Eucharistic Thoughts

The other day at Mass I started thinking about the fact that since the Mass is the representation of the sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary and I am offering that sacrifice, I am offering up to the Father the crucified Jesus. What an amazing thought! I usually think about the Mass as Jesus offering himself to the Father, which of course is true. But the Mass is also the offering of the Church, the universal Church and also the local Church.(Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1368) The priest-celebrant leads the congregation, but all of us there join with him and also offer the sacrifice. "In the Eucharist the sacrifice of Christ becomes also the sacrifice of the members of his Body." Having seen Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ, I now have a very vivid mental image of the sacrifice of Calvary, and so realizing that I am offering up this sacrifice fills me with awe, almost terror.

Christmas is but a few days off. In the United States this year there is a lot of discussion in various media venues about the use of the expression Merry Christmas as opposed to Happy Holidays. Some Christians are making a big deal about it, seeing the use of the generic “Happy Holidays” as an example of society trying to take Christ out of Christmas. Personally, I think the effort to promote to use of “Merry Christmas” at stores like Target and Wal-Mart is wasted. I do think that Christians ought to take seriously the needed effort to prevent the Gospel from being marginalized in our society, but I don’t think this is the issue to focus on.

The Christian greeting for this season in English is unfortunate, I think, but, come to think of it, the English forms of other Christian hallmarks are also less than poignant. “Happy Easter” is even more insipid than “Merry Christmas,” and the word “Lent” conveys nothing relevant to the season it names. In Spanish speaking countries do they have the issue with “Feliz Navidad” that we do with the English phrase?

In my opinion, Christian leaders would better spend their energy in this season to make the true significance of Christmas better known, not just to non-believers, but also to the many who name themselves as Christians but don’t really know what they are claiming by that name. At Christmas we are not just commemorating the birth of Jesus in a stable in Bethlehem, but more importantly we are proclaiming the fact of the Incarnation of God.

The beginning of the gospel of John, which is read at mass on Christmas, deliberately echoes the beginning of Genesis: “In the beginning ….” Genesis says “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” and John says “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God” and “all things were made through him.” The creation was the work of the Word. And “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The one who is the source of all things, who holds everything in existence, who is by nature completely beyond our comprehension, took on our nature and took a place among us.

I am continually struck by the fact that the heresies that developed in the early centuries of the church and threatened to destroy it all centered on the question of who Jesus of Nazareth is. It took several centuries of struggle to come to the clarity that is contained in the creed: Jesus is truly God and truly man. He is the Word through whom all things were made, and he is a man who truly suffered and died for us.

At Mass on Christmas, when we say the creed we kneel to give special recognition to this truth, that God became man in Jesus: “by the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.”

It is worth pondering.

(Here is a link to a site on the Creed: http://www.creeds.net/ancient/nicene.htm)

One of the things I liked best about Mel Gibson’s movie, Passion of the Christ, was the way it brought together in such a moving way, the crucifixion and the Last Supper. Now, almost any time I go to Mass and am recollected enough to recall that I am participating in the renewal of Christ’s sacrifice, I think about that movie and am once again moved with gratitude for what Jesus did for us. And, if I am recollected enough, I go a step further and recall my own proper role.

Because I have been joined to Christ through Baptism, I am not simply a spectator at the foot of the cross. Rather, united with Christ as members of his Body, I can, we all can, offer this perfect sacrifice. What an awe inspiring thought! We stand with Jesus the High Priest and offer the sacrifice that accomplishes our salvation. No sacrifice of our own, nothing that we could ever do of ourselves, could avail anything for our salvation, but God in his wisdom and love enables us to offer, in union with Jesus, the completely efficacious sacrifice of his Son, the ultimate act of worship.

In a certain sense, when we become Christians, we join ourselves, by intention, to the sacrifice of Jesus. As St. Paul says in Romans 6, we are baptized into his death. Moreover, as we go though life we renew that commitment in a daily way. But the Mass goes beyond this. Because the Mass is a sacramental sacrifice, our participation is not just an intellectual exercise, not just a matter of intention. Rather, we sing, we pray, we watch, we listen, and finally, we eat. For, like most of the sacrifices of the Old Covenant, the Eucharist is a communion sacrifice.

