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Brotherhood of Blessed Gérard - Newsletter No. 29 - Diary of September 2009
Friday, 16 October 2009
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
Thursday, 08 October 2009
Tuesday, 06 October 2009
What does the Eucharist mean to you?
Good afternoon Father
I was chatting to some of the youth in my parish on Tuesday and the question arose, “What does the Eucharist mean to you?” The question was passed about and I was tasked to ask a few priests and or other religious persons the same question. So here goes, “Fr Gerard, What does the Eucharist mean to you?” You can be detailed as you want to be.
Thanking you so very much.
Victor
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Dear Victor and dear parish youth,
Well, I cannot give a one-phrase reply in response to your question what the Holy Eucharist means to me.
- I am absolutely convinced that Jesus Christ told us the plain truth when at the last supper
“he took bread and gave … thanks, he broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said: Take this, all of you, and eat it: this is my body which will be given up for you” and “When supper was ended, her took the cup. Again he gave you thanks and praise, gave the cup to his disciples, and said: Take this, all of you, and drink from it: this is the cup of my blood …Do this in memory of me!”
The Greek original reads “touto estin to soma mou” (say: Tootoh estinne to sohma mooh) – This is my body – and “touto estin to haima mou” (say: Tootoh estinne to hayima mooh) – This is my blood!
One cannot translate “estin” any different than “is”!
Jesus did not say “this looks like or tastes like my body/blood”, neither did he say “this should remind you of or symbolise my body/blood”, but he said “This is my body/blood”.
I have no reason whatsoever to assume that Jesus did not know what he was talking about – he spoke perfectly sense before and quite philosophically afterwards, too. Therefore I believe deep down in my heart that Jesus in actual fact consecrated (transubstantiated) the bread and wine into his real body and blood. “Consecrated” means “made holy” and “transubstantiated” means he transformed the substance from bread/wine into his body/blood. This constitutes the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.
- When and as Jesus told his disciples at the same breath “do this in memory of me”
– and “this” is the very act of the last supper, saying grace (=”gave thanks”), breaking of the bread (“broke the bread”), distribution of the bread/wine (“gave it to his disciples”), instruction to receive (“Take this, all of you, and eat/drink from it”) and consecration (“this is my body/blood”) –
Jesus instituted the sacrament of the (most holy) Eucharist himself.
- In every Holy Mass the priest [as ordained vicar of the disciples/apostles successors (=bishops)] “does this in memory of Jesus”: He says grace, breaks the bread, distributes the bread/wine and offers us to receive the consecrated bread/wine, i.e. the body/blood of Christ. Receiving Holy Communion therefore means to receive Jesus Christ, who is really and truly present in the consecrated bread/wine, which therefore became its (Eucharistic) body and blood.
- Why the two “species” (bread and wine), wouldn’t one of these be enough? In actual fact, it would. According to the regulations of the Church the priest will under ordinary circumstances distribute the body of Christ only for the faithful to receive as Christ is fully present in either Eucharistic species. The background why Jesus chose both species is the thinking of the people at the time when Jesus lived biologically here on our earth. The educated contemporaries of Jesus in the Holy Land were largely influenced by the classical/ancient Greek way of thinking and philosophy. It is part of this way of thinking to perceive the world in a dualistic way, i.e. the Greek philosophers went into great detail to look at reality from opposite and antimonous views: Humankind was seen in the tension of being suspended between light and darkness, good and evil, life and death, heaven and hell. Even the human body was seen as just dead matter which needs the life-giving (Holy) Spirit to come to life. This idea is even much older. Just think about the story of the creation of man, that God formed a body from dust (=dead matter) and breathed his spirit into it and it became “animated” it received the “anima” (=soul) which made it alive as a human being.
When a soldier got wounded in combat and lost a lot of blood he died consequently. Therefore it was conceived that the human blood must be what gives the body its life: No blood, no life! Thus the blood was seen as the “seat” of the soul, as vital essence.
I think that Jesus was well aware of this and because he did not want to give us only part of himself (neither his “dead body” nor his “life-giving blood” only), but Jesus gave himself to us, holistically, undivided and completely, he actually chose this way of making himself understood and his sacrifice interpreted as a holocaust (=total sacrifice), the total surrender without reserve in that way which people at the time would well understand and appreciate.
- The Eucharistic real presence of Jesus Christ in body and blood through the consecrated species of bread and wine is not a transient or chronologically limited reality, but through the fact of the bread and wine’s substance having been transformed into the very body and blood of Christ this presence will last forever, as long as the substance in the species of bread and wine is there. Therefore out of the necessity to have the body of Christ “readily available” for the “communion of the sick” which we call “viaticum” when given to a person in danger of death, the practice developed to keep some consecrated hosts at a safe place, which we call with the Latin word for “small house” a “tabernacle”. Out of this perpetual Eucharistic presence the custom of Eucharistic adoration has developed, i.e. that the faithful pray to the Eucharistic Lord inside the closed tabernacle, or that the “ciborium” (Latin for food container) containing the Eucharistic Lord is exposed inside the ciborium, but outside the tabernacle or that a consecrated host is put visibly into a “monstrance” (stand to display) for the purpose of Eucharistic adoration.
