The Protestant Reformation
And the Abandoning of the True Presence.
The The Protestant Reformation that took place in the 16th century would be the second time that a major event would split the church. The first being the division between the west and east church. However this split would be a much more damaging split for the church and her people as the The Protestant Reformation went about removing the sacraments from the church and abandoning the true presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.
This is one of the greatest harms that the protestant reformation had done. The reason for this being so harmful is that it removes Christ from the Eucharist turning the Eucarist into a symble and not really being Jesus Christ. However if one would look towards The Bread of Life discourse one would find the importance of the Eucharist. “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day." [1] What this reviels is that a person can not obtain eternal life with the father if he does not partake of the Eucharist. However, one may replay with that what Jesus says there does not mean that the Eucharist truly is Jesus Christ himself. However if one continue to read John one will find this passage. "Then many of his disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?”" [2] From this point many of his disciples leave him over this hard saying however if Jesus was only talking about a symbol than why would any of his disciples leave him unless they understood that Christ meant that the Eucharist is truly his own body and blood.
Finally one can look at where the words from the Eucharistic Rite comes from in the Bible. "Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me.”" [3] "And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you" [4] Jesus uses the word is, such as a tree is a plant. Because of the word choice one can see that Jesus is saying that the bread and wine is his body and blood. Furthermore, St. Thomas gives a further example to how the Eucharist is Christ and how in the breaking of the bread we see the passion of Christ. The breaking of the host denotes three things: first, the rending
of Christ’s body, which took place in the Passion; secondly, the
distinction of His mystical body according to its various states;
and thirdly, the distribution of the graces which flow from Christ’s Passion. [5]
For fifteen hundred years of church history the Eucharist was always held as being Christ Jesus himself. It is because of this confusion brought about by The Protestant Reformation that great harm comes to the church and those who leave her. For the Protestant church provides another option to the Catholic church, however it is not as the Protestant church lacks the true presences of Christ in the Eucharist and thus tricking people to give up the Truth and salvation for comradery. This is the true evil of The Protestant Reformation and why it is of the upmost important that we inform our Protestant brothers and sister about the True Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist so that they may leave what is false and reunite with us in the Truth of Christ's Church.
[1] John 6:32-33 http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/6
[4] Luke 22:20 http://www.usccb.org/bible/luke/22
[5] Illa, Q.83, art.5, ad 7.
No comments:
Post a Comment