ENCYCLICAL LETTER
ECCLESIA DE EUCHARISTIA
OF HIS
HOLINESS
POPE JOHN
PAUL II
TO THE
BISHOPS
PRIESTS AND
DEACONS
MEN AND
WOMEN
IN THE
CONSECRATED LIFE
AND ALL THE
LAY FAITHFUL
ON THE
EUCHARIST
IN ITS
RELATIONSHIP TO THE CHURCH
LIBRERIA EDITRICE VATICANA
VATICAN CITY
INTRODUCTION
1. The Church draws her
life from the Eucharist. This truth does not simply express a daily
experience of faith, but recapitulates the heart of the mystery of the
Church. In a variety of ways she joyfully experiences the constant
fulfilment of the promise: “Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the
age” (Mt 28:20), but in the Holy Eucharist, through the changing of
bread and wine into the body and blood of the Lord, she rejoices in this
presence with unique intensity. Ever since Pentecost, when the Church, the
People of the New Covenant, began her pilgrim journey towards her heavenly
homeland, the Divine Sacrament has continued to mark the passing of her
days, filling them with confident hope.
The Second Vatican
Council rightly proclaimed that the Eucharistic sacrifice is “the source
and summit of the Christian life”.1 “For the most holy
Eucharist contains the Church's entire spiritual wealth: Christ himself,
our passover and living bread. Through his own flesh, now made living and
life-giving by the Holy Spirit, he offers life to men”.2
Consequently the gaze of the Church is constantly turned to her Lord,
present in the Sacrament of the Altar, in which she discovers the full
manifestation of his boundless love.
2. During the Great
Jubilee of the Year 2000 I had an opportunity to celebrate the Eucharist
in the Cenacle of Jerusalem where, according to tradition, it was first
celebrated by Jesus himself. The Upper Room was where this most holy
Sacrament was instituted. It is there that Christ took bread, broke it
and gave it to his disciples, saying: “Take this, all of you, and eat it:
this is my body which will be given up for you” (cf. Mk 26:26;
Lk 22:19; 1 Cor 11:24). Then he took the cup of wine and said
to them: “Take this, all of you and drink from it: this is the cup of my
blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant. It will be shed for
you and for all, so that sins may be forgiven” (cf. Mt 14:24; Lk
22:20; 1 Cor 11:25). I am grateful to the Lord Jesus for allowing
me to repeat in that same place, in obedience to his command: “Do this in
memory of me” (Lk 22:19), the words which he spoke two thousand
years ago.
Did the Apostles who took
part in the Last Supper understand the meaning of the words spoken by
Christ? Perhaps not. Those words would only be fully clear at the end of
the Triduum sacrum, the time from Thursday evening to Sunday
morning. Those days embrace the myste- rium paschale; they also
embrace the mysterium eucharisticum.
3. The Church was born of
the paschal mystery. For this very reason the Eucharist, which is in an
outstanding way the sacrament of the paschal mystery, stands at the
centre of the Church's life. This is already clear from the earliest
images of the Church found in the Acts of the Apostles: “They devoted
themselves to the Apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of
bread and the prayers” (2:42). The “breaking of the bread” refers to the
Eucharist. Two thousand years later, we continue to relive that primordial
image of the Church. At every celebration of the Eucharist, we are
spiritually brought back to the paschal Triduum: to the events of the
evening of Holy Thursday, to the Last Supper and to what followed it. The
institution of the Eucharist sacramentally anticipated the events which
were about to take place, beginning with the agony in Gethsemane. Once
again we see Jesus as he leaves the Upper Room, descends with his
disciples to the Kidron valley and goes to the Garden of Olives. Even
today that Garden shelters some very ancient olive trees. Perhaps they
witnessed what happened beneath their shade that evening, when Christ in
prayer was filled with anguish “and his sweat became like drops of blood
falling down upon the ground” (cf. Lk 22:44). The blood which
shortly before he had given to the Church as the drink of salvation in the
sacrament of the Eucharist, began to be shed; its outpouring would
then be completed on Golgotha to become the means of our redemption:
“Christ... as high priest of the good things to come..., entered once for
all into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of goats and calves but his
own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption” (Heb 9:11- 12).
4. The hour of our
redemption. Although deeply troubled, Jesus does not flee before his
“hour”. “And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour?' No, for
this purpose I have come to this hour” (Jn 12:27). He wanted his
disciples to keep him company, yet he had to experience loneliness and
abandonment: “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray
that you may not enter into temptation” (Mt 26:40- 41). Only John
would remain at the foot of the Cross, at the side of Mary and the
faithful women. The agony in Gethsemane was the introduction to the agony
of the Cross on Good Friday. The holy hour, the hour of the
redemption of the world. Whenever the Eucharist is celebrated at the tomb
of Jesus in Jerusalem, there is an almost tangible return to his “hour”,
the hour of his Cross and glorification. Every priest who celebrates Holy
Mass, together with the Christian community which takes part in it, is led
back in spirit to that place and that hour.
“He was crucified, he
suffered death and was buried; he descended to the dead; on the third day
he rose again”. The words of the profession of faith are echoed by the
words of contemplation and proclamation: “This is the wood of the
Cross, on which hung the Saviour of the world. Come, let us worship”.
This is the invitation which the Church extends to all in the afternoon
hours of Good Friday. She then takes up her song during the Easter season
in order to proclaim: “The Lord is risen from the tomb; for our sake he
hung on the Cross, Alleluia”.
5. “Mysterium fidei!
- The Mystery of Faith!”. When the priest recites or chants these words,
all present acclaim: “We announce your death, O Lord, and we proclaim your
resurrection, until you come in glory”.
In these or similar words
the Church, while pointing to Christ in the mystery of his passion,
also reveals her own mystery: Ecclesia de Eucharistia. By the
gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost the Church was born and set out upon
the pathways of the world, yet a decisive moment in her taking shape was
certainly the institution of the Eucharist in the Upper Room. Her
foundation and wellspring is the whole Triduum paschale, but this
is as it were gathered up, foreshadowed and “concentrated' for ever in the
gift of the Eucharist. In this gift Jesus Christ entrusted to his Church
the perennial making present of the paschal mystery. With it he brought
about a mysterious “oneness in time” between that Triduum and the
passage of the centuries.
The thought of this leads
us to profound amazement and gratitude. In the paschal event and the
Eucharist which makes it present throughout the centuries, there is a
truly enormous “capacity” which embraces all of history as the recipient
of the grace of the redemption. This amazement should always fill the
Church assembled for the celebration of the Eucharist. But in a special
way it should fill the minister of the Eucharist. For it is he who, by the
authority given him in the sacrament of priestly ordination, effects the
consecration. It is he who says with the power coming to him from Christ
in the Upper Room: “This is my body which will be given up for you This is
the cup of my blood, poured out for you...”. The priest says these words,
or rather he puts his voice at the disposal of the One who spoke these
words in the Upper Room and who desires that they should be repeated
in every generation by all those who in the Church ministerially share in
his priesthood.
6. I would like to
rekindle this Eucharistic “amazement” by the present Encyclical Letter, in
continuity with the Jubilee heritage which I have left to the Church in
the Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte and its Marian
crowning, Rosarium Virginis Mariae. To contemplate the face of
Christ, and to contemplate it with Mary, is the “programme” which I have
set before the Church at the dawn of the third millennium, summoning her
to put out into the deep on the sea of history with the enthusiasm of the
new evangelization. To contemplate Christ involves being able to recognize
him wherever he manifests himself, in his many forms of presence, but
above all in the living sacrament of his body and his blood. The Church
draws her life from Christ in the Eucharist; by him she is fed and by
him she is enlightened. The Eucharist is both a mystery of faith and a
“mystery of light”.3 Whenever the Church celebrates the
Eucharist, the faithful can in some way relive the experience of the two
disciples on the road to Emmaus: “their eyes were opened and they
recognized him” (Lk 24:31).
7. From the time I began
my ministry as the Successor of Peter, I have always marked Holy Thursday,
the day of the Eucharist and of the priesthood, by sending a letter to all
the priests of the world. This year, the twenty-fifth of my Pontificate, I
wish to involve the whole Church more fully in this Eucharistic
reflection, also as a way of thanking the Lord for the gift of the
Eucharist and the priesthood: “Gift and Mystery”.4 By
proclaiming the Year of the Rosary, I wish to put this, my twenty-fifth
anniversary, under the aegis of the contemplation of Christ at the
school of Mary. Consequently, I cannot let this Holy Thursday 2003
pass without halting before the “Eucharistic face” of Christ and pointing
out with new force to the Church the centrality of the Eucharist.
From it the Church draws
her life. From this “living bread” she draws her nourishment. How could I
not feel the need to urge everyone to experience it ever anew?
8. When I think of the
Eucharist, and look at my life as a priest, as a Bishop and as the
Successor of Peter, I naturally recall the many times and places in which
I was able to celebrate it. I remember the parish church of Niegowić,
where I had my first pastoral assignment, the collegiate church of Saint
Florian in Krakow, Wawel Cathedral, Saint Peter's Basilica and so many
basilicas and churches in Rome and throughout the world. I have been able
to celebrate Holy Mass in chapels built along mountain paths, on
lakeshores and seacoasts; I have celebrated it on altars built in stadiums
and in city squares... This varied scenario of celebrations of the
Eucharist has given me a powerful experience of its universal and, so to
speak, cosmic character. Yes, cosmic! Because even when it is celebrated
on the humble altar of a country church, the Eucharist is always in some
way celebrated on the altar of the world. It unites heaven and
earth. It embraces and permeates all creation. The Son of God became man
in order to restore all creation, in one supreme act of praise, to the One
who made it from nothing. He, the Eternal High Priest who by the blood of
his Cross entered the eternal sanctuary, thus gives back to the Creator
and Father all creation redeemed. He does so through the priestly ministry
of the Church, to the glory of the Most Holy Trinity. Truly this is the
mysterium fidei which is accomplished in the Eucharist: the world
which came forth from the hands of God the Creator now returns to him
redeemed by Christ.
9. The Eucharist, as
Christ's saving presence in the community of the faithful and its
spiritual food, is the most precious possession which the Church can have
in her journey through history. This explains the lively concern
which she has always shown for the Eucharistic mystery, a concern which
finds authoritative expression in the work of the Councils and the Popes.
How can we not admire the doctrinal expositions of the Decrees on the Most
Holy Eucharist and on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass promulgated by the
Council of Trent? For centuries those Decrees guided theology and
catechesis, and they are still a dogmatic reference-point for the
continual renewal and growth of God's People in faith and in love for the
Eucharist. In times closer to our own, three Encyclical Letters should be
mentioned: the Encyclical Mirae Caritatis of Leo XIII (28 May
1902),5 the Encyclical Mediator Dei of Pius XII (20
November 1947) 6 and the Encyclical Mysterium Fidei of
Paul VI (3 September 1965).7
The Second Vatican
Council, while not issuing a specific document on the Eucharistic mystery,
considered its various aspects throughout its documents, especially the
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium and the
Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium.
I myself, in the first
years of my apostolic ministry in the Chair of Peter, wrote the Apostolic
Letter Dominicae Cenae (24 February 1980),8 in which I
discussed some aspects of the Eucharistic mystery and its importance for
the life of those who are its ministers. Today I take up anew the thread
of that argument, with even greater emotion and gratitude in my heart,
echoing as it were the word of the Psalmist: “What shall I render to the
Lord for all his bounty to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and
call on the name of the Lord” (Ps 116:12-13).
