15. Liturgy & Eucharist

Throughout the world, it can be said that where ever the Church is, there too is the Mass. Indeed, not only does the Church, as Christ's sacrament, give life to the Mass, the very reality of the Church flows from the liturgy.

Instituted By Christ

The Mass was not simply a human invention, but rather, a celebration instituted by Christ, himself. It resonates with that night before his death when he shared his Last Supper with the apostles. Christ commands, "Do this in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19), instituting the priesthood to make the mystery of his presence and sacrifice alive to every age. Derived from the Jewish Paschal Meal which recalled the peoples' liberation from Egyptian slavery; now the Lord's Supper would commemorate and make real the new People of God's freedom from the powers of sin and death. Jesus offered himself as the Lamb of Sacrifice whose blood would be poured out for many. Consequently, the Mass was linked both to the Last Supper and to the cross. The bread was broken and given as a real sign of his body surrendered over to suffering and death; thanks was given over the wine transformed into the blood of his New Covenant. In response to this gift of Christ's own self, we returned "thanksgiving" or "gratitude" which defined the familiar word, "Eucharist".

Apostolic Testimony

Various Scriptures inform our understanding of the Eucharist. John the Baptizer singled out Jesus as the Lamb of God. (Crucial to our understanding of the Mass as a sacrifice which makes atonement or satisfies for sin.) The wedding feast at Cana, where water is transformed into wine, alluded to the marriage of Christ to his Church. (This relationship is signified between the priest and the congregation at Mass.) The multiplication of the loaves and fishes symbolized Christ as the living Bread for the hungry. (The Eucharist extends the nurturing presence of Jesus with diminishment to the faithful the world over.) After the resurrection, there is the story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus who recognize Jesus in the breaking of the bread. (This stresses the discernment of the risen Christ in the Eucharist.) Also important is the Lord's invitation on the beach to his friends to come and eat after a miraculous catch of fish. (The mystery of the Eucharist is to be celebrated throughout the world, calling all humanity to the table of everlasting life). The early Christians met frequently for the breaking of the bread-- the Eucharist-- and linked this celebration with a life of charity, dynamic love in action. There is also the account of St. Paul being so long-winded in one of his sermons at a Eucharist that a young boy fell from a windowsill and died. The apostle restored him to life and went back to the Eucharist. He also insisted that true believers could not worship idols or fight among themselves; rather, they had to embody or express in their lives the Eucharistic reality of unity and fidelity-- one bread, one body in Christ. Indeed, the Scriptures made plain that many refused to follow Christ because they were unwilling to accept the stark realism of his invitation to eat his flesh and to drink his blood. Although it was meant in a mysterious sacramental fashion, as opposed to a crude physicalism, the real presence still appalled former disciples as too literal and even cannibalistic. However, what they missed was the depth of God's love for them. He was going to give them the Eucharist to insure that Christ's abiding presence might be abundantly present. He loved them so much that he wanted to get inside of them and to become their very food.

