Eucharist: Heart of the Church

John Paul II's encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia in condensed form

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 fulfilment of the promise: o, I am with you always, to the close of the a!e" #$t %&:%'(, but in the )oly Eucharist, throu!h the chan!in! of bread and wine into the body and blood of the ord, she rejoices in this presence with uni*ue intensity. Ever since +entecost, when the Church, the +eople of the ,ew Covenant, be!an her pil!rim journey towards her heavenly homeland, the -ivine .acrament has continued to mar/ the passin! of her days, fillin! them with confident hope. The .econd 0atican Council, in its Constitution on the Church, ri!htly proclaimed that the eucharistic sacrifice is the source and summit of the Christian life." 1nd, as the document on priestly ministry states, 2or the most holy Eucharist contains the Church3s entire spiritual wealth: Christ himself, our passover and livin! bread." The Church was born of the paschal mystery. 2or this very reason the Eucharist, which is in an outstandin! way the sacrament of the paschal mystery, stands at the center of the Churchs life. This is already clear from the earliest ima!es of the Church found in the 1cts of the 1postles: They devoted themselves to the 1postles3 teachin! and fellowship, to the brea/in! of bread and the prayers" #%:4%(. Two thousand years later, we continue to relive that primordial ima!e of the Church. 1t every celebration of the Eucharist, we are spiritually brou!ht bac/ to the paschal Triduum: to the events of the evenin! of )oly Thursday, to the ast .upper and to what followed it.

Bread of life
5y the !ift of the )oly .pirit at +entecost the Church was born and set out upon the pathways of the world. 6et a decisive moment in her ta/in! shape was certainly the institution of the Eucharist in the 7pper 8oom. The Church3s foundation and wellsprin! is the )oly 9ee/ Triduum, but this is as it were !athered up, foreshadowed and concentrated" forever in the !ift of the Eucharist. In this !ift :esus Christ entrusted to his Church the perennial ma/in!;present of the paschal mystery. 9ith it he brou!ht about a mysterious oneness in time" between that Triduum and the passa!e of the centuries. The thou!ht of this leads us to profound ama<ement and !ratitude. I would li/e to re/indle this Eucharistic ama<ement" by the present Encyclical etter, to contemplate the face of Christ, and to contemplate it with $ary. That is the pro!ram I have set before the Church at the dawn of the third millennium, summonin! her to put out into the deep on the sea of history with the enthusiasm of the ,ew Evan!eli<ation. To contemplate Christ involves bein! able to reco!ni<e him wherever he manifests himself, in his many forms of presence, but above all in the livin! 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 enli!htened. 9henever 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 reco!ni<ed him" # / %4:=>(. 2rom the Eucharist the Church draws her life. 2rom this livin! bread" she draws her nourishment. )ow could I not feel the need to ur!e everyone to experience it ever anew? 1s Christ3s savin! presence in the community of the faithful and its spiritual food, the Eucharist is the most precious possession the Church can have in her journey throu!h history. Certainly the liturgical reform inaugurated by the Council has !reatly contributed to a more conscious, active and fruitful participation in the )oly .acrifice of the 1ltar 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 .olemnity

of the 5ody and 5lood of Christ is a !race from the ord which yearly brin!s joy to those who ta/e part in it. 7nfortunately, alon!side these li!hts, 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, leadin! to confusion with re!ard to sound faith and Catholic doctrine concernin! this wonderful sacrament.