The Israelite family who brought an offering to the Temple participated in the sacrifice by eating it in a solemn meal. Part of the offering was burned on the altar, and by eating the rest, the people symbolically shared a meal with God. At Passover, for example, the lamb was ritually slaughtered in the Temple and then eaten by family groups at the solemn meal in their homes. In the Eucharist, full participation also includes partaking of the Body and Blood of the Lamb. We share a sacrificial meal with our families and with the whole Church, and effect a real communion with God in Jesus. When Jesus gives himself to us in communion, he is continuing the gift of himself on Calvary. When we receive, we not only enjoy an intimate communion with him, but we also consummate the atoning sacrifice of Calvary.

Much more could be said. The Eucharist is a mystery that leads us ever deeper into the very heart of God's action in the world. The new Catechism of the Catholic Church lists nine different names for this mystery, each of which is a rich source of meditation for the Catholic. The central truth, however, is that in the Eucharist Jesus renews his sacrifice for our salvation. As the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church says, "As often as the sacrifice of the Cross by which 'Christ our Pasch has been sacrificed' is celebrated on the altar, the work of our redemption is carried out." And we are there!

It is hard to believe that a week has past since I posted last on this blog. My life is very busy these days. But it couldn’t have been less busy in earlier years! But I digress…

My appreciation for the Eucharist began to deepen when I recalled a basic catechism truth: the Mass is the re­presentation of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. It didn't take much reflection for me to realize that Jesus' death on the cross is indeed the source of the Christian life, the well-spring from which all else flows. This was the sacrifice that atoned for the sins of the human race and restored man to proper relation­ship with God in the New Covenant. Without it, we were lost; because of it, we have been saved. Every vehicle of grace draws from this completely sufficient sacrifice. Even the vehicles of grace of the Old Covenant drew their efficacy from Christ, and of course all the sacraments of the New Covenant do as well. But the Eucharist is unique in that it doesn't just draw from this well-spring, but is in fact the offering once again of that very same sacrifice: Jesus, the same Priest, offers Himself, the same victim, for the same purpose, our salvation.

Further meditation on this truth continues to deepen my appreciation of this great mystery. Imagine what it would be like to travel back in time to the crucifixion of Jesus, knowing the full significance of the event as we do now. Being there at the foot of the cross, knowing what we do, wouldn’t we be transformed? Would we not be humbled and at the same time inflamed by the demonstration before us of God's loving mercy? Knowing that Jesus was making the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, would we not be deeply repentant?

Clearly, being present at Calvary would have a life-changing impact on us. And since the Mass is the sacramental re-presentation of this sacrifice, we are in fact present. The pain and suffering of Jesus are not repeated before us, but the same great act of love is renewed as he gives himself again in this unbloody offering. On Calvary Jesus offered himself to the Father as the sacrifice of atonement for our sins. As we recall his death at Mass, he once again offers the same sacrifice And we are there!

This is my first post on this blog. (I have another one, which I also recently created, with a different intended focus.) What follows here is a little history of my thought process about this wnderful topic.

When I was studying for a degree in Religious Education a number of years ago, I was struck by statements in various Church documents on the importance of the Eucharist in the Christian life. For example, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church calls the Eucharist "the fount and apex of the whole Christian life." The Constitution on the Liturgy says that "the liturgy, and primarily the Eucharist" is "the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed...the fountain from which all her power flows."

I was struck by these and similar statements because they didn't ring true to my experience. In my own Christian life, which I thought was pretty vital, the Eucharist wasn't that central. Sunday Mass was important to me, and I had no problem with any doctrine about the Eucharist. I thought in fact that I had a good appreciation of the Real Presence and a real reverence for Holy Communion. But it seemed to me that these statements exalted the Eucharist too much. After all, Christ is present in the other sacraments as well, though obviously not in the same way as in the Eucharist. Moreover, since Baptism is the sacrament by which one enters the Christian life, should it not be considered "the fount"? My ecumenical sensitivities were also disturbed by the great emphasis on something that so many Christians don't share.

Through the years since I finished my degree, my understanding of the Eucharis deepened in some ways, but I still didn't see how the Eucharist could have such a central place in the Christian life. My attitude was not that the Church must be wrong, but that something was missing in my understanding of the sacrament or, I thought more likely, in my understanding of the Church documents. But then something like a revolution occured in my comprehension. The change began with the recollection of a basic catechism truth: the Mass is the representation of Christ's sacrifice on the cross! That is, the presentation again of Christ's sacrifice.