- As the Eucharistic species of bread and wine are digested after consumption, the real presence of Christ within us is transformed into a spiritual presence. Christ is then living in us spiritually. Like a drop of wine would dissolve having been immersed into a glass of water and become a inseparable solution with the water, so Christ unifies himself inseparably with the communicant. Compare the word the priest says (mostly inaudibly) when he prepares the gifts at the offertory and pours a drop of water into the offered wine: “By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.” Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity since his conception by Mary, shares his divinity with us in Holy Communion. This is not just a symbolic reminiscence, an intellectual memorial or a re-enactment, but in Holy Communion the ultimate goal and aim of our salvation is effected, the total unification and the resulting unity and oneness of God and man.
- We must also look at the fact, that Christ consecrates our gifts (i.e. the bread and wine offered at Holy Mass) into his body and blood. I think it is well worth of thinking in the lines of not just offering bread and wine, but to see them as symbols of what has been given to us, our livelihood (“we have this bread to offer which earth has given” and “we have this wine to offer, fruit if the vine”) and what we have made out of it (“and human hands have made” and “and work of human hands”). What has been given to us and what we have made out of it is more than just bread and wine. As we cannot live without food and drink bread and wine may symbolise what we need in order to survive and if we give what we need to survive as gifts to God at the offertory this becomes a symbol for our life itself. Now, when we offer our life to God at the offertory – symbolised by the bread and wine - we actually offer ourselves and by doing so we do exactly what Christ is about to do in the Eucharistic sacrifice to offer himself holistically, undivided and completely as mentioned above. The unsurpassed grace and at the same time ultimate dignity of Christ’s Eucharistic Union with humankind is the very fact, that he consecrates our offerings into his body and blood, i.e. into himself. Provided we have offered ourselves at the offertory, represented by the gifts of bread and wine, Christ will consecrate what we have offered into himself, i.e. he consecrates us and makes us his body and blood, a living Eucharist, the “mystical body of Christ”, his church, which is referred to by this title.
The Eucharist therefore is the earthly culmination point of salvation, its place and daily reiterated event.
- With Jesus, the divine healer and source of life and holiness in us the reception of the body and blood of Christ in Holy Communion becomes an event of healing, restoration of life and sanctification, a divine remedy for eternal life. Not the healthy need the doctor, but the sick. Therefore receiving Holy Communion is indeed a remedy and source of divine restoration. Although the right disposition, i.e. our faith in God and especially in Christ’s Eucharistic presence, our general understanding of the divine nature of the blessed sacrament, our hope and trust in God and our loving desire to renew his presence within us is an indispensable condition of receiving Holy Communion, we must not think that we can only receive the Eucharistic Lord in Holy Communion when we consider ourselves “very holy”. First of all it is not us who may achieve “holiness”, but it is always God who sanctifies us and all his graces are a free and undeserved gift anyway. If receiving Holy Communion - being source and instrument of our unification with God - would not be corresponding with our real heart’s desires, our faith, hope and love of God and neighbour, and if we had really turned away from God through our gravely sinful thoughts, words or actions without genuine repentance and having received divine forgiveness through the sacrament of reconciliation, receiving Holy Communion would become a pretence and a sacrilege. Nevertheless God loves the repentant sinner and therefore repentance in the sense of permanently re-turning to God and his forgiveness is part of Christian live anyway taking into account that nobody is without sin. Our Eucharistic unity with God will even sustain us and give us the strength to stand firm against temptation.
- What the Holy Eucharist means to me?
Let me answer with the words of St. Theresa of Avila: “solo dios basta” (“God alone is enough” or let me translate: God is all I need.)
The Holy Eucharist is
the most dense, tangible and direct means of Christ’s unification with me.
The Holy Eucharist is
the culmination of God’s divine and saving presence in my life.
The Holy Eucharist is
the summit of God’s love to me and of my love to God.
The Holy Eucharist is
the most sacred divine event in my life on earth.
The Holy Eucharist is
the ultimate honour of God for me as a person and as a priest.
The Holy Eucharist is
the unlimited instrument of God’s nurturing, healing and restorative love for me.
The Holy Eucharist is
Christ himself
and He is my One and All.
Let us pray: http://www.feastofsaints.com/adorote.htm
May the good Lord in heaven bless us all on earth through the most holy Eucharist.
Yours sincerely
Father Gérard
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