10. The Magisterium's
commitment to proclaiming the Eucharistic mystery has been matched by
interior growth within the Christian community. Certainly the
liturgical reform inaugurated by the Council has greatly contributed
to a more conscious, active and fruitful participation in the Holy
Sacrifice of the Altar on the part of the faithful. In many places,
adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is also an important daily practice
and becomes an inexhaustible source of holiness. The devout participation
of the faithful in the Eucharistic procession on the Solemnity of the Body
and Blood of Christ is a grace from the Lord which yearly brings joy to
those who take part in it.
Other positive signs of
Eucharistic faith and love might also be mentioned.
Unfortunately, alongside
these lights, there are also shadows. In some places the practice
of Eucharistic adoration has been almost completely abandoned. In various
parts of the Church abuses have occurred, leading to confusion with regard
to sound faith and Catholic doctrine concerning this wonderful sacrament.
At times one encounters an extremely reductive understanding of the
Eucharistic mystery. Stripped of its sacrificial meaning, it is celebrated
as if it were simply a fraternal banquet. Furthermore, the necessity of
the ministerial priesthood, grounded in apostolic succession, is at times
obscured and the sacramental nature of the Eucharist is reduced to its
mere effectiveness as a form of proclamation. This has led here and there
to ecumenical initiatives which, albeit well-intentioned, indulge in
Eucharistic practices contrary to the discipline by which the Church
expresses her faith. How can we not express profound grief at all this?
The Eucharist is too great a gift to tolerate ambiguity and depreciation.
It is my hope that the
present Encyclical Letter will effectively help to banish the dark clouds
of unacceptable doctrine and practice, so that the Eucharist will continue
to shine forth in all its radiant mystery.
CHAPTER ONE
THE MYSTERY OF FAITH
11. “The Lord Jesus on
the night he was betrayed” (1 Cor 11:23) instituted the Eucharistic
Sacrifice of his body and his blood. The words of the Apostle Paul bring
us back to the dramatic setting in which the Eucharist was born. The
Eucharist is indelibly marked by the event of the Lord's passion and
death, of which it is not only a reminder but the sacramental
re-presentation. It is the sacrifice of the Cross perpetuated down the
ages.9 This truth is well expressed by the words with which the
assembly in the Latin rite responds to the priest's proclamation of the
“Mystery of Faith”: “We announce your death, O Lord”.
The Church has received
the Eucharist from Christ her Lord not as one gift–however precious–among
so many others, but as the gift par excellence, for it is the gift
of himself, of his person in his sacred humanity, as well as the gift of
his saving work. Nor does it remain confined to the past, since “all that
Christ is–all that he did and suffered for all men–participates in the
divine eternity, and so transcends all times”.10
When the Church
celebrates the Eucharist, the memorial of her Lord's death and
resurrection, this central event of salvation becomes really present and
“the work of our redemption is carried out”.11 This sacrifice
is so decisive for the salvation of the human race that Jesus Christ
offered it and returned to the Father only after he had left us a means
of sharing in it as if we had been present there. Each member of the
faithful can thus take part in it and inexhaustibly gain its fruits. This
is the faith from which generations of Christians down the ages have
lived. The Church's Magisterium has constantly reaffirmed this faith with
joyful gratitude for its inestimable gift.12 I wish once more
to recall this truth and to join you, my dear brothers and sisters, in
adoration before this mystery: a great mystery, a mystery of mercy. What
more could Jesus have done for us? Truly, in the Eucharist, he shows us a
love which goes “to the end” (cf. Jn 13:1), a love which knows no
measure.
12. This aspect of the
universal charity of the Eucharistic Sacrifice is based on the words of
the Saviour himself. In instituting it, he did not merely say: “This is my
body”, “this is my blood”, but went on to add: “which is given for you”,
“which is poured out for you” (Lk 22:19-20). Jesus did not simply
state that what he was giving them to eat and drink was his body and his
blood; he also expressed its sacrificial meaning and made
sacramentally present his sacrifice which would soon be offered on the
Cross for the salvation of all. “The Mass is at the same time, and
inseparably, the sacrificial memorial in which the sacrifice of the Cross
is perpetuated and the sacred banquet of communion with the Lord's body
and blood”.13
The Church constantly
draws her life from the redeeming sacrifice; she approaches it not only
through faith-filled remembrance, but also through a real contact, since
this sacrifice is made present ever anew, sacramentally perpetuated,
in every community which offers it at the hands of the consecrated
minister. The Eucharist thus applies to men and women today the
reconciliation won once for all by Christ for mankind in every age. “The
sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single
sacrifice”.14 Saint John Chrysostom put it well: “We always
offer the same Lamb, not one today and another tomorrow, but always the
same one. For this reason the sacrifice is always only one... Even now we
offer that victim who was once offered and who will never be consumed”.15
The Mass makes present
the sacrifice of the Cross; it does not add to that sacrifice nor does it
multiply it.16 What is repeated is its memorial
celebration, its “commemorative representation” (memorialis
demonstratio),17 which makes Christ's one, definitive
redemptive sacrifice always present in time. The sacrificial nature of the
Eucharistic mystery cannot therefore be understood as something separate,
independent of the Cross or only indirectly referring to the sacrifice of
Calvary.
13. By virtue of its
close relationship to the sacrifice of Golgotha, the Eucharist is a
sacrifice in the strict sense, and not only in a general way, as if it
were simply a matter of Christ's offering himself to the faithful as their
spiritual food. The gift of his love and obedience to the point of giving
his life (cf. Jn 10:17-18) is in the first place a gift to his
Father. Certainly it is a gift given for our sake, and indeed that of all
humanity (cf. Mt 26:28; Mk 14:24; Lk 22:20; Jn
10:15), yet it is first and foremost a gift to the Father: “a
sacrifice that the Father accepted, giving, in return for this total
self-giving by his Son, who 'became obedient unto death' (Phil
2:8), his own paternal gift, that is to say the grant of new immortal life
in the resurrection”.18
In giving his sacrifice
to the Church, Christ has also made his own the spiritual sacrifice of the
Church, which is called to offer herself in union with the sacrifice of
Christ. This is the teaching of the Second Vatican Council concerning all
the faithful: “Taking part in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, which is the
source and summit of the whole Christian life, they offer the divine
victim to God, and offer themselves along with it”.19
14. Christ's passover
includes not only his passion and death, but also his resurrection. This
is recalled by the assembly's acclamation following the consecration:
“We proclaim your resurrection”. The Eucharistic Sacrifice makes
present not only the mystery of the Saviour's passion and death, but also
the mystery of the resurrection which crowned his sacrifice. It is as the
living and risen One that Christ can become in the Eucharist the “bread of
life” (Jn 6:35, 48), the “living bread” (Jn 6:51). Saint
Ambrose reminded the newly-initiated that the Eucharist applies the event
of the resurrection to their lives: “Today Christ is yours, yet each day
he rises again for you”.20 Saint Cyril of Alexandria also makes
clear that sharing in the sacred mysteries “is a true confession and a
remembrance that the Lord died and returned to life for us and on our
behalf”.21
15. The sacramental
re-presentation of Christ's sacrifice, crowned by the resurrection, in the
Mass involves a most special presence which–in the words of 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”.22 This sets forth once more the perennially valid
teaching of the Council of Trent: “the consecration of the bread and wine
effects the change of the whole substance of the bead into the substance
of the body of Christ our Lord, and of the whole substance of the wine
into the substance of his blood. And the holy Catholic Church has
fittingly and properly called this change transubstantiation”.23
Truly the Eucharist is a mysterium fidei, a mystery which surpasses
our understanding and can only be received in faith, as is often brought
out in the catechesis of the Church Fathers regarding this divine
sacrament: “Do not see–Saint Cyril of Jerusalem exhorts–in the bread and
wine merely natural elements, because the Lord has expressly said that
they are his body and his blood: faith assures you of this, though your
senses suggest otherwise”.24
Adoro te devote,
latens Deitas, we shall continue to sing with the Angelic Doctor.
Before this mystery of love, human reason fully experiences its
limitations. One understands how, down the centuries, this truth has
stimulated theology to strive to understand it ever more deeply.
These are praiseworthy
efforts, which are all the more helpful and insightful to the extent that
they are able to join critical thinking to the “living faith” of the
Church, as grasped especially by the Magisterium's “sure charism of truth”
and the “intimate sense of spiritual realities” 25 which is
attained above all by the saints. There remains the boundary indicated by
Paul VI: “Every theological explanation which seeks some understanding of
this mystery, in order to be in accord with Catholic faith, must firmly
maintain that in objective reality, independently of our mind, the bread
and wine have ceased to exist after the consecration, so that the adorable
body and blood of the Lord Jesus from that moment on are really before us
under the sacramental species of bread and wine”.26
16. The saving efficacy
of the sacrifice is fully realized when the Lord's body and blood are
received in communion. The Eucharistic Sacrifice is intrinsically directed
to the inward union of the faithful with Christ through communion; we
receive the very One who offered himself for us, we receive his body which
he gave up for us on the Cross and his blood which he “poured out for many
for the forgiveness of sins” (Mt 26:28). We are reminded of his
words: “As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so
he who eats me will live because of me” (Jn 6:57). Jesus himself
reassures us that this union, which he compares to that of the life of the
Trinity, is truly realized. The Eucharist is a true banquet, in
which Christ offers himself as our nourishment. When for the first time
Jesus spoke of this food, his listeners were astonished and bewildered,
which forced the Master to emphasize the objective truth of his words:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man
and drink his blood, you have no life within you” (Jn 6:53). This
is no metaphorical food: “My flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink
indeed” (Jn 6:55).
17. Through our communion
in his body and blood, Christ also grants us his Spirit. Saint Ephrem
writes: “He called the bread his living body and he filled it with himself
and his Spirit...
He who eats it with
faith, eats Fire and Spirit... Take and eat this, all of you, and eat with
it the Holy Spirit. For it is truly my body and whoever eats it will have
eternal life”.27 The Church implores this divine Gift, the
source of every other gift, in the Eucharistic epiclesis. In the Divine
Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, for example, we find the prayer: “We
beseech, implore and beg you: send your Holy Spirit upon us all and upon
these gifts... that those who partake of them may be purified in soul,
receive the forgiveness of their sins, and share in the Holy Spirit”.28
And in the Roman Missal the celebrant prays: “grant that we who are
nourished by his body and blood may be filled with his Holy Spirit, and
become one body, one spirit in Christ”.29 Thus by the gift of
his body and blood Christ increases within us the gift of his Spirit,
already poured out in Baptism and bestowed as a “seal” in the sacrament of
Confirmation.
