Sunday 20 (B): Read Jn 6: 51-68
For these remaining two Sundays which will complete our reading of the 6th Chapter of St. John, I would
like to outline the teaching of the Pope in his most recent Encyclical on the Eucharist. The title of the Encyclical in Latin
reads “Ecclesia de Eucharistia”, which is translated as “The Church draws Her life from the Eucharist”. The Encyclical has an introduction, six chapters and a conclusion.
This week I will try to address the introduction and the first three chapters.
In the Introduction, the Holy Father explains that the title of
the Encyclical sums up “the heart of the mystery of the Church” (§1), namely, Christ’s promise to be present
with us until the end of time; in the Eucharist He is present with “unique intensity”. The Eucharist contains
the Church’s entire spiritual wealth: Christ Himself. Even the Apostles would only understand the Last Supper after
Christ’s death and Resurrection, i.e. after what we call the Paschal Mystery.
The Church was born of the Paschal Mystery; the Eucharist, which is the very special sacrament of that Mystery, stands
at the center of the Church’s life. Every Eucharist or Mass should make us meditate again on the Paschal Mystery. The
hour at Mass, the hour of Jesus, of His loving sacrifice for us, the hour of redemption, are all one and the same hour.
The Eucharist brings about a mysterious oneness of time between the Paschal Mystery and the passing of the centuries. The
Pope hopes this will fill us with gratitude and amazement as we gather for Mass, as we seek to grasp the immense capacity
of the Eucharist to unite us in time and space.
The Pope wants to rekindle our Eucharistic amazement. He recalls his many pastoral visits around the world and writes
how the Eucharist “is always in some way celebrated on the altar of the world” (§8). The Eucharist is the most precious possession of the Church and so She has always shown lively concern
towards the Eucharistic mystery. He lists many past documents defending and explaining Catholic doctrine on the Eucharist.
He also notes how Vatican II’s reforms have greatly contributed to a more conscious, active and fruitful participation
in the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar by the faithful. He is encouraged by the growth in Eucharistic Adoration which stirs desires
of holiness deep within. But the Pope also notes with sadness that in some places adoration has been almost completely abandoned;
that there is confusion about correct Eucharistic doctrine; that sometimes Mass is seen just as a fraternal banquet; that
the necessity of the priest is at times forgotten; and that the Eucharist is seen not as the Body and Blood of Christ, but
merely as a symbol that teaches brotherly love. Sometimes in a false spirit of ecumenism, albeit well-intentioned, people
indulge in mistaken Eucharistic practices. The Pope exclaims: “The Eucharist is too great a gift to tolerate ambiguity and depreciation.” That is why he writes this
Encyclical and how he ends the introduction.
Chapter 1 is entitled: The Mystery of Faith. The Eucharist was instituted
by Christ so that we would remember His sacrifice of love for us and proclaim His death
and Resurrection until He returned. The Eucharist is not just one gift among others, but Christ’s gift par excellence, for in it is contained His divine person, His sacred humanity, His saving work. By the words of
the priest and the power of the Spirit the Church re-presents the sacrifice of Calvary: we are there. Calvary and the Mass are one single sacrifice, nothing more, nothing less. This
is a great mystery, a mystery of mercy. The Pope asks: “What more could Jesus have done for us?”
The universal charity of Christ is expressed both in the sacrifice He made of Himself to the Father and, inseparably, in the sacred banquet of communion in His body and blood given for us. The sacrifice of Jesus is firstly a gift of loving obedience to God the Father, a gift accepted
by the Father in the Resurrection of Jesus to immortal life. In the Eucharist, Christ
gives this sacrifice of His and its acceptance by the Father to us as a gift and, in turn, unites to Himself
our spiritual gifts of ourselves, offering it all to the Father. Because the Mass also makes present the bodily Resurrection
of Jesus, it involves a most special presence which, in the words of Pope Paul VI,
“is called ‘real’, not as a way of excluding all other types
of presence as if they were not real, but because it is a presence in the fullest sense: a substantial presence whereby Christ,
the God-Man, is wholly and entirely present” (§15). Independently of our minds, the consecration of the bread and
wine effects the change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord, and the whole
substance of the wine into the substance of His blood. This is what we call transubstantiation and it is a dogma of faith
which our minds can penetrate only haltingly, but our hearts can accept fully.
The Pope then explains that the saving power of the sacrifice is fully realized in communion: the inward union
of the faithful with Christ. He is our banquet, our nourishment, our life: “My flesh is food indeed, and my blood is
drink indeed” (Jn 6:55). Through communion in His Body and Blood, Christ also grants us His Holy Spirit
that we may “become one body, one spirit, in Christ.”
But the Eucharist is also a straining towards the final goal: “until He comes again.” By it we already
receive in us the pledge of our own bodily resurrection. In a beautiful Phrase, the Pope writes: “With the Eucharist we digest, as it were, the ‘secret’ of the resurrection” (§18). St.
