The Year of the Eucharist

OCTOBER 2004-2005
WEEKLY REFLECTIONS

From the Bulletin of Saint Jean Baptiste Catholic Church, New York City

September 25, 2005
On Keeping the Lord's Day Holy, XV

September 18, 2005
On Keeping the Lord's Day Holy, XIV

September 4, 2005
On Keeping the Lord's Day Holy, XIII

In 1998, Pope John Paul II wrote Dies Domini.  Excerpts from this letter appear here to underscore a central objective of the Year of the Eucharist ― to promote participation in the Sunday Eucharist.

"Receiving the bread of life, the disciples of Christ ready themselves to undertake with the strength of the risen Lord and his Spirit the tasks which await them in their ordinary life.  For the faithful who have understood the meaning of what they have done, the Eucharistic celebration does not stop at the church door. Like the first witnesses of the resurrection, Christians who gather each Sunday to experience and to proclaim the presence of the risen Lord are called to evangelize and bear witness in their daily lives."

"Given this, the prayer after Communion and . . . the final blessing and the dismissal need to be better valued and appreciated, so that all who have shared in the Eucharist may come to a deeper sense of the responsibility which is entrusted to them.  Once the assembly disperses, Christ’s disciples return to their everyday surroundings with the commitment to make their whole life a gift, a spiritual sacrifice pleasing to God.  They feel indebted to their brothers and sisters because of what they have received in the celebration, not unlike the disciples of Emmaus who, once they had recognized the risen Christ ‘in the breaking of the bread,’ felt the need to return immediately to share with their brothers and sisters the joy of meeting the Lord." (45)

August 21, 2005
On Keeping the Lord's Day Holy, XI

In 1998, Pope John Paul II wrote Dies Domini. Excerpts from this letter appear here to underscore a central objective of the Year of the Eucharist ― to promote participation in the Sunday Eucharist.

"‘I am with you always, to the end of the age.’  This promise of Christ never ceases to resound in the church as the fertile secret of its life and the wellspring of its hope.  As the day of resurrection, Sunday is not only a remembrance of a past event; it is a celebration of the living presence of the risen Lord in the midst of his own people."

"For this presence to be properly proclaimed and lived, it is not enough that the disciples of Christ pray individually and commemorate the death and resurrection of Christ inwardly, in the secrecy of their hearts.  Those who have received the grace of baptism are not saved as individuals alone, but as members of the mystical body, having become part of the people of God.  It is important therefore that they come together to express fully the very identity of the church, the ekklesia, the assembly called together by the risen Lord who offered his life ‘to reunite the scattered children of God.’  They have become ‘one’ in Christ through the Spirit.  This unity becomes visible when Christians gather together; it is then that they come to know . . . and to testify to the world that they are the people redeemed, drawn ‘from every tribe and language and people and nation.’  The assembly of Christ’s disciples embodies the image of the church in Acts." (31)

August 14, 2005
On Keeping the Lord's Day Holy, X

July 31, 2005
On Keeping the Lord's Day Holy, IX

In 1998, Pope John Paul II wrote Dies Domini.  Excerpts from this letter appear here to underscore a central objective of the Year of the Eucharist ― to promote participation in the Sunday Eucharist.

"’We celebrate Sunday because of the venerable resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we do so not only at Easter but also at each turning of the week.’  So wrote Pope Innocent I at the beginning of the fifth century, testifying to an already well-established practice which had evolved from the early years after the Lord’s resurrection.  Basil speaks of ‘holy Sunday, honored by the Lord’s resurrection, the first fruits of all the other days, and Augustine calls Sunday ‘a sacrament of Easter.’"

"The intimate bond between Sunday and the resurrection of the Lord is strongly emphasized by all the churches of East and West.  In the tradition of the Easter churches in particular, every Sunday is the anastàsimos hemèra, the day of resurrection, and that is why it stands at the heart of all worship."

"In the light of this constant and universal tradition, it is clear that, although the Lord’s day is rooted in the very work of creation and even more in the biblical mystery of the ‘rest’ of God, it is nonetheless to the resurrection of Christ that we must look in order to fully understand the Lord’s day.  This is what the Christian Sunday does, leading the faithful each week to ponder and live the event of Easter, true source of the world’s salvation." (19)

In 1998, Pope John Paul II wrote Dies Domini.  Excerpts from this letter appear here to underscore a central objective of the Year of the Eucharist ― to promote participation in the Sunday Eucharist.