18. The acclamation of
the assembly following the consecration appropriately ends by expressing
the eschatological thrust which marks the celebration of the Eucharist
(cf. 1 Cor 11:26): “until you come in glory”. The Eucharist
is a straining towards the goal, a foretaste of the fullness of joy
promised by Christ (cf. Jn 15:11); it is in some way the
anticipation of heaven, the “pledge of future glory”.30 In the
Eucharist, everything speaks of confident waiting “in joyful hope for the
coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ”.31 Those who feed on
Christ in the Eucharist need not wait until the hereafter to receive
eternal life: they already possess it on earth, as the first-fruits
of a future fullness which will embrace man in his totality. For in the
Eucharist we also receive the pledge of our bodily resurrection at the end
of the world: “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life,
and I will raise him up at the last day” (Jn 6:54). This pledge of
the future resurrection comes from the fact that the flesh of the Son of
Man, given as food, is his body in its glorious state after the
resurrection. With the Eucharist we digest, as it were, the “secret” of
the resurrection. For this reason Saint Ignatius of Antioch rightly
defined the Eucharistic Bread as “a medicine of immortality, an antidote
to death”.32
19. The eschatological
tension kindled by the Eucharist expresses and reinforces our communion
with the Church in heaven. It is not by chance that the Eastern
Anaphoras and the Latin Eucharistic Prayers honour Mary, the ever-Virgin
Mother of Jesus Christ our Lord and God, the angels, the holy apostles,
the glorious martyrs and all the saints. This is an aspect of the
Eucharist which merits greater attention: in celebrating the sacrifice of
the Lamb, we are united to the heavenly “liturgy” and become part of that
great multitude which cries out: “Salvation belongs to our God who sits
upon the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Rev 7:10). The Eucharist is
truly a glimpse of heaven appearing on earth. It is a glorious ray of the
heavenly Jerusalem which pierces the clouds of our history and lights up
our journey.
20. A significant
consequence of the eschatological tension inherent in the Eucharist is
also the fact that it spurs us on our journey through history and plants a
seed of living hope in our daily commitment to the work before us.
Certainly the Christian vision leads to the expectation of “new heavens”
and “a new earth” (Rev 21:1), but this increases, rather than
lessens, our sense of responsibility for the world today.33
I wish to reaffirm this forcefully at the beginning of the new millennium,
so that Christians will feel more obliged than ever not to neglect their
duties as citizens in this world. Theirs is the task of contributing with
the light of the Gospel to the building of a more human world, a world
fully in harmony with God's plan.
Many problems darken the
horizon of our time. We need but think of the urgent need to work for
peace, to base relationships between peoples on solid premises of justice
and solidarity, and to defend human life from conception to its natural
end. And what should we say of the thousand inconsistencies of a
“globalized” world where the weakest, the most powerless and the poorest
appear to have so little hope! It is in this world that Christian hope
must shine forth! For this reason too, the Lord wished to remain with us
in the Eucharist, making his presence in meal and sacrifice the promise of
a humanity renewed by his love. Significantly, in their account of the
Last Supper, the Synoptics recount the institution of the Eucharist, while
the Gospel of John relates, as a way of bringing out its profound meaning,
the account of the “washing of the feet”, in which Jesus appears as the
teacher of communion and of service (cf. Jn 13:1-20). The Apostle
Paul, for his part, says that it is “unworthy” of a Christian community to
partake of the Lord's Supper amid division and indifference towards the
poor (cf. 1 Cor 11:17-22, 27-34).34
Proclaiming the death of
the Lord “until he comes” (1 Cor 11:26) entails that all who take
part in the Eucharist be committed to changing their lives and making them
in a certain way completely “Eucharistic”. It is this fruit of a
transfigured existence and a commitment to transforming the world in
accordance with the Gospel which splendidly illustrates the eschatological
tension inherent in the celebration of the Eucharist and in the Christian
life as a whole: “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20).
CHAPTER TWO
THE EUCHARIST BUILDS THE
CHURCH
21. The Second Vatican
Council teaches that the celebration of the Eucharist is at the centre of
the process of the Church's growth. After stating that “the Church, as the
Kingdom of Christ already present in mystery, grows visibly in the world
through the power of God”,35 then, as if in answer to the
question: “How does the Church grow?”, the Council adds: “as often as the
sacrifice of the Cross by which 'Christ our pasch is sacrificed' (1 Cor
5:7) is celebrated on the altar, the work of our redemption is carried
out. At the same time in the sacrament of the Eucharistic bread, the unity
of the faithful, who form one body in Christ (cf. 1 Cor 10:17), is
both expressed and brought about”.36
A causal influence of
the Eucharist is present at the Church's very origins. The Evangelists
specify that it was the Twelve, the Apostles, who gathered with Jesus at
the Last Supper (cf. Mt 26:20; Mk 14:17; Lk 22:14).
This is a detail of notable importance, for the Apostles “were both the
seeds of the new Israel and the beginning of the sacred hierarchy”.37
By offering them his body and his blood as food, Christ mysteriously
involved them in the sacrifice which would be completed later on Calvary.
By analogy with the Covenant of Mount Sinai, sealed by sacrifice and the
sprinkling of blood,38 the actions and words of Jesus at the
Last Supper laid the foundations of the new messianic community, the
People of the New Covenant.
The Apostles, by
accepting in the Upper Room Jesus' invitation: “Take, eat”, “Drink of it,
all of you” (Mt 26:26-27), entered for the first time into
sacramental communion with him. From that time forward, until the end of
the age, the Church is built up through sacramental communion with the Son
of God who was sac- rificed for our sake: “Do this is remembrance of me...
Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me” (1 Cor
11:24-25; cf. Lk 22:19).
22. Incorporation into
Christ, which is brought about by Baptism, is constantly renewed and
consolidated by sharing in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, especially by that
full sharing which takes place in sacramental communion. We can say not
only that each of us receives Christ, but also that Christ
receives each of us. He enters into friendship with us: “You are my
friends” (Jn 15:14). Indeed, it is because of him that we have
life: “He who eats me will live because of me” (Jn 6:57).
Eucharistic communion brings about in a sublime way the mutual “abiding”
of Christ and each of his followers: “Abide in me, and I in you” (Jn
15:4).
By its union with Christ,
the People of the New Covenant, far from closing in upon itself, becomes a
“sacrament” for humanity,39 a sign and instrument of the
salvation achieved by Christ, the light of the world and the salt of the
earth (cf. Mt 5:13-16), for the redemption of all.40 The
Church's mission stands in continuity with the mission of Christ: “As the
Father has sent me, even so I send you” (Jn 20:21). From the
perpetuation of the sacrifice of the Cross and her communion with the body
and blood of Christ in the Eucharist, the Church draws the spiritual power
needed to carry out her mission. The Eucharist thus appears as both the
source and the summit of all evangelization, since its goal is
the communion of mankind with Christ and in him with the Father and the
Holy Spirit.41
23. Eucharistic communion
also confirms the Church in her unity as the body of Christ. Saint Paul
refers to this unifying power of participation in the banquet of
the Eucharist when he writes to the Corinthians: “The bread which we
break, is it not a communion in the body of Christ? Because there is one
bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread”
(1 Cor 10:16-17). Saint John Chrysostom's commentary on these words
is profound and perceptive: “For what is the bread? It is the body of
Christ. And what do those who receive it become? The Body of Christ – not
many bodies but one body. For as bread is completely one, though made of
up many grains of wheat, and these, albeit unseen, remain nonetheless
present, in such a way that their difference is not apparent since they
have been made a perfect whole, so too are we mutually joined to one
another and together united with Christ”.42 The argument is
compelling: our union with Christ, which is a gift and grace for each of
us, makes it possible for us, in him, to share in the unity of his body
which is the Church. The Eucharist reinforces the incorporation into
Christ which took place in Baptism though the gift of the Spirit (cf. 1
Cor 12:13, 27).
The joint and inseparable
activity of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, which is at the origin of the
Church, of her consolidation and her continued life, is at work in the
Eucharist. This was clearly evident to the author of the Liturgy of
Saint James: in the epiclesis of the Anaphora, God the Father is asked
to send the Holy Spirit upon the faithful and upon the offerings, so that
the body and blood of Christ “may be a help to all those who partake of it
... for the sanctification of their souls and bodies”.43 The
Church is fortified by the divine Paraclete through the sanctification of
the faithful in the Eucharist.
24. The gift of Christ
and his Spirit which we receive in Eucharistic communion superabundantly
fulfils the yearning for fraternal unity deep- ly rooted in the human
heart; at the same time it elevates the experience of fraternity already
present in our common sharing at the same Eucharistic table to a degree
which far surpasses that of the simple human experience of sharing a meal.
Through her communion with the body of Christ the Church comes to be ever
more profoundly “in Christ in the nature of a sacrament, that is, a sign
and instrument of intimate unity with God and of the unity of the whole
human race”.44
The seeds of disunity,
which daily experience shows to be so deeply rooted in humanity as a
result of sin, are countered by the unifying power of the body of
Christ. The Eucharist, precisely by building up the Church, creates human
community.
25. The worship of the
Eucharist outside of the Mass is of inestimable value for the life of
the Church. This worship is strictly linked to the celebration of the
Eucharistic Sacrifice. The presence of Christ under the sacred species
reserved after Mass–a presence which lasts as long as the species of bread
and of wine remain 45–derives from the celebration of the
sacrifice and is directed towards communion, both sacramental and
spiritual.46 It is the responsibility of Pastors to encourage,
also by their personal witness, the practice of Eucharistic adoration, and
exposition of the Blessed Sacrament in particular, as well as prayer of
adoration before Christ present under the Eucharistic species.47
It is pleasant to spend
time with him, to lie close to his breast like the Beloved Disciple (cf.
Jn 13:25) and to feel the infinite love present in his heart. If in
our time Christians must be distinguished above all by the “art of
prayer”,48 how can we not feel a renewed need to spend time in
spiritual converse, in silent adoration, in heartfelt love before Christ
present in the Most Holy Sacrament? How often, dear brother and sisters,
have I experienced this, and drawn from it strength, consolation and
support!
This practice, repeatedly
praised and recommended by the Magisterium,49 is supported by
the example of many saints. Particularly outstanding in this regard was
Saint Alphonsus Liguori, who wrote: “Of all devotions, that of adoring
Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the greatest after the sacraments, the
one dearest to God and the one most helpful to us”.50 The
Eucharist is a priceless treasure: by not only celebrating it but also by
praying before it outside of Mass we are enabled to make contact with the
very wellspring of grace. A Christian community desirous of contemplating
the face of Christ in the spirit which I proposed in the Apostolic Letters
Novo Millennio Ineunte and Rosarium Virginis Mariae cannot
fail also to develop this aspect of Eucharistic worship, which prolongs
and increases the fruits of our communion in the body and blood of the
Lord.
1“In the
course of the day the faithful should not omit visiting the Blessed
Sacrament, which in accordance with liturgical law must be reserved in
churches with great reverence in a prominent place. Such visits are a sign
of gratitude, an expression of love and an acknowledgment of the Lord's
presence”: Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Mysterium Fidei (3 September
1965): AAS 57 (1965), 771.
CHAPTER THREE
THE APOSTOLICITY OF THE
EUCHARIST AND OF THE CHURCH
26. If, as I have said,
the Eucharist builds the Church and the Church makes the Eucharist, it
follows that there is a profound relationship between the two, so much so
that we can apply to the Eucharistic mystery the very words with which, in
the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, we profess the Church to be “one,
holy, catholic and apostolic”. The Eucharist too is one and catholic. It
is also holy, indeed, the Most Holy Sacrament. But it is above all its
apostolicity that we must now consider.
