Reading this thread,hoping to learn what the Eucharist is,
my condolence to Catholics, but as a jew I don’t know. Would someone tell me what the Eucharist is?
“Eucharist,” which comes from the Greek word for “thanksgiving” (eu-good, charis-gift) refers to the Catholic belief that a priest changes natural bread and wine into the actual Body and Blood of Jesus Christ (transsubstantiation).
This takes place during the Mass, our religious service, and afterward, it is common for pieces of transsubstantiated bread (hosts) to be kept in a dish (ciborium) in a locked container (tabernacle) for distribution at other times and as a focus for prayer.
Removing the consecrated hosts from the tabernacle is a sacrilege ... and it would be even if you don’t believe in anything to do with the Christian religion, just as attacking Jewish religious articles or Hindu historic sites is an attack on other people as believers.
One possible motive for the robbery is to use the consecrated bread in Satanic ritual. Another is possibility is the belief that tabernacle and its contents have significant monetary value, which is usually not the case.
Sacraments are a means for the transmission of God's graces. They strengthen us morally and sustain us in the face of a world which often repudiates G-d's will. There are seven sacraments: Baptism, Penance (or confession), the Holy Eucharist, Confirmation (which has some parallels to the Bar Mitzvah), Matrimony, Holy Orders (by which priests are ordained), Extreme Unction (the final annointing of those in danger of death).
Thank you for your respectful concern. May G-d bless you and yours!
The Eucharist (also called the Blessed Sacrament) refers to the elements of bread and wine, which by consecration have become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. We believe this to be a true change of substance, or "transubstantiation."
What this means is that these elements which still have the appearance of bread and wine, are truly and "substantially" the whole and living Christ: Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.
(Don't ask me how: we don't know!)
Anyone who sees it this way, will see that these are the most sacred objects in the entire Universe.
Those who don't see it this way, must still understand that this has profound significance for believers in Christ.
Thieves who would break open a tabernacle to get at the gold-plated vessels of the altar, are committing a very great crime. If they do it for the purpose of desecration, as some Satanists have been known to do, this is infinitely worse: an Abomination.
The souls of those who did this, are in horrifying danger. That's why we are praying for them.
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