Effects of Holy Communion

We distinguish many effects on the sacrament. Actually it is usually a divorce of one and the main, the one expressed by the symbol. St. reception is called Latin communio, unification, communion. This sacrament thus causes, as Pope Eugene IV writes, “a union with Christ ». «Grace incorporates man into the body of Christ, it connects him to his limbs. Therefore, this sacrament multiplies grace in those who receive and are worthy of it, and causes it in the spiritual life the effects which the material diet causes in the life of the body: it maintains, gives growth, heals, refreshes. According to Pope Urban IV. «Keeps the memory of Savior, turns us from evil, strengthens us in good, it gives rise to virtue and grace »(bulla Exultate Deo, d. 1439).
The effects of St. ingestion can be divided into effects on the soul,
which are direct and effects on the body which are indirect, that is. through the soul.
Effects on the soul
1. The sacramental union with Christ. Our body connects with the body of Christ. It is not directly, but a way of bread and the wines with which Christ is united by the sacramental transformation (transubstantiation). We assimilate food when eating into his own organism, he penetrates us and identifies with us. Similarly, Christ penetrates us with the symbol food. This “bodily” connection, of course, presupposes and spiritual unity in thoughts, in will, in desires. Otherwise, there would be a contradiction between external action
and inner intent, a contradiction that could become sacrilege (unworthy reception, in a state of grave sin). Who is the Eucharistic bread, let him he tries, if he can, to unite his heart with the heart of Christ, to have the same mind. We receive Christ, who sacrifices himself for us. So he has one with him the spirit of sacrifice, who loves God and neighbor. To unite with Christ is to unite with what he doesn’t care about. The connection with the Holy Trinity takes place here in the first place, it penetrates us God’s life. Thus, we imitate, understandably imperfectly, the incarnate Word itself, where God and man are in one person. Bérulle writes that “The Eucharist imitates the mystery of the Incarnation, adapts it to all, and spreads it among Christians and believers, just as the mystery itself incarnation is the imitation and extension of the connection of the supreme in the Holy Trinity, which penetrates through the eternal Word to our humanity». Bossuet says, “Jesus accepts the body all of us when we receive his body; it therefore happens for us by man, he extends his incarnation to us ».
2. However, this union with Christ means unification with all the members of his Church. The Eucharist is the main sacrament of the mystical body of the Church. Since there is one bread, we are many, one flesh: for we all share in one loaf (1 Cor 10:17). It is expressed on the outside symbol of food at one table, at one bread. And Maria reverence is expressed here in the fullness of its meaning. The Mother of God is most closely connected with her Son of all of us, she has a special place in the Church. Thus, the body of Christ brings us closer to it more than any other devotion.
3. Reproduction of sanctifying grace. Exegete the fact that St. John uses the present tense when He quotes Christ’s promise: “Who is my flesh and drinks my blood? He has eternal life »(John 6:54). He is not said to have it until after death, but that he has it now, because it is body and blood Son of God. So this food strengthens his supernatural life. Christ said of himself that there is life (John 14,6). The closer we connect with him, the more “we live”. Sanctifying grace is multiplied by all the sacraments. However, the Eucharist in a special way. «The sacraments cause which they display with their symbol »(Council of Trent). Establishment of the Florentine Council for Armenians he explicitly states that the Eucharist is for “grace to multiply” (ut gratia augeatur) in those who already have it. Food does not benefit the dead, but the one who lives. Theologians they say that receiving gives “the second grace”, the state “of the first grace »already assumes, is therefore the so-called sacrament of the living. It is true that, of course, the adoption of the European the charism acts as a confessional absolution. A sacramental grace cannot work where it is obstructed. It is not translated by anyone, e.g. he has forgotten the sins of the past, or doubts their seriousness, and now he sincerely wants to approach the Lord’s table to continue to live in communion with Christ.
4. Sacramental grace. We know well that all graces they are the gift of the Holy Spirit, who is one. Nevertheless, however, theologians distinguish the “sanctifying” grace that is as if the inner treasure of the soul, and the “sacramental” grace, that is God’s special help to multiply this inner treasure in danger. The goal of the Eucharist is connection with Christ. Holy communion performs it. At the same time, however, we are receiving a promise for the future, that we will be able to maintain this connection in all circumstances of life, in thoughts, desires, deeds.

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