Eucharist
The Eucharist, also called Holy Communion, the Blessed Sacrament or the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite, considered a sacrament in most churches and an ordinance in others. Christians believe that the rite was instituted by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper, the night before his crucifixion, giving his disciples bread and wine. Passages in the New Testament state that he commanded them to "do this in memory of me" while referring to the bread as "my body" and the cup of wine as "the blood of my covenant, which is poured out for many". According to the synoptic Gospels, this was at a Passover meal.
The elements of the Eucharist, sacramental bread—either leavened or unleavened—and sacramental wine or non-alcoholic grape juice, are consecrated on an altar or a communion table and consumed thereafter. The consecrated elements are the end product of the Eucharistic Prayer.
Christians generally recognize a special presence of Christ in this rite, though they differ about exactly how, where, and when Christ is present. The Catholic Church states that the Eucharist is the body and blood of Christ under the species of bread and wine. It maintains that by the consecration, the substances of the bread and wine actually become the substances of the body and blood of Christ while the form and appearances of the bread and wine remain unaltered. The Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches agree that an objective change occurs of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. Lutherans believe the true body and blood of Christ are really present "in, with, and under" the forms of the bread and wine, known as the sacramental union. Reformed Christians believe in a real spiritual presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Anglican eucharistic theologies universally affirm the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, though Evangelical Anglicans believe that this is a spiritual presence, while Anglo-Catholics hold to a corporeal presence. Others, such as the Plymouth Brethren and the Jehovah's Witnesses, hold the Lord's Supper to be a memorial in which believers are "one with Him". As a result of these different understandings, "the Eucharist has been a central issue in the discussions and deliberations of the ecumenical movement."
Terminology
Eucharist
The New Testament was originally written in the Greek language and the Greek noun εὐχαριστία, meaning "thanksgiving", appears a few times in it, while the related Greek verb εὐχαριστήσας is found several times in New Testament accounts of the Last Supper, including the earliest such account:The term is that by which the rite is referred to in the Didache, by Ignatius of Antioch and by Justin Martyr. Today, "the Eucharist" is the name still used by Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, and Lutherans. Other Protestant denominations rarely use this term, preferring "Communion", "the Lord's Supper", "Remembrance", or "the Breaking of Bread". Latter-day Saints call it "the Sacrament".
Lord's Supper
In the First Epistle to the Corinthians Paul uses the term "Lord's Supper", in Greek Κυριακὸν δεῖπνον, in the early 50s of the 1st century:The term "Lord's Supper" came into popular use after the Protestant Reformation and remains the predominant term among certain Evangelicals, such as Baptists and Pentecostals.
File:Last-supper-from-Kremikovtsi.jpg|thumb|right|A Kremikovtsi Monastery fresco depicting the Last Supper celebrated by Jesus and his disciples. The early Christians too would have celebrated this meal to commemorate Jesus' death and subsequent resurrection.
Communion
Use of the term Communion to refer to the Eucharistic rite began by some groups originating in the Protestant Reformation. Others, such as the Catholic Church, do not formally use this term for the rite, but instead mean by it the act of partaking of the consecrated elements; they speak of receiving Holy Communion at Mass or outside of it, they also use the term First Communion when one receives the Eucharist for the first time. The term Communion is derived from Latin communio, translated from the Greek κοινωνία in 1 Corinthians 10:16:Other terms
Breaking of bread
The phrase κλάσις τοῦ ἄρτου appears in various related forms five times in the New Testament in contexts which, according to some, may refer to the celebration of the Eucharist, in either closer or symbolically more distant reference to the Last Supper. This term is used by the Plymouth Brethren.Sacrament or Blessed Sacrament
The "Blessed Sacrament", the "Sacrament of the Altar", and other variations, are common terms used by Catholics, Lutherans and some Anglicans for the consecrated elements, particularly when reserved in a tabernacle. In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the term "The Sacrament" is used of the rite.Mass
The term "Mass" is used in the Catholic Church, the Lutheran churches, and by some Anglicans. It derives from the Latin word missa, a dismissal: "Ite missa est", or "go, it is sent", the very last phrase of the service. That Latin word has come to imply "mission" as well because the congregation is sent out to serve Christ.At least in the Catholic Church, the Mass is a long rite in two parts: the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The former consists of readings from the Bible and a homily, or sermon, given by a priest or deacon. The latter, which follows seamlessly, includes the "Offering" of the bread and wine at the altar, their consecration by the priest through prayer, and their reception by the congregation in Holy Communion. Among the many other terms used in the Catholic Church are "Holy Mass", "the Memorial of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of the Lord", the "Holy Sacrifice of the Mass", and the "Holy Mysteries".
