The photos of our Crucified Christ may help one to mediate more vividly and devotionally on the suffering, passion and death of Our Eucharistic Lord.
GRAPHIC PHOTO DEPICTION OF OUR CRUCIFIED CHRIST, BASED UPON THE SHROUD OF TURIN:
PASSION, DEATH AND CRUCIFIXATION
OF
OUR EUCHARISTIC LORD
The sacrifice of Our Eucharistic Lord at Calvary is re-presented in
the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in which He renews the immolation
of Himself for us. The three descriptive columns below of our Crucified
Christ may help one to mediate more vividly and devotionally on the suffering, passion and death of Our Eucharistic Lord. Based on the Five Sorrowful mysteries; Jesus Physical Tortures, His Mental Abuses received, and Jesus Charity.
Physical Tortures Mental Punishments JESUS Charity
Jesus in Agony
Sweats blood Fear Prayed, Prayed, Prayed
Bound with cords Accused Obedient
Spits/Slaps to face Unjustly judged Testifies to Truth
Pulled by beard Condemned Sorrow for man's sins
Lifted by hair Denied Remains kind
Dragged & pushed Sentenced death Maintains Patience
Blows to head/body Interrogated Heals ear
Jesus Scourged
Strip of his clothes Humiliated Restrained his power
Bind naked to pillar Shamed At peace
Flogged-two soldiers Tormented Painful Heart
Whip with lead balls Scorned Merciful love
Lashes 100-120 Flesh torn Insulted Remained silent
Jesus Crowned
Cap of Thorns pierced skull Mocked Meek
Mortal wounds to head Disgraced Humble
Jesus' Carries Cross
Weight Cross Beam on shoulders Sneered Gives us human Love
Torn flesh/open to shoulder bone Ridiculed Sustained hardship
Falls three times, wounds knees Disliked Do not weep for me
Ragged stones cut feet Rejected Gives us Divine Love
Jesus Crucified
Stretched dislocating limbs Forsaken Forgives all
Hammer blunt nails -hands/feet Suffered Mercy to thief
Hanging by arms Cruelty Thirsts for us
Pain upon pain Abandon Entrusts Mother/son
Dying of thirst Detested Compassionate
Excruciating cramps & spasms Jeered Prays to Father
Hanging three hours Loathed Accepts all of us
Physical strength exhausted Cursed Gives life for us
Exhales dying breath Deserted Offers up Spirit
Lance to Side Hated Blood & Water
poured for our sins.
Three types of bodily tortures Jesus Christ suffered on Good Friday.
- Passion Tortures – Scourging, Crowning,
- Crucifying Tortures- Nailing hands/feet
- Converging pain- radiating throughout His entire Body.
During Jesus Crucifixion you will be shocked to learn how is entire body suffered so violet, horrific, intolerable and imaginable pain. Christ received for three hours on the Cross.
PASSION TORTURES:
Before His Crucifixion, during his passion Jesus was scourged, thorns placed on His head. His face bruised/cut from soldiers beating him during the night. His shoulder deeply cut carrying the rugged cross. He was dehydrated, blood covering his eyes and eyes. Tongue swollen.
CRUCIFYING TORTURES:
ONE; Right hand: This is similar size nail used. Nail entered at his wrist. Take your left arm them press hard about inch below your wrist. You will feel the pain radiating up you right arm. Jesus was stuck forcibly into his wrist with this nail. Extreme blunt force pain felt, radiating up his arm, numbing of his hand, cramping has his arm when He felt the weight of his body drop.
TWO: Left hand. Rope was tied to this arm, stretched across the horizontal cross thereby separating his shoulder. Not only experience the same pain of this right arm but burning pain from this separated shoulder.
THREE: Head. Crown of Thorns. A thorn Cap penetrated deep cuts into the entire surface of his head and forehead. Thorns are long and very sharp from the thorn-bearing bush. – a kind of a lote-tree. This caused violent imaginable pain throughout his head radiating down his face and neck.
FOUR: Both feet: Feet were placed on top of each other; this nail was brutality pounded into both feet; shocking him, body trembling and shaking uncontrollable.
FIVE; Scourged body. As Jesus was fasten to the Cross, his scourged back deeply cut, chunks of flesh hanging with profuse bleeding. The horizontal/vertical parts of the Cross were very rough with protruding bark. Breathing was unbearable; Jesus had to push down on his nailed feet, lift up by his nailed hands moving his scourged upward causing undue pain to his back, exploding with every movement and extreme pain to both hands and feet. His shoulders, wrist and elbows would be dislocated due to the weight of his body. - radiating throughout His entire Body.