Patristic Testimony

As the Christians were expelled from the synagogues and the faith was embraced by more Gentiles, the Eucharist became increasingly highlighted and became the central action whereby Christians identified themselves. The Eucharistic celebration was seen as a sort of time removed from normal time, even more so than the old Sabbath, and was celebrated on Sunday, sometimes called the eighth day. For many years the Eucharist was part of a larger supper called the "agape" meal. Often rendered as a love feast, the regular meal was offered and then the Lord's Last Supper was rendered by the leader (priest-bishop) with bread and wine. However, as the Christian communities expanded, the larger meal for physical nourishment, before the one for spiritual strengthening, became too unwieldy and even abuses like gluttony and drunkenness entered. Many would not share the food they brought, even with the poor. Consequently, the Eucharist was separated as a distinct celebration. As early as the first few centuries, figures like Bishop Ignatius of Antioch spoke of the Eucharist as "the Flesh of Our Savior, Jesus Christ, Flesh which suffered for our sins but which the Father, in his kindness, raised from the dead." He also demanded that a Eucharist had to join the community as one with their bishop. Living at the end of the first century after Christ, he also wrote: "Consider valid only a Eucharist that is celebrated by your bishop or by someone who has his authorization. Without your bishop it is not permissible to baptize or to celebrate the banquet." From the very beginning, the Eucharist only made sense within the confines of the believing community, the Church, founded by Christ. St. Justin in the second century offered a detailed description of the Mass, especially emphasizing how it completed the Christian initiation process. Although there were no fixed prayers yet, much of the ancient tradition would be repeated by others and crucial parts in this heritage would find their way into our formal prayers of today. For instance, take this phrase from Hippolytus' The Apostolic Tradition, written in the year 215: "In memory of his death and resurrection, we offer you the bread and cup, thanking you for counting us worthy to stand in your presence and serve you. We pray you to send your Spirit upon the offering of your Church, to bring together in unity all those who share in it, to fill them with the Holy Spirit . . . through Jesus Christ, your Son. . . . Amen." If those words sounded familiar, it was because elements of them could be located in the Second Eucharistic Prayer. People who found fault with the new Mass often fail to realize that not only is the ancient Roman Canon still essentially intact (although translation concerns have some validity), but we have also tried to take claim of other ancient strands of our tradition eclipsed by the passage of time.

When the faith was outlawed by the Roman empire, the Eucharist was celebrated secretly in church houses and even from time to time in the catacombs. The superstitious would avoid bothering the Christians in these places where the dead were buried. As time passed, these celebrations became increasingly important. The Eucharist was celebrated on the tombs of those who had been martyred for the faith. Often these celebrations were done in their memory. There was a link between the Paschal Mystery of Christ and the living expression of this sacrifice offered by the martyrs who witnessed by their blood. Because a saving death was commemorated, the table was seen as an altar. The tombs, being stone, were logically translated into our churches as altars of heavy materials like stone or marble. When the Church was recognized and it was safe to practice publicly, church buildings were constructed. However, due to the competition of the affection where the martyrs were buried, the remains of saints were removed and placed in our churches. Indeed, churches were dedicated to various saints. In the altars would be placed the assorted remains of saints, oftentimes people whom they had personally known. The first Eucharistic prayer offers the names of several saints in line with this venerable tradition. In the fourth century, St. Augustine stressed the Eucharist as the sign or sacrament of the oneness of the Church. He said: "If you are the body, the members of Christ, here you find your mystery on the table of the Lord. You receive your mystery. You hear said to you (at communion), 'the body of Christ,' and you reply, 'Amen.' Be a true member of the body of Christ, then, so that your Amen may be true. At his table Christ the Lord consecrated the mystery of our peace and our oneness. If you receive the mystery of oneness and then do not maintain the bond of peace, you do not really receive the mystery, but rather testimony against yourself."

Development in the West

The Mass possesses signs and rites which go back to Christ and cannot be changed, as well as elements which have undergone serious development. The popes have been particularly evident in the fixing of formulas and even in the abrogation of features. This has been an appreciable factor in the variation of the various rites of the Church, East and West. Pope Gregory the Great and the imposition of Gregorian Chant were especially important in the evolution of the liturgy. The liturgical reforms of Charlemagne, in collaboration with Pope Hadrian I, eradicated most variations in the Western liturgy.

The Real Presence

Along with a fairly stable worship appearance, the liturgical questions became more introspective. Aristotelian categories of thought assisted the Scholastics in distinguishing the real presence of the Eucharist from any "empty" symbolic sense. Although the signs or accidents of the bread and wine remained the same, the Church held that they were mysteriously transformed into the body and blood of Christ. Although we do not feed upon the Lord in a material way, we really did feed upon the body and blood of Christ-- the "sacramental" real presence. Berengarius in 1062 and 1070 wrote De Sacra Coena contending only a representational symbolism against Lanfranc of Pavia who wrote De Corpore et Sanguine Domini arguing on behalf of the tradition in favor of invisible real realities. Two councils of the Church forced Berengarius to accept a couple major points:

1. The Lord Jesus was truly present (with his real being) in the Eucharist; and

2. Appearances unaltered, the Eucharistic change was on a deeper level than we could sense.

The real hero of the day would come two centuries later, St. Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas would write in his Summa Theologica that through this sacrament we become sharers in Christ's Passion. It gave the gift of salvation right now and foreshadowed our ultimate union with God in glory. Our faith, if not our eyes and tongue, recognized the Lord's presence in this sacrament. The substance of the bread and wine, their deepest innermost being, was transformed into the reality of Christ-- body, soul, humanity, and divinity. He was fully and wholly present in the consecrated species and in each and every part of them. Although the terminology has changed from time to time, this is still how the Church would express this mystery.

