Eucharist (yōō´kərĬst) [Gr.,=thanksgiving], Christian sacrament
that repeats the action of Jesus at his last supper with his
disciples, when he gave them bread, saying, "This is my body,"
and wine, saying, "This is my blood." (Mat. 26; Mark 14; Luke
22; 1 Cor. 11.) Partaking is called communion. For Roman
Catholics the sacrament is a bloodless reenactment of the
crucifixion and therefore an act of sacrifice, but Protestant
Christians reject the idea of the Eucharist as sacrifice. The
performance is called the Eucharistic liturgy; the Roman and
Anglo-Catholic liturgy is the Mass. The official Roman Catholic
explanation of the change taking place in the sacrament, called
transubstantiation, is that the substances of bread and wine are
turned miraculously into the substance of Christ himself, the
elements changed retaining only the appearance, taste, etc. (the
accidents) of bread and wine. Catholic doctrine holds that the
Godhead is indivisible so every particle or drop thus changed is
wholly identical in substa