Helmut Hoping - My body given for you : history and theology of the Eucharist

MY BODY GIVEN FOR YOU

HELMUT HOPING

History and Theology of the Eucharist

Translated by Michael J. Miller
from the second expanded German edition

IGNATIUS PRESS SAN FRANCISCO

Original German edition:
Mein Leib fr euch gegeben:
Geschichte und Theologie der Eucharistie
2nd expanded edition
2015 by Verlag Herder GmbH, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from Revised Standard Version of the BibleSecond Catholic Edition (Ignatius Edition) copyright 2006 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Unless otherwise indicated, all quotations from council and papal documents have been taken from the Vatican website.

Cover art: robertharding/stock.adobe.com

Cover design by Riz Boncan Marsella

2019 by Ignatius Press, San Francisco
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-1-62164-189-6 (PB)
ISBN 978-1-64229-098-1 (EB)
Library of Congress Catalogue number 2019931430
Printed in the United States of America

For Alexander Gerken

What was visible in our Savior
has passed over into the Mysteries.

Pope Leo the Great

A. The Biblical Accounts of the Last Supper

B. The Last Suppera Passover Meal?

C. The Discourse about the Bread of Heaven and the Washing of the Feet

A. The Christian Meal Celebration in the New Testament

B. The Eucharistic Prayers of the Didache

C. The Eucharist as Sacrifice and the Verba Testamenti (Words of Institution)

A. The Eucharist in Greek Patristic Writings

B. The Eucharist in Latin Patristic Writings

C. Eucharistic Prayers: Traditio Apostolica , Ambrose

A. The Celebration of Mass in Rome until Late Antiquity

B. Canon Romanus : The Roman Eucharistic Prayer

C. Carolingian Reform and Allegorical Interpretations of the Mass

A. The Medieval Eucharistic Controversies

B. The Ontology of the Doctrine of Transubstantiation

C. Eucharistic Devotion in the Middle Ages

A. Luthers Battle against the Roman Mass

B. The Intra-Reformation Debate over the Lords Supper

C. The Sacrament of the Eucharist and the Sacrifice of the Mass

A. On the Way to the Standard Missal

B. The Missale Romanum (1570)

C. New Editions and Beginnings of Reform

A. Liturgical Movement and Reform of the Liturgy

B. Implementation of the Reform of the Missal

C. The Return of the Traditional Liturgy

A. The Ordinary Form of the Mass (1970)

Excursus: The Apostolic Tradition and Eucharistic Prayer II

B. The Extraordinary Form of the Mass (1962)

C. Prayer Orientation and the Ars Celebrandi

A. Jesus Died for Israel and the Gentiles

B. Participation in the Eucharist

C. The Voice of the Churches

A. Eucharist: Sacrament of Unity

B. Ecumenism with the Churches of the Reformation

C. Ecumenism with the Orthodox Churches

A. Gift of Life and of Offering

B. Gift of Presence and Communion

C. Gift of Transformation and Eternal Life

In the past, dogmatic theology has usually treated the meaning of the Eucharist while disregarding the form of its liturgical celebration, whereas for a long time liturgical studies have been content with the latter. Yet the meaning and the liturgical form of the Eucharist cannot be separated any more than liturgy and dogma or pastoral practice and doctrine can. For the Churchs liturgy is not about something external to Christian revelation but, rather, about revelation accepted in faith and prayer (Joseph Ratzinger). Nowhere is the Church so much in her element as in the liturgy. Even though the life of the Church does not consist exclusively of the liturgyamong its fundamental actualizations are martyria [witness] and diakonia [service] alsothe liturgy of the Church is nevertheless the source and summit of all Christian life.

Since faith and worship belong together inseparably, this book, which first appeared in German in 2011, combines the systematic theological approach to the Eucharist of dogmatic theology with the perspective of liturgical studies. The book elicited various reactions. A very polemical review by Herbert Vorgrimler (19292014) appeared in Stimmung der Zeit (2013), and an objective, generally positive discussion of the book by Bertram Stubenrauch in Theologische Revue (2013). At the end of his major study on the Offertorium (2013; 3rd ed., 2014), Arnold Angenendt approved of my understanding of the sacrifice of Christ and the Church. This year [2015] an Italian edition of the first edition of my Geschichte und Theologie der Eucharistie was published by Queriniana.

For the second, expanded edition, the book was examined, revised, and enlarged with a comparative analysis of Eucharistic Prayer II and the historical basis for the text, a chapter on the theology of the words of institution, and a subject index. The appendices contain, in addition to the Latin and English text of Eucharistic Prayer I, the text of parts of the Eucharistic Prayer handed down by Ambrose, the Eucharistic Prayer of the Apostolic Tradition , and Eucharistic Prayer II.

When historical figures are first mentioned, the year of birth and the year of death, if certain, are indicated, and in other instances only the year of death, with the exception of the popes of the Catholic Church, in which case the time of their pontificate is noted. Primary sources are cited from the usual editions; magisterial documents of the Catholic Church are cited as far as possible from Denzinger-Hunermann, otherwise by noting the year and chapter or paragraph number. Translations may differ in some details from the editions of the text that are cited. Abbreviations follow the list of abbreviations in the third edition of the Lexikon fr Theologie und Kirche [with the addition of several standard English-language series of patristic works].

For their enterprising assistance in preparing the new edition of my book on the Eucharist, I thank my coworkers Andrea Hauber, Anna Jaschinski, Moritz Findeisen, Andreas Fritzsch, and Peter Paul Morgalla. To Dr. Stephan Weber, a reader at Herder Verlag, I owe a debt of gratitude for the long-standing good collaboration between publisher and author.

Freiburg im Breisgau, on the Feast of Saint Augustine, 2015

Helmut Hoping

The Eucharist as the Center of Theology

The Eucharist goes back to the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples. It is based on the prayer of thanksgiving that Jesus pronounced over the bread and wine at that meal. Eucharist, derived from the Greek , means thanksgiving, praise, and blessing. By the celebration of the Eucharist we usually mean the celebration of Holy Mass. In the narrower sense, the Eucharistic celebration is the second part of the Mass after the Liturgy of the Word. The Roman Missal foresees the singing of the antiphona ad introitum [entrance antiphon] at the opening of the Mass; nowadays as a rule it is replaced by an opening hymn. Introitus means entrance, beginning, or prelude. The function of the Introitus is to introduce the theme of the Mass.

Introducing the subject of a book is the job of its introduction. The subject of this book is the history and theology of the Eucharist. The Church celebrates the Eucharist as a memorial of the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The memorial of the Eucharist is more than a remembrance of the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples. In the Eucharist, the sacrifice of our redemption becomes present sacramentally. The constitution Sacrosanctum concilium (1963) of the Second Vatican Council (19621965) declares about the sacred liturgy: At the Last Supper, on the night when He was betrayed, our Savior instituted the eucharistic sacrifice [ sacrificium eucharisticum ] of His Body and Blood. He did this in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross [ sacrificium crucis ] throughout the centuries until He should come again.