"Because the third commandment depends upon the remembrance of God’s saving works and because Christians saw the definitive time inaugurated by Christ as a new beginning, they made the first day after the Sabbath a festive day, for that was the day on which the Lord rose from the dead.  The paschal mystery of Christ is the full revelation of the mystery of the world’s origin, the climax of the history of salvation, and the anticipation of the eschatological fulfillment of the world.  What God accomplished in creation and wrought for his people in the Exodus has found its fullest expression in Christ’s death and resurrection, though its definitive fulfillment will not come until the parousia. . . ."

"In him, the spiritual meaning of the Sabbath is fully realized, as Saint Gregory the Great declares, ‘For us, the true Sabbath is the person of our redeemer, our Lord Jesus Christ.’  This is why the joy with which God, on humanity’s first Sabbath, contemplates all that was created from nothing, is now expressed in the joy with which Christ, on Easter Sunday, appeared to his disciples, bringing the gift of peace and the gift of the Spirit. . . . We move from the ‘Sabbath’ to the ‘first day after the Sabbath,’ from the seventh day to the first day: the dies Domini becomes the dies Christi." (18)

July 3, 2005
On Keeping the Lord's Day Holy, VII

In 1998, Pope John Paul II wrote Dies Domini. Excerpts from this apostolic letter appear here as a way of underscoring a central objective of the Year of the Eucharist ― to promote participation in the Sunday Eucharist.

"The commandment of the Decalogue [the ten commandments] by which God decrees the Sabbath observance is formulated in the Book of Exodus in a distinctive way: ‘Remember the Sabbath day in order to keep it holy.’  And the inspired text goes on to give the reason for this, recalling as it does the work of God: ‘For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.’  Before decreeing that something be done, the commandment decrees that something be remembered.  It is a call to remember the grand and fundamental work of God which is creation, a remembrance which must inspire the entire religious life of the human person and then fill the day on which we are called to rest.  Rest thus acquires a sacred value: the faithful are called to rest not only as God rested, but to rest in the Lord, bringing the entire creation to him . . . in praise and thanksgiving."

"The Lord’s day takes on its full meaning when the human person enters the depths of God’s rest and can experience a tremor of the Creator’s joy when, after the creation, he saw that all he had made was ‘very good.’" (16-17)

June 26, 2005
On Keeping the Lord's Day Holy, VI

In 1998, Pope John Paul II wrote an apostolic letter, Dies Domini, about observing Sunday as the Lord’s day.  In it, he said:

"All human life, and therefore all human time, must become praise of the Creator and thanksgiving to him.  But our relationship with God also demands times of specific prayer, in which the relationship becomes an intense dialogue, involving every dimension of the person.  The Lord’s day is the day of this relationship par excellence when men and women raise their song to God and become the voice of all creation."

"This is precisely why it is also the day of rest.  Speaking as it does of ‘renewal’ and ‘detachment,’ the interruption of the often oppressive rhythm of work expresses the dependence of humankind and the cosmos upon God.  Everything belongs to God!  The Lord’s day returns again and again to declare this principle. . . . The ‘Sabbath’ has therefore been interpreted evocatively as a determining element in the kind of ‘sacred architecture’ of time which marks biblical revelation.  It recalls that the universe and history belong to God. Without this awareness, we cannot serve in the world as co-workers of the Creator." (14, 15)

June 19, 2005
On Keeping the Lord's Day Holy, V

In 1998, Pope John Paul II wrote Dies Domini.  Excerpts from this apostolic letter appear here as a way of underscoring a central objective of the Year of the Eucharist ― to promote participation in the Sunday Eucharist.

"If the first page of the Book of Genesis presents God’s ‘work’ as an example for us, the same is true of God’s ‘rest.’  ‘On the seventh day, God finished the work he had done. . . .’"

