Deification through the Eucharist in Thomas Aquinas: Deepening Our Reading of Benedict XVI's Sacramentum Caritatis for Eucharistic Revival

ABSTRACT: In response to the U.S. bishops' call for Eucharistic Revival, this article proposes a renewed awareness of the doctrine of deification through the Eucharist, believed in by the Catholic Church, celebrated in the Roman Rite, and lived in faith-filled charity, toward the recovery of what Benedict XVI has termed a congruentia Eucharistica in the lives of the faithful. Taking Benedict XVI's Sacramentum Caritatis (2007) as inspiration and guide, the article applies the teaching of Thomas Aquinas on sanctifying grace, perfective instrumental causality of the sacraments, Eucharist, and participation, demonstrating Thomas's theological influence in the teachings of the apostolic exhortation and enabling a deeper reading of Sacramentum Caritatis .