CONVERGING TORTURED PAIN - radiating throughout His entire Body.
All these inhuman tortures individuality can cause extreme, excruciating, violent and cramping pain.
You are familiar with Flame thrower used in Wars. Most military flamethrowers use flammable liquids thickened into a consistency similar to napalm, it would cover your entire body inflicting such horrific pain resulting in a horrific death in minutes.
Jesus endures all this for three hours. He suffered an agonizing, afflicting, excruciating pain. All of this pain radiating throughout every part of his entire body.
When at Mass look up at the Crucified Christ mediate on all these tortures, especially the three hours of the massive continuous pain Jesus received. Our Eucharistic Lord did this for you. Could you do the same for Him?
Ref: A Doctor at Calvary by Pierre Barbet M.D The Shroud of Turin by Mary and Alan Whanger. Saint Bridget of Sweden on Revelations of Passion, Crucifixion and Death of Christ. Dr. Rafik Raphael, Roswell, Ga.
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Our Eucharistic Lord, Jesus Christ, is represented of a Love that is crucified in the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in which He renews the immolation of Himself for us.
Crucified Christ may help one to mediate more vividly and devotionally on His Death by Crucifixion.
CHRIST DEATH BY CRUCIFIXION
Dr. C. Truman Davis that breaks down death by crucifixion and in particular how it applied to Christ and what He endured. His analysis was published in Arizona Medicine in 1965. The Anatomical And Physiological Details Of Death By Crucifixion: By Dr. C. Truman Davis
Provided by: Disciples of Our Eucharistic Lord
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Crucified Christ may help one to mediate more vividly and devotionally on His Death by Crucifixion.
CHRIST DEATH BY CRUCIFIXION
Dr. C. Truman Davis that breaks down death by crucifixion and in particular how it applied to Christ and what He endured. His analysis was published in Arizona Medicine in 1965. The Anatomical And Physiological Details Of Death By Crucifixion: By Dr. C. Truman Davis
- Crucifixion was invented by the Persians in 300 BC, and perfected by the Romans in 100 BC.
- It is the most painful death ever invented by man and is where we get our term “excruciating.” {Latin, excruciatus, or “out of the cross”}
- It was reserved primarily for the most vicious of male criminals. Jesus refused the anaesthetic wine which was offered to Him by the Roman soldiers because of His promise in Matthew 26: 29, “But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”
- Jesus was stripped naked and His clothing divided by the Roman guards. This was in fulfilment of Psalm 22:18, “They divide My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots.”
- The Crucifixion of Jesus guaranteed a horrific, slow, painful death. Having been nailed the Cross, Jesus now had an impossible anatomical position to maintain.
- Jesus’ knees were flexed at about 45 degrees, and He was forced to bear His weight with the muscles of His thigh, which is not an anatomical position which is possible to maintain for more than a few minutes without severe cramp in the muscles of the thigh and calf.
- Jesus’ weight was borne on His feet, with nails driven through them. As the strength of the muscles of Jesus’ lower limbs tired, the weight of His body had to be transferred to His wrists, His arms, and His shoulders.
- Within a few minutes of being placed on the Cross, Jesus’ shoulders were dislocated. Minutes later Jesus’ elbows and wrists became dislocated.
- The result of these upper limb dislocations is that His arms were 9 inches longer than normal, as clearly shown on the Shroud.
- In addition prophecy was fulfilled in Psalm 22:14, “I am poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint.”
- After Jesus’ wrists, elbows, and shoulders were dislocated, the weight of His body on his upper limbs caused traction forces on the Pectoralis Major muscles of His chest wall.
- These traction forces caused His rib cage to be pulled upwards and outwards, in a most unnatural state. His chest wall was permanently in a position of maximal respiratory inspiration. In order to exhale, Jesus was physiologically required to force His body.
- In order to breathe out, Jesus had to push down on the nails in His feet to raise His body, and allow His rib cage to move downwards and inwards to expire air from His lungs.
- His lungs were in a resting position of constant maximum inspiration. Crucifixion is a medical catastrophe.
- The problem was that Jesus could not easily push down on the nails in His feet because the muscles of His legs, bent at 45 degrees, were extremely fatigued, in severe cramp, and in an anatomically compromised position.
- Unlike all Hollywood movies about the Crucifixion, the victim was extremely active. The crucified victim was physiologically forced to move up and down the cross, a distance of about 12 inches, in order to breathe.
