In our search for the importance of the Eucharist in the Early Church, we began our research with examining the biblical foundations of the Eucharistic ecclesiology. The study of the institution narratives shows that these narratives had their origin in Christian communities in which the Eucharist was celebrated and of course influenced by the worship and the liturgical practices of the communities. The institution narratives also throw light onto the Jewish
connection of Christianity. Though each evangelist had his own purpose, all of them agree with the covenantal perspective of the Eucharist. The context of the Jewish Passover meal seen in the Last Supper of Jesus, to which the institution narratives are associated, is a passage from the old people of God to the new people of God, or, from the old Israel to the new Israel. The Jewish Passover was a celebration of the identity of God’s own people Israel, whereas the celebration and communion of the Eucharist is a sign of the identity of the members of the body of Christ. The identity of the Church as the body of Christ will be realized in its fullness in eschaton, though it is made present in the sacramental celebration of the Eucharist. This eschatological reality is in agreement with the Emmanuel theme in Matthew, according to which Jesus, the Emmanuel (Mt 1:23) who saves his people from sins (Mt 1:21), shedding his blood for them (Mt 26:28), and is commemorated in the Eucharist. The Church does it as a worshipping community in the form of thanksgiving for his gracious saving work.
The Emmaus episode has the structure of the liturgy of the Eucharist with two parts; sharing of the word of God and the bread of life. It shows the influence of the liturgical tradition in the formation of the biblical texts and sheds light upon the structure of the first century Eucharistic celebration. The response of the disciples – going back to Jerusalem where other disciples stayed – was a prophetic sign of the Eucharistic life demanded by the Lord at the
celebration of the Eucharist each time. For John, the Eucharist is the continuation of the power of Jesus in our time. It flows from everything Jesus said and did as the word became flesh and the purpose of his presence is our eternal life and union with him.300 Though John does not offer the institution narrative, the Bread of Life discourse and the foot washing bring the sacramental symbolism very active in his gospel, and it affirms the building up of a union between Jesus, the Living Bread, and those who receive him and also between the communicants.
The Acts of the Apostles presents the history of the spreading of the Church soon after the death and resurrection of Jesus. In the early Church, Eucharist was part of their community life and more than that Eucharist was a lifestyle because the prophetic life of this period brought all those who believed in Christ together. Though Christianity spread outside of Jerusalem, the Eucharist had central space in their life. Paul’s teaching on the Church as the Body of Christ in his letter to the First Corinthians determined the future Eucharistic ecclesiology of the Church. This concept is realized in the sacrament of Eucharist; our communion in the Eucharistic body builds up the ecclesial body of which Christ is the head. Building on the Pauline theology of the Body of Christ, the early Church Fathers developed the Eucharistic ecclesiology in the early Christian theology. They also made use of the mystagogical language to explain the mystery of the Eucharist. The Eucharist as the image of what will be made manifest and prefiguration of the full, unending enjoyment of the Lord’s Godhead is clearly found in the writings of the Fathers of the Church.
Based on the research on the biblical foundations and the teachings of the fathers of the Church, we conclude that the Church had been primarily a worshipping community from its very
beginning, and the Eucharist held the pivotal place in her worship. The centrality of the Eucharist made way for the mode of theology of this period, which is very much liturgical in its nature. The service at the celebration of the Eucharist determined the role of the members of the Church. The members of the community tried to practice the sharing and serving aspects of the Eucharist in their daily life, and this witness of life made them a prophetic community. Even though the Church was spreading outside the Roman Empire and becoming more and more institutionalized, the Eucharistic ecclesiology was at the heart of her life and theology.
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CHAPTER 2
CHURCH AS A EUCHARISTIC COMMUNITY: A THEOLOGICAL
RETROSPECTIVE IN VATICAN II
2.1. Introduction
The Second Vatican Council, which was considered the first global council for many theologians,1 also showed the world that the Church is not isolated from the world, but part of the world. The openness of the council was clearly evidenced in its exposition of ecclesiology, which is known as communion ecclesiology. The basic idea of communion ecclesiology is rooted in the Trinity and the Eucharist.2 The ecclesial sense of the Eucharist, which was very strong in the early centuries,3 was brought back into the foreground in the documents of the council. Thus, after a long period of undue emphasis on the “how” of the Eucharist (real presence and sacramentalism) during the Middle Ages and the modern time, the Church’s renewed interest in the study of the Fathers of the Church impacted the study on Eucharist and Ecclesiology (the “why” of the Eucharist), and the relationship between the Eucharist and the Church was rediscovered. The council’s dogmatic constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium says that the Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life” (LG 11). Presbyterorum
1 Massimo Faggioli, Vatican II: The Battle for Meaning (New York: Paulist Press, 2012), 3; Karl Rahner, "Towards a Fundamental Theological Interpretation of the Second Vatican Council," Theological Studies 40: 717.
2 Marc Ouellet, "The Ecclesiology of Communion, 50 Years after the Opening of Vatican Council II," in
International Theology Symposium (The Eucharist: Communion with Christ and with One Another) (National
University of Ireland, Maynooth, June 6, 2012); Mathew Vellanickal, Church: Communion of Individual Churches;
Biblico-Theological Perspectives on the Communion Ecclesiology of Vatican II (Mumbai: St. Paul's, 2009), 100.
This research does not elaborate the Trinitarian basis of the communion ecclesiology, because its purpose is to show the importance of the Eucharist and its relation to the Church.
Ordinis, the decree on the priestly formation, teaches that “[n]o Christian community can be built
up unless it has its basis and center in the celebration of the Most Holy Eucharist” (PO 6). This chapter addresses how the Eucharistic ecclesiology was expressed in the Second Vatican Council. This chapter also attempts to answer the following questions: What is the contribution of Henri de Lubac in this theological retrospection? How is Orthodox Church ecclesiology related to the ecclesiology of the council? How could the Church perpetuate the same stream of thought in the following years of the council and what are the modes of it? How did the emergence of local or contextual theologies after Vatican II contribute to rediscovering the prophetic call of the Church and her social commitment in the present world? Why is the sacrament of Eucharist an energizer and a powerful symbol in the development of these theologies?