NOTE: This is a continuing education I have created for my local Secular Franciscan fraternity. While its discussion of the Eucharist is decidedly Roman Catholic, I believe it has some merit for all Christian denominations who celebrate the Eucharist. For those from more Evangelical traditions, e.g. Baptists, Assembly of God, Free Church, that believe that the full presence of God is found only in sacred scripture, and the celebration of the Lord’s Supper is merely just a symbolic ritual that is played out every now and again, this article will probably have little to contribute to their faith life, aside from being informative.
For Roman Catholics, this article is meant to expand their understanding of Eucharist from a “Gaze That Saves” mentality in which Eucharist is only isolated to an action done by a priest in a stuffy old church building, or paraded around in a heavily golden, bejeweled reliquary (monstrance) under a gold cloth canopy amidst a cloud of incense by a bunch of clerics.
“The liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed: at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows. For the aim and object of apostolic works is that all who are made sons (and daughters) of God by faith and baptism should come together to praise God in the midst of His Church, to take part in the sacrifice and to eat the Lord’s supper.
“The liturgy in its turn moves the faithful, filled with “the paschal sacraments,” to be “one in holiness”; it prays that “they may hold fast in their lives to what they have grasped by their faith”; the renewal in the Eucharist of the covenant between the Lord and man draws the faithful into the compelling love of Christ and sets them on fire. From the liturgy, therefore, and especially from the Eucharist, as from a font, grace is poured forth upon us; and the sanctification of men (and women) in Christ and the glorification of God, to which all other activities of the Church are directed as toward their end, is achieved in the in the most efficacious possible way.” (#10.Sacrosanctum Concilium, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Vatican II, December 4, 1963)
The celebration of the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist, is the most central action in the lives of all Catholics. It is indeed the summit toward which all our activity is directed but at the same time the font from which all power and grace flows into our lives and into the world.
St. Francis himself concentrates our attention on this great Sacrament: “As He revealed Himself to the holy apostles in true flesh, so He reveals Himself to us now in sacred bread. And as they saw only His flesh by an insight of their flesh, yet believed that He was God as they contemplated Him with their spiritual eyes, let us, as we see bread and wine with our bodily eyes, see and firmly believe that they are His most holy Body and Blood living and true. And in this way the Lord is always with His faithful, as He Himself says: Behold I am with you until the end of the age.”’ (from “Keeping our Focus on Francis, Topic 3 – The Eucharist)
The Gospels through much of August are devoted to the Eucharistic discourse of John 6. The Eucharist in John’s Gospel is celebrated in the feeding of the five thousand. Note: the Passover Meal of Mark, Matthew, and Luke’s Gospel is not found in John’s Gospel on Holy Thursday. John’s Last Supper is a Berakah, in which the significant action is that of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. The Passover in John’s Gospel is on Holy Saturday (they had to get all the bodies off the crosses on Good Friday because the next day was the Passover).
We heard in the Gospel today, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” Whoever eats* my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.” (John 6:51,54-57, NAB)
Jesus is telling us that in eating his body and drinking his blood we are united to him on a molecular level; his body and blood is, in the words of Julian of Norwich, “Oned” to our body and blood. In the eating of his body and the drinking of his blood in the Eucharist we become the living body and blood of Christ in our world today. Our bodies become “living tabernacles” of Christ’s body and blood. Many years ago, the sacramental theologian and liturgist, Fr Joseph Gelineau wrote that the greatest sign of the Body of Christ in the world was the parking lot of a Catholic Church. It showed that the living Body of Christ of the baptized was gathered inside the Church celebrating the Eucharist.
While the priest presides over the prayer at the Eucharistic celebration, the entire Body of Christ, the baptized, celebrate the Eucharist. We are active, not passive participants in the celebration. All our prayer is directed to God our Father, through Jesus. The priest, in the Epiclesis of the Eucharistic prayer, calls upon the Holy Spirit to come down and transform the bread and the wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. “Therefore, O Lord, we humbly implore you: by the same Spirit graciously make holy these gifts we have brought to you for consecration, that they may become the Body and + Blood of your Son our Lord Jesus Christ at whose command we celebrate these mysteries.” (Epiclesis of the Third Eucharistic Prayer) As the Body of Christ gathered, not only is the consecrated bread and wine offered up to the Father, but, as the living Body of Christ, our lives are offered up in praise, too. The priest prays this following the anamnesis (Memorial Acclamation). “May he make of us an eternal offering to you, so that we may obtain an inheritance with your elect …” (Third Eucharistic Prayer)
It is in St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, written thirty years before Mark, the first Gospel, that we encounter a passage from the first Eucharistic prayer. St Paul, addressing the divisions in the Corinthian community writes about the essence of the Eucharistic celebration.