- The process of respiration caused excruciating pain, mixed with the absolute terror of asphyxiation.
- As the six hours of the Crucifixion wore on, Jesus was less and less able to bear His weight on His legs, as His thigh and calf muscles became increasingly exhausted. There was increasing dislocation of His wrists, elbows and shoulders, and further elevation of His chest wall, making His breathing more and more difficult
Within minutes of crucifixion Jesus became severely dyspnoeic (short of breath). - His movements up and down the Cross to breathe caused excruciating pain in His wrist, His feet, and His dislocated elbows and shoulders.
- The movements became less frequent as Jesus became increasingly exhausted, but the terror of imminent death by asphyxiation forced Him to continue in His efforts to breathe.
- Jesus’ lower limb muscles developed excruciating cramp from the effort of pushing down on His legs, to raise His body, so that He could breathe out, in their anatomically compromised position.
- The pain from His two shattered median nerves in His wrists exploded with every movement.
- Jesus was covered in blood and sweat.
- The blood was a result of the Scourging that nearly killed Him, and the sweat as a result of His violent involuntary attempts to effort to expire air from His lungs. Throughout all this He was completely naked, and the leaders of the Jews, the crowds, and the thieves on both sides of Him were jeering, swearing and laughing at Him. In addition, Jesus’ own mother was watching.
- Physiologically, Jesus’ body was undergoing a series of catastrophic and terminal events.
- Because Jesus could not maintain adequate ventilation of His lungs, He was now in a state of hypoventilation (inadequate ventilation).
- His blood oxygen level began to fall, and He developed Hypoxia (low blood oxygen).
In addition, because of His restricted respiratory movements, His blood carbon dioxide (CO2) level began to rise, a condition known as Hypercapnia. - This rising CO2 level stimulated His heart to beat faster in order to increase the delivery of oxygen, and the removal of CO2.
- The Respiratory Centre in Jesus’ brain sent urgent messages to his lungs to breathe faster, and Jesus began to pant.
- Jesus’ physiological reflexes demanded that He took deeper breaths, and He involuntarily moved up and down the Cross much faster, despite the excruciating pain.
The agonizing movements spontaneously started several times a minute, to the delight of the crowd who jeered Him, the Roman soldiers, and the Sanhedrin. - However, due to the nailing of Jesus to the Cross and His increasing exhaustion, He was unable to provide more oxygen to His oxygen starved body.
- The twin forces of Hypoxia (too little oxygen) and Hypercapnia (too much CO2) caused His heart to beat faster and faster, and Jesus developed Tachycardia.
- Jesus’ heart beat faster and faster, and His pulse rate was probably about 220 beats/ minute, the maximum normally sustainable.
- Jesus had drunk nothing for 15 hours, since 6 p.m. the previous evening. Jesus had endured a scourging which nearly killed Him.
- He was bleeding from all over His body following the Scourging, the crown of thorns, the nails in His wrists and feet, and the lacerations following His beatings and falls.
- Jesus was already very dehydrated, and His blood pressure fell alarmingly.
- His blood pressure was probably about 80/50.
- He was in First Degree Shock, with Hypovolaemia (low blood volume), Tachycardia (excessively fast Heart Rate), Tachypnoea (excessively fast Respiratory Rate), and Hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating).
- By about noon Jesus’ heart probably began to fail.
- Jesus’ lungs probably began to fill up with Pulmonary Edema.
- This only served to exacerbate His breathing, which was already severely compromised.
- Jesus was in Heart Failure and Respiratory Failure.
- Jesus said, “I thirst” because His body was crying out for fluids.
- Jesus was in desperate need of an intravenous infusion of blood and plasma to save His life
- Jesus could not breathe properly and was slowly suffocating to death.
- At this stage Jesus probably developed a Haemopericardium.
- Plasma and blood gathered in the space around His heart, called the Pericardium.
- This fluid around His heart caused Cardiac Tamponade (fluid around His heart, which prevented Jesus’ heart from beating properly).
- Because of the increasing physiological demands on Jesus’ heart, and the advanced state of Haemopericardium, Jesus probably eventually sustained Cardiac Rupture. His heart literally burst. This was probably the cause of His death.
- To slow the process of death the soldiers put a small wooden seat on the Cross, which would allow Jesus the “privilege” of bearing His weight on his sacrum.
- The effect of this was that it could take up to nine days to die on a Cross.