Growth and Abuse

In the long history of the Church, the Eucharist has had a very interesting part to play. There have been Eucharistic miracles and various devotions like exposition and benediction. A heightened sense of its importance led to the feast in its honor, Corpus Christi. Having said this, honesty compels us to acknowledge that there have also been abuses. Beginning in the Middle Ages, many people would attend Mass but refuse to receive holy communion due to a exaggerated sense of unworthiness. The Church responded by issuing a law mandating the reception of communion at least once a year. This precept is still on the books. The Catholic is required to go to Mass on all Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation. It should be noted that the early Christians had no such laws. Ideally, we should all participate in the Eucharist because we deeply want to be there. Our hearts need to look forward with intense longing for the opportunity to worship and to share this central mystery of the faith with one another. At this time in the past, there was also a lowering of the quality in witness of the Church's priests and bishops which brought about a trafficking in Mass stipends and indulgences. The stage was set for Martin Luther and the Reformation.

Reformation Challenge

Despite Luther's departure from traditional norms of worship and faith, some of his observations had merit. He held that Christ's sacrifice possessed a unique and perfect value. This is true. However, lacking an adequate historical appreciation, he did not understand that the Church had always believed that the sacrifice of the Mass was the very same oblation of Christ on Calvary, now offered in an unbloody manner. Another major point of concern was his departure from the Thomistic teaching of transubstantiation. This view held that after the consecration, the gifts were no longer really bread and wine, but Christ himself, really present under their appearances. Luther offered the counterproposal of consubstantiation, that both Christ and the bread and wine were some how wrapped together. Although we would not want to risk being unfair to him, it would seem that despite his posturing against philosophical categories, he himself, merely substituted his own hypothesis for the Church's proposition. Further, in implementing only selective biblical passages and teachings, he was creating an unfortunate "pick-and-choose" methodology which has come to full stature today. The Church would argue that none of us has the authority-- layman, priest, bishop, or pope-- to discard ancient and revealed doctrines which we feel are disagreeable or problematic. Returning to the reformers, others would impoverish the Eucharist even more so than Luther. Zwingli proposed that the Eucharist was only a symbol of love. Calvin spiritualized the whole matter and rejected the Mass as a sacrifice.

Tridentine Response

Reacting to all this, the Council of Trent in its 13th session, held on October 11, 1551, stated that the Mass was linked to the one and only sacrifice of Christ and that the Eucharist "really, truly, and substantially contains the body and blood, soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ." The Mass rites were even more formalized and abuses were abolished under the Missal of Pius V promulgated in 1570 and not superceded until the Missal of Paul VI in accordance with the norms of Vatican II in the 1960's.

Vatican II Response

During those many years between this council and Trent, the Eucharist had been highlighted with various confraternities, forty hours devotions, benedictions, processions, artistic memorials, hymns, and literature. In the early 1900's, Pope Pius X urged frequent communion and endorsed communion for young children. At Vatican II, the first topic was the liturgy. The Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy was promulgated on December 4, 1963 and it contained the principles for reform. The people would be given a more active role and the texts and rites would be translated so that "more clearly the holy realities they signify; and the People of God, insofar as possible, should be able to understand them easily and take part in them fully, actively, and as a community." The new missal used the Scriptures more extensively and had a greater variety of prayers, rites, and signs. It would be translated from the Latin into the living languages of the people. This was not simply innovation for the sake of change. It was an attempt to make the liturgy richer and to touch more profoundly the lives of God's people.