"It would be banal to interpret God’s ‘rest’ as a kind of divine ‘inactivity.’  By its nature, the creative act which founds the world is unceasing, and God is always at work, as Jesus himself declares. . . . The divine rest of the seventh day does not refer to an inactive God, but emphasizes the fullness of what has been accomplished.  It speaks of God lingering before the very ‘good work’ which his hand has wrought.  It is a gaze full of delight.  This is a ‘contemplative’ gaze which does not look to new accomplishments, but enjoys the beauty of what has already been achieved.  It is a gaze which God casts upon all things, but in a special way upon humankind, the crown of creation.  It is a gaze which already discloses something of the nuptial shape of the relationship which God wishes to establish with the creature made in his own image, by calling that creature to a pact of love.  This is what God will gradually accomplish, in offering salvation to all humanity through the saving covenant made with Israel and fulfilled in Christ." (11)

June 12, 2005
On Keeping the Lord's Day Holy, IV

In 1998, Pope John Paul II wrote Dies Domini.  Excerpts from this apostolic letter appear here as a way of underscoring a central objective of the Year of the Eucharist ― to promote participation in the Sunday Eucharist.

"For the Christian, Sunday is above all an Easter celebration, wholly illumined by the glory of the risen Christ.  It is the festival of the ‘new creation.’  Yet, when understood in depth, this aspect is inseparable from what the first pages of Scripture tell us of the plan of God in the creation of the world."

"It is true that the Word was made flesh in ‘the fullness of time,’ but it is also true that, in virtue of the mystery of his identity as the eternal Son of the Father, he is the origin and end of the universe.  As John writes in the Prologue of his Gospel, ‘Through him all things were made, and without him was made nothing that was made.’  Paul, too, stresses this in writing to the Colossians: ‘In him, all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. . . . All things were created through him and for him.’  This active presence of the Son in the creative work of God is revealed fully in the paschal mystery, in which Christ, rising as ‘the first fruits of those who had fallen asleep,’ established the new creation and began the process which he himself will bring to completion when he returns in glory to "deliver the kingdom to God the Father . . . so that God may be everything to everyone.’" (8)

June 5, 2005
On Keeping the Lord's Day Holy, III

In 1998, Pope John Paul II wrote Dies Domini, on the observance of Sunday in Christian tradition.  Excerpts from this apostolic letter appear here as a way of underscoring a central objective of the Year of the Eucharist ― to promote participation in the Sunday Eucharist.

"Until quite recently, it was easier in traditional Christian countries to keep Sunday holy because it was almost universal practice and because, even in the organization of civil society, Sunday rest was considered a fixed part of the work schedule.  Today, however, even in those countries which give legal sanction to the character of Sunday, changes in socioeconomic conditions have often led to profound modifications of social behavior and hence the character of Sunday.  The custom of the ‘weekend’ has become more widespread, a weekly period of respite, spent perhaps far away from home and often involving participation in cultural, political, or sporting activities.  All of this responds not only to the need for rest, but also to the need for celebration which is inherent in our humanity."

"The disciples of Christ, however, are asked to avoid any confusion between the celebration of Sunday, which should be truly a way of keeping the Lord’s day holy, and the ‘weekend,’ understood as a time of simple rest and relaxation.  This will require a genuine spiritual maturity, which will enable Christians to ‘be what they are,’ in full accordance with the gift of faith." (4)

May 29, 2005
On Keeping the Lord's Day Holy, II

In 1998, Pope John Paul II wrote Dies Domini, on the observance of Sunday in Christian tradition.  Excerpts from this apostolic letter appear here as a way of under-scoring a central objective of the Year of the Eucharist ― to promote participation in the Sunday Eucharist.

"The resurrection of Jesus is the fundamental event upon which Christian faith rests.  It is an astonishing reality, fully grasped in the light of faith; yet historically attested to by those who were privileged to see the risen Lord.  It is a wondrous event which is not only absolutely unique in human history, but which lies at the very heart of the mystery of time.  In fact, ‘all time belongs to Christ and all the ages,’ as the evocative language of the Easter Vigil liturgy recalls in preparing the paschal candle.  Therefore, in commemorating the resurrection of Jesus not just once a year but every Sunday, the church seeks to indicate to every generation the true fulcrum of history. . . . It is right, therefore, to claim in the words of a fourth century homily, that the Lord’s day is the ‘lord of days.’"