For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes. (1 Cor 11: 23b-26, NAB)
The great Pauline scholar Father Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, O.P., wrote in his commentary on this passage: “The relationship between authentic ‘remembrance’ and mission is clearly spelled out in the commentary that Paul appends to the liturgical formula. The ‘proclamation’ that he has in mind is neither the symbolic declaration of the death of Jesus in the broken loaf and the outpoured wine, nor the retelling of the Passion during the liturgical celebration, The ‘proclamation’ takes place in and through the eating of the bread and the drinking of the cup. The material gesture of eating and drinking is not sufficient, The attitude of the participants is crucial. If their imitation of Christ is non-existent or seriously defective, then no matter how carefully the ritual gestures are performed, ‘it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat’ (1 Cor 11:20) Only if the participants have truly put on Christ, which is equivalent to putting on love, is there effective ‘proclamation’ of the death of Christ in the eucharist. The death of Christ affected the salvation of believers because of the power-laden love it embodied. That same love must continue to be enfleshed in a pattern of behavior if the death of Christ is to have a permanent saving value. That obligation, which believers assume by becoming members of the Body of Christ, will cease only when it is rendered unnecessary by the physical return of Christ to this world, ‘until he comes’(verse 26).
(pp. 112-113, 1 Corinthians, Rev. Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, O.P., Michael Glazier, Inc, Wilmington, Delaware, 1979)
Then, St Paul points out how the division among those in the Corinthian community is “killing” the Body of Christ (the baptized):
Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment* on himself. (1 Cor 11:20-23,27-29,NAB)
In his commentary on this passage, Fr. Murphy-O’Connor, writes: Having established the authentic “remembrance’ which is demanded of Christians, Paul turns back to the Corinthians and spells out what actually happens when they celebrate the eucharist. “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord’. ‘To be guilty of the blood of someone’ is most naturally understood as meaning to be responsible for the death of someone’. The unworthy participant is classed among those who killed Jesus. Ideally, participation in the eucharist should be a proclamation of the death of the Lord which prolongs its saving love, but the attitude of the participants can make it an act of murder.
Love gave substance to the eucharistic words, and only love can continue to do so. (Ibid)
What St Paul is telling us today is that when we come forward to receive Holy Communion, and hear from the Eucharistic Minister the words, “The Body of Christ”, we are not only saying, “Amen,” to the real presence of Jesus in the consecrated host and consecrated wine, but we are saying, “Amen” to the real presence of Jesus in the people gathered as the Body of Christ at Mass with us. St Paul tells us that in order to receive the Eucharist, we must be at peace with the Body of Christ in our faith community.
In our Secular Franciscan Rule (#5), we acknowledge the great importance of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, in our lives as Franciscans, and, equally the importance of seeing Christ in the presence of our Franciscan brothers and sisters, in our faith communities, and in our greater communities.
5. Secular Franciscans, therefore, should seek to encounter the living and active person of Christ in their brothers and sisters, in Sacred Scripture, in the Church, and in liturgical activity. The faith of St. Francis, who often said, “I see nothing bodily of the Most High Son of God in this world except His most holy body and blood,” should be the inspiration and pattern of their Eucharistic life.
In our “Oneing” with the body and blood of Christ, we see, as did St Francis, the presence of Christ in all people and all of nature. St Francis expressed this so beautifully in his Canticle of Brother Sun and Sister Moon. At the turn of the 20th century, the Irish poet, Joseph Mary Plunkett expressed this so succinctly in this poem.
“I see his blood upon the rose
And in the stars the glory of his eyes,
His body gleams amid eternal snows,
His tears fall from the skies.
I see his face in every flower;
The thunder and the singing of the birds
Are but his voice—and carven by his power
Rocks are his written words.
All pathways by his feet are worn,
His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea,
His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn,
His cross is every tree.”
At the beginning of Mark’s account of the feeding of the five thousand, we hear:
When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. By now it was already late and his disciples approached him and said, “This is a deserted place and it is already very late. Dismiss them so that they can go to the surrounding farms and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” He said to them in reply, “Give them some food yourselves.” (Mark 6: 34-37, NAB)
The Eucharist is not merely a noun, but it is a verb. To celebrate and receive the Eucharist must compel us to action, to love as Jesus loved until it is no longer necessary when he comes again in glory. Because of this, the Eucharist cannot be isolated inside a church building. As living tabernacles of the Body and Blood of Christ, we must bring his presence within us out the church doors and into the everyday life of our homes, our communities, and our places of work. This is stated so very well in Rule #6 of our Secular Franciscan Rule.
6. They have been made living members of the Church by being buried and raised with Christ in baptism; they have been united more intimately with the Church by profession. Therefore, they should go forth as witnesses and instruments of her mission among all
people, proclaiming Christ by their life and words. (Rule of the Secular Franciscan Order)
Or in the words of St Teresa of Avila”
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which He looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which He blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are His body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
- In what way have I experienced the power and the grace present in the celebration of the Eucharist?
- In what way(s) is my life an offering of praise and love to God the Father?
- Do I feel my being “Oned” with Christ in the Eucharist? What does it feel like?
- When the Eucharistic Minister says, “The Body of Christ,” to what am I saying “Amen.” The real presence of Jesus in Holy Communion? The Body of Christ in all the baptized gathered with me at Mass? Both?
- In what way do I feel compelled to action in celebrating the Eucharist?
- In what way has my celebration of the Eucharist opened my eyes to see the presence of Christ in other people and in all of nature?
