Does anyone else feel the fundamentally radical "new thing" Jesus instituted? The Eucharist goes beyond all of our human reason and knowledge... and yet somehow there is something here that connects each of us to the very root of humanity. Each time we participate in the Eucharist we hear the words, “Do this in memory of me.” But what do these words mean? AND maybe more important: How do we come to believe and take them seriously? I brought together 3 meditations to try to help us explore deep into this mystery. This is a bit longer post for I feel that to simply 'taste' this radical new substance at a surface level would not give ourselves a chance to digest and to benefit from an adequate contemplation nor adoration.
Do this in memory of me’ - from Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond Why is the Eucharist so important? The Gospel tells us that Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, gave it to his disciples and said, “This is my body which will be given up for you.” He took a cup of wine, blessed it and gave it to his disciples and said, “Take this all of you and drink from it, this is the chalice of my blood…” Immediately after Jesus gave his Body and Blood to the apostles he then said: “Do this in memory of me.” In the same way he commanded his apostles to celebrate the Eucharist, he commands us to continue to celebrate this meal in his memory.
“The command of Jesus to repeat his actions and words ‘until he comes’ does not only ask us to remember Jesus and what he did, it is directed at the liturgical celebration, by the Apostles and their successors, of the memorial of Christ, of his life, of his death, and of his resurrection, and of his intercession in the presence of the Father” (The Catechism of the Catholic Church #1341)... It is a most sacred moment when we unite ourselves to Christ and offer ourselves, all that we are, and all those whom we hold in our hearts, to the Father.
So we not only remember what He did but we direct our entire being toward becoming Him.
Preface: The Sacrifice and the Sacrament of Christ
It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation,
always and everywhere to give you thanks,
Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God,
through Christ our Lord.
It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation,
always and everywhere to give you thanks,
Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God,
through Christ our Lord.
For he is the true and eternal Priest,
who instituted the pattern of an everlasting sacrifice
and was the first to offer himself as the saving Victim,
commanding us to make this offering as his memorial.
who instituted the pattern of an everlasting sacrifice
and was the first to offer himself as the saving Victim,
commanding us to make this offering as his memorial.
As we eat his flesh that was sacrificed for us,
we are made strong,
and, as we drink his Blood that was poured out for us,
we are washed clean.
we are made strong,
and, as we drink his Blood that was poured out for us,
we are washed clean.
And so, with Angels and Archangels,
with Thrones and Dominions,
and with all the hosts and Powers of heaven,
we sing the hymn of your glory,
as without end we acclaim:
Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts
Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.
with Thrones and Dominions,
and with all the hosts and Powers of heaven,
we sing the hymn of your glory,
as without end we acclaim:
Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts
Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.
Corpus Christi - from Paul Claudel (poet, playwright, diplomat and member of the French Academy) From June's Magnificat
Our body had to have its share and its perception of the Blessed Sacrament. It is under cover of them that the Redeemer willed to be not only present, but ardently desired ... He wills to make us sharers in what is deepest down in him, deeper than thought, deeper than the very heart. He makes us co-exist with him, he makes us share his center, his inmost life as Redeeming Christ in the very way in which he sets about making that Body is in the substance which is in us as the effect in the cause. Not a throb of his Heart but our own can feel at the Well-Spring. The Eucharistic Christ is precisely the same who conversed with the Apostles, but they saw him from without to within, and we entertain his, so to speak, from within to without ...
"You shall eat it up entirely," as it is written in the Book of Exodus. Entirely shall you put it away within. No longer for your eyes but for your nourishment, no longer for your curiosity but for your edification, no longer for your consideration but for your Faith: no longer for your instruction but for your construction. The Christian - another Christ. Jesus, in order to teach us to make ourselves Christians and the sort of man who says: "I live now, not I, but Christ in me," addresses us wholly Body and Soul. He trusts us with his own key. He makes us do with him as to our inmost life all that makes Christ in him: he makes us touch him with a contact infinitely more delicate and complete than that of the Apostle's fingers when they went right into the gaping wound.
In these beauty word-images from the poet Paul Claudel we get a sense of a re-orientation of what it means to be a human being?
THE FEAST OF CORPUS
CHRISTI - from Gil Bailie
Christ said, "Take this and eat it." He did not say:
"Take this and figure it out." The Eucharist is the great, central mystery of
Christianity, Jesus' last will and testament. Jesus never instructed his
disciples to write a book. However indispensable the Christian scriptures are -
and they certainly are indispensable - they were written, so to speak, at the
Eucharistic Table.
"To those who say that the Eucharist is rooted in archaic cannibalism," wrote Girard, "instead of saying 'no', we have to say 'yes!'. The real history of man is religious history, which goes back to primitive cannibalism. Primitive cannibalism is religion, and the Eucharist recapitulates the history from alpha to omega." (When I first met René many years ago, he was a Eucharistic minister at his parish.)
When Girard said "Primitive cannibalism is religion," he corroborated in a way what Henri de Lubac had written a few decades earlier:
"To see in Catholicism one religion among others, one system among others, even if it be added that it is the only true religion, the only system that works, is to mistake its very nature, or at least to stop at the threshold. Catholicism is religion itself. It is the form that humanity must put on in order finally to be itself."
