Many events in the Church in the last three years have in a special
way oriented our attention to
the Holy Eucharist. In April 2003, the Servant of God, Pope John
Paul II, gave to the Church the
beautiful Encyclical Letter, Ecclesia de Eucharistia. At his
direction, the Congregation for Divine
Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments issued the Instruction,
Redemptionis Sacramentum
in March 2004. A special Eucharistic Year declared by Pope John Paul
was celebrated by the whole
Church from October 2004 to October 2005. The October 2005 Synod of
Bishops has the Eucharistic
mystery as its theme. In this specially Eucharistic climate, it is
fitting that we now reflect on what the Lord Jesus asks of us in
this mystery of the Holy Eucharist. The Eucharistic mystery calls
for our response.
1. Holy Eucharist: Christ’s inestimable gift We begin with a
statement of fact. The Holy Eucharist is Christ’s inestimable gift
to his Church. He did not just live for us, work miracles, teach us,
and suffer, die and
rise again for love of us and for our salvation. He found a
wonderful way to continue to be with us and to associate
his Church with his sacrifice in a sacramental way. The Second
Vatican Council summarizes our faith in the Eucharistic mystery: “At
the Last Supper, on the night when He was betrayed, our Saviour
instituted the Eucharistic Sacrifice of His Body and Blood. He did
this in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout
the centuries until He should come again, and so to entrust to His
beloved spouse, the Church, a memorial of His death and
resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of
charity, a paschal banquet in which Christ is consumed, the mind is
filled with grace, a pledge of future glory is given to us” (Sacrosanctum
Concilium, 47; cf also Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1323). The
Holy Eucharist is sacrifice, sacrament and presence.
As sacrifice, the Holy Eucharist is the sacramental re-presentation
of the paschal mystery, that is, of the suffering, death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ. “Do this as a memorial of me” (I Cor
11:25) is the injunction that Jesus gave his Church through the
Apostles. At Holy Mass Jesus Christ associates the Church with
himself in the offering of himself to God the Father. The Mass is
offered for four principal motives: adoration, thanksgiving with
praise, asking pardon for our sins with reparation, and requesting
for what we need for body and soul. Hearts and Minds
thinking about and celebrating the liturgy The Eucharistic Mystery
Calls For Our Response
Address by Cardinal Francis Arinze.
Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the
Sacraments. Cardinal Arinze, during a previous visit to Westminster
Cathedral. © Westminster Cathedral, 2006 The Holy Eucharist is also
Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. At consecration the bread
is no longer bread, it becomes the Body of Christ; the wine is no
longer wine, it becomes the Blood of Christ. The Council of Trent
teaches us that in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist “the
body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord
Jesus Christ and,
therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really and substantially
contained” (DS, 1651; cf CCC, 1374). The Real Presence of Christ in
the Holy Eucharist is therefore very much a part of our Catholic
faith. Jesus is present as our Eucharistic Lord. This type of
presence is very special. It surpasses all other forms of presence.
It is much more than his presence in the Word of God proclaimed in
the liturgical assembly, or his presence in the people of God
gathered in worship, or his presence and action in the priest
celebrant, or even his presence and action in all the
other Sacraments. We call the presence of Christ in the Holy
Eucharist the Real Presence (cf Paul VI: Mysterium
Fidei, 39; Sacrosanctum Concilium, 7; CCC, 1374), because it is a
very special presence, his presence par
excellence. In front of this inestimable gift and mystery, what does
Jesus ask of us?
2. Faith
The first thing that Jesus asks of us is faith. When God speaks to
us, we are expected to listen, to receive, to believe. We are not
expected to challenge, to doubt, to argue, or to have half a dozen
lawyers or even theologians who are to f ind out more facts from him
before we decide what our attitude should be. This would be most
disrespectful, indeed stubborn and unbelieving. We should not behave
like those Jews who on hearing Christ promise that he would give
them his body to eat and his blood to drink, refused to believe and
retorted: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (Jn 6:52).
Indeed those unbelieving disciples “returned to their former way of
life and no longer accompanied him” (Jn 6:66). Rather we should in
total faith reply like St Peter who spoke on behalf of the believing
Apostles when Jesus asked if they also would go away: “Master, to
whom shall we go? You
have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are
convinced that you are the Holy One of God” (Jn 6:68-69).
