October is a busy month in our diocese and its parishes. Religious education programs are in full swing, the annual mission collection is taken, Respect Life Sunday is celebrated and the day of prayer for vocations takes place.
This year we add the Holy Father’s designation of October as the beginning of the year of the Eucharist. He announced this on the Feast of Corpus Christi, and it is a logical follow-up to the encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia. The year will conclude in October of 2005 with the Synod of Bishops, which has as its topic, “Eucharist, Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church.”
As the Pope says in paragraph 9, “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.” In 1 Corinthians 11:23, the Lord instituted the Eucharistic Sacrifice of his Body and Blood in the upper room at the last supper.
This gift is “par excellence” and one from which the Church constantly draws her life. Jesus, in instituting the Holy Eucharist, “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 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” (par. 12).
The Mass makes present the sacrifice of the cross. It does not add to that sacrifice nor does it multiply it. St. John Chrysostom says, “We always offer the same Lamb, not one today and another tomorrow, but always the same one. For this reason the sacrifice is always one...Even now we offer that victim who was once offered and who will never be consumed.” (St. John Chrysostom, Homily on the Letter to the Hebrews, 17,3)
In addition to this reflection on sacrifice, two biblical themes are very prominent in the encyclical. The first, memorial, gives a good explanation for how the Eucharist can be a sacrifice without taking anything away from the unique sacrifice Jesus offered on the Cross.
Sacrifice is understood as a “sacramental representation of the passion and death on the cross,” and actually builds the church. (Lumen Gentium, n 3)
The second, covenant, found in the text of the Eucharistic prayers, moves our understanding of Eucharist beyond private devotion to being the sacrament that builds up the church. What we celebrate at the altar and how we live our daily life has to come together.
Before receiving our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament we have to be in the state of grace. For example, couples who express their marital love in a contraceptive way and rich people who neglect the poor have to experience the Sacrament of Penance before coming to the Eucharistic table.
“Do you wish to honor the body of Christ? Do not despise his body when it is naked...For he who said ‘This is my body’ and who realizes it by saying it, is he who said ‘You have seen me hungry and you gave me not to eat and also each time that you have done it to one of those the least of my brothers, it is to me that you have done it.” (St. John Chrysostom, Homily on the Gospel of Matthew, 50,14)
What we learn here is that faith cannot be separated from what we do in our daily lives. This is at the heart of the need for a well-formed conscience to guide us in our daily decisions. We cannot ignore the teachings of the church.
The poison infecting the secular culture exalts absolute human autonomy, the destruction of human life and the relativism of truth.
The prince of this world is found in the “spirit of the day.” (Ephesians 2:2) Anyone who acts or thinks contrary to the spirit of the day is considered foolish or wrong. Even some bishops and priests no longer dare to confront situations in a different way than “the spirit of the day.”
Jesus, in his love for us, through the church’s sacramental life has given us a way to follow him as his disciples and to escape the “spirit of the day” in the Sacrament of the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Penance.
As the Holy Father says, “Because the Eucharist makes present the redeeming sacrifice of the cross, perpetuating it sacramentally, it naturally gives rise to a continuous need for conversion.” (par. 37) And while the judgment of one’s state of grace obviously belongs only to the person involved, in cases of outward conduct which is seriously, clearly and steadfastly contrary to the moral norm, the church, in her concern for the community and out of respect for the sacrament, “cannot fail to feel directly involved.” Those who obstinately persist in grave sin are not to be admitted to Eucharistic communion. (par. 37 and Canon 915)
Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, in his book Five Loaves and Two Fish says, “Believe in one strength: the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of the Lord that will give you life. ‘I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full’ (John 10:10). As manna nourished the Israelites on their journey to the Promised Land, so the Eucharist will nourish you on your road of hope.” (p. 71)
In the encyclical the Holy Father also encourages each diocese and parish to establish special programs during the year of the Eucharist. “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.” (par. 25)
Towards that end, we will have forty hour devotions at the Cathedral of St. Joseph October 20-22 to mark the beginning of the year of the Eucharist. All are invited. It begins with Mass at noon on the 20th and concludes with Mass at noon on October 22nd. On Wednesday and Thursday there will be special devotions at 5:30 p.m. concluding with benediction.
The Sister of Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament invite you throughout the year to join them in the Adoration Chapel of the Sacred Heart at the Cathedral. You might also want to check local parishes, convents and institutions to find other places for Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
I pray everyone reads the encyclical on the Eucharist and each parish celebrates this Eucharistic year in a special way.