Mystery of faith
9hen the Church celebrates the Eucharist, the memorial of her ord3s death and resurrection, this central event of salvation becomes really present and the wor/ of our redemption is carried out." This sacrifice is so decisive for the salvation of the human race that :esus Christ offered it and returned to the 2ather 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 ta/e part in it and inexhaustibly !ain its fruits. This is the faith from which !enerations of Christians down the a!es have lived. The Church constantly draws her life from the redeemin! sacrifice@ she approaches it not only throu!h faith;filled remembrance, but also throu!h a real contact, since this sacrifice is made present ever anew, sacramentally perpetuated, in every community that 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 man/ind in every a!e. In the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice." .t. :ohn Chrysostom put it well: 9e always offer the same amb, not one today and another tomorrow, but always the same one. 2or this reason the sacrifice is always only one....Even now we offer that victim who was once offered and who will never be consumed." The universal charity of the Eucharistic .acrifice is based on the words of the .avior himself. In institutin! it, he did not merely say: This is my body....This is my blood," but went on to add: which is !iven for you....which is poured out for you" # / %%:>A;%'(. :esus did not simply state that what he was !ivin! them to eat and drin/ 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. This is the teachin! of the .econd 0atican Council concernin! all the faithful: Ta/in! part in the Eucharistic .acrifice, which is the source and summit of the whole Christian life, they offer the divine victim to Bod, and offer themselves alon! with it."

Real presence
The sacramental representation of Christ3s sacrifice, crowned by the resurrection, in the $ass involves a most special presence whichCin the words of +aul 0ICis called Dreal3 not as a way of excludin! all other types of presence as if they were Dnot real,3 but because it is a presence in the fullest sense: a substantial presence whereby Christ, the Bod;$an, is wholly and entirely present." This sets forth once more the perennially valid teachin! of the Council of Trent: The consecration of the bread and wine effects the chan!e of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our ord, and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. 1nd the holy Catholic Church has fittin!ly and properly called this chan!e transubstantiation." Truly the Eucharist is a mystery which surpasses our understandin! and can only be received in faith. The Eucharist is a strainin! towards the !oal, a foretaste of the fullness of joy promised by Christ #cf. :n >E:>>(@ it is in some way the anticipation of heaven, the pled!e of future !lory." In the Eucharist, everythin! spea/s of confident waitin! in joyful hope for the comin! of our .avior, :esus Christ." 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.

2or in the Eucharist we also receive the pled!e of our bodily resurrection at the end of the world: )e who eats my flesh and drin/s my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day" #:n F:E4(. 9ith the Eucharist we di!est, as it were, the secret" of the 8esurrection.

Heaven and Earth

The Eucharist spurs us on our journey throu!h history and plants a seed of livin! hope in our daily commitment to the wor/ before us. Certainly the Christian vision leads to the expectation of new heavens" and a new earth" #8ev %>:>(, but this increases, rather than lessens, our sense of responsibility for the world today. I wish to reaffirm this forcefully at the be!innin! of the new millennium, so that Christians will feel more obli!ed than ever not to ne!lect their duties as citi<ens in this world. Theirs is the tas/ of contributin! with the li!ht of the !ospel to the buildin! of a more human world, a world fully in harmony with Bod3s plan. $any problems dar/en the hori<on of our time. 9e need but thin/ of the ur!ent need to wor/ 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. 1nd what should we say of the thousand inconsistencies of a !lobali<ed" world where the wea/est, the most powerless and the poorest appear to have so little hopeG It is in this world that Christian hope must shine forthG 2or this reason too, the ord wished to remain with us in the Eucharist, ma/in! his presence in meal and sacrifice the promise of a humanity renewed by his love. +roclaimin! the death of the ord until he comes" #> Cor >>:%F( entails that all who ta/e part in the Eucharist be committed to chan!in! their lives and ma/in! them in a certain way completely Eucharistic." 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 buildin! up the Church, creates human community.

Worshipin !od
The worship of the Eucharist outside of the ass is of inestimable value for the life of the Church. This worship is strictly lin/ed to the celebration of the Eucharistic .acrifice. The presence of Christ under the sacred species reserved after $assCa presence which lasts as lon! as the species of bread and of wine remainCderives from the celebration of the sacrifice and is directed towards communion, both sacramental and spiritual. If in our time Christians must be distin!uished above all by the art of prayer," 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 $ost )oly .acrament? )ow often, dear brothers and sisters, have I experienced this, and drawn from it stren!th, consolation and supportG The Eucharist is a priceless treasure: 5y not only celebratin! it but also by prayin! before it outside of $ass we are enabled to ma/e contact with the very wellsprin! of !race.

