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February 2004: The Quiet Presence Of God |
The Virgin shall be with child and bear a Son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, a name which means God is with us. Matt 1:23
| Week 1: Appreciating
Presence Through Understanding Christmas God Cared This Deeply For a deeper appreciation of the Eucharist, I think that we need to more deeply understand Christmas. Is it not amazing or inconceivable that God who created the stars and set the earth and the sky in their place, that God who created human life and every living thing, that God who called his people, and led them through the desert to freedom, on that first Christmas day will come to us like this? Who would have thought that God could care so deeply? Who would have thought that God would become so vulnerable? Who would have thought that God would draw so near to us? In the midst of our struggles of life, we sometimes find ourselves asking, "Does God care?" In the midst of a world that is sometimes chaotic and unfair, we ask: Where is God? And in the midst of life's struggles, we wonder what sense to make of it all. Though its hard to take in, what we most desperately want to know, yet but often fail to believe its true, that the holy one of all time took flesh and drew this near to us. God cared this deeply, had become this vulnerable. It is the love of God so tender and real that we taste at Eucharist. One of the terms we use to describe the Eucharist is Sacrament. Namely, it is one of the seven. And rightly so. For sacrament means a place or moment when we encounter God. As such, there are countless sacraments with small "s". Seeing With Sacramental Eyes Christmas, therefore is much more than a celebration of the birth of an infant. Through the gift of Christmas, the mystery of the incarnation, God did not simply take flesh in Jesus 2000 years ago, where all creation is graced. There is no time or place that we can go where our loving creator is not already there for us. It could be said that one of the gifts of the Catholic faith is that we have the tradition of seeing with sacramental eyes. Perhaps the greatest challenge to our appreciation of the Eucharist is that, in many ways we have lost our sense of the sacred presence of God in the ordinary. Jewish ritual meal was an important time to remember the presence of God in their life. To remember how faithful God had been in liberating them, and in countless other often surprising ways down through the ages. And through their remembering, to again find God in their midst. Filled With Love For Us In prayer then, we are not making God present in the world but rather through gestures, silence, songs and rituals, becoming in touch with the God already present. The more we truly understand Christmas, the more the Eucharist is a natural response. For at the heart of our gathering, we find what we most deeply hunger for - God. Alive in the world filled with love for us. Eucharist, its for us a taste of Emmanuel - God with Us. Week 2: Development Of The Worship Of The Real presence Memorial Instituted By The Saviour The Eucharistic presence, on the basis of Christ's twice stated command "Do this in remembrance of me" (1 Cor. 11:24-26, Luke 22:19), is at the root of a considerable liturgical development, which has broadened in the course of the centuries. Around the core of the double consecration, prayers, rites and readings have taken shape with which the Christian community makes an effort to share as intensively as possible in the memorial instituted by the Saviour. More particularly, it is important to note a relatively late development bearing on a devotion to the Eucharistic presence. In the early centuries, the Eucharist was publicly adored, but only during the time of the Mass and Communion. The reservation of the consecrated host was originally for the purpose of bringing Communion to the sick and the absent. Only during the Middle Ages, in the West, did there arise a more explicit worship of the real presence with the emphasis on adoration. Faith In The Eucharistic Presence Of Christ In the twelfth century, a new rite was introduced into the celebration of the Mass: the elevation of the consecrated host immediately after the consecration. This elevation constitutes an invitation to acknowledge more expressly the presence of Christ and to adore him. In the thirteenth century, the adoration of the host developed outside of the Mass, along with popular attendance at processions of the Most Holy Sacrament. In the fourteenth century, the usage of the exposition of the host in the monstrance was introduced. Subsequently, in certain regions, the Most Holy Sacrament was exposed during the recital of the canonical hours. Blessings with the sacrament multiplied. At the end of the fifteenth century, the Forty Hours Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament exposed came into use in commemoration of the forty hours spent by our Lord in the tomb. During the Renaissance, a tabernacle was erected on the main alter. Private visits to the Blessed Sacrament spread in the eighteenth century under the influence of Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori. We cannot fail to recognise in all of this development a doctrinal value: what we have is an evolution founded on faith in the Eucharistic presence of Christ. Week 3: Worship Of The Real Presence In The Eucharist Celebration This is my Body. This is my Blood. It will be in order to recall that, at the moment of the institution of the Eucharist, Jesus stated directly and immediately that his body and blood were present. Since he was inviting his disciples to eat and drink, he could have said only: "Eat my body," and "Drink my blood". But he preferred to make use of words proclaiming the reality of his flesh and blood: "This is my body", and "This is my blood". He asked his disciples to believe in this reality. Hence, a year before the Last Supper, he had required an act of faith on the part of his disciples, an act of faith all the more meritorious and more valid in as much as it represented a resistance to the general movement of defection that had occurred at the moment of the proclamation of the Eucharist. Jesus had required that act of faith as the condition to be accepted in order to continue to follow him: "Do you also wish to go away?" he asked the Twelve. An Act Of Faith In The Divine Person Of Christ In order to remain with the Master, the disciples must believe in the mysterious meal in which the Son of Man would give his flesh to eat and his blood to drink. They must acknowledge in him the bread come down from heaven, the bread that gives life to the world. The act of faith required of the disciples is before all else an act of faith in the divine person of Christ. Only one who is God can secure life for the world by making himself the nourishment of human beings. Peter, overcome, confesses this: "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life" (John 6:68). To whom indeed, if not to the one who pronounces divine words and possesses the holiness of God. Divine Presence Invites Adoration In the Eucharist, there is an essential assertion of the divine presence. Thus, there is an invitation to adoration. The one who, in his body and blood, offers himself as food and drink asks to be received in function of the divine value of his gift. Jesus' declarations