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Augustine
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Posted -
2006/5/24 上午 03:07:53
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New Theology or Old Heresy? -attempts to deny the doctrine of transubstantiation
MODERN MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE EUCHARIST
In 1966 the late Fr. Karl Rahner stated that "one can no longer maintain today that bread is a substance, as St. Thomas and the Fathers of the Council (of Trent) obviously thought it was".[12] For Rahner, the "substance" of a thing did not include its material and physical reality, but the "meaning and purpose" of the thing.[13] So, according to Karl Rahner, transubstantiation meant that, after the consecration of the Mass, the physical bread remained physical bread but it now had a new "meaning"(??) of spiritual food because it was now a "symbol" of Jesus Christ.[14]
Fr. Edward Schillebeeckx agreed with Fr. Karl Rahner that the physical bread and wine were ONLY a "sign" of Christ.[15] In fact, for Schillebeeckx, the "real presence" of Christ in the Eucharist was not the consecrated bread and wine, but the presence of Christ in the "assembled community".[16] This is why Schillebeeckx says that "I kneel, not before a Christ who is, as it were, condensed in the host, but before the Lord himself who is offering his reality, his body, to me through the host."[17]
This same theory of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist was accepted by some theologians in the United States. Thus, Tad W. Guzie, S. J. of Marquette University, says that the change in the bread and wine taking place through the consecration of the Mass is "not one that has to do with the physical order'."[18] And, Georgetown University professor, Monika K. Hellwig, suggests that Jesus' words at the Eucharist were not meant to identify the "bread" with his body, but that the "community" was the "embodiment . . . of Jesus".[19] Finally, Anthony Wilhelm, author of Christ Among Us (a catechism with "two million copies sold"), stated:
"When we say that the bread and wine 'become Christ' we are not saying that bread and wine are Christ . . . What we mean is that the bread and wine are a sign of Christ present, here and now, in a special way - not in a mere physical way, as if condensed into a wafer . ."[20]
It is most unfortunate that the errors of Berengarius are still with us today. They are to be found at the center of a maze of subtle, obfuscating theological language. It should come as no surprise then, that so many of today's Catholics are ignorant of the Church's teaching on the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. However, we have great hope that the light of Truth will dispell the Berengarian mists through the laity's loyal act of kneeling in Eucharistic Adoration at the Liturgy and the constant teaching of the Magisterium, exemplified by Pope John Paul's excellent Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Quotations:
[12]. Karl Rahner, S. J., Theological Investigations, vol. IV, trans. by Kevin Smyth (Baltimore: Helicon Press, 1966), p. 307. My parenthesis.
[13]. Karl Rahner, S.J., p. 307; Engelbert Gutwenger, "Transubstantiation," Encyclopedia of Theology: The Concise Sacramentum Mundi edited by Karl Rahner, (New York: The Seabury Press, 1975), p. 1754; St. Thomas Aquinas, On Being and Essence, chap. 2, no. 1, pp. 34-35. My emphasis.
[14]. Engelhert Gutwenger, pp. 1754-1755. My emphasis.
[15]. Edward Schillcbeeckx, O. P. The Eucharist, (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1968), p. 120.
[16]. Edward Schillebeeckx, O. P.. p. 120. My emphasis.
[17]. Edward Schillebeeckx, O. P., p. 120. My emphasis.
[18]. Tad W. Guzie, S. J., Jesus and the Eucharist (New York: Paulist Press, 1974), pp. 67-68. My parenthesis and my emphasis.
[19]. Monika K. Hellwig, Understanding Catholicism (New York: Paulist Press, 1981), p. 139.
[20]. Anthony Wilhelm, Christ Among Us, 5th revised edition (San Francisco: Harper Collins Pub., 1990), the cover and p. 216
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