Eastern Eucharistic piety stands in vivid contrast to the late Medieval Latin practice of the veneration of the Host, an expression, on the level of spirituality, of the doctrine of transubstantiation. In the East, no philosophical terminology was applied specifically to the Eucharistic mystery, which was not considered in isolation from the Christological facts: the transfiguration of the body of Christ, the “change” which occurred in it after the resurrection and which, through the power of the Spirit, is also at work in the entire body of the baptized faithful, that is, in the “total” Christ. Thus, to designate the Eucharist, the theologians used terms found in the ancient liturgical texts, such as metabole (change), metarrythmesis (change of order), metastoicheiosis (trans-elementation), metamorphosis (transfiguration). The language is always tentative, imprecise, and applicable not only to the Eucharistic elements as such but also to paschal and eschatological notions, which reflect salvation in Christ of the entire people of God. The Patriarch Nicephorus (early ninth century) wrote “We confess that by the priest’s invocation, by the coming of the Most Holy Spirit, the body and blood of Christ are mystically and invisibly made present … not because the body ceases to be a body, but because it remains so and is preserved as body.” Christ becomes present to us!

Perhaps more important than any speculative argument devised by theologians, the liturgical tradition has preserved the same Christological and ecclesial dimension of the Body, manifested in the Eucharist. The Eucharistic prayers of the community, formulated in the first person plural, so that communion with Christ is not a matter of individual piety but of joining together within his single Body. Second, they are addressed to the Father, by an assembly of baptized persons who, in virtue of their baptism are already “in Christ.” The unbaptized catechumens, (those studying to become a member of the Church), the excommunicated and the penitents do not join in the prayer.

It should be truly remembered that in the early Church, the only persons who were allowed to participate in the Anaphora of the Liturgy were baptized persons. All others had to leave the place of worship before the creed and the act of consecrating the Gifts that represent life. Today, as you know, even un-believers can stay through the entire Divine Liturgy.