275. What are the names for this sacrament?
(Comp
275) The unfathomable richness of this sacrament is expressed in different
names which evoke its various aspects. The most common names are: the
Eucharist, Holy Mass, the Lord’s Supper, the Breaking of the Bread, the
Eucharistic Celebration, the Memorial of the passion, death and Resurrection of
the Lord, the Holy Sacrifice, the Holy and Divine Liturgy, the Sacred
Mysteries, the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, and Holy Communion.
“In
brief”
(From Comp.
275): These most common names evoke its various aspects: the Eucharist, Holy
Mass, the Lord’s Supper, the Breaking of the Bread, the Eucharistic
Celebration, the Memorial of the passion, death and Resurrection of the Lord,
the Holy Sacrifice, the Holy and Divine Liturgy, the Sacred Mysteries, the Most
Holy Sacrament of the Altar, and Holy Communion.
To deepen and
explain
(CCC 1328)
The inexhaustible richness of this sacrament is expressed in the different
names we give it. Each name evokes certain aspects of it. It is called:
Eucharist, because it is an action of thanksgiving to God. The Greek words eucharistein (Cf. Lk 22:19; 1 Cor 11:24)
and eulogein (Cf. Mt 26:26; Mk 14:22)
recall the Jewish blessings that proclaim - especially during a meal - God's
works: creation, redemption, and sanctification. (CCC 1329) The Lord's Supper,
because of its connection with the supper which the Lord took with his
disciples on the eve of his Passion and because it anticipates the wedding
feast of the Lamb in the heavenly Jerusalem (Cf. 1 Cor 11:20; Rev 19:9). The Breaking of Bread, because Jesus used
this rite, part of a Jewish meat when as master of the table he blessed and
distributed the bread (Cf. Mt 14:19; 15:36; Mk 8:6, 19), above all at the Last
Supper (Cf. Mt 26:26; 1 Cor 11:24). It is by this action that his disciples
will recognize him after his Resurrection (Cf. Lk 24:13-35), and it is this
expression that the first Christians will use to designate their Eucharistic
assemblies (Cf. Acts 2:42, 46; 20:7, 11); by doing so they signified that all
who eat the one broken bread, Christ, enter into communion with him and form
but one body in him (Cf. 1 Cor 10:16-17). The Eucharistic assembly (synaxis), because the Eucharist is celebrated
amid the assembly of the faithful, the visible expression of the Church (Cf. 1
Cor 11:17-34).
On reflection
(CCC 1330)
The memorial of the Lord's Passion
and Resurrection. The Holy Sacrifice,
because it makes present the one sacrifice of Christ the Savior and includes
the Church's offering. The terms holy
sacrifice of the Mass, "sacrifice of praise," spiritual sacrifice,
pure and holy sacrifice are also used (Heb 13:15; cf. 1 Pet 25; Ps 116:13,
17; Mal 1:11), since it completes and surpasses all the sacrifices of the Old
Covenant. The Holy and Divine Liturgy,
because the Church's whole liturgy finds its center and most intense expression
in the celebration of this sacrament; in the same sense we also call its celebration
the Sacred Mysteries. We speak of the
Most Blessed Sacrament because it is
the Sacrament of sacraments. The Eucharistic species reserved in the tabernacle
are designated by this same name. (CCC 1331) Holy Communion, because by this sacrament we unite ourselves to
Christ, who makes us sharers in his Body and Blood to form a single body (Cf. 1
Cor 10: 16-17). We also call it: the holy
things (ta hagia; sancta) (Apostolic
Constitutions 8, 13,12: PG 1, 1108; Didaché
9, 5; 10:6: SCh: 248, 176-178) - the first meaning of the phrase
"communion of saints" in the Apostles' Creed - the bread of angels, bread from heaven, medicine of immortality
(St. Ignatius of Antioch, Ad Eph. 20,
2 SCh 10, 76), viaticum.... (CCC
1332) Holy Mass (Missa), because the
liturgy in which the mystery of salvation is accomplished concludes with the
sending forth (missio) of the
faithful, so that they may fulfill God's will in their daily lives.
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