Here are words of a person of faith. Peter believes because Jesus
the Son of God has spoken. And God is neither deceived nor can he
deceive. Peter does not need to understand how. It is enough for him
to know that Jesus has spoken. Faith is an act of total trust in God
who is Truth itself. It is a personal adherence of man to God. The
act of faith is most reasonable because it is entirely and supremely
reasonable for us human beings to accept what God has said, to
entrust our everything – will, intelligence, future, prospects – to
him. Indeed, the person who refuses to believe God is unreasonable,
arrogant, insolent and most foolishly self-sufficient. Moreover,
God’s grace
makes supernatural faith possible: “Believing is an act of the
intellect assenting to the divine truth by command of the will moved
by God through grace” (St Thomas Aquinas II-III, 2, 9; cf. Vat I:
Dei Filius, 3 in DS 3010; CCC, 155, 156).
Faith does not make everything clear to us. It is a sacrifice of our
intelligence and will. But it calls on us to meditate on what God
has revealed, to read the Holy Scripture, to compare one article of
revelation with another, in short to seek understanding, as far as
our puny powers of intelligence can go. Theology is faith seeking
understanding, says St Anselm (cf Prosl. Prooem.: PL 153, 225 A;
also CCC, 158). St Augustine puts it this way: “I believe, in order
to understand; and I understand, the better to believe” (Sermo 43,
7, 9: PL 38, 257-258). All of us will not rise to the dizzy
theological heights of St Thomas Aquinas and St Augustine. But all
of us can read the Bible, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and
from time to time some good book on the teachings of the Fathers of
the Church, of the General Councils, and the magisterium of the
Popes. In this way our faith is nourished, strengthened
and promoted. And we are better equipped to articulate it, to give
to anyone who asks of us a statement of what we believe and the
reason for our faith (cf I Pet 3:15).
3. Adoration
Adoration is consequent on our Eucharistic faith. If we believe that
the Sacrifice of the Mass is a sacramental re-presentation of the
Sacrifice of the Cross, and that Jesus is really, truly and
substantially present in this august Sacrament, adoration is going
to follow. The Mass is the supreme act of adoration, praise and
thanksgiving which humanity can offer to God. We owe everything to
God: life, family, talents, work, country. Moreover God has sent us
his only-begotten Son for our salvation. At Mass we offer God this
supreme acknowledgment of his transcendent majesty and thanksgiving
for his magnificent goodness towards us. Moreover, at Mass we
associate ourselves with all creation in acknowledging the greatness
of God. God is not our equal. He is not our colleague. He is our
Creator. Without him we would not exist at all. He is the only
necessary being. It is normal that we acknowledge this fact. Those
who refuse to adore God must not decorate themselves with the
apparently nice title of liberal intellectuals. If we are to call a
spade a spade, we shall inform such people that they are
unreasonable, ignorant and blind to most obvious facts. A child who
refuses to recognize his parents is not a liberal. He is a brat.
Would it be wrong to call him stupid, and unaware of common sense,
and even of his own best interest? And God is to us much more than
parents are to their children.
On the other hand, God is not a rival to us human beings. He is not
a threat. He is not a kill-joy. God is our loving Father. He is
Providence. He takes care of every detail regarding our life. When
we adore him, praise him and thank him, we not only do not demean
ourselves. Rather we begin to realize our greatness. Our
acknowledgment of God’s transcendent reality elevates us. The
shepherds in Bethlehem and the Magi were all the better because they
adore the Child Jesus. St Anselm, St Augustine, St Thomas Aquinas,
St Teresa of Avila, St Thérèse of the Holy Child Jesus, St Benedicta
of the Cross (Edith Stein) and Albert Einstein were all the greater
because they offered the sacrifice of their intelligence to God the
Creator. Christians must not allow themselves to be misled by the
errors of a secularistic mentality which lives as if God did not
exist. Man is not the centre of reality. God is. By adoring God
through the Holy Eucharist, we pay this due tribute to God’s
transcendence.
