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영어

The text explains the latest status of research by means of the example of a new ecumenical document, which takes up the still open questions concerning the problem of the eucharistic sacrifice. The document chooses new methods including even more intensely than hitherto exegetic results of the history of tradition (Traditionsgeschichte) and the reflection on the history of the problem. The Church receives the eucharist as a gift from the Lord. St. Paul wrote: "I have received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said: This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance(anamnesis) of me. In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying. This cup is the new covenent in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."(Ⅰ). So it is possible to win an authentic biblical outline of the concept of sacrifice. Thus the eucharist continues these meals of Jesus during his earthly life and after his resurrection, always as a sign of the Kingdom. Christians see the eucharist prefigured in the Passover memorial of Israel's deliverance from the land of bondage and in the meal of the Covenant on Mount Sinai(Ex.24). It is the new paschal meal of the Church, the meal of the New Covenant(Ⅱ). On this basis a common interpretation of the very difficult concept of "sacrifice of the church" is obtained for the first time. It is in the light of the significance of the eucharist as intercession that referances to the eucharist in Catholic theology as "propitiatory sacrific" may be understood. The understandingis that there is only expiation, that of the unique sacrifice of the cross, made actual in the eucharist and presented befor the Father in the intercession of Christ and of the Church for all humanity. In the light of the biblical conception of memorial, all churches might want to review the old controversies about "sacrifice and deepen their understanding of the reason why other traditions than their own have either used or rejected this term(Ⅲ). The text belonging to the bilateral colloquy between Lutherans and Roman Catholics does not pretend to be formally a full consensus, but it is "a common statement, which permits an agreement on this difficult subject"(Ⅳ).