What Is Eucharist, and How Is It Different from Communion?

You should know up front that I’m a Baptist pastor. I also didn’t grow up in church. This means that I never heard of the word “eucharist” until a bit later in life. It also means that to me, the Lord’s Supper and Communion were the same thing.

Boy, was I shocked when I was castigated by an older Baptist preacher when I referred to the Lord’s Supper as Communion. And would you believe that I also got in trouble once for suggesting that we have the Lord’s Supper during our morning service? It was because we don’t have supper during the morning.

All of this to say that words do have meaning, but sometimes they get lost in translation. And sometimes words are used like identical twins but in reality, there is a pretty substantial difference between them. And to make things even more confusing, sometimes it matters who is using a certain word.

What Is Eucharist?

The Eucharist comes from the Greek word eucharistia, which means “thanksgiving.” It has to do with the reception of the body and blood of Christ, instituted at the Last Supper. But how specifically that is defined is what divides various Christian traditions.

The Eucharist is technically the consecrated host — it is the wafer and wine. For a Roman Catholic, through transubstantiation, the wafer and wine change into the “body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ.” For other traditions, Christ is present in the wafer and wine but it is not transformed into that substance. And still other traditions believe that the wafer and wine (or grape juice) is a symbol pointing to the sacrifice of Christ.

It gets a little confusing because the Liturgy of the Eucharist is often shortened to Eucharist. This is how the USCCB explains the Liturgy of the Eucharist,

“The Liturgy of the Eucharist begins with the preparation of the gifts and the altar. As the ministers prepare the altar, representatives of the people bring forward the bread and wine that will become the Body and Blood of Christ. The celebrant blesses and praises God for these gifts and places them on the altar, the place of the Eucharistic sacrifice. In addition to the bread and wine, monetary gifts for the support of the Church and the care of the poor may be brought forward. The Prayer over the Offerings concludes this preparation and disposes all for the Eucharistic Prayer."

This, then, is what other traditions would refer to as the Lord’s Supper or Communion. Some would call this a sacrament. Others might call it an ordinance.

Who or What Denominations Practice Eucharist?

Again, it depends on what we mean by Eucharist. Typically, those of a more evangelical persuasion (or a lower-church tradition) will not use the term eucharist, as it has too many Catholic connotations. But more mainstream traditions (such as Anglican, Methodist, Lutheran, etc.) might still use the term — though many prefer the phrase Holy Communion.

But if we’re talking about the Liturgy of Eucharist as outlined by the USCCB above, only Catholics would observe. To my knowledge this is a distinctive of the Catholic Church (though it could be argued that Orthodox traditions also believe in transubstantiation, but less dogmatically).

Why Is It Believed That the Eucharist Is the Literal Body and Blood of Christ?

There are a few sources or streams which feed into the belief that the Eucharist is the literal body/blood of Christ. First, are the Scriptures. It is believed that in John 6:26 Jesus is promising that we would feed upon his literal body. And then in the Synoptics and in 1 Corinthians 11:23, he says, “This is my body.” This is how Catholic Answers addresses the topic,

“By the miracles of the loaves and fishes and the walking upon the waters, on the previous day, Christ not only prepared His hearers for the sublime discourse 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, none other, in fact, than His own Flesh and Blood.”

Secondly, a Catholic will give much weight to Tradition. J.N.D. Kelly (a Protestant, nonetheless) says this,

“Eucharistic teaching, it should be understood at the outset, was in general unquestioningly realist, i.e., the consecrated bread and wine were taken to be, and were treated and designated as, the Savior’s body and blood” (Early Christian Doctrines, 440).

There are many quotes from early church believers which can be wielded to teach that the church has always believed in the Real Presence of Christ. And it seems to have gone mostly unchallenged until a debate in 831 AD between a couple of monks named Rabanus and Ratramnus. As is typically the case, when a controversy arises, the church position becomes more solidified. Eventually Aquinas brought about a full-fledged doctrine of transubstantiation that became definitive.

Thus, combining Scripture and tradition, the Catholic church would teach the doctrine of the real presence of Christ in the observance of the Eucharist.

How Is This Different from Communion?

From a Catholic perspective, there is a difference between the Eucharist or the Liturgy of the Eucharist, and Communion. The best way I have seen this explained is by saying, 

“The Eucharist is the consecrated host (wafer) which Christians believe is the actual body of Christ (Catholics) or representative of the body of Christ (non Catholics). Communion is the act of sharing the host among the congregation.”

To put that another way (if I’m understanding correctly) the Eucharist is the body and blood of Christ; it is presented as an offering. Communion is when you actually partake of the body and blood of Christ. This is how one Bishop explained it:

“It is offering that differentiates Mass from a Communion service, and it is offering that provides the context for full, conscious and active participation. The internal participation of offering, expressed and deepened by external participation (vocal responses, singing, postures, etc.), is the heart of what it means to ‘celebrate the Eucharist.’ Both internal and external participation are necessary, since each one deepens and reinforces the other.

In the popular mind, all too often the purpose of Mass is still seen as an action simply to consecrate hosts; some people think their participation in the Eucharistic Prayer is all about watching the priest and then receiving Holy Communion. They do not understand the need to offer themselves with Christ to the Father in the Spirit during the Prayer, nor do they understand that their parts in the Prayer (Introductory Dialogue, Sanctus, Memorial Acclamation and Great Amen) are the outward signs of their participation in the entire Prayer.”

The Eucharist is also different than Holy Communion (observed by Protestants) in that a Protestant does not believe that the actual blood and body of Christ are offered through transubstantiation. They would either believe that Christ is spiritually present or that He is symbolically present in the observance of Holy Communion.

Finding Common Ground

There is a difference between a Catholic understanding of Eucharist/Holy Communion and that of Protestants. We do have some basic similarities though. All groups believe that in some way when we partake of the Lord’s Supper, we are expressing (and actually united with) the Person and work of Jesus Christ. Both groups will also connect the Holy Communion with Christ to our communion with other believers as well.

We might use different words and have some differences around concepts, but at the end of the day all are viewing this as a participation in the work of Christ. We just mean different things by that. 

Photo credit: Unsplash/James Coleman