 4. Manifestations of Adoration and Reverence
It is not superfluous for us to mention some of the ways in which
adoration and reverence manifest themselves regarding the
Eucharistic mystery. We human beings are body and soul. External
gestures can manifest our faith, strengthen it and help to share it
with other people. The way in which we celebrate the Mass has great
importance. This applies first of all to the priest celebrant, but
also to deacons, minor ministers, choirs, readers and every other
participant, each in that person’s own role. The way the priest
celebrates the Holy Eucharist affects the
congregation in a very special manner. If he celebrates in such a
way that his faith and devotion shine out, the people are nourished
and strengthened in their Eucharistic faith, the weak in faith are
awakened and everyone is sent home energized to live and share the
faith. Such a priest has knack or skill of celebration with dignity,
faith and devotion for the Eucharist of which the October 2005 Synod
of Bishops emphasized the importance (Synod Proposition, 25). We
manifest our adoration of our Eucharistic Jesus by genuflection
whenever we cross the area of the tabernacle where he is reserved.
It is reasonable where he is reserved. It is reasonable for us to
bend the knee before him because he is our God. This is a way in
which adoration is shown to the Holy Eucharist in the Latin Rite
Church. The Oriental Churches and Benedictine Monasteries have the
tradition of a deep bow. The meaning is the same. Moreover, our
genuflection should be a reverential and deliberate act and not a
careless bending of the knee to the nearest pillar characteristic of
some people in whom over-familiarity with the tabernacle seems to
breed hurried and nonchalant movements. As is well known, Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, has written beautifully on
the sense of the act of genuflection. (cf. J. Ratzinger: The Spirit
of the Liturgy, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2000, p. 184-194). As
for those who may ignore the significance of this gesture, it may be
well to remember that we are not pure spirits like the angels. A
Protestant once was visiting
a Catholic church in the company of a Catholic friend. They passed
across the tabernacle area. The Protestant asked the Catholic what
that box was and why a little lamp was burning near it. The Catholic
explained that Jesus the Lord is present there. The Protestant then
put the vital question: “If you believe that your Lord and God is
here present, then why don’t you genuflect, even prostrate and
crawl?” The superficial Catholic got the message. He genuflected.
Everyone can thus see why the tabernacle of the Most Blessed
Sacrament is located in a central
or at least prominent place in our churches. It is the centre of our
attention and prayer. The October 2005 Synod of Bishops emphasized
this point (cf Prop., 6, 28, 34). In some of our churches some
misguided person has relegated the tabernacle to an obscure section
of the church. Sometimes it is even so difficult for a visitor to
locate where the tabernacle is, that the visitor can say with truth
with St Mary Magdalene: “They have taken my Lord, and I do not know
where they laid him” (Jn 20:13). We also show our adoration and
reverence towards the Holy Eucharist by silence in church, by
becoming dress and postures at sacred celebrations, by joining other
people in singing, giving responses, and gestures such as sitting,
kneeling or standing, and by general care over whatever
has to do with Eucharistic worship such as reading, discipline in
church and tidiness in altar and sacristy equipment.
May I say a further word on the importance of silence in our
churches and chapels. Movements of silence help us to prepare for
the celebration of Mass. During Mass, a few minutes of silence help
us to meditate on the lessons, the Gospel and the homily just heard.
Silence after receiving Jesus Holy Communion is a time for personal
prayer to Our Lord. At the end of Mass and at all other times in
church, silence is a mark of reverence for God’s house and
especially for Jesus present in the tabernacle. Some church rectors
have the habit of playing recorded soft music as a background in
churches almost the whole day outside Mass. This is doubtless
well-intentioned. But it is a mistake. People enter churches to
pray, not to be entertained. They are not tourists in a museum or
music hall. They need silence in order to concentrate on the
tabernacle, or even to reflect on the statues, sacred images which
are on-going catechesis, and the figures of the Way of the Cross.
Gradually in the Church of the Latin Rite from the Middle Ages,
Eucharistic devotion has developed in such forms as visits to the
Most Blessed Sacrament, personal and group Holy Hour of Adoration,
and Eucharistic Benediction, Procession and Congress. None of us
should behave as if he or she had outgrown such manifestations of
faith and had no need of them. I mention in particular Eucharistic
adoration as encouraged by Pope John Paul II (cf Mane Nobiscum
Domine, 18) and by the Synod of Bishops of October 2005 (cf Prop.,
6). Some parish priests have been surprised by their parishioners
signing up for adoration at all hours of day or night. I was told
about a Congregation of Sisters in Mexico which has kept up
perpetual adoration for 130 years, including the years of
persecution. Genuine Eucharistic faith never fails to manifest
itself.
