14 commentary

November 29 , 2016 | The Valley Catholic

By Rev . Ron Rolheiser , OMI

Theologian , teacher , award-winning author , and President of the Oblate

School of Theology in San Antonio , TX

When I was a graduate student in Belgium , I was privileged one day to sit in on a conference given by Cardinal Godfried Danneels of Brussels . He was commenting on the Eucharist and our lack of understanding of its full richness when he highlighted this contrast : If you stood outside of a Roman Catholic church today as people were coming out of the church and asked them : “ Was that a good Eucharist ?” Most everyone would answer on the basis of the homily and the music . If the homily was interesting and the music lively , most people would answer that it had been a good Eucharist . Now , he continued , if you had stood outside a Roman Catholic church sixty or seventy years ago and asked : “ Was that a good Mass today ?” nobody would have even understood the question . They would have answered something to the effect of : “ Aren ’ t they all the same !”

Today our understanding of the Eucharist , in Roman Catholic circles and indeed in most Protestant and Anglican circles , is very much concentrated on three things : the Liturgy of the Word , the music , and Communion . Moreover , in Roman Catholic churches , we speak of the real presence only in reference to the last element , the presence of Christ in the bread and wine .

While none of this is wrong , the Liturgy of the Word , the music , and Communion are important , something is missing in this understanding . It misses the fact that the real presence is not just in the bread and wine , it is also in the Liturgy of the Word and in the salvific event that is recalled in the Eucharistic prayer , namely , the death and resurrection of Jesus .

Most churchgoers already recognize that when the scriptures are celebrated in a liturgical service God ’ s presence is made special , more physically tangible , than God ’ s normal presence everywhere or

God ’ s presence inside our private prayer . The Word of God , when celebrated in a church is , like Christ ’ s presence in the consecrated bread and wine , also the real presence .

But there ’ s a further element that ’ s less understood : The Eucharist doesn ’ t just make a person present ; it also makes an event present . We participate in the Eucharist not just to receive Christ in Communion , but also to participate in the major salvific event of his life , his death and resurrection .

Today our understanding of the Eucharist , in Roman Catholic circles and indeed in most Protestant and Anglican circles , is very much concentrated on three things : the Liturgy of the Word , the music , and Communion . Moreover , in Roman Catholic churches , we speak of the real presence only in reference to the last element , the presence of Christ in the bread and wine .

What ’ s at issue here ?

At the Last Supper , Jesus invited his followers to continue to meet and celebrate the Eucharist “ in memory of me .” But his use of the word “ memory ” and our use of that word are very different . For us “ memory ” is a weaker word . It simply means calling something to mind , remembering an event like the birth of your child , your wedding day , or the game when your favorite sports team finally won the championship . That ’ s a simple remembering , a passing recollection . It can stir deep feelings but it does nothing more . Whereas in the Hebrew concept out of which Jesus was speaking , memory , making ritual remembrance of something , implied much more than simply recalling something . To remember something was not simply to nostalgically recall it . Rather it meant to recall and ritually re-enact it so as to make it present again in a real way .

For example , that ’ s how the Passover Supper is understood within Judaism . The Passover meal recalls the Exodus from Egypt and the miraculous passing through the Red Sea into freedom . The idea is that one generation , led by Moses , did this historically , but that by re-enacting that event ritually , in the Passover Meal , the event is made present again , in a real way , for those at table to experience .

The Eucharist is the same , except that the saving event we re-enact so as to remake it present through ritual is the death and resurrection of Jesus , the new Exodus . Our Christian belief here is exactly the same as that of our Jewish brothers and sisters , namely , that we are not just remembering an event , we are actually making it present to participate in . The Eucharist , parallel to a Jewish Passover meal , remakes present the central saving event in Christian history , namely , Jesus ’ Passover from death to life in the Paschal mystery . And just as the consecrated bread and wine give us the real presence of Christ , the Eucharist also gives us the real presence of the central saving event in our history , Jesus ’ passage from death to life .

Thus at a Eucharist , there are , in effect , three real presences : Christ is really present in the Word , namely , the scriptures , the preaching , and the music . Christ is really present in the consecrated bread and wine ; they are his body and blood . And Christ is really present in a saving event : Jesus ’ sacrificial passing from death to life .

So we go to Eucharist not just to be brought into community by Jesus ’ word and to receive Jesus in Communion , we go there too to enter into the saving event of his death and resurrection . The real presence is in both a person and in an event .

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