27. The Catechism of
the Catholic Church, in explaining how the Church is apostolic–founded
on the Apostles–sees three meanings in this expression. First, “she
was and remains built on 'the foundation of the Apostles' (Eph
2:20), the witnesses chosen and sent on mission by Christ himself”.51
The Eucharist too has its foundation in the Apostles, not in the sense
that it did not originate in Christ himself, but because it was entrusted
by Jesus to the Apostles and has been handed down to us by them and by
their successors. It is in continuity with the practice of the Apostles,
in obedience to the Lord's command, that the Church has celebrated the
Eucharist down the centuries.
The second sense in which
the Church is apostolic, as the Catechism points out, is that “with
the help of the Spirit dwelling in her, the Church keeps and hands on the
teaching, the 'good deposit', the salutary words she has heard from the
Apostles”.52 Here too the Eucharist is apostolic, for it is
celebrated in conformity with the faith of the Apostles. At various times
in the two-thousand-year history of the People of the New Covenant, the
Church's Magisterium has more precisely defined her teaching on the
Eucharist, including its proper terminology, precisely in order to
safeguard the apostolic faith with regard to this sublime mystery. This
faith remains unchanged and it is essential for the Church that it remain
unchanged.
28. Lastly, the Church is
apostolic in the sense that she “continues to be taught, sanctified and
guided by the Apostles until Christ's return, through their successors in
pastoral office: the college of Bishops assisted by priests, in union with
the Successor of Peter, the Church's supreme pastor”.53
Succession to the Apostles in the pastoral mission necessarily entails the
sacrament of Holy Orders, that is, the uninterrupted sequence, from the
very beginning, of valid episcopal ordinations.54 This
succession is essential for the Church to exist in a proper and full
sense.
The Eucharist also
expresses this sense of apostolicity. As the Second Vatican Council teach-
es, “the faithful join in the offering of the Eucharist by virtue of their
royal priesthood”,55 yet it is the ordained priest who, “acting
in the person of Christ, brings about the Eucharistic Sacrifice and offers
it to God in the name of all the people”.56 For this reason,
the Roman Missal prescribes that only the priest should recite the
Eucharistic Prayer, while the people participate in faith and in silence.57
29. The expression
repeatedly employed by the Second Vatican Council, according to which “the
ministerial priest, acting in the person of Christ, brings about the
Eucharistic Sacrifice”,58 was already firmly rooted in papal
teaching.59 As I have pointed out on other occasions, the
phrase in persona Christi “means more than offering 'in the name
of' or 'in the place of' Christ. In persona means in specific
sacramental identification with the eternal High Priest who is the author
and principal subject of this sacrifice of his, a sacrifice in which, in
truth, nobody can take his place”.60 The ministry of priests
who have received the sacrament of Holy Orders, in the economy of
salvation chosen by Christ, makes clear that the Eucharist which they
celebrate is a gift which radically transcends the power of the
assembly and is in any event essential for validly linking the
Eucharistic consecration to the sacrifice of the Cross and to the Last
Supper. The assembly gathered together for the celebration of the
Eucharist, if it is to be a truly Eucharistic assembly, absolutely
requires the presence of an ordained priest as its president. On the other
hand, the community is by itself incapable of providing an ordained
minister. This minister is a gift which the assembly receives through
episcopal succession going back to the Apostles. It is the Bishop who,
through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, makes a new presbyter by conferring
upon him the power to consecrate the Eucharist. Consequently, “the
Eucharistic mystery cannot be celebrated in any community except by an
ordained priest, as the Fourth Lateran Council expressly taught”.61
30. The Catholic Church's
teaching on the relationship between priestly ministry and the Eucharist
and her teaching on the Eucharistic Sacrifice have both been the subject
in recent decades of a fruitful dialogue in the area of ecumenism.
We must give thanks to the Blessed Trinity for the significant progress
and convergence achieved in this regard, which lead us to hope one day for
a full sharing of faith. Nonetheless, the observations of the Council
concerning the Ecclesial Communities which arose in the West from the
sixteenth century onwards and are separated from the Catholic Church
remain fully pertinent: “The Ecclesial Communities separated from us lack
that fullness of unity with us which should flow from Baptism, and we
believe that especially because of the lack of the sacrament of Orders
they have not preserved the genuine and total reality of the Eucharistic
mystery. Nevertheless, when they commemorate the Lord's death and
resurrection in the Holy Supper, they profess that it signifies life in
communion with Christ and they await his coming in glory”.62
The Catholic faithful,
therefore, while respecting the religious convictions of these separated
brethren, must refrain from receiving the communion distributed in their
celebrations, so as not to condone an ambiguity about the nature of the
Eucharist and, consequently, to fail in their duty to bear clear witness
to the truth. This would result in slowing the progress being made towards
full visible unity. Similarly, it is unthinkable to substitute for Sunday
Mass ecumenical celebrations of the word or services of common prayer with
Christians from the aforementioned Ecclesial Communities, or even
participation in their own liturgical services. Such celebrations and
services, however praiseworthy in certain situations, prepare for the goal
of full communion, including Eucharistic communion, but they cannot
replace it.
The fact that the power
of consecrating the Eucharist has been entrusted only to Bishops and
priests does not represent any kind of belittlement of the rest of the
People of God, for in the communion of the one body of Christ which is the
Church this gift redounds to the benefit of all.
31. If the Eucharist is
the centre and summit of the Church's life, it is likewise the centre and
summit of priestly ministry. For this reason, with a heart filled with
gratitude to our Lord Jesus Christ, I repeat that the Eucharist “is the
principal and central raison d'être of the sacrament of priesthood,
which effectively came into being at the moment of the institution of the
Eucharist”.63
Priests are engaged in a
wide variety of pastoral activities. If we also consider the social and
cultural conditions of the modern world it is easy to understand how
priests face the very real risk of losing their focus amid such a
great number of different tasks. The Second Vatican Council saw in
pastoral charity the bond which gives unity to the priest's life and work.
This, the Council adds, “flows mainly from the Eucharistic Sacrifice,
which is therefore the centre and root of the whole priestly life”.64
We can understand, then, how important it is for the spiritual life of the
priest, as well as for the good of the Church and the world, that priests
follow the Council's recommendation to celebrate the Eucharist daily: “for
even if the faithful are unable to be present, it is an act of Christ and
the Church”.65 In this way priests will be able to counteract
the daily tensions which lead to a lack of focus and they will find in the
Eucharistic Sacrifice–the true centre of their lives and ministry–the
spiritual strength needed to deal with their different pastoral
responsibilities. Their daily activity will thus become truly Eucharistic.
The centrality of the
Eucharist in the life and ministry of priests is the basis of its
centrality in the pastoral promotion of priestly vocations. It is
in the Eucharist that prayer for vocations is most close- ly united to the
prayer of Christ the Eternal High Priest. At the same time the diligence
of priests in carrying out their Eucharistic ministry, together with the
conscious, active and fruitful participation of the faithful in the
Eucharist, provides young men with a powerful example and incentive for
responding generously to God's call. Often it is the example of a priest's
fervent pastoral charity which the Lord uses to sow and to bring to
fruition in a young man's heart the seed of a priestly calling.
32. All of this shows how
distressing and irregular is the situation of a Christian community which,
despite having sufficient numbers and variety of faithful to form a
parish, does not have a priest to lead it. Parishes are communities of the
baptized who express and affirm their identity above all through the
celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. But this requires the presence
of a presbyter, who alone is qualified to offer the Eucharist in
persona Christi. When a community lacks a priest, attempts are rightly
made somehow to remedy the situation so that it can continue its Sunday
celebrations, and those religious and laity who lead their brothers and
sisters in prayer exercise in a praiseworthy way the common priesthood of
all the faithful based on the grace of Baptism. But such solutions must be
considered merely temporary, while the community awaits a priest.
The sacramental
incompleteness of these celebrations should above all inspire the whole
community to pray with greater fervour that the Lord will send labourers
into his harvest (cf. Mt 9:38). It should also be an incentive to
mobilize all the resources needed for an adequate pastoral promotion of
vocations, without yielding to the temptation to seek solutions which
lower the moral and formative standards demanded of candidates for the
priesthood.
33. When, due to the
scarcity of priests, non- ordained members of the faithful are entrusted
with a share in the pastoral care of a parish, they should bear in mind
that – as the Second Vatican Council teaches – “no Christian community can
be built up unless it has its basis and centre in the celebration of the
most Holy Eucharist”.66 They have a responsibility, therefore,
to keep alive in the community a genuine “hunger” for the Eucharist, so
that no opportunity for the celebration of Mass will ever be missed, also
taking advantage of the occasional presence of a priest who is not impeded
by Church law from celebrating Mass.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE EUCHARIST AND
ECCLESIAL COMMUNION
34. The Extraordinary
Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in 1985 saw in the concept of an
“ecclesiology of communion” the central and fundamental idea of the
documents of the Second Vatican Council.67 The Church is called
during her earthly pilgrimage to maintain and promote communion with the
Triune God and communion among the faithful. For this purpose she
possesses the word and the sacraments, particularly the Eucharist, by
which she “constantly lives and grows” 68 and in which she
expresses her very nature. It is not by chance that the term communion
has become one of the names given to this sublime sacrament.
The Eucharist thus
appears as the culmination of all the sacraments in perfecting our
communion with God the Father by identification with his only-begotten Son
through the working of the Holy Spirit. With discerning faith a
distinguished writer of the Byzantine tradition voiced this truth: in the
Eucharist “unlike any other sacrament, the mystery [of communion] is so
perfect that it brings us to the heights of every good thing: here is the
ultimate goal of every human desire, because here we attain God and God
joins himself to us in the most perfect union”.69 Precisely for
this reason it is good to cultivate in our hearts a constant desire for
the sacrament of the Eucharist. This was the origin of the practice of
“spiritual communion”, which has happily been established in the Church
for centuries and recommended by saints who were masters of the spiritual
life. Saint Teresa of Jesus wrote: “When you do not receive communion and
you do not attend Mass, you can make a spiritual communion, which is a
most beneficial practice; by it the love of God will be greatly impressed
on you”.70
35. The celebration of
the Eucharist, however, cannot be the starting-point for communion; it
presupposes that communion already exists, a communion which it seeks to
consolidate and bring to perfection. The sacrament is an expression of
this bond of communion both in its invisible dimension, which, in
Christ and through the working of the Holy Spirit, unites us to the Father
and among ourselves, and in its visible dimension, which entails
communion in the teaching of the Apostles, in the sacraments and in the
Church's hierarchical order. The profound relationship between the
invisible and the visible elements of ecclesial communion is constitutive
of the Church as the sacrament of salvation.71 Only in this
context can there be a legitimate celebration of the Eucharist and true
participation in it. Consequently it is an intrinsic requirement of the
Eucharist that it should be celebrated in communion, and specifically
maintaining the various bonds of that communion intact.
36. Invisible communion,
though by its nature always growing, presupposes the life of grace, by
which we become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4), and
the practice of the virtues of faith, hope and love. Only in this way do
we have true communion with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Nor
is faith sufficient; we must persevere in sanctifying grace and love,
remaining within the Church “bodily” as well as “in our heart”; 72
what is required, in the words of Saint Paul, is “faith working through
love” (Gal 5:6).
