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05/25/2008
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
- 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 fulfillment 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.
- 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.
- 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).
- 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".
- "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.
- 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).
- 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?
- 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 Niegowiæ, 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.
- 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).
- 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
- "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.
- 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.
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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).
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- 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
- 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).
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- 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
- 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.
- 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
- 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
- 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.
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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.
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- 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 i |
