Hrana sacră: o privire comparativă între Euharistie şi alte mâncăruri sacre din diferite religii
The Holy Bread: a comparative approach upon Eucharist and other sacred aliments from other religion

Summary/Abstract: We have chosen this topic because it relates to the Eucharist, a subject that the Romanian Patriarchate required to be analysed. We came to the conclusion that in all great religions there is the idea of "sacred food" that connects man with the divine world. By eating this food, man is consecrated and projected into the spiritual world, where he becomes a partner of the divine presence. To be more specific, we shall analyse different religions from this point of view. In the Eastern World, if we think of the Shinto faith, we can see that the bowl of rice offered through the Tori gate to the shrine of Amaterasu is a traditional Japanese sacred gesture. The plant called soma by the Indians and haoma by the Iranians is a plant with hallucinogenic properties when consumed. Its consumption produces an ecstatic mental state. In Sikhism prasad is a foreshadowing of the Eucharist. The elements foreshadowing Eucharist can also be found in the water of the Istros river that the Dacians drank before battle and in the offerings consumed in the Greco-Roman temples. Finally, the Jews created a number of dishes that refer to the sacralization of food. The kosher foods, the Easter foods, the foods associated with the major religious holidays, all these are about creating a sacred atmosphere. The Christian world is the Eucharistic fulfillment of mankind. All the attempts of spiritual food are absorbed in the Eucharist. There are big differences between all religious forms of spiritual nourishment and the great mystery of the Eucharist. There is no equivalence between them. Through the Sacrament of the Eucharist humanity changes, gets its ontological status because the communion gives man a divine structure. Man becomes a god by receiving the Body and Blood of Christ. God enters the human and the human becomes godlike. No other food nor sacral complementarity does it lead to such a state. Man becomes God through the divine sacrament. This is the state that exceeds the material and it involves the sacredness and sacralization the man tends to.

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