Cornerstone Curriculum, Official Certification Edition

LESSON 1 | THEOLOGY OF THE CHURCH: THE CHURCH AT WORSHIP / 279

Catholics continue to teach ex opere operato but have nuanced their teaching to reemphasize that receiving the sacraments in faith is not just a Protestant idea but is necessary to the Catholic view as well by saying that “[the sacraments] presuppose faith” and that, “celebrated worthily in faith, the sacraments confer grace.”

~ Catechism of the Catholic Church . Liguori, MO: Liguori Publications, 1994. pp. 291-293.

E. There are four basic Christian views on the Lord’s Supper (see The Lord’s Supper: Four Views on page 264 in Picturing Theology: An A-Z Collection of TUMI’s Key Diagrams, Charts, Graphics, and Articles ).

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1. Transubstantiation is the belief that the bread and wine become the literal body and blood of Jesus Christ. This is the view of the Lord’s Supper held by Roman Catholic Christians.

page 144 & 17

C hr i s t i an M i n i s t ry

a. Matt. 26.26

b. John 6.53-60

By the miracle of the loaves and the fishes and the walking upon the waters, on the previous day, Christ not only prepared his hearers for the sublime discourse [of John 6] containing the promise of the Eucharist, but also proved to them that he possessed, as Almighty God-man, a power superior to and independent of the laws of nature, and could therefore, provide such a supernatural food, no other, in fact than his own Flesh and Blood. ~ Joseph Pohle. “Eucharist.” Readings in Christian Theology . Vol. 3. Millard Erickson, ed. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1973.