"The fundamental importance of Sunday has been recognized through 2,000 years of history and was emphatically restated by the Second Vatican Council: ‘Every seven days, the church celebrates the Easter mystery.  This is a tradition going back to the apostles, taking its origin from the actual day of Christ’s resurrection ― a day rightly designated as ‘the Lord’s day.’" (2, 3)

In secular society, the tendency is to treat Sunday as just another day of the work week, for commercial or personal benefit.  From the earliest times, however, Christians have viewed Sunday differently.  Over the next weeks, excerpts from Pope John Paul II’s 1998 letter Dies Domini will appear here as a way of underscoring a central objective of the Year of the Eucharist ― to promote participation in the Sunday Eucharist.

"The Lord’s day ― as Sunday was called from apostolic times ― has always been accorded special attention in the history of the church because of its close connection with the very core of the Christian mystery.  In fact, in the weekly reckoning of time, Sunday recalls the day of Christ’s resurrection.  It is Easter which returns week after week, celebrating Christ’s victory over sin and death, the fulfillment in him of the first creation, and the dawn of ‘the new creation.’  It is the day which recalls in grateful adoration the world’s first day and looks forward in active hope to ‘the last day,’ when Christ will come in glory and all things will be made new."

"Rightly, then, the psalmist’s cry is applied to Sunday: ‘This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.’  This invitation to joy, which the Easter liturgy makes its own, reflects the astonishment which came over the women who, having seen the crucifixion of Christ, found the tomb empty when they went there ‘very early on the day after the Sabbath.’" (1)

May 8, 2005
Remaining With Jesus

The second of our keynote speakers for the Vicariate Day of the Eucharist on April 23, Father J-Glenn Murray, S.J., addressed the theme Remaining with Jesus.  Father Murray is the Director of Liturgy for the Cleveland Diocese.

One objective of the liturgical renewal of Vatican II was to encourage the "full, active, and conscious participation" of all the baptized in public worship.  This is one of the compelling ways that Jesus remains with us today.

The Eucharistic liturgy is comprised of various moments: the gathering, the penitential rite, the Liturgy of the Word, the Liturgy of the Eucharist, Communion, and the closing rite.  Each calls for our "full, active, and conscious" participation."

In gathering, for example, we become aware of how greatly we have been blessed by God in and through Jesus.  He is the source of healing, reconciliation, and peace.  Thus, the "Lord, have mercy" voices both a humble recognition of need and a joyous proclamation of God’s goodness.

The liturgy, when entered into in this spirit, transforms and empowers us not only for worship, but for living and extending the Eucharistic mystery into daily life and a passionate pursuit of justice.

"The church has received the Eucharist from Christ its Lord not as one gift ― however precious ― among so many others, but as the gift par excellence" (Pope John Paul II).

May 1, 2005
At Table With Jesus

The first of our keynote speakers for the Vicariate Day of the Eucharist on April 23, Sister Carol Perry, S.U., addressed the theme At Table with Jesus.

She began by reminding us of the anthropological roots of sharing a meal.  In ancient cultures, there were two ways to enter a family: either by birth or by being invited to table.  Sharing food with another was an act of great significance.  It said that you accepted the other person as someone deserving of respect and affirmation and that you were willing to enter into communion with him or her at the deepest level.  In our experience today, due to the proliferation of food and the advent of fast food, meals have lost much of their symbolic, communicative power.

The Gospels show that Jesus sat at table with virtually everyone, with "saints" and "sinners" alike.  Table ministry was an integral part of his teaching and healing ministry.  The various meals narrated in the Gospels (and especially in Luke) have much to say much about Jesus’ understanding of God and the kingdom.  For Jesus, meals were living parables, opportunities to impart central teachings about mercy, forgiveness, and inclusion.

The meals of Jesus present a challenge to us, for he continues to eat with sinners.  This includes every one of us.  We come to the table not because we are worthy, but because we are needy.  Jesus’ openness to hungry and hurting people becomes a catalyst for reexamining our attitudes toward those with whom we dine.

April 24, 2005
The Eucharist: Fire and Spirit

Just six months before he died, Pope John Paul II designated October 2004-2005 as the Year of the Eucharist.  The Eucharist was at the heart of his understanding of the church.  On Holy Thursday 2003, he wrote: "Ever since Pentecost, when the church, the people of the new covenant, began its pilgrimage toward its heavenly homeland, the divine sacrament has continued to mark the passing of its days, filling it with confident hope."