- When the Romans wanted to expedite death they would simply break the legs of the victim, causing the victim to suffocate in a matter of minutes. This was called Crucifragrum.
- At three o’clock in the afternoon Jesus said, “Tetelastai,” meaning, “It is finished.”
At that moment, He gave up His Spirit, and He died. - When the soldiers came to Jesus to break His legs, He was already dead. Not a bone of His body was broken, in fulfilment of prophecy (above).
- Jesus died after six hours of the most excruciating and terrifying torture ever invented.
- Jesus died so that ordinary people like you and me could go to Heaven.
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IN THE HOLY MASS CHRIST RENEWS HIS PASSION
Among all the mysteries of the life of Christ, there is not one, which can be, mediated upon with greater profit or which has a greater claim on our adoration that His bitter Passion and Death, by means of which our Redemption was affected. The Fathers of the Church tell us that those who meditate upon and venerate Our Lord’s Passion will obtain a rich reward.
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is not simply a commemoration, but a renewal of the Passion of Christ. In the Council of Trent, Holy Church teaches: “Whosoever shall say that the Sacrifice of the Mass is only a remembrance of the Sacrifice of the Cross, let him be anathema.” Also in the same session of that Council (xxii Ch.2) she states: “In this Divine Sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass, that same Christ is contained and immolated in an unbloody manner who once offered Himself in a bloody manner on the altar of the Cross.
St. Gregory stated: “Although Christ dies not again, yet he suffers again for us in the Sacrifice of the Mass after a mysterious, mystical manner.” In the Holy Mass Christ does not suffer physical pain or death, but He displays Himself in reality to His heavenly Father under the same pitiable appearance which He presented when scourged, crowned with thorns and crucified, and this as distinctly as if He were again actually enduring those tortures for the sins of the world. Jesus Christ is not merely present in person and in a reality in the Sacred Host, but that in Holy Mass He renews His bitter passion.
Christ’s love for man and His desire to rescuer us unhappy sinners from eternal damnation. Therefore, in His divine wisdom, He devised a means whereby He could remain on earth after His death, continues His saving Passion, unceasingly plead with God for man, as He did when nailed upon the Cross. What was this wondrous means? None other than the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, wherein He daily, continually, suffers mystically upon the Cross; suffer for us, pleads for us, calls upon God for grace and mercy on our behalf with irresistible urgency.
Our Lord intercedes for us in Holy Mass and implores His heavenly Father to have mercy upon us. For –since the Mass is a renewal of His passion – while it is celebrated, that which was carried on upon the Cross must be enacted over again. St. John says, “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Just; and He is the propitiation for our sins.”
(1 John 2:1-2)
St. Paul writes, “Christ Jesus that died, yes, that is risen also again: who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession.” for me (Rom.8:34). He intercedes for us in Heaven, but more especially He intercedes for us at the altar, because there He exercises His sacerdotal functions, and as St. Paul says, it appertains to the priest to offer sacrifices for the sins of the people (Heb 5:1)
What an immense benefit it is for us that Christ renews His Passion in Holy Mass for our sakes, bestowing upon and applying to us the merit of it. And why, do you think, does He do this? Principally that we may take for our own the merits of that Passion, and offer them to almighty God, to the great profit of our souls.
Another reason for the renewal of Christ’s Passion in the Holy Mass, He does this in order that the Faithful, for whom it is impossible to have assisted at the Sacrifice of the Cross, may, by assisting at Mass, earn the same braces and merits as if they had actually stood beneath the Cross, provide they do so with the same devotion. The fruits it produces are identical with the produced by the Sacrifice of the Cross.
The Mass contains infinitely more graces and excellencies. As it is the same Sacrifice as that of the Cross, it must possess the same potency and the same merit and be equally acceptable to God. The only difference consists in this, that the manner of offering is not the same, for then upon the Cross Christ was immolated with pain and shedding of Blood, whereas now, in a painless and unbloody manner.
Consider the priceless value of the Sacrifice of the Mass, its great dignity, and its immense potency. Not only do we know this from the teaching of pious and learned men and women; Holy Church declares expressly that the Sacrifice of the Cross and the Sacrifice of the Mass are one and the same.
The Incredible Catholic Mass - CHAPTER 8
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Eucharist as the perfect sign of Christ's Passion
The Eucharistic theology of Thomas Aquinas is remarkable for its clarity and perception. But Thomas was not only able to set it out masterfully; his contemplation of the Eucharist was so intense that it tapped a poetic vein and enabled him to imbue with lyrical tones a dogmatic language so perfect and refined as to produce sequences and hymns that we all know and still sing.