regarding his personal presence in the Eucharist must be accepted in all of their implications. These implications go beyond the declaration that his flesh is given as food and his blood as drink, since the presence of a person cannot be reduced to the utility it presents or the service it renders. Even when Jesus says, "Whoever eats me...," he alludes to a personal presence that is not exhausted in a function of nourishment. Adoration Gives Communion Its True Meaning The Eucharistic presence can never be regarded as the presence of a thing, constituted of body and blood. It is essentially the presence of the one who, through his body and blood, says: "I am". This presence deserves to be appreciated in function of the dignity of a person become present with love and more precisely, with the supreme dignity of a divine person. Therefore, in the sharing of the Eucharistic celebration, an attitude of adoration before Jesus who has become present precedes the Communion meal. Only this adoration can afford the Christian the dispositions for receiving the body and blood of Jesus with the respect and veneration that are due to them. Only this adoration can give Communion its true meaning that of an intimate contact, person to person, with the Son of God made man. Week 4: Worship Of The Real Presence Outside The Eucharistic Celebration An Assertion That Placed No Limits On His Presence Jesus did not expressly ask that worship of his Eucharistic Presence be paid outside the celebration of the Eucharistic sacrifice and Communion. But by the words of consecration, he has given us the presence of his body and blood, with an assertion that placed no limits on this presence. True, he has given his body and blood in the accomplishment of the offering of the sacrifice that sacramentally reproduces the sacrifice of the Cross and it is through the offering of the Cross that his personal presence is bestowed in the Eucharist. But he has not closed up this presence in the space and time needed for the offering of the Eucharistic sacrifice. In like manner, bestowing his presence under the signs of bread and wine, he was thinking of the Communion meal. But he certainly did not express a will that the gift of his body and blood should cease once the meal had come to an end. A Gift For The Sacrifice And The Meal True, the Eucharistic presence remains a gift essentially destined for the celebration of the Eucharistic sacrifice and the Communion meal. It can never be considered or venerated apart from all realisation in the celebration. The adoration of the real presence prepares for the offering of the sacrifice and for Communion. Besides, it derives its validity from the sacrifice and the meal, after that sacrifice and that meal have been celebrated. That is, it is simultaneously an introduction to the celebration and a fruit of the same. Christ's Intent For The Worship Of His Presence Christ's intent to develop the worship of his presence is more particularly discovered in the promise made to the disciples before his definitive departure from the earth: "I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matt 28:20). This promise, which concludes the Gospel of Matthew, is of a unique value. It makes allusion to the name of God already cited in Matthew 1:23 : Emmanuel, "God with us". This name manifests the Master's essential concern in the moment he is about to withdraw from his disciples' view. Knowing that he is about to cause them the sorrow of his absence, he guarantees a continuous presence. And he adds the specification "with you" to assure them that is is a matter of presence of which they can never be deprived: henceforth they are indissolubly united to the person of Christ. Then he specifies that his presence will endure "always", as a presence that will sign the ordinary course of all of their days. In saying that it will be thus "to the end of the age", Jesus affords his disciples a glimpse of the fact that his presence will accompany them in the great mission of evangelisation of all the nations, which will come to an end only with the conclusion of the history of humanity. A Presence To Transform The Destiny Of Humanity At the Last Supper, pronouncing the words of consecration for the first time, Jesus was not unaware of the fact that the presence of his body and blood was destined to transform the destiny of humanity. Can we not think that he had the interior certitude that his flesh would be acknowledged as the ideal nourishment by all who hunger for God? Besides, conscious as he was of drawing all human beings to himself (see John 12:32), he desired to become, through the Eucharist, the centre of adoration for all believers, offering to those who would adhere to him a more tranquil opportunity for worship and contemplative intimacy. Week 5: Central Role Of The Real Presence Gratitude For The Divine Gift Through Adoration In the course of the centuries, the development of worship of the real presence has represented a progress in consciousness of the wealth of the mystery of the Eucharist. This worship fully harmonises with the celebration of the sacrifice and of the Eucharistic meal. It contributes to a better grasp of the sense of participation in the sacramental offering of Christ. It tends to concentrate greater attention on the person of the Saviour in Communion. In some of the manifestations of worship, we cannot fail to recognise a thrust of intense veneration with which the people seek to attest their gratitude for the divine gift of the Eucharist. But we should add that Christ himself had desired this response at the institution performed at the Last Supper and had wished to awaken a movement of adoration which would acknowledge the value of his presence. An Expression Of Unity And A Means Of Grace This presence is an appeal to faith and love. it occupies a central position in the Christian religion, as a presence bound to the new temple built by the Resurrection. It is a wellspring of hope, given that the Eucharist associates us to the Passion of Christ "until he comes" (1 Cor 11:26) The division prevailing among Christians is a source of great suffering because it is an obstacle to a common participation in the Eucharist, that "centre and summit" of the life of the Church and sacrament of unity. Indeed, the Eucharist at once expresses unity and communicates grace. As an expression of unity, communicatio in sacris is impossible. As a means of grace, it can be permitted in precise circumstances determined by the authority of the Church (see Vatican II, Unitatis Redintegratio, no. 8) Intense Prayers For Christian Unity As for the Eastern Orthodox Churches, these have true sacraments, principally in virtue of the apostolic succession. Thus, communicatio in sacris is not only permitted in certain circumstances, but positively recommended, in conformity with the directives of ecclesiastical authority (see ibid., no. 15) According to Catholic doctrine, the Churches and communities of the Protestant tradition have not preserved the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic mystery. A common participation in the Eucharist, then, is impossible. The sacraments and their ministers must be a subject for dialogue (see ibid. no. 22). Indeed, significant steps toward unity have already been taken. The participation of all Christians at the one table of the Lord should be the object of our intense prayers. |