The late Holy Father loved to celebrate the Eucharist with the local churches he visited.  And it was his lifelong practice to start each day with a prolonged period of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.  Moreover, his words and actions made clear the challenging implications, both personal and social, for those who sit at table with Jesus.

In his last encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, Pope John Paul said: "Through our communion with him, Christ also grants us his Spirit.  Saint Ephrem wrote: ‘He called the bread his living body, and he filled it with himself and the living Spirit. . . . The one who eats it with faith, eats fire and Spirit. . . . Take and eat this, all of you, and eat it with the Holy Spirit.  For it is truly my body and who-ever eats it will have eternal life.’  The church implores this divine gift [the Spirit], the source of every other gift, in the Eucharistic epiclesis . . . : ‘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’ (Eucharistic Prayer III)."

April 10, 2005
Honoring the "Pope of the Eucharist"

Even as he continued to battle illness and infirmity, our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, issued a Holy Thursday letter to priests.  His words, while addressed to the ordained, are applicable to all who share in the priesthood of the baptized as well.  In the following paragraphs, he writes of the thankfulness which flows from the Eucharistic celebration and which is to mark the life of the priest.

"‘We bless you and give you thanks.’  At every Mass, we remember and relive the first sentiment expressed by Jesus as he broke the bread: that of thanksgiving.  Gratitude is the disposition which lies at the root of the very word Eucharist.  This expression of thanksgiving contains the whole Biblical spirituality of praise for the mirabilia Dei (the marvels of God).  God loves us, he goes before us in his Providence, and he accompanies us with his constant saving acts."

"In the Eucharist, Jesus thanks the Father with us and for us.  How could this thanksgiving of Jesus fail to shape the life of a priest?  He knows that he must cultivate a constant sense of gratitude for the many gifts he has received in the course of his life: in particular, for the gift of faith, which it is his task to proclaim, and for the gift of the priesthood, which consecrates him totally to the service of the kingdom of God."

"We have our crosses to bear — and we are certainly not the only ones! — but the gifts we have received are so great that we cannot fail to sing from the depths of our hearts our own Magnificat."

At once a reminder and a promise, this seal of the New Covenant would link both past and future.  It would gather and elevate all the covenants that had gone before, while assuring of the coming of those things that still lie ahead, things of which eye has not seen nor ear heard.

March 13, 2005
Divine Banquet, IV

What makes the far-flung church of today holy is precisely what made the Upper Room holy more than 2,000 years ago: the faithful and powerful presence of the Lord.  Even as the apostles gathered for their celebration of the Passover, that presence was soon to be withdrawn.  "A little while now," Jesus tells them in the Gospel of John, "and the world will see me no more."

. . . It is indeed God’s will that the church should be holy.  And how could our Lord have espoused a bride who was anything less?  If the church could only remain holy through the abiding presence of her bridegroom, then it would be necessary for the Lord to remain in the midst of the church even as he appeared to depart.

John Mulderig

March 6, 2005
Divine Banquet, III

The Eucharist, properly understood, is not simply a meal, but a feast, and a very specific kind of feast: the kind that celebrates a marriage. . . . The whole course of salvation history . . . has had only one theme and one dynamic, namely, God’s efforts to reestablish the covenant relationship between himself and mankind and to secure that relationship against the corrosive effects of human sin. . . .

Small wonder, then, that one of our Lord’s favorite images for the kingdom of heaven should have been a wedding feast.  Small wonder too that Saint Paul should repeatedly identify the church both as the bride of Christ and as his body.  What, after all, is the true meaning of the incarnation if not this: that the heavenly bridegroom and his earthly bride have indeed become one flesh?

It was, perhaps, our Lord alone, of all the company [in the upper room], who recognized this mysterious reality as he celebrated and solemnized it on the night of Holy Thursday.  As must every bridegroom, he was preparing to lay down his life for his bride.  Within 24 hours, he would welcome and embrace her, making her irrevocably his own not in the [warmth] of a marriage bed, but on the lonely eminence of the cross.

How much, both of divine providence and of human history, had gone into the making of this moment.

John Mulderig

February 27, 2005
Divine Banquet, II

The most venerable of our English dictionaries defines a meal as "an occasion of taking food."  On the basis of this broad definition, even an atheist could hardly deny that the Christian Eucharist is truly a meal.