Moreover, a very deep devotion to the Body and Blood of Christ was part of the Angelic Doctor's life, which was, as it were, sealed by passionate prayer to the Blessed Sacrament.
His biographer, William of Tocco, says that before receiving Viaticum in the guest room of the Cistercian Abbey of Fossanuova, where he had arrived exhausted and consumed by the effort of study and teaching, Thomas prayed: "I receive you, price of my soul's redemption, I receive you, Viaticum of my pilgrimage: for love of you I have studied, watched and toiled".
Passion for Blessed Sacrament combined with scientific rigour.
It does not take long, however, for those who attentively study Thomas' texts on the Eucharist and become familiar with them, to realize that the precision of his concepts and the rigour of his analysis not only do not quench his passionate feeling for the Blessed Sacrament but, on the contrary, express it and are a perceptive and eloquent sign of it.
If the theological context with its debates and problems multiplies even the most subtle and, in our view today, superfluous points, it can be noted that after their ramifications and discussions, they are finally led back to the heart of Catholic Eucharistic theology, which is "the memorial of Christ's Passion" (cf. Summa Theologiae, III, 76, 2, 2m), just as they flowed from this heart.
In reviewing the writings of Thomas that are dedicated to this memorial and tracing its content, we realize that we have before us the most enlightening and complete synthesis of the Catholic faith concerning the mystery of the Eucharist.
We also see that there are no grounds for criticizing his prevalent reduction to philosophy, which was believed to impoverish Thomas' Eucharistic thought by abstracting it from the concreteness and the promptings of Scripture, the liturgy and Patristic tradition.
For an understanding of the Eucharist in Thomas Aquinas, it is important first of all to indicate where it is situated by the ordo disciplinae, or where he places it in the theological plan of his Summa Theologica.
Obviously, St Thomas places Eucharist among the sacraments, which in turn are considered after Christology and, significantly, after the theology of the mysteries of Christ: indeed, the sacraments "derive their efficacy from the Word Incarnate himself" (Summa, III, 60, Introduction), which it is their task to incorporate.
"Through the sacraments of the New Law man is incorporated with Christ" (Summa, III, 62, 1, 3m).
"The sacraments... flow from Christ himself, and have a certain likeness to him" (Summa, III 60, 6, 3m). Indeed, "the sacraments... obtain their effect through the power of Christ's Passion; and Christ's Passion is, so to say, applied to man (applicatur) through the sacraments" (Summa, III, 61, 1, 3m).
Thomas continues by stating: "The sacraments of the Church derive their power specially from Christ's Passion, the virtue of which is in a manner united to us (nobis copulatur) by our receiving the sacraments" (Summa, II, 62, 5, 1); "the power of Christ's Passion is united to us by faith and the sacraments", so that its "continuation" (continuatio) will result (Summa, II, 62, 6, c.).He was also to explain, in treating Baptism, that it "derives its efficacy from Christ's Passion and from the Holy Ghost" (Summa, III, 66, 12, c.).
Sacrament of the Eucharist: threefold significance.
This is what an interpretation of the whole of salvation history considers the most splendid of Thomas' affirmations: "A sacrament is a sign that is both a reminder of the past, that is, the Passion of Christ; and an indication of that which is effected in us by Christ's Passion, that is, grace; and a prognostic (precognosticum), that is, a foretelling (praenuntiativum) of future glory" (Summa, III, 60, 3, c.).
What Thomas says here of every sacrament he was to say, indeed to sing, for the Eucharist: "This sacrament has a threefold significance: one with regard to the past, inasmuch as it is commemorative of our Lord's Passion, which was a true sacrifice, as stated above, and in this respect it is called a Sacrifice.
"With regard to the present it has another meaning, namely, that of ecclesiastical unity, in which men are aggregated through this sacrament; and in this respect it is called Communion....
"With regard to the future it has a third meaning, inasmuch as this sacrament foreshadows the Divine fruition which shall come to pass in heaven; and according to this it is called Viaticum, because it supplies the way of winning thither" (Summa, III, 73, 4, c.).
We find the Christian event fully present in the Eucharist, which is also the perfect initiation to it. The fact that in the treatment of the sacraments the Holy Eucharist follows Baptism and Confirmation does not prevent it from being "the sacrament" par excellence, the "summit" or "completion of the sacraments" and the one to which all the other sacraments relate.
The Eucharist is, as it were, "the consummation of the spiritual life, and the end of all the sacraments" (Summa, III, 73, 3, c.).