Ignatius of Antioch defines the Eucharist as “a medicine of immortality, an antidote to death”
(ibid.). This straining ahead also speaks to our oneness with the Church in heaven, yet it spurs us equally to greater commitment
to our responsibilities for the world of today. The Holy Father underlines this point strongly. He lists the many problems
of today’s world and Church, but He speaks of the hope of heaven which comes from Christ’s presence with us in
the Eucharist. It is the promise of a humanity renewed by his love. Partaking of the Eucharist thus means we let our entire
lives become Eucharistic and work for the Eucharistic transformation of the world.
Chapter Two of the Encyclical is entitled: The Eucharist Builds the Church.
To the question: “how does the Church grow?” Vatican II answers: “as often as the sacrifice of the Cross
is celebrated on the altar, the work of our redemption is carried out.” From the first time the apostles took the bread
and the cup from the hands of Jesus until the end of time, the Church is built up through sacramental communion with
the Son of God. Each of us receives Christ and Christ receives each of us, bringing
about a mutual abiding of Christ and each of His followers, His friends. This
is intended to strengthen us to carry out the mission of being the Church, Christ’s sign and instrument of unity for
the whole of humanity. Thus the Eucharist is the source and summit of all evangelization and catechesis.
But Eucharistic communion also strengthens the unity that has been built up. Those who eat the same bread become
more intimately one Body in the Lord. The work of the Son and the Spirit are inseparable at the origins of the Church, in
Her continued life and in the Eucharist itself. This gift of Christ and his Spirit more than fulfils the yearning for fraternal
unity deeply rooted in the human heart; yet it also elevates that fraternity to a much higher level.
The Pope ends Chapter two with a reflection on the worship of the Eucharist outside of the Mass: it is a witness of
faith to the abiding presence of Christ in the Eucharist and is an opportunity for spiritual communion with Him. The Eucharist
is a priceless treasure, the very well-spring of grace: a serious Christian community cannot then fail to develop Eucharistic
worship.
Chapter Three is entitled: The Apostolicity of the Eucharist and of the
Church. The Pope singles out the word apostolic for consideration. Apostolic means: “built on the apostles”.
The Eucharist too is “built” on them: they were the first to receive it and to celebrate it. Apostolic also means:
“faithful to the teaching of the Apostles”. Again, the Eucharist is apostolic in this sense, for it is
celebrated and taught according to the doctrine of the apostles. Although constantly refined, the apostolic faith remains
unchanged. Finally, apostolic means that “the Church continues to be taught, sanctified and guided by the Apostles
until Christ returns”. This happens through the Bishops, assisted by priests, in union with the Successor of Peter,
in what we call uninterrupted apostolic succession. The Eucharist expresses this
by the fact that the ordained priest, acting in the person of Christ, brings about the Eucharistic Sacrifice and offers it
to God in the name of all the people. That is why the priest alone recites the Eucharistic prayer, while the people participate
in faith and silence.
The Pope insists on the teaching that acting in the person of Christ does not just mean ‘in the name of’
or ‘in the place of’ Christ, but refers to the sacramental identification
of the priest with Christ. Nobody can replace the priest in the Eucharist, for
the priesthood is a gift which comes from Christ Himself through the Apostolic Succession; and hence the ordained priest is the essential link between the Eucharistic consecration, the sacrifice of the Cross and the Last
Supper.
The Holy Father then tackles a few issues raised by ecumenism and the Eucharist. Basically he states that where apostolic succession has been broken, or ordained priesthood rejected, there can be no
true Eucharist. He says Catholics, while remaining respectful, must refrain from receiving the communion distributed in
their celebrations. Why? So as not to condone ambiguity about the truth of the
Eucharist and so as to avoid failing to bear clear witness to that truth. This surely would slow true progress to real unity.
The Pope also says that it is unthinkable to substitute for Sunday Mass ecumenical celebrations. Such celebrations, he says,
can be praiseworthy but only in the sense that they prepare for full communion, not replace it.
The Pope then moves on to speak of why the Eucharist is the center and summit of priestly ministry. The priesthood
and the Eucharist were born together. Priests may do many things, but in doing them, may often lose their focus. That focus
is the Eucharist, the center and root of all priestly life and the heart of the promotion of priestly vocations.
The Pope concludes chapter 3 by expressing his distress that many communities do not have a priest. Sometimes there
are attempts to remedy the situation by communion services, led by a deacon or a lay person. This is praiseworthy, says the
Holy Father, but such solutions must be considered temporary and should inspire communities to pray with greater fervor
that the Lord send more priests. It should also be an incentive to everyone to mobilize the resources necessary for promoting
authentic priestly vocations. Any lay leader must remember to keep alive in a community without a priest a genuine hunger
for the Eucharist.
Msgr. Peter Magee
Sunday, August 17th,
2003: St. Matthew’s Cathedral, DC, 10.00 am;
St. Thomas, DC, 12.00 noon
