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Someone read the reflection:
Eucharist - Body and Blood of Christ August 2009 MM
Recently at Mass, some Non-Catholics present were invited to receive a blessing during Communion time rather than the Sacrament of the Eucharist itself. They were a little upset that they were not invited to receive the Sacrament and felt second class. I was in a delicate pastoral situation again. Over ‘a comfortable cup of tea’, we continued our discussion. They were Anglicans. One had a catholic grasp of the real presence of Christ; the other an understanding and interpretation that tended toward a symbolic presence, and therefore in the Calvinistic protesting tradition. One could say they were the classic twin Anglican expression of Eucharist and hence the dilemma. Is Christ there or not; some say yes, and some say no. Over to you. Let’s not fight over it, they say. I know many devout Anglicans who genuflect because of their belief in the Real Presence of Christ, comforted that their priest was ordained in the Catholic Tradition. I also know Anglicans, some relatives, for whom genuflecting to the bread in the box is a type of idolatry. I knew of an Anglican minister in the Christchurch area who immediately after the Sunday morning service throws the remaining bits of communion bread out to the birds, emphasizing the real absence! This was an embarrassment to my Catholic Anglican friends. Catholic belief is definite and people have gone to the stake or fire, certainly persecution over this very belief. Some Catholic statements are so strong that they say the Eucharist is the source and summit of Christian life. However the Catechism of the Catholic Church says in Paragraph 234 that the Mystery of the most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life and therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the most fundamental and essential teaching in the “hierarchy of the truths of faith. However, the Eucharist and the real presence is right up there in importance and I understand when people say it is ‘the source and summit of Christian life’. The Eucharistic Sacrament is the real, true and substantial presence of Christ. Notice from the start: The church, in its declaration at the Council of Trent and repeated at the Vatican Council, does not call the sacrament, the body and blood of Jesus. It is that of Christ. What is the difference? Jesus is the name of the boy, before he was anointed, Chrismed, Christed. The body and blood we receive is not that of little Jesus asleep in his mother’s arms. It is offensive and heretical that we would eat human flesh as cannibals…..the real body and blood we are called to consume is the glorified Christ, as he now is in Heaven with his Father….We believe that Christ lives and reigns with his Father for ever and ever, and it is that eternal life of which we are given a taste in the here and now. We do not taste the physical body and blood of Jesus. We do not consume the biological or chemical body and blood of Jesus of Nazareth. The Council of Trent did not use physical or chemical presence . What the council defined and what has been taught since, is that what we receive is the very true, real and substantial presence of Christ. Yes, it is Christ; it is Christ who lives united with His Heavenly Father and, through the sacrament of his body and blood, we become part of Him and united in communion with each other. Amen to that. What is interesting and sometimes confusing is the use of the phrase ‘Body of Christ’, for it has three meanings. The Body of Christ, taken down from the Cross and now risen from the Dead; the Body of Christ which is another name for the Church; and the Body of Christ in the Eucharist. Each has its own place, as in a trinity, and each feeds off the other in an inter-dependence. The Body of Christ in the Eucharist gives the Risen Body of Christ to the members of the Body of Christ, the Church. And of interest to us Marists is the part Mary plays in this: she who gave flesh to the Body of Jesus and which at Calvary, where she stood, became the Body of Christ Crucified and soon to Rise, was also present at Pentecost when the birth of the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church was realized. The Woman Mother Mary needed to be present at the birth of each Body of Christ. In this sense we can say she is indirectly present in the Eucharist. That is why we are able to name her in each Mass. She has to be present as Mother for the Body of Christ to be presented. Amen to that. Today, I hope that dwelling upon and proclaiming again this Mystery of Faith assists you come closer to Christ and to Mary. Amen to that. |