Keeping these invisible
bonds intact is a specific moral duty incumbent upon Christians who wish
to participate fully in the Eucharist by receiving the body and blood of
Christ. The Apostle Paul appeals to this duty when he warns: “Let a man
examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup” (1 Cor
11:28). Saint John Chrysostom, with his stirring eloquence, exhorted the
faithful: “I too raise my voice, I beseech, beg and implore that no one
draw near to this sacred table with a sullied and corrupt conscience. Such
an act, in fact, can never be called 'communion', not even were we to
touch the Lord's body a thousand times over, but 'condemnation', 'torment'
and 'increase of punishment'”.73
Along these same lines,
the Catechism of the Catholic Church rightly stipulates that
“anyone conscious of a grave sin must receive the sacrament of
Reconciliation before coming to communion”.74 I therefore
desire to reaffirm that in the Church there remains in force, now and in
the future, the rule by which the Council of Trent gave concrete
expression to the Apostle Paul's stern warning when it affirmed that, in
order to receive the Eucharist in a worthy manner, “one must first confess
one's sins, when one is aware of mortal sin”.75
37. The two sacraments of
the Eucharist and Penance are very closely connected. Because the
Eucharist makes present the redeeming sacrifice of the Cross, perpetuating
it sacramentally, it naturally gives rise to a continuous need for
conversion, for a personal response to the appeal made by Saint Paul to
the Christians of Corinth: “We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be
reconciled to God” (2 Cor 5:20). If a Christian's conscience is
burdened by serious sin, then the path of penance through the sacrament of
Reconciliation becomes necessary for full participation in the Eucharistic
Sacrifice.
The judgment of one's
state of grace obviously belongs only to the person involved, since it is
a question of examining one's conscience. However, in cases of outward
conduct which is seriously, clearly and steadfastly contrary to the moral
norm, the Church, in her pastoral concern for the good order of the
community and out of respect for the sacrament, cannot fail to feel
directly involved. The Code of Canon Law refers to this situation
of a manifest lack of proper moral disposition when it states that those
who “obstinately persist in manifest grave sin” are not to be admitted to
Eucharistic communion.76
38. Ecclesial communion,
as I have said, is likewise visible, and finds expression in the
series of “bonds” listed by the Council when it teaches: “They are fully
incorporated into the society of the Church who, possessing the Spirit of
Christ, accept her whole structure and all the means of salvation
established within her, and within her visible framework are united to
Christ, who governs her through the Supreme Pontiff and the Bishops, by
the bonds of profession of faith, the sacraments, ecclesiastical
government and communion”.77
The Eucharist, as the
supreme sacramental manifestation of communion in the Church, demands to
be celebrated in a context where the outward bonds of communion are
also intact. In a special way, since the Eucharist is “as it were the
summit of the spiritual life and the goal of all the sacraments”,78
it requires that the bonds of communion in the sacraments, particularly in
Baptism and in priestly Orders, be real. It is not possible to give
communion to a person who is not baptized or to one who rejects the full
truth of the faith regarding the Eucharistic mystery. Christ is the truth
and he bears witness to the truth (cf. Jn 14:6; 18:37); the
sacrament of his body and blood does not permit duplicity.
39. Furthermore, given
the very nature of ecclesial communion and its relation to the sacrament
of the Eucharist, it must be recalled that “the Eucharistic Sacrifice,
while always offered in a particular community, is never a celebration of
that community alone. In fact, the community, in receiving the Eucharistic
presence of the Lord, receives the entire gift of salvation and shows,
even in its lasting visible particular form, that it is the image and true
presence of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church”.79
From this it follows that a truly Eucharistic community cannot be closed
in upon itself, as though it were somehow self-sufficient; rather it must
persevere in harmony with every other Catholic community.
The ecclesial communion
of the Eucharistic assembly is a communion with its own Bishop and
with the Roman Pontiff. The Bishop, in effect, is the visible
principle and the foundation of unity within his particular Church.80
It would therefore be a great contradiction if the sacrament par
excellence of the Church's unity were celebrated without true
communion with the Bishop. As Saint Ignatius of Antioch wrote: “That
Eucharist which is celebrated under the Bishop, or under one to whom the
Bishop has given this charge, may be considered certain”.81
Likewise, since “the Roman Pontiff, as the successor of Peter, is the
perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity of the Bishops
and of the multitude of the faithful”,82 communion with him is
intrinsically required for the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice.
Hence the great truth expressed which the Liturgy expresses in a variety
of ways: “Every celebration of the Eucharist is performed in union not
only with the proper Bishop, but also with the Pope, with the episcopal
order, with all the clergy, and with the entire people. Every valid
celebration of the Eucharist expresses this universal communion with Peter
and with the whole Church, or objectively calls for it, as in the case of
the Christian Churches separated from Rome”.83
40. The Eucharist
creates communion and fosters communion. Saint Paul wrote to
the faithful of Corinth explaining how their divisions, reflected in their
Eucharistic gatherings, contradicted what they were celebrating, the
Lord's Supper. The Apostle then urged them to reflect on the true reality
of the Eucharist in order to return to the spirit of fraternal communion
(cf. 1 Cor 11:17- 34). Saint Augustine effectively echoed this call
when, in recalling the Apostle's words: “You are the body of Christ and
individually members of it” (1 Cor 12: 27), he went on to say: “If
you are his body and members of him, then you will find set on the Lord's
table your own mystery. Yes, you receive your own mystery”.84
And from this observation he concludes: “Christ the Lord... hallowed at
his table the mystery of our peace and unity. Whoever receives the mystery
of unity without preserving the bonds of peace receives not a mystery for
his benefit but evidence against himself”.85
41. The Eucharist's
particular effectiveness in promoting communion is one of the reasons for
the importance of Sunday Mass. I have already dwelt on this and on the
other reasons which make Sunday Mass fundamental for the life of the
Church and of individual believers in my Apostolic Letter on the
sanctification of Sunday Dies Domini.86 There I recalled
that the faithful have the obligation to attend Mass, unless they are
seriously impeded, and that Pastors have the corresponding duty to see
that it is practical and possible for all to fulfil this precept.87
More recently, in my Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, in
setting forth the pastoral path which the Church must take at the
beginning of the third millennium, I drew particular attention to the
Sunday Eucharist, emphasizing its effectiveness for building communion.
“It is”–I wrote–“the privileged place where communion is ceaselessly
proclaimed and nurtured. Precisely through sharing in the Eucharist,
the Lord's Day also becomes the Day of the Church, when she can
effectively exercise her role as the sacrament of unity”.88
42. The safeguarding and
promotion of ecclesial communion is a task of each member of the faithful,
who finds in the Eucharist, as the sacrament of the Church's unity, an
area of special concern. More specifically, this task is the particular
responsibility of the Church's Pastors, each according to his rank and
ecclesiastical office. For this reason the Church has drawn up norms aimed
both at fostering the frequent and fruitful access of the faithful to the
Eucharistic table and at determining the objective conditions under which
communion may not be given. The care shown in promoting the faithful
observance of these norms becomes a practical means of showing love for
the Eucharist and for the Church.
43. In considering the
Eucharist as the sacrament of ecclesial communion, there is one subject
which, due to its importance, must not be overlooked: I am referring to
the relationship of the Eucharist to ecumenical activity. We should
all give thanks to the Blessed Trinity for the many members of the
faithful throughout the world who in recent decades have felt an ardent
desire for unity among all Christians. The Second Vatican Council, at the
beginning of its Decree on Ecumenism, sees this as a special gift of God.89
It was an efficacious grace which inspired us, the sons and daughters of
the Catholic Church and our brothers and sisters from other Churches and
Ecclesial Communities, to set forth on the path of ecumenism.
Our longing for the goal
of unity prompts us to turn to the Eucharist, which is the supreme
sacrament of the unity of the People of God, in as much as it is the apt
expression and the unsurpassable source of that unity.90 In the
celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice the Church prays that God, the
Father of mercies, will grant his children the fullness of the Holy Spirit
so that they may become one body and one spirit in Christ.91 In
raising this prayer to the Father of lights, from whom comes every good
endowment and every perfect gift (cf. Jas 1:17), the Church
believes that she will be heard, for she prays in union with Christ her
Head and Spouse, who takes up this plea of his Bride and joins it to that
of his own redemptive sacrifice.
44. Precisely because the
Church's unity, which the Eucharist brings about through the Lord's
sacrifice and by communion in his body and blood, absolutely requires full
communion in the bonds of the profession of faith, the sacraments and
ecclesiastical governance, it is not possible to celebrate together the
same Eucharistic liturgy until those bonds are fully re-established. Any
such concelebration would not be a valid means, and might well prove
instead to be an obstacle, to the attainment of full communion,
by weakening the sense of how far we remain from this goal and by
introducing or exacerbating ambiguities with regard to one or another
truth of the faith. The path towards full unity can only be undertaken in
truth. In this area, the prohibitions of Church law leave no room for
uncertainty,92 in fidelity to the moral norm laid down by the
Second Vatican Council.93
I would like nonetheless
to reaffirm what I said in my Encyclical Letter Ut Unum Sint after
having acknowledged the impossibility of Eucharistic sharing: “And yet we
do have a burning desire to join in celebrating the one Eucharist of the
Lord, and this desire itself is already a common prayer of praise, a
single supplication. Together we speak to the Father and increasingly we
do so 'with one heart'”.94
45. While it is never
legitimate to concelebrate in the absence of full communion, the same is
not true with respect to the administration of the Eucharist under
special circumstances, to individual persons belonging to Churches or
Ecclesial Communities not in full communion with the Catholic Church. In
this case, in fact, the intention is to meet a grave spiritual need for
the eternal salvation of an individual believer, not to bring about an
intercommunion which remains impossible until the visible bonds of
ecclesial communion are fully re-established.
This was the approach
taken by the Second Vatican Council when it gave guidelines for responding
to Eastern Christians separated in good faith from the Catholic Church,
who spontaneously ask to receive the Eucharist from a Catholic minister
and are properly disposed.95 This approach was then ratified by
both Codes, which also consider–with necessary modifications–the case of
other non-Eastern Christians who are not in full communion with the
Catholic Church.96
46. In my Encyclical
Ut Unum Sint I expressed my own appreciation of these norms, which
make it possible to provide for the salvation of souls with proper
discernment: “It is a source of joy to note that Catholic ministers are
able, in certain particular cases, to administer the sacraments of the
Eucharist, Penance and Anointing of the Sick to Christians who are not in
full communion with the Catholic Church but who greatly desire to receive
these sacraments, freely request them and manifest the faith which the
Catholic Church professes with regard to these sacraments. Conversely, in
specific cases and in particular circumstances, Catholics too can request
these same sacraments from ministers of Churches in which these sacraments
are valid”.97
These conditions, from
which no dispensation can be given, must be carefully respected, even
though they deal with specific individual cases, because the denial of one
or more truths of the faith regarding these sacraments and, among these,
the truth regarding the need of the ministerial priesthood for their
validity, renders the person asking improperly disposed to legitimately
receiving them. And the opposite is also true: Catholics may not receive
communion in those communities which lack a valid sacrament of Orders.98
The faithful observance
of the body of norms established in this area 99 is a
manifestation and, at the same time, a guarantee of our love for Jesus
Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, for our brothers and sisters of different
Christian confessions–who have a right to our witness to the truth–and for
the cause itself of the promotion of unity.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE DIGNITY OF THE
EUCHARISTIC CELEBRATION
47. Reading the account
of the institution of the Eucharist in the Synoptic Gospels, we are struck
by the simplicity and the “solemnity” with which Jesus, on the evening of
the Last Supper, instituted this great sacrament. There is an episode
which in some way serves as its prelude: the anointing at Bethany.