Priest shorta e
If the Eucharist is the center and summit of the Church3s life, it is li/ewise the center and summit of priestly ministry. 2or this reason, with a heart filled with !ratitude to our ord :esus Christ, I repeat that the Eucharist is the principal and central raison d!tre of the sacrament of priesthood, which effectively came into bein! at the moment of the institution of the Eucharist." 1ll of this shows how distressin! and irre!ular is the situation of a Christian community that, despite havin! sufficient numbers and variety of faithful to form a parish, does not have a priest to lead it.

+arishes are communities of the bapti<ed who express and affirm their identity above all throu!h the celebration of the Eucharistic .acrifice. 5ut this re*uires the presence of a presbyter, who alone is *ualified to offer the Eucharist in persona Christi. 9hen a community lac/s a priest, attempts are ri!htly made somehow to remedy the situation so that it can continue its .unday celebrations, and those reli!ious 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 !race of 5aptism. 5ut such solutions must be considered merely temporary, while the community awaits a priest.

Mary" #Woman of the Eucharist$

If we wish to rediscover in all its richness the profound relationship between the Church and the Eucharist, we cannot ne!lect $ary, $other and model of the Church. In my apostolic letter "osary of the #irgin ary, I pointed to the 5lessed 0ir!in $ary as our teacher in contemplatin! Christ3s face, and amon! the mysteries of li!ht I included the institution of the Eucharist. $ary can !uide us towards this most holy sacrament, because she herself has a profound relationship with it. 1t first !lance, the !ospel is silent on this subject. The account of the institution of the Eucharist on the ni!ht of )oly Thursday ma/es no mention of $ary. 6et we /now that she was present amon! the 1postles who prayed with one accord" #cf. 1cts >:>4( in the first community which !athered after the 1scension in expectation of +entecost. Certainly $ary must have been present at the Eucharistic celebrations of the first !eneration of Christians, who were devoted to the brea/in! of bread" #1cts %:4%(. The Church, which loo/s to $ary as a model, is also called to imitate her in her relationship with this most holy mystery. 1s a result, there is a profound analo!y between the $iat that $ary said in reply to the an!el, and the %men that every believer says when receivin! the body of the ord. $ary was as/ed to believe that the Hne whom she conceived throu!h the )oly .pirit" was the .on of Bod" # / >:=';=E(. In continuity with the 0ir!in3s faith, in the eucharistic mystery we are as/ed to believe that the same :esus Christ, .on of Bod and .on of $ary, becomes present in his full humanity and divinity under the si!ns of bread and wine.

Church of the Eucharist

The mystery of the EucharistC sacrifice, presence, ban*uetCmust be experienced and lived in its inte!rity. This is true both in its celebration and in the intimate converse with :esus that ta/es place after receivin! Communion or in a prayerful moment of Eucharistic adoration apart from $ass. These are times when the Church is firmly built up and it becomes clear what she truly is: one, holy, catholic and apostolic@ the people, temple and family of Bod@ the body and bride of Christ, enlivened by the )oly .pirit@ the universal sacrament of salvation and a hierarchically structured communion. 5y !ivin! the Eucharist the prominence it deserves, and by bein! careful not to diminish any of its dimensions or demands, we show that we are truly conscious of the !reatness of this !ift. 9e are ur!ed to do so by an uninterrupted tradition, which from the first centuries on has found the Christian community ever vi!ilant in !uardin! this treasure." Inspired by love, the Church is anxious to hand on to future !enerations of Christians, without loss, her faith and teachin! with re!ard to the mystery of the Eucharist. There can be no dan!er of excess in our care for this mystery, for, as .t. Thomas 1*uinas wrote, in this sacrament is recapitulated the whole mystery of our salvation." In the humble si!ns of bread and wine, chan!ed into his body and blood, Christ wal/s beside us as our stren!th and our food for the journey, and he enables us to become, for everyone, witnesses of hope. If, in the presence of this mystery, reason experiences its limits, the heart, enli!htened by the !race of the )oly .pirit, clearly sees the response that is demanded, and bows low in adoration and unbounded love.

This Update is adapted from the encyclical given in Rome, at St. Peters, on Holy Thursday 2

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