Catholic apologist Joe Heschmeyer delves into the complex question of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist within Protestant denominations. He emphasizes the distinction between different modes of presence, acknowledging that Christ can be present in various ways, even in non-Catholic gatherings.
Transcript:
My question is, does the church teach that Christ can’t be substantially present in the Eucharist in Protestant churches? If so, where do we find this teaching in either scripture or apostolic tradition? I can certainly see how the church could teach that we only know for sure, that Christ is present when consecrated by a validly ordained priest, but it seems to me that Christ could indwell the host in a Protestant church if he chose to do so. The twist on your question is the particularity of substantially present, because Christ makes it very clear he’s present in a lot of different ways. Like it’s through Christ that the entire universe is held together in existence. We believe in the omnipresence of God, Jesus is God. Yet he’s present in another mode of presence as he’s walking the shores of Galilee teaching.
He talks about being present in some way where two or more are gathered in his name. And then in the Eucharist, he’s not simply present. Presence is maybe not a strong enough term. And we talk about it as his sacramental presence.
But the way we use the term presence now makes it sound like he’s simply in with it under the bread and wine, as Lutherans believe. And we believe in something richer, that when he says, this is my body, that what had previously been bread is now his body, and not his body substantially united to bread. So in terms of modes of presence,
Lutherans do not claim to have the kind of sacramental mode of presence that Christ declares, and that Catholics have and believe we have in the Eucharist.
So I would say that at the outset, but that there are different modes of presence. So even like in a different Protestant church, you may have what is purely and obviously merely a symbolic representation. And this wouldn’t be Lutherans, but maybe non-denominationals or Baptists, someone from more of a Zwingian tradition, would take merely a representational view. And yet, Christ is still present in some way in the proclamation of Scripture. He’s present in some way in the gathering of the people together in his name. And so we wouldn’t deny even there that there can be modes in which Christ is present, simply not in the full sacramental presence where it is his body that we find in the Eucharist.
Lutheranism is somewhat special because they are desirous of and pursuing
a deeper encounter with the presence of God than many other Protestants are.
And so there’s a pretty famous line from a letter that then Cardinal Ratzinger wrote in 1983 to a Lutheran, Johannes Hanselman, in which he writes, “Even a theology oriented to the concept of succession,” meaning apostolic succession, “such as that which holds in the Catholic and in the Orthodox Church, need not in any way deny the salvation granting presence of the Lord in a Lutheran Lord’s Supper.” In other words, like Lutherans don’t have the Eucharist as Catholics and Orthodox, there it is, understand. And they don’t really claim to have the same thing. And they don’t offer the Eucharistic sacrifice because only a priest offers a sacrifice.
And this is not a power given to the lay faithful. Nevertheless, Christ can still be present in a really rich way in a Lutheran Lord’s Supper, just not in the same way that he’s present in the Mass. Now, if you want to know the biblical evidence for why that is,
the biblical depiction of the Eucharist is that of a sacrificial offering. This was foretold in the Old Testament in Malachi, where we were told in chapter 1, verse 11, that from the rise of the Son to its setting, a pure offering or pure sacrifice would be offered to his name by the Gentiles.
They did okay. One of the first Christian texts outside of the Bible itself views this as foretelling how Gentiles will offer the Eucharistic sacrifice. Moreover, St. Paul, in trying to describe what happens in the Eucharist, compares it to the pagan and the Jewish sacrifices in 1 Corinthians 10. And the reason this matters is, as I mentioned, only a priest offers sacrifice. And so there is a clear sense of there being, especially even though we’re all a priestly people, as God said of Israel and as St. Peter reminds us of the Church, within this priestly people, there is a class of ordained priests. This was true in the Old Covenant, it’s true in the New Covenant as well. Isaiah 66, verse 21, talks about how the Gentiles will be gathered together and some of them, God will take as priests and Levites of the New Covenant. So that the priestly and Levitical system wasn’t simply like a beta test that God just scraps and decides to do something totally different. It is rather a prefigurement of what he’s doing with the priesthood in Diaconate. So all that’s to say, that’s a long answer. We don’t want to deny the presence of Christ in Christian gatherings, even if they’re not Catholic. If they’re baptized, if they are united in Christ in baptism, Christ shows up in many and various ways, including in a Lord’s Supper that they’re offering, particularly if they are trying to do what he tells them to do at the Last Supper. But his full presence, the real presence we talk about in the Catholic Church, the real presence believed in by Catholics and Orthodox, this requires the priesthood, only the priests at the time of Jesus, that’s just the apostles. Only the priests are brought to the Last Supper and told, “Do this.” He doesn’t tell the crowds, he doesn’t tell everybody. So it is a particular office tied to the ministerial priesthood and a sacrificial offering, and Lutheranism doesn’t have that, even if they have other modes of presence.
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