A woman, whom John identifies as Mary the sister of Lazarus, pours a flask
of costly ointment over Jesus' head, which provokes from the
disciples–and from Judas in particular (cf. Mt 26:8; Mk
14:4; Jn 12:4)–an indignant response, as if this act, in light of
the needs of the poor, represented an intolerable “waste”. But Jesus' own
reaction is completely different. While in no way detracting from the duty
of charity towards the needy, for whom the disciples must always show
special care–“the poor you will always have with you” (Mt 26, 11;
Mk 14:7; cf. Jn 12:8)–he looks towards his imminent death
and burial, and sees this act of anointing as an anticipation of the
honour which his body will continue to merit even after his death,
indissolubly bound as it is to the mystery of his person.
The account continues, in
the Synoptic Gospels, with Jesus' charge to the disciples to prepare
carefully the “large upper room” needed for the Passover meal (cf.
Mk 14:15; Lk 22:12) and with the narration of the institution
of the Eucharist. Reflecting at least in part the Jewish rites of
the Passover meal leading up to the singing of the Hallel (cf. Mt
26:30; Mk 14:26), the story presents with sobriety and solemnity,
even in the variants of the different traditions, the words spoken by
Christ over the bread and wine, which he made into concrete expressions of
the handing over of his body and the shedding of his blood. All these
details are recorded by the Evangelists in the light of a praxis of the
“breaking of the bread” already well-established in the early Church. But
certainly from the time of Jesus on, the event of Holy Thursday has shown
visible traces of a liturgical “sensibility” shaped by Old Testament
tradition and open to being reshaped in Christian celebrations in a way
consonant with the new content of Easter.
48. Like the woman who
anointed Jesus in Bethany, the Church has feared no “extravagance”,
devoting the best of her resources to expressing her wonder and adoration
before the unsurpassable gift of the Eucharist. No less than the
first disciples charged with preparing the “large upper room”, she has
felt the need, down the centuries and in her encounters with different
cultures, to celebrate the Eucharist in a setting worthy of so great a
mystery. In the wake of Jesus' own words and actions, and building upon
the ritual heritage of Judaism, the Christian liturgy was born.
Could there ever be an adequate means of expressing the acceptance of that
self-gift which the divine Bridegroom continually makes to his Bride, the
Church, by bringing the Sacrifice offered once and for all on the Cross to
successive generations of believers and thus becoming nourishment for all
the faithful? Though the idea of a “banquet” naturally suggests
familiarity, the Church has never yielded to the temptation to trivialize
this “intimacy” with her Spouse by forgetting that he is also her Lord and
that the “banquet” always remains a sacrificial banquet marked by the
blood shed on Golgotha. The Eucharistic Banquet is truly a “sacred”
banquet, in which the simplicity of the signs conceals the
unfathomable holiness of God: O sacrum convivium, in quo Christus
sumitur! The bread which is broken on our altars, offered to us as
wayfarers along the paths of the world, is panis angelorum, the
bread of angels, which cannot be approached except with the humility of
the centurion in the Gospel: “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under
my roof ” (Mt 8:8; Lk 7:6).
49. With this heightened
sense of mystery, we understand how the faith of the Church in the mystery
of the Eucharist has found historical expression not only in the demand
for an interior disposition of devotion, but also in outward forms
meant to evoke and emphasize the grandeur of the event being celebrated.
This led progressively to the development of a particular form of
regulating the Eucharistic liturgy, with due respect for the various
legitimately constituted ecclesial traditions. On this foundation a
rich artistic heritage also developed. Architecture, sculpture,
painting and music, moved by the Christian mystery, have found in the
Eucharist, both directly and indirectly, a source of great inspiration.
Such was the case, for
example, with architecture, which witnessed the transition, once the
historical situation made it possible, from the first places of
Eucharistic celebration in the domus or “homes” of Christian
families to the sol- emn basilicas of the early centuries, to the
imposing cathedrals of the Middle Ages, and to the churches,
large and small, which gradually sprang up throughout the lands touched by
Christianity. The designs of altars and tabernacles within Church
interiors were often not simply motivated by artistic inspiration but also
by a clear understanding of the mystery. The same could be said for
sacred music, if we but think of the inspired Gregorian melodies and
the many, often great, composers who sought to do justice to the
liturgical texts of the Mass. Similarly, can we overlook the enormous
quantity of artistic production, ranging from fine craftsmanship to
authentic works of art, in the area of Church furnishings and vestments
used for the celebration of the Eucharist?
It can be said that the
Eucharist, while shaping the Church and her spirituality, has also
powerfully affected “culture”, and the arts in particular.
50. In this effort to
adore the mystery grasped in its ritual and aesthetic dimensions, a
certain “competition” has taken place between Christians of the West and
the East. How could we not give particular thanks to the Lord for the
contributions to Christian art made by the great architectural and
artistic works of the Greco-Byzantine tradition and of the whole
geographical area marked by Slav culture? In the East, sacred art has
preserved a remarkably powerful sense of mystery, which leads artists to
see their efforts at creating beauty not simply as an expression of their
own talents, but also as a genuine service to the faith. Passing
well beyond mere technical skill, they have shown themselves docile and
open to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
The architectural and
mosaic splendours of the Christian East and West are a patrimony belonging
to all believers; they contain a hope, and even a pledge, of the desired
fullness of communion in faith and in celebration. This would presuppose
and demand, as in Rublëv's famous depiction of the Trinity, a
profoundly Eucharistic Church in which the presence of the mystery of
Christ in the broken bread is as it were immersed in the ineffable unity
of the three divine Persons, making of the Church herself an “icon” of the
Trinity.
Within this context of an
art aimed at expressing, in all its elements, the meaning of the Eucharist
in accordance with the Church's teaching, attention needs to be given to
the norms regulating the construction and decor of sacred buildings.
As history shows and as I emphasized in my Letter to Artists,100
the Church has always left ample room for the creativity of artists. But
sacred art must be outstanding for its ability to express adequately the
mystery grasped in the fullness of the Church's faith and in accordance
with the pastoral guidelines appropriately laid down by competent
Authority. This holds true both for the figurative arts and for sacred
music.
51. The development of
sacred art and liturgical discipline which took place in lands of ancient
Christian heritage is also taking place on continents where
Christianity is younger. This was precisely the approach supported by
the Second Vatican Council on the need for sound and proper “inculturation”.
In my numerous Pastoral Visits I have seen, throughout the world, the
great vitality which the celebration of the Eucharist can have when marked
by the forms, styles and sensibilities of different cultures. By
adaptation to the changing conditions of time and place, the Eucharist
offers sustenance not only to individuals but to entire peoples, and it
shapes cultures inspired by Christianity.
It is necessary, however,
that this important work of adaptation be carried out with a constant
awareness of the ineffable mystery against which every generation is
called to measure itself. The “treasure” is too important and precious to
risk impoverishment or compromise through forms of experimentation or
practices introduced without a careful review on the part of the competent
ecclesiastical authorities. Furthermore, the centrality of the Eucharistic
mystery demands that any such review must be undertaken in close
association with the Holy See. As I wrote in my Post-Synodal Apostolic
Exhortation Ecclesia in Asia, “such cooperation is essential
because the Sacred Liturgy expresses and celebrates the one faith
professed by all and, being the heritage of the whole Church, cannot be
determined by local Churches in isolation from the universal Church”.101
52. All of this makes
clear the great responsibility which belongs to priests in particular for
the celebration of the Eucharist. It is their responsibility to preside at
the Eucharist in persona Christi and to provide a witness to and a
service of communion not only for the community directly taking part in
the celebration, but also for the universal Church, which is a part of
every Eucharist. It must be lamented that, especially in the years
following the post-conciliar liturgical reform, as a result of a misguided
sense of creativity and adaptation there have been a number of abuses
which have been a source of suffering for many. A certain reaction against
“formalism” has led some, especially in certain regions, to consider the
“forms” chosen by the Church's great liturgical tradition and her
Magisterium as non-binding and to introduce unauthorized innovations which
are often completely inappropriate.
I consider it my duty,
therefore to appeal urgently that the liturgical norms for the celebration
of the Eucharist be observed with great fidelity. These norms are a
concrete expression of the authentically ecclesial nature of the
Eucharist; this is their deepest meaning. Liturgy is never anyone's
private property, be it of the celebrant or of the community in which the
mysteries are celebrated. The Apostle Paul had to address fiery words to
the community of Corinth because of grave shortcomings in their
celebration of the Eucharist resulting in divisions (schismata) and
the emergence of factions (haireseis) (cf. 1 Cor 11:17-34).
Our time, too, calls for a renewed awareness and appreciation of
liturgical norms as a reflection of, and a witness to, the one universal
Church made present in every celebration of the Eucharist. 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. Precisely to bring out more clearly
this deeper meaning of liturgical norms, I have asked the competent
offices of the Roman Curia to prepare a more specific document, including
prescriptions of a juridical nature, on this very important subject. No
one is permitted to undervalue the mystery entrusted to our hands: it is
too great for anyone to feel free to treat it lightly and with disregard
for its sacredness and its universality.
CHAPTER SIX
AT THE SCHOOL OF MARY,
“WOMAN OF THE EUCHARIST”
53. If we wish to
rediscover in all its richness the profound relationship between the
Church and the Eucharist, we cannot neglect Mary, Mother and model of the
Church. In my Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, I pointed
to the Blessed Virgin Mary as our teacher in contemplating Christ's face,
and among the mysteries of light I included the institution of the
Eucharist.102 Mary can guide us towards this most holy
sacrament, because she herself has a profound relationship with it.
At first glance, the
Gospel is silent on this subject. The account of the institution of the
Eucharist on the night of Holy Thursday makes no mention of Mary. Yet we
know that she was present among the Apostles who prayed “with one accord”
(cf. Acts 1:14) in the first community which gathered after the
Ascension in expectation of Pentecost. Certainly Mary must have been
present at the Eucharistic celebrations of the first generation of
Christians, who were devoted to “the breaking of bread” (Acts
2:42).
But in addition to her
sharing in the Eucharistic banquet, an indirect picture of Mary's
relationship with the Eucharist can be had, beginning with her interior
disposition. Mary is a “woman of the Eucharist” in her whole life.
The Church, which looks to Mary as a model, is also called to imitate her
in her relationship with this most holy mystery.
54. Mysterium fidei!
If the Eucharist is a mystery of faith which so greatly transcends our
understanding as to call for sheer abandonment to the word of God, then
there can be no one like Mary to act as our support and guide in acquiring
this disposition. In repeating what Christ did at the Last Supper in
obedience to his command: “Do this in memory of me!”, we also accept
Mary's invitation to obey him without hesitation: “Do whatever he tells
you” (Jn 2:5). With the same maternal concern which she showed at
the wedding feast of Cana, Mary seems to say to us: “Do not waver; trust
in the words of my Son. If he was able to change water into wine, he can
also turn bread and wine into his body and blood, and through this mystery
bestow on believers the living memorial of his passover, thus becoming the
'bread of life'”.