Divine Liturgy and Divine Service
The term Divine Liturgy is used in Byzantine Rite traditions, whether in the Eastern Orthodox Church or among the Eastern Catholic Churches. These also speak of "the Divine Mysteries", especially in reference to the consecrated elements, which they also call "the Holy Gifts".The term Divine Service has often been used to refer to Christian worship more generally and is still used in Lutheran churches, in addition to the terms "Eucharist", "Mass" and "Holy Communion". Historically this refers to service of God, although more recently it has been associated with the idea that God is serving the congregants in the liturgy.
Other Eastern rites
Some Eastern rites have yet more names for the Eucharist. Holy Qurbana is common in Syriac Christianity and Badarak in the Armenian Rite; in the Alexandrian Rite, the term prosphora is common in Coptic Christianity and Keddase in Ethiopian and Eritrean Christianity.History
Biblical basis
The Last Supper appears in all three synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It also is found in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, which suggests how early Christians celebrated what Paul the Apostle called the Lord's Supper. Although the Gospel of John does not reference the Last Supper explicitly, some argue that it contains theological allusions to the early Christian celebration of the Eucharist, especially in the chapter 6 Bread of Life Discourse but also in other passages.Gospels
The synoptic Gospels, Mark 14:22–25, Matthew 26:26–29 and Luke 22:13–20 depict Jesus as presiding over the Last Supper prior to his crucifixion. The versions in Matthew and Mark are almost identical, but the Gospel of Luke presents a textual difference, in that a few manuscripts omit the second half of verse 19 and all of verse 20, which are found in the vast majority of ancient witnesses to the text. If the shorter text is the original one, then Luke's account is independent of both that of Paul and that of Matthew/Mark. If the majority longer text comes from the author of the third gospel, then this version is very similar to that of Paul in 1 Corinthians, being somewhat fuller in its description of the early part of the Supper, particularly in making specific mention of a cup being blessed before the bread was broken.In the one prayer given to posterity by Jesus, the Lord's Prayer, the word epiousion—which is otherwise unknown in Classical Greek literature—was interpreted by some early Christian writers as meaning "super-substantial", and hence a possible reference to the Eucharist as the Bread of Life.
In the Gospel of John, however, the account of the Last Supper does not mention Jesus taking bread and "the cup" and speaking of them as his body and blood; instead, it recounts other events: his humble act of washing the disciples' feet, the prophecy of the betrayal, which set in motion the events that would lead to the cross, and his long discourse in response to some questions posed by his followers, in which he went on to speak of the importance of the unity of the disciples with him, with each other, and with God. Some would find in this unity and in the washing of the feet the deeper meaning of the Communion bread in the other three Gospels. In John 6:26–65, a long discourse is attributed to Jesus that deals with the subject of the living bread; John 6:51–59 also contains echoes of Eucharistic language.
First Epistle to the Corinthians
1 Corinthians 11:23–25 gives the earliest recorded description of Jesus' Last Supper: "The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”" The Greek word used in the passage for 'remembrance' is ἀνάμνησιν, which itself has a much richer theological history than the English word "remember".The expression "The Lord's Supper", derived from Paul's usage in 1 Corinthians 11:17–34, may have originally referred to the Agape feast, the shared communal meal with which the Eucharist was originally associated. The Agape feast is mentioned in Jude 12 but "The Lord's Supper" is now commonly used in reference to a celebration involving no food other than the sacramental bread and wine.