At any celebration of the Eucharist, from a Pontifical High Mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica to the simplest rite in the plainest Protestant church, believers in Christ gather together and are given food.  From the point of view of a materialist, of course, such a meal is . . . meager. . . . While a mouthful of bread and a sip of wine may satisfy the dictionary’s definition of a meal, they are likely to satisfy few others.  Yet, Christians by the millions, and Catholics above all, have been drawn to this meal over the centuries and have left it neither complaining of its poverty nor bored by its repetition.  What do they see in it that the materialist and the Epicurean fail to discern?

Our answer to this question has to begin not with the dictionary’s mention of food, but with its reference to an occasion.  Because the Eucharist, properly understood, is not simply a meal, but a feast, and a very specific kind of feast: the kind that celebrates a marriage. . . . The whole course of salvation history . . . has had only one theme and one dynamic, namely, God’s efforts to reestablish the covenant relationship between himself and mankind and to secure that relationship against the corrosive effects of human sin.

John Mulderig

February 20, 2005
Divine Banquet, I

The Eucharist is rooted in Jesus’ words and actions at the Last Supper on the eve of his death.  In the coming weeks, we will reprint a series of reflections by parishioner John Mulderig on this topic.

Perhaps the first thing to be said about the Eucharist is that it is a very simple gift with a very complex meaning.  In this, it reflects the nature of the giver.  For, although God is, in himself, radically simple — having neither parts nor divisions — yet an encyclopedia of infinite volumes could not begin to express . . . all that he truly is.  Even the glimpses of his identity that we are given in divine revelation have kept philosophers and theologians occupied for millennia, and the collection of books, articles, and scholarly addresses that have been devoted to one aspect or another of God’s character would burden the strongest shelves of the largest libraries.

An awareness of the multiple meanings and subtle iconography of the Eucharist should lead us to be not only patient in our examination of it, but cautious as well.  In this field of theology, as in every other, the desire to think with the mind of the church . . . requires of us precision of language, a careful sense of balance, and, above all, the kind of humility in which true wisdom can take root. . . . To begin, then, with what is most obvious, and with a point about which there is virtually no controversy among Christians of any denomination, we can say that the Eucharist is a meal.

When the priest or Communion minister offers us Holy Communion, he or she proclaims, "The body of Christ."  We answer, in the power of the Holy Spirit, "Yes, this is the body of Christ. . . . Yes, I am a member of the body of Christ. . . . Yes, I want to be more like Christ."

With the risen and glorious Christ in us as our source of life, we can now judge, act, love, and serve as Christ himself did.  The Eucharist, while acting like food, is actually a living person — the risen and exalted Lord Jesus who graciously comes to us to deepen our love of God and neighbor. Unlike ordinary food which becomes us, in Communion we become other Christs.

In Holy Communion, we are united to Jesus, the crucified and risen one.  We are empowered to die to sin and inspired to live by God’s Spirit. Christ, now the "life-giving Spirit," by Communion enables us to be spiritual, loving, concerned, and caring.  "The love of God is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us" in the Eucharist.

Saint Paul describes Holy Communion in his First Letter to the Corinthians: "The blessing cup that we bless is a communion with the blood of Christ, and the bread that we break is a communion with the body of Christ.  The fact that there is one loaf [Christ] means that, though we are many, we form a single body because we share in the one loaf."

Fr. Thomas McKeon, S.S.S.

The General Instruction of the Roman Missal reminds us that the Eucharistic celebration is a paschal meal.  This means that the baptized in good disposition should obey our Lord’s command to receive his body and blood for their spiritual nourishment.  That is what the apostles did at the Last Supper.

The purpose of all sacrifice, pagan and Christian, is to make the participants one with the godhead.  Christians want to be one with Christ in his perfect worship of the Father.  That is the precise reason Christ instituted the Eucharist.  He wanted his worship of the Father to be not only his, but open and available to everyone.  Thus, his perfect worship was not to be limited to the Last Supper and the cross.  The Mass enables all of us to be one with Christ as he so wonderfully glorified his Father.

Baptism makes us one with Christ, members of his body.  By it, we become "other Christs."  This is how we are to see ourselves.  What then could be more needed than to be nourished by the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist?  In Saint John’s Gospel, we read: "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood will draw life from me."

