a spiritualizing symbolism, thus avoiding the central problem.  The fact of the real presence is set in a new light if it is considered within the context of the Eucharist’s relation to the rites of the paschal meal and to the Jewish understanding of sacrifice fully accepted by Christ and His apostles.  The more or less static conception of a sign of the presence of Christ is then abandoned in the recognition that the Eucharist is a liturgical action and a spiritual event which is the mystery of Christ’s self-giving.  The real presence is not something to be defined and made use of; it is the presence of Christ crucified, risen and glorified and acting on our behalf, now in heaven, in the Church, by Word and Sacrament.  The Eucharist must therefore be considered as the action of Christ in His Church, and the problem of His presence is only a corollary of this.  In order to give Himself, Christ is present in person, in His body and blood, as He was on the cross and is in heaven.  The question of the mode of His presence is secondary.  It is Christ who acts; it is Christ who is present, both Man and God,” (Max Thurian, The Eucharistic Memorial, vol. I, 14-15, emphasis mine).

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