55. In a certain sense
Mary lived her Eucharistic faith even before the institution of the
Eucharist, by the very fact that she offered her virginal womb for the
Incarnation of God's Word. The Eucharist, while commemorating the
passion and resurrection, is also in continuity with the incarnation. At
the Annunciation Mary conceived the Son of God in the physical reality of
his body and blood, thus anticipating within herself what to some degree
happens sacramentally in every believer who receives, under the signs of
bread and wine, the Lord's body and blood.
As a result, there is a
profound analogy between the Fiat which Mary said in reply to the
angel, and the Amen which every believer says when receiving the
body of the Lord. Mary was asked to believe that the One whom she
conceived “through the Holy Spirit” was “the Son of God” (Lk
1:30-35). In continuity with the Virgin's faith, in the Eucharistic
mystery we are asked to believe that the same Jesus Christ, Son of God and
Son of Mary, becomes present in his full humanity and divinity under the
signs of bread and wine.
“Blessed is she who
believed” (Lk 1:45). Mary also anticipated, in the mystery of the
incarnation, the Church's Eucharistic faith. When, at the Visitation, she
bore in her womb the Word made flesh, she became in some way a
“tabernacle”–the first “tabernacle” in history–in which the Son of God,
still invisible to our human gaze, allowed himself to be adored by
Elizabeth, radiating his light as it were through the eyes and the voice
of Mary. And is not the enraptured gaze of Mary as she contemplated the
face of the newborn Christ and cradled him in her arms that unparalleled
model of love which should inspire us every time we receive Eucharistic
communion?
56. Mary, throughout her
life at Christ's side and not only on Calvary, made her own the
sacrificial dimension of the Eucharist. When she brought the child
Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem “to present him to the Lord” (Lk
2:22), she heard the aged Simeon announce that the child would be a “sign
of contradiction” and that a sword would also pierce her own heart (cf.
Lk 2:34-35). The tragedy of her Son's crucifixion was thus foretold,
and in some sense Mary's Stabat Mater at the foot of the Cross was
foreshadowed. In her daily preparation for Calvary, Mary experienced a
kind of “anticipated Eucharist”–one might say a “spiritual communion”–of
desire and of oblation, which would culminate in her union with her Son in
his passion, and then find expression after Easter by her partaking in the
Eucharist which the Apostles celebrated as the memorial of that passion.
What must Mary have felt
as she heard from the mouth of Peter, John, James and the other Apostles
the words spoken at the Last Supper: “This is my body which is given for
you” (Lk 22:19)? The body given up for us and made present under
sacramental signs was the same body which she had conceived in her womb!
For Mary, receiving the Eucharist must have somehow meant welcoming once
more into her womb that heart which had beat in unison with hers and
reliving what she had experienced at the foot of the Cross.
57. “Do this in
remembrance of me” (Lk 22:19). In the “memorial” of Calvary all
that Christ accomplished by his passion and his death is present.
Consequently all that Christ did with regard to his Mother for our
sake is also present. To her he gave the beloved disciple and, in him,
each of us: “Behold, your Son!”. To each of us he also says: “Behold your
mother!” (cf. Jn 19: 26-27).
Experiencing the memorial
of Christ's death in the Eucharist also means continually receiving this
gift. It means accepting–like John–the one who is given to us anew as our
Mother. It also means taking on a commitment to be conformed to Christ,
putting ourselves at the school of his Mother and allowing her to
accompany us. Mary is present, with the Church and as the Mother of the
Church, at each of our celebrations of the Eucharist. If the Church and
the Eucharist are inseparably united, the same ought to be said of Mary
and the Eucharist. This is one reason why, since ancient times, the
commemoration of Mary has always been part of the Eucharistic celebrations
of the Churches of East and West.
58. In the Eucharist the
Church is completely united to Christ and his sacrifice, and makes her own
the spirit of Mary. This truth can be understood more deeply by
re-reading the Magnificat in a Eucharistic key. The Eucharist, like
the Canticle of Mary, is first and foremost praise and thanksgiving. When
Mary exclaims: “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God
my Saviour”, she already bears Jesus in her womb. She praises God
“through” Jesus, but she also praises him “in” Jesus and “with” Jesus.
This is itself the true “Eucharistic attitude”.
At the same time Mary
recalls the wonders worked by God in salvation history in fulfilment of
the promise once made to the fathers (cf. Lk 1:55), and proclaims
the wonder that surpasses them all, the redemptive incarnation. Lastly,
the Magnificat reflects the eschatological tension of the
Eucharist. Every time the Son of God comes again to us in the “poverty” of
the sacramental signs of bread and wine, the seeds of that new history
wherein the mighty are “put down from their thrones” and “those of low
degree are exalted” (cf. Lk 1:52), take root in the world. Mary
sings of the “new heavens” and the “new earth” which find in the Eucharist
their anticipation and in some sense their programme and plan. The
Magnificat expresses Mary's spirituality, and there is nothing greater
than this spirituality for helping us to experience the mystery of the
Eucharist. The Eucharist has been given to us so that our life, like that
of Mary, may become completely a Magnificat!
CONCLUSION
59.
Ave, verum corpus natum de Maria Virgine! Several years ago I
celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of my priesthood. Today I have the
grace of offering the Church this Encyclical on the Eucharist on the Holy
Thursday which falls during the twenty-fifth year of my Petrine
ministry. As I do so, my heart is filled with gratitude. For over a
half century, every day, beginning on 2 November 1946, when I celebrated
my first Mass in the Crypt of Saint Leonard in Wawel Cathedral in Krakow,
my eyes have gazed in recollection upon the host and the chalice, where
time and space in some way “merge” and the drama of Golgotha is
re-presented in a living way, thus revealing its mysterious “contemporaneity”.
Each day my faith has been able to recognize in the consecrated bread and
wine the divine Wayfarer who joined the two disciples on the road to
Emmaus and opened their eyes to the light and their hearts to new hope
(cf. Lk 24:13-35).
Allow me, dear brothers
and sisters, to share with deep emotion, as a means of accompanying and
strengthening your faith, my own testimony of faith in the Most Holy
Eucharist. Ave verum corpus natum de Maria Virgine, vere passum,
immolatum, in cruce pro homine! Here is the Church's treasure, the
heart of the world, the pledge of the fulfilment for which each man and
woman, even unconsciously, yearns. A great and transcendent mystery,
indeed, and one that taxes our mind's ability to pass beyond appearances.
Here our senses fail us: visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur, in
the words of the hymn Adoro Te Devote; yet faith alone, rooted in
the word of Christ handed down to us by the Apostles, is sufficient for
us. Allow me, like Peter at the end of the Eucharistic discourse in John's
Gospel, to say once more to Christ, in the name of the whole Church and in
the name of each of you: “Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of
eternal life” (Jn 6:68).
60. At the dawn of this
third millennium, we, the children of the Church, are called to undertake
with renewed enthusiasm the journey of Christian living. As I wrote in my
Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, “it is not a matter of
inventing a 'new programme'. The programme already exists: it is the plan
found in the Gospel and in the living Tradition; it is the same as ever.
Ultimately, it has its centre in Christ himself, who is to be known, loved
and imitated, so that in him we may live the life of the Trinity, and with
him transform history until its fulfilment in the heavenly Jerusalem”.103
The implementation of this programme of a renewed impetus in Christian
living passes through the Eucharist.
Every commitment to
holiness, every activity aimed at carrying out the Church's mission, every
work of pastoral planning, must draw the strength it needs from the
Eucharistic mystery and in turn be directed to that mystery as its
culmination. In the Eucharist we have Jesus, we have his redemptive
sacrifice, we have his resurrection, we have the gift of the Holy Spirit,
we have adoration, obedience and love of the Father. Were we to disregard
the Eucharist, how could we overcome our own deficiency?
61. The mystery of the
Eucharist–sacrifice, presence, banquet–does not allow for reduction or
exploitation; it must be experienced and lived in its integrity, both
in its celebration and in the intimate converse with Jesus which takes
place after receiving communion or in a prayerful moment of Eucharistic
adoration apart from Mass. These are times when the Church is firmly built
up and it becomes clear what she truly is: one, holy, catholic and
apostolic; the people, temple and family of God; the body and bride of
Christ, enlivened by the Holy Spirit; the universal sacrament of salvation
and a hierarchically structured communion.
The path taken by the
Church in these first years of the third millennium is also a path of
renewed ecumenical commitment. The final decades of the second
millennium, culminating in the Great Jubilee, have spurred us along this
path and called for all the baptized to respond to the prayer of Jesus “ut
unum sint ” (Jn 17:11). The path itself is long and strewn with
obstacles greater than our human resources alone can overcome, yet we have
the Eucharist, and in its presence we can hear in the depths of our
hearts, as if they were addressed to us, the same words heard by the
Prophet Elijah: “Arise and eat, else the journey will be too great for
you” (1 Kg 19:7). The treasure of the Eucharist, which the Lord
places before us, impels us towards the goal of full sharing with all our
brothers and sisters to whom we are joined by our common Baptism. But if
this treasure is not to be squandered, we need to respect the demands
which derive from its being the sacrament of communion in faith and in
apostolic succession.
By giving the Eucharist
the prominence it deserves, and by being careful not to diminish any of
its dimensions or demands, we show that we are truly conscious of the
greatness of this gift. We are urged to do so by an uninterrupted
tradition, which from the first centuries on has found the Christian
community ever vigilant in guarding this “treasure”. Inspired by love, the
Church is anxious to hand on to future generations of Christians, without
loss, her faith and teaching with regard to the mystery of the Eucharist.
There can be no danger of excess in our care for this mystery, for “in
this sacrament is recapitulated the whole mystery of our salvation”.104
62. Let us take our
place, dear brothers and sisters, at the school of the saints, who
are the great interpreters of true Eucharistic piety. In them the theology
of the Eucharist takes on all the splendour of a lived reality; it becomes
“contagious” and, in a manner of speaking, it “warms our hearts”. Above
all, let us listen to Mary Most Holy, in whom the mystery of the
Eucharist appears, more than in anyone else, as a mystery of light.
Gazing upon Mary, we come to know the transforming power present in the
Eucharist. In her we see the world renewed in love. Contemplating her,
assumed body and soul into heaven, we see opening up before us those “new
heavens” and that “new earth” which will appear at the second coming of
Christ. Here below, the Eucharist represents their pledge, and in a
certain way, their anticipation: “Veni, Domine Iesu!” (Rev
22:20).
In the humble signs of
bread and wine, changed into his body and blood, Christ walks beside us as
our strength and our food for the journey, and he enables us to become,
for everyone, witnesses of hope. If, in the presence of this mystery,
reason experiences its limits, the heart, enlightened by the grace of the
Holy Spirit, clearly sees the response that is demanded, and bows low in
adoration and unbounded love.
Let us make our own the
words of Saint Thomas Aquinas, an eminent theologian and an impassioned
poet of Christ in the Eucharist, and turn in hope to the contemplation of
that goal to which our hearts aspire in their thirst for joy and peace:
Bone
pastor, panis vere,
Iesu,
nostri miserere...
Come then, good
Shepherd, bread divine,
Still show to us thy
mercy sign;
Oh, feed us, still
keep us thine;
So we may see thy
glories shine
in fields of
immortality.