When the priest or Communion minister offers us Holy Communion, he or she proclaims, "The body of Christ."  In faith, we answer, "Amen."  I do believe.  This mini-dialogue actually dates back to at least the fourth century.  Saint Ambrose (died 397) refers to it in his Treatise on the Sacraments.

January 30, 2005
History of the Year, III

Each month in the Year of the Eucharist has a theme.  The theme presents us with a particular element of teaching on the Eucharist.  The themes are starting points for personal and communal prayer and study.

In the coming months through October, the monthly themes are:

January: The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist.

February: The church draws its life from the Eucharist.

March: In the Eucharist, each of us receives Christ, but Christ receives each of us.

April: Cultivate a constant desire in your hearts for the Eucharist.

May: Mary is the woman of the Eucharist in her whole life.

June: The Eucharistic banquet is truly a sacred banquet.

July: The Eucharist is the source and summit of all evangelization.

August: The Eucharist stands at the center of the church’s life.

September: The Eucharist creates and fosters communion.

October: When our senses fail, faith alone is sufficient.

These themes reflect the riches of the Catholic Church’s Eucharistic faith.  Some are derived from Pope John Paul’s recent encyclical on the sacrament, others from traditional concepts and hymns.

January 23, 2005
History of the Year of the Eucharist, II

January 16, 2005
History of the Year of the Eucharist, I

The place was Guadalajara, Mexico.  The date was October 17, 2004.  The event was the 48th International Eucharistic Congress.  Our Holy Father spoke via a TV link to 65,000 Catholics from 80 countries who were assembled for a closing Mass in Jalisco Stadium.  Cardinal Josef Tomko was present at this weeklong event as the pope’s personal representative.

January 9, 2005
The Eucharist and Baptism

January 2, 2005
The Eucharist and Solidarity

Twenty years ago, a fiery union organizer named Lech Walesa electrified Poland and the world with a brash challenge to the entrenched communist system that ruled his country.  Walesa headed a movement called Solidarity.

December 26, 2004
Eucharist: Emmanuel, God-With-Us

The Greek word for church is ekklesia.  From it are derived such English words as ecclesial and ecclesiastic.  The basic meaning of ekklesia is "assembly."  The church is the "assembly" of God’s people.

In the Old Testament, there are powerful images of the people and their leaders assembled before God.  One is the ratification of Israel’s covenant with God.  Moses tells the assembly of Israel that God is setting before them a choice, either to embrace the law that leads to a deeper union with him or to choose another path.  Centuries later ― actually about 600 years before the birth of Christ ― the discovery of the scrolls of the Torah in the ruins of the Jerusalem temple occasioned an assembly of the entire people to hear the law read aloud and to assent to it anew.

Can you begin to see how our Eucharist, too, is an assembly, a gathering of the church?  We come together from our individual lives and daily preoccupations to form a community in Christ.  It is the risen Lord who gathers us, who unites us as one, who speaks to us the word of God, and who feeds us with his life in the sacrament.

In the Eucharistic assembly, there are many roles.  A priest presides, lectors proclaim the Scriptures, ushers and greeters welcome us in Christ’s name and see to the good order of the assembly, musicians and vocalists lead us in song, and Communion ministers assist in distributing the Eucharist.  By our presence, our attentiveness, our singing, and our silence, all of us together form this holy assembly of God’s people.

December 5, 2004
Eucharistic Titles V: Eucharist

Every Eucharist (from the Greek word for "thanksgiving") unites our individual prayers of thanks in one great act of thanksgiving in Christ.

The life and ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are the culmination of the drama of salvation played out through the ages.  Following the fall of the first human partners, God promised to send a redeemer to reconcile the world and its people.  The Jewish prophetic tradition witnesses to this great messianic hope of Israel.  It is the story of an endless love.

The story of salvation continues, however, beyond the time of the two testaments, old and new.  It is overwhelming to understand that when we recount God’s saving deeds — in Israel’s covenant, in Jesus Christ, in the Spirit’s outpouring, and in the ministry of the church — our lives become part of the narrative.  Our experience, even with its struggles, is woven into the story.

When we pray the Eucharistic Prayer at Mass with the presider, giving thanks for all that God has done to save us, especially in Jesus, we include our individual stories in the prayer.  Echoing the words of the late Father Henri Nouwen in The Living Reminder, we are called to "make connections" between our "little stories" and the "great story" in Jesus.