The reason for this, St Thomas explains, lies in the fact that whereas the energy — "vis" or "virtus" — of the Passion of Christ is active in the other sacraments, the Eucharist contains "Christ's own Body" (Summa, III, 73, 1, 3m); in Scholastic language, Christ is present as "the common spiritual good of the whole Church... contained substantially in the sacrament itself of the Eucharist" (Summa, III, 65, 3, 1), in order to bring man to full communion with Christ in the Passion (cf. Summa, III, 73, 2, 3m).
The Eucharist, sign of supreme love and hope.
In other words, if every sacrament is rooted in Christ's Passion, the Eucharist is the perfect sign of this. As the Angelic Doctor wrote: The Eucharist "is perfective of all the other sacraments, in which Christ's virtue is participated" (Summa, III, 75, 1, c.).
"When Christ was going to leave his disciples in his proper species, he left himself with them under the sacramental species". Jesus instituted the sacrament so that "there should be at all times among men something to show forth our Lord's Passion", given that "without
faith in the Passion there could never be any salvation" (Summa, III, 73, 5, c.).
St Thomas also writes that "in our pilgrimage, [Christ] does not deprive us of his bodily presence, but unites us with himself in this sacrament through the truth of his Body and Blood" (Summa, III, 75, 1, c.), always seen in their sacrificial condition".
"Hence, this sacrament is the sign of supreme charity, and the uplifter of our hope, from such familiar union of Christ with us" (Summa, III, 75, 1, c.).
Thomas often uses the terms "sacrament", "representation" (repraesentatio) and representative (repraesentativus), "memory" or "memorial". This is not to indicate a simple, transient reminder of a reality that in any case has passed, but the truth of a real, substantial presence of the Passion event in the person of Christ who suffered.
Theology, starting with Casel in particular, was to affirm that the Eucharist is the sacrament of the Passion "event".
I believe that Thomas' theology, in different language and exempt from the later explicit classification by theme, says the same thing; in other words, Thomas teaches that in the modality of the signs, by attaining and receiving "Christ who suffered", we enter into real communion with that event.
"The sacrifices of the Old Law contained only in figure that true sacrifice of Christ's Passion", whereas, "it was necessary that the sacrifice of the New Law instituted by Christ should have something more, namely, that it should contain Christ himself crucified, not merely in signification or figure, but also in very truth" (Summa, III, 75, 1, c.).
The Eucharist represents the Passion of Christ.
This is like saying that Christ's sacrifice is truly and effectively active in the Eucharist. The value and efficacy of Christ's Passion converge in the Eucharist on the basis of the presence, precisely, of "Christ who suffered".
For Thomas, as we have seen, Christ's Passion "comes alive" in every sacrament. This happens in the Eucharist because it is the Christ of the Passion in person or the Christ who suffered and is "available" to you, who institutes its actuality. The anti-Berengarian profile is clearly evoked by Thomas and, precisely in the language of "representation", is realistically recapitulated in that of "representation".
To emphasize further the realism of the presence of the Passion, Thomas writes: "What is represented by this sacrament... is Christ's Passion ('Quod repraesentatur est passio Christi'). And therefore this sacrament works in man the effect which Christ's Passion wrought in the world.
"Hence, Chrysostom says", commenting on the words of John, "'Immediately there came out blood and water (19:34). Since the sacred mysteries derive their origin from thence, when you draw nigh to the awe-inspiring chalice, so approach as if you were going to drink from Christ's own side"' (Summa, III, 79, 1, c.).
Thomas' words, borrowed from the Greek Father, could not be more perceptive and moving as they are when he repeats: "There is but one victim, namely, that which Christ offered, and which we offer" (Summa, III, 83, 1, 1m); and this explains the reason that "by this sacrament, we are made partakers of the fruit of our Lord's Passion".
"Hence, in one of the Sunday Secrets we say: 'Whenever the commemoration of this sacrifice is celebrated, the work of our redemption is enacted'" (Summa, III, 83, 1, c.); thus, "it is proper to this sacrament for Christ to be sacrificed in its celebration", for the Old Testament contains only figures of his sacrifice (Summa, III, 83, 1, c.).
Today, we express this in the following: a real sacrifice which does not repeat that of Calvary but is the same in the modality of the sacrament..
The Holy Eucharist in St Thomas Aquinas
Inos Biffi
Taken from:
L'Osservatore Romano
Weekly Edition in English
30 March 2005, page 10
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