Not everyone believes this, and the faith of those who do might easily turn into lip-service were it not for those who don't. One way or another, we're all caught up in the ongoing drama of the Incarnation which steams into our world from the Eucharistic altar.
"To those who say that the Eucharist is rooted in archaic cannibalism," wrote Girard, "instead of saying 'no', we have to say 'yes!'. The real history of man is religious history, which goes back to primitive cannibalism. Primitive cannibalism is religion, and the Eucharist recapitulates the history from alpha to omega." (When I first met René many years ago, he was a Eucharistic minister at his parish.)
When Girard said "Primitive cannibalism is religion," he corroborated in a way what Henri de Lubac had written a few decades earlier:
"To see in Catholicism one religion among others, one system among others, even if it be added that it is the only true religion, the only system that works, is to mistake its very nature, or at least to stop at the threshold. Catholicism is religion itself. It is the form that humanity must put on in order finally to be itself."
Not everyone believes this, and the faith of those who do might easily turn into lip-service were it not for those who don't. One way or another, we're all caught up in the ongoing drama of the Incarnation which steams into our world from the Eucharistic altar.
The very root of the Eucharist is primitive cannibalism as well as what human sacrifice represented for the power of religious catharsis and yet it is the direct inverse of it. If you have been able to skim through this world of "escalating to extreme" distractions, not yet touched to the very core of your human existence, maybe you are called to re-exam your life. For the Apostles and for us, the Eucharist realigns all the metal filings of our being. Catharsis is like an electric shock that dispels all the alienation and mimetic animosities. We are a people again. This is what sacrificial ritual does, particularly with a human victim, and what Christ does at the first Eucharistic gathering is just as shocking: “This is my body which will be given up for you.” He took a cup of wine, blessed it and gave it to his disciples and said, “Take this all of you and drink from it, this is the chalice of my blood…” Immediately after Jesus gave his Body and Blood to the apostles he then said: “Do this in memory of me.”
WOW! What is more radical then this? Christ is reversing OUR violence by extending an invitation into this new creation, His Body. Truly unimaginable!
And then to consider that this Christ-event has been passed on from generation to generation by the blood of martyrs and servants of the Church, and though they themselves most assuredly have been blemished by sin, they stayed obedient and true to the only thing that they had come to know as real - the REAL PRESENCE OF CHRIST.
Can you imagine anything less than an active participation at Mass?
The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy from Vatican II reminds us that the church earnestly desires all the faithful be led to that full, conscious and active participation in liturgical celebrations (#14). We do not “go to Mass” in a passive way but are called to pray, listen and sing with the faith community gathered as a family praying in one voice with one heart.
Furthermore Vatican II states: “The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life” (Lumen Gentium #11). The other sacraments and all ministries of the church are connected to the Eucharist and are oriented toward it.
Like what a magnet does to a bunch of loose metal filing, though they may be distinct in size, the magnet realigns them into one. In these meditations I hope you found yourself re-oriented to what the word 'this' of "Do this in memory of me" means.
Pange Lingua Gloriosi - Catholic Hymns, Gregorian Chant
Sing, my tongue, the Savior's glory,
of His flesh the mystery sing;
of the Blood, all price exceeding,
shed by our immortal King,
destined, for the world's redemption,
from a noble womb to spring.
On the night of that Last Supper,
seated with His chosen band,
He the Pascal victim eating,
first fulfills the Law's command;
then as Food to His Apostles
gives Himself with His own hand.
Word-made-Flesh, the bread of nature
by His word to Flesh He turns;
wine into His Blood He changes;
what though sense no change discerns?
Only be the heart in earnest,
faith her lesson quickly learns.
Down in adoration falling,
This great Sacrament we hail,
Over ancient forms of worship
Newer rites of grace prevail;
Faith will tell us Christ is present,
When our human senses fail.
To the everlasting Father,
And the Son who made us free
And the Spirit, God proceeding
From them Each eternally,
Be salvation, honor, blessing,
Might and endless majesty.
Amen.
of His flesh the mystery sing;
of the Blood, all price exceeding,
shed by our immortal King,
destined, for the world's redemption,
from a noble womb to spring.
On the night of that Last Supper,
seated with His chosen band,
He the Pascal victim eating,
first fulfills the Law's command;
then as Food to His Apostles
gives Himself with His own hand.
Word-made-Flesh, the bread of nature
by His word to Flesh He turns;
wine into His Blood He changes;
what though sense no change discerns?
Only be the heart in earnest,
faith her lesson quickly learns.
Down in adoration falling,
This great Sacrament we hail,
Over ancient forms of worship
Newer rites of grace prevail;
Faith will tell us Christ is present,
When our human senses fail.
To the everlasting Father,
And the Son who made us free
And the Spirit, God proceeding
From them Each eternally,
Be salvation, honor, blessing,
Might and endless majesty.
Amen.
The recording is from the CD titled, Illuminations, compiled by Dan Gibson.
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