In this way, our lives take on an added dignity and purpose. By God’s grace, and through the strength provided by the Eucharist, we continue to work out our redemption in Christ. We become part of the story of salvation.

November 28, 2004
Eucharistic Titles IV: Eucharist

The Eucharist (Mass) is known by many different names.  These come from the New Testament and from the church’s tradition.

A late first-century document, the Didache (or The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles) narrates prayers that were said over the bread and wine as Christians worshiped on the Lord’s day, and refers to the ritual meal as Eucharist (from the Greek for "thanksgiving").

Every Eucharist unites our individual prayers of thanks in one great act of thanksgiving in Christ.  For what exactly do we give thanks?

The Bible speaks of the mirabilia Dei, the "marvels of God."  Our lives are replete with blessings, both personal and collective.

Among the marvels of God, there is the world around us, created for our happiness and wellbeing.  The beauty of nature raises our minds and hearts to the one who is the source of all that exists.

Israel celebrated the love of God, who entered into a covenant of life and holiness with them and manifested his redeeming power especially in the exodus from Egypt, where they had been enslaved.

For Christians, the primary reason to give thanks to God is for all that Jesus has done for us, "for the knowledge and faith and immortality you [God] have made known to us through Jesus your Servant" (Didache 10).

The Didache also praises God for the spiritual food and drink of the holy table that sustains us always.

November 21, 2004
Eucharistic Titles III: Eucharist

November 14, 2004
Eucharistic Titles II: The Breaking of the Bread

November 7, 2004
Eucharistic Titles I: The Lord's Supper

Catholics have for centuries called it the Holy Mass.  The term used by the Christians of Byzantium, both Catholics and Orthodox, is the Divine Liturgy.  Episcopalians know it as the Holy Eucharist.  And there are still more titles from the New Testament and church history that refer to Christians’ central act of worship.  And, increasingly, we use them quite comfortably across confessional lines.

In the next several weeks, we will examine in this space some of these titles as a way of appreciating the marvelous riches of this mystery which is so much at the center of our faith.

One of the earliest titles invoked by the church is the Lord’s supper.  Writing in just the fifth decade of the Christian era, the apostle Paul uses the phrase in 1 Corinthians 11:20, reminding the members of the church of the tradition he had received from the Lord and passed on to them.

Sometimes we can refer to the Last Supper and the Lord’s supper without reflecting on the very real differences between the two.  The Last Supper was the final meal of Jesus’ earthly life and ministry.  It took place against the backdrop of Israel’s annual Passover festival and Jesus’ imminent passion and death.

The Lord’s supper is the meal presided over by the risen Christ, victorious over sin and death.  It initiates us into life in the kingdom of God and anticipates its full realization one day when the Lord Jesus returns in glory.  Thus, past and present are joined in him.

October 31, 2004
The Importance of the Sunday Eucharist

One of the primary objectives of the Year of the Eucharist, as defined by Pope John Paul II, is more active and faith-filled participation in the dominical (Sunday) Eucharist, the church’s primary moment of public prayer (liturgy) and proclamation of the Lord’s death and resurrection.

From ancient times, Christians have felt so strongly the obligation to participate in the Lord’s supper that they would only absent themselves from the Sunday Eucharistic assembly for the most serious reasons.  This is attested to in the writings of early church fathers.  Why is the Sunday Eucharist so important?

Christian tradition tells us that every Sunday is a "little Easter," a term popularized by Saint Augustine of Hippo.  Sunday is the "first day," when the church witnesses to Jesus’ victory — and ours — over sin, death, and evil.  It is truly the "Lord’s day."  In Spanish, the name for Sunday, domingo, affirms this fact.

Sunday is also the day of the church, the dies ecclesiae.  Especially in an age like ours, when we live our everyday life in isolation from other believers and are confronted with worldly values and thinking, it is vitally important that we come together regularly with those who share our commitment to Christ and to a Gospel way of living.  Otherwise, we can feel like branches cut off from the vine, from the Lord himself.

On Sunday, then, we gather to give thanks to God for the "knowledge and faith and immortality" which is ours in Jesus Christ.

Catholic Culture: The Year of the Eucharist

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