De voorganger in de eucharistie als sacrament van de ecclesiale Christus

Abstract

In this article, the author offers a contemporary theology of the president of the Eucharist. His choice is an explicit ecclesial approach of the liturgical minister, but also with respect to the christological aspects of liturgical leadership. Therefore it is his conviction that the president of the Eucharist is before all the representative of the ecclesial community. But it is because he acts in the name of the Church that the priest also represents and acts in the person of Christ, the Head of the Church, not vice versa. Representing the Church, the president of the Eucharist serves as transparency for the ground of the Church: Christ himself. He reveals (‘révélateur’) and brings about (‘opérateur’) the identity of the Church: to become what she really is, the Body of Christ. The Christ, represented by the minister, is the ecclesial Christ, which means the Risen Christ transforming the community into His Body through the Spirit. There can be no immediate representation of Christ by the leader of the Eucharist, only of the Christ mediated by the assembly. In other words, the one who presides over the Eucharist is the ‘sacrament of the ecclesial Christ’.