The Eucharist is a sacrament accepted by almost all Christians, and is reenacted in accordance with Jesus’ instruction at the Last Supper, as recorded in several books of the New Testament, that his followers do in remembrance of him as when he gave his disciples bread, saying, “This is my body”, and gave them wine saying, “This is my blood.”
Christians generally recognize a special presence of Christ in this rite, though they differ about exactly how, where, and when Christ is present. While all agree that there is no perceptible change in the elements, some believe that they actually become the body and blood of Christ, others believe in a “real” but merely spiritual presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and still others take the act to be only a symbolic reenactment of the Last Supper.
In this lecture give at St. Philip’s in the Hills Episcopal Church in 2010, Geshe Michael talks about faith and the transformation of the eucharist based on the perspective of the Buddhist ideas of karma and emptiness.
Options for Further Study
To deepen your study on many of the topics introduced in this lecture, please refer to the following courses on The Knowledge Base:
Lectures about Christianity on The Knowledge Base
Teachings about Yoga on The Knowledge Base