O thou, the wisest,
mightiest, best,
Our present food, our
future rest,
Come, make us each thy
chosen guest,
Co-heirs of thine, and
comrades blest
With saints whose
dwelling is with thee.
Given in Rome, at Saint
Peter's, on 17 April, Holy Thursday, in the year 2003, the Twenty- fifth
of my Pontificate, the Year of the Rosary.
I N D E X
Introduction
3
Chapter One
The Mystery of Faith.
14
Chapter Two
The Eucharist Builds the
Church.
27
Chapter Three
The Apostolicity of the
Eucharist and of the Church.
34
Chapter Four
The Eucharist and
Ecclesial Communion.
43
Chapter Five
The Dignity of the
Eucharistic Celebration.
58
Chapter Six
At the School of Mary,
“Woman of the Eucharist”
67
Conclusion.
73
VATICAN PRESS
1Second
Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen
Gentium, 11.
2Second
Vatican Ecumenical Council, Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests
Presbyterorum Ordinis, 5.
3Cf. John Paul
II, Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae (16 October 2002),
21: AAS 95 (2003), 19.
4This is the
title which I gave to an autobiographical testimony issued for my fiftieth
anniversary of priestly ordination.
5Leonis
XIII P.M. Acta, XXII (1903), 115-136.
6AAS
39 (1947), 521-595.
7AAS
57 (1965), 753-774.
8AAS
72 (1980), 113-148.
9Cf. Second
Vatican Ecumenical Council, Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium,
47: “... our Saviour instituted the Eucharistic Sacrifice of his body and
blood, in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout time,
until he should return”.
10Catechism
of the Catholic Church, 1085.
11Second
Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen
Gentium, 3.
12Cf. Paul VI,
Solemn Profession of Faith, 30 June 1968, 24: AAS 60 (1968), 442; John
Paul II, Apostolic Letter Dominicae Cenae (24 February 1980), 12:
AAS 72 (1980), 142.
13Catechism
of the Catholic Church, 1382.
14Catechism
of the Catholic Church, 1367.
15In
Epistolam ad Hebraeos Homiliae, Hom. 17,3: PG 63, 131.
16Cf.
Ecumenical Council of Trent, Session XXII, Doctrina de ss. Missae
Sacrificio, Chapter 2: DS 1743: “It is one and the same victim here
offering himself by the ministry of his priests, who then offered himself
on the Cross; it is only the manner of offering that is different”.
17Pius XII,
Encyclical Letter Mediator Dei (20 November 1947): AAS 39 (1947),
548.
18John Paul
II, Encyclical Letter Redemptor Hominis (15 March 1979), 20: AAS 71
(1979), 310.
19Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 11.
20De
Sacramentis, V, 4, 26: CSEL 73, 70.
21In
Ioannis Evangelium, XII, 20: PG 74, 726.
22Encyclical
Letter Mysterium Fidei (3 September 1965): AAS 57 (1965), 764.
23Session
XIII, Decretum de ss. Eucharistia, Chapter 4: DS
1642.
24Mystagogical
Catecheses, IV, 6: SCh 126, 138.
25Second
Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation
Dei Verbum, 8.
26Solemn
Profession of Faith, 30 June 1968, 25: AAS 60 (1968), 442-443.
27Sermo
IV in Hebdomadam Sanctam: CSCO 413/Syr. 182,
55.
28Anaphora.
29Eucharistic
Prayer III.
30Solemnity of
the Body and Blood of Christ, Second Vespers, Antiphon to the
Magnificat.
31Missale
Romanum, Embolism following the Lord's Prayer.
32Ad
Ephesios, 20: PG 5, 661.
33Cf. Second
Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the
Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 39.
34“Do you wish
to honour the body of Christ? Do not ignore him when he is naked. Do not
pay him homage in the temple clad in silk, only then to neglect him
outside where he is cold and ill-clad. He who said: 'This is my body' is
the same who said: 'You saw me hungry and you gave me no food', and
'Whatever you did to the least of my brothers you did also to me' ... What
good is it if the Eucharistic table is overloaded with golden chalices
when your brother is dying of hunger. Start by satisfying his hunger and
then with what is left you may adorn the altar as well”: Saint John
Chrysostom, In Evangelium S. Matthaei, hom. 50:3-4: PG 58, 508-509;
cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (30
December 1987), 31: AAS 80 (1988), 553-556.
35Dogmatic
Constitution Lumen Gentium, 3.
36Ibid.
37Second
Vatican Ecumenical Council, Decree on the Missionary Activity of the
Church Ad Gentes, 5.
38“Moses took
the blood and threw it upon the people, and said: 'Behold the blood of the
Covenant which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these
words'” (Ex 24:8).
39Cf. Second
Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen
Gentium, 1.
40Cf. ibid.,
9.
41Cf. Second
Vatican Ecumenical Council, Decree on the Life and Ministry of Priests
Presbyterorum Ordinis, 5. The same Decree, in No. 6, says: “No
Christian community can be built up which does not grow from and hinge on
the celebration of the most holy Eucharist”.
42In
Epistolam I ad Corinthios Homiliae, 24, 2: PG 61, 200; Cf. Didache,
IX, 4: F.X. Funk, I, 22; Saint Cyprian, Ep. LXIII,
13: PL 4, 384.
43PO
26, 206.
44Second
Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen
Gentium, 1.
45Cf.
Ecumenical Council of Trent, Session XIII, Decretum de ss.
Eucharistia, Canon 4: DS 1654.
46Cf.
Rituale Romanum: De sacra communione et de cultu mysterii eucharistici
extra Missam, 36 (No. 80).
47Cf.
ibid., 38-39 (Nos. 86-90).
48John Paul
II, Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte (6 January 2001), 32:
AAS 93 (2001), 288.
49“In the
course of the day the faithful should not omit visiting the Blessed
Sacrament, which in accordance with liturgical law must be reserved in
churches with great reverence in a prominent place. Such visits are a sign
of gratitude, an expression of love and an acknowledgment of the Lord's
presence”: Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Mysterium Fidei (3 September
1965): AAS 57 (1965), 771.
50Visite
al SS. Sacramento e a Maria Santissima,
Introduction: Opere Ascetiche, Avellino, 2000, 295.
51No.
857.
52Ibid.
53Ibid.
54Cf.
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter Sacerdotium
Ministeriale (6 August 1983), III.2: AAS 75 (1983), 1005.
55Second
Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen
Gentium, 10.
56Ibid.
57Cf.
Institutio Generalis: Editio typica tertia, No. 147.
58Cf. Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 10 and 28; Decree on the
Ministry and Life of Priests Presbyterorum Ordinis, 2.
59“The
minister of the altar acts in the person of Christ inasmuch as he is head,
making an offering in the name of all the members”: Pius XII, Encyclical
Letter Mediator Dei (20 November 1947): AAS 39 (1947), 556; cf.
Pius X, Apostolic Exhortation Haerent Animo (4 August 1908):
Acta Pii X, IV, 16; Pius XI, Encyclical Letter Ad Catholici
Sacerdotii (20 December 1935): AAS 28 (1936), 20.
60Apostolic
Letter Dominicae Cenae (24 February 1980), 8: AAS 72 (1980),
128-129.
61Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter Sacerdotium Ministeriale (6
August 1983), III.4: AAS 75 (1983), 1006; cf. Fourth Lateran Ecumenical
Council, Chapter 1, Constitution on the Catholic Faith Firmiter
Credimus: DS 802.
62Second
Vatican Ecumenical Council, Decree on Ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio,
22.
63Apostolic
Letter Dominicae Cenae (24 February 1980), 2: AAS 72 (1980), 115.
64Decree on
the Life and Ministry of Priests Presbytero- rum Ordinis, 14.
65Ibid.,
13; cf. Code of Canon Law, Canon 904; Code of Canons of the
Eastern Churches, Canon 378.
66Decree on
the Ministry and Life of Priests Presbytero- rum Ordinis, 6.
67Cf. Final
Report, II.C.1: L'Osservatore Romano, 10 December 1985, 7.
68Second
Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen
Gentium, 26.
69Nicolas
Cabasilas, Life in Christ, IV, 10: SCh 355, 270.
70Camino
de Perfección, Chapter 35.
71Cf.
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter to the Bishops of the
Catholic Church on Some Aspects of the Church Understood as Communion
Communionis Notio (28 May 1992), 4: AAS 85 (1993), 839-840.
72Cf. Second
Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen
Gentium, 14.
73Homiliae
in Isaiam, 6, 3: PG 56, 139.
74No. 1385;
cf. Code of Canon Law, Canon 916; Code of Canons of the Eastern
Churches, Canon 711.
75Address to
the Members of the Sacred Apostolic Penitentiary and the Penitentiaries of
the Patriarchal Basilicas of Rome (30 January 1981): AAS 73 (1981), 203.
Cf. Ecumenical Council of Trent, Sess. XIII, Decretum
de ss. Eucharistia, Chapter 7 and Canon 11: DS 1647,
1661.
76Canon 915;
Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, Canon 712.
77Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 14.
78Saint Thomas
Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, III, q. 73, a. 3c.
79Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic
Church on Some Aspects of the Church Understood as Communion
Communionis Notio (28 May 1992), 11: AAS 85 (1993), 844.
80Cf. Second
Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen
Gentium, 23.
81Ad
Smyrnaeos, 8: PG 5, 713.
82Second
Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen
Gentium, 23.
83Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic
Church on Some Aspects of the Church Understood as Communion
Communionis Notio (28 May 1992), 14: AAS 85 (1993), 847.
84Sermo
272: PL 38, 1247.
85Ibid.,
1248.
86Cf.
Nos. 31-51: AAS 90 (1998), 731-746.
87Cf.
ibid., Nos. 48-49: AAS 90 (1998), 744.
88No.
36: AAS 93 (2001), 291-292.
89Cf.
Decree on Ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio, 1.
90Cf. Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 11.
91“Join all of
us, who share the one bread and the one cup, to one another in the
communion of the one Holy Spirit”: Anaphora of the Liturgy of Saint
Basil.
92Cf. Code
of Canon Law, Canon 908; Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches,
Canon 702; Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity,
Ecumenical Directory, 25 March 1993, 122-125, 129-131: AAS 85 (1993),
1086-1089; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter Ad
Exsequendam, 18 May 2001: AAS 93 (2001), 786.
93“Divine law
forbids any common worship which would damage the unity of the Church, or
involve formal acceptance of falsehood or the danger of deviation in the
faith, of scandal, or of indifferentism”: Decree on the Eastern Catholic
Churches Orientalium Ecclesiarum, 26.
94No. 45: AAS
87 (1995), 948.
95Decree on
the Eastern Catholic Churches Orientalium Ecclesiarum, 27.
96Cf. Code
of Canon Law, Canon 844 §§ 3-4; Code of Canons of the Eastern
Churches, Canon 671 §§ 3-4.
97No.
46: AAS 87 (1995), 948.
98Cf.
Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Decree on Ecumenism Unitatis
Redintegratio, 22.
99Code of
Canon Law, Canon 844; Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches,
Canon 671.
100Cf.
AAS 91 (1999), 1155-1172.
101No.
22: AAS 92 (2000), 485.
102Cf.
No. 21: AAS 95 (2003), 20.
103No.
29: AAS 93 (2001), 285.
104Saint
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, III, q. 83, a. 4c.