5. Observance of Liturgical Norms
In the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, the observance of
liturgical norms is one of the ways in which we show our Eucharistic
faith. To a person who asks why there should be liturgical norms at
all, we answer that the Church has the right and duty to promote and
protect the Eucharistic celebration with appropriate norms. Christ
gave the Church the essentials of the Eucharistic celebration. As
the centuries rolled by, the Church, under the guidance of the Holy
Spirit, developed details on how the mysteries of Christ are to be
celebrated. Being an hierarchical society, the Church also manifests
her nature and structure in the celebration of the Holy Mass. The
Mass is the most solemn action of the sacred liturgy, which is
itself the public worship of the Church. “Liturgy”, says Pope John
Paul II, “is never anyone’s private property, be it of the celebrant
or of the community in which the mysteries are celebrated… Priests
who faithfully celebrate Mass according to the liturgical norms, and
communities which conform to those norms, quietly but eloquently
demonstrate their love for the Church” (Eccl. de Euch., 52). At the
direction of Pope John Paul II, the Congregation for Divine Worship
and the Discipline of the Sacraments, in collaboration with the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued the Instruction
Redemptionis Sacramentum in March 2004 “precisely to bring out more
clearly this deeper meaning of liturgical norms” (Eccl. de Euch.,
52). It follows that individuals, whether they be priests or lay
faithful, are not free to add or subtract
any details in the approved rites of the celebration of the Holy
Eucharist (cf Sacrosanctum Concilium, 22). A do-it-yourself
mentality, an attitude of nobody-will-tell-me-what-to-do, or a
defiant sting of
if-you-do-not-like-my-Mass-you-can-go-to-another-parish, is not only
against sound theology and ecclesiology, but also offends against
common sense. Unfortunately, sometimes common sense is not very
common, when we see a priest ignoring liturgical rules and
installing creativity – in his case personal idiosyncracy – as the
guide to the celebration of Holy Mass. Our faith guides us and our
love of Jesus and of his Church safeguards us from taking such
unwholesome
liberties. Aware that we are only ministers, not masters of the
mysteries of Christ (cf I Cor 4:1), we follow the approved
liturgical books so that the people of God are respected and their
faith nourished, and so that God is honoured and the Church is
gradually being built up.
6. Eucharist and Mission
At the end of the Mass the deacon, or in his absence the priest,
says to us “Ite, Missa Est”. Our celebration is over. Go now to live
and share with other people what we have received, heard, sung,
meditated and prayed. The Mass sends us on mission. The first duty
which the Eucharistic celebration enjoins on us is to live the faith
and share it with other people. Evangelization in the express form
of proclamation of salvation in Jesus Christ is a priority (cf Paul
VI: Evangelii Nuntiandi, 22). We must share with other people “the
supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:8). Every Catholic -
priest, consecrated person or lay faithful – will do this according
to that person’s vocation and mission in the Church and in the
world. At the Eucharistic celebration Jesus is also sending us to
show Christian solidarity with the poor, the hungry, the sick, the
imprisoned, and the needy in general. At the Last Supper he himself
washed the feet of his Apostles, thereby teaching us mutual love and
service as an injunction of the Holy Eucharist (cf Jn 13: 1-15). He
taught us that the last judgment will be based on whether we have
shown love and solidarity towards the needy (cf Mt 25: 31-46). Pope
John Paul II says that the authenticity of our Eucharistic
celebration can be judged from how we love the poor and people in
difficulty (cf Mane Nobiscum Domine, 28). In his first Encyclical
Letter, Deus Caritas Est, Pope Benedict XVI illustrates beautifully
how love of God necessarily carries with it love of neighbour. The
Holy Eucharist promotes both in a magnificent way. The Holy Father
says: “The saints – consider the example of Blessed Teresa of
Calcutta – constantly renewed their
capacity for love of neighbour from their encounter with the
Eucharistic Lord, and conversely this encounter acquired its realism
and depth in the service to others” (Deus Caritas Est, 18). Brother
and Sisters in Christ, in the Eucharistic mystery our beloved Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ is giving us the inestimable gift of
himself. He asks for our response. Shall we refuse to pay him back
with love? May the Most Blessed Virgin Mary obtain for us the grace
to respond with generosity, with constant faith, with heartfelt
adoration and with apostolic dynamism. |