LETTER
DOMINICAE CENAE
OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF
JOHN PAUL II
TO ALL THE BISHOPS OF THE CHURCH
ON THE MYSTERY AND WORSHIP
OF THE EUCHARIST
My
venerable and dear brothers,
1. Again this year, for Holy Thursday, I am writing a
letter to all of you. This letter has an immediate connection with the one
which you received last year on the same occasion, together with the letter to
the priests. I wish in the first place to thank you cordially for having
accepted my previous letters with that spirit of unity which the Lord
established between us, and also for having transmitted to your priests the
thoughts that I desired to express at the beginning of my pontificate.
During the Eucharistic Liturgy of Holy Thursday, you
renewed, together with your priests, the promises and commitments undertaken at
the moment of ordination. Many of you, venerable and dear brothers, told me
about it later, also adding words of personal thanks, and indeed often sending
those expressed by your priests. Furthermore, many priests expressed their joy,
both because of the profound and solemn character of Holy Thursday as the
annual "feast of priests" and also because of the importance of the
subjects dealt with in the letter addressed to them.
Those replies form a rich collection which once more
indicates how dear to the vast majority of priests of the Catholic Church is
the path of the priestly life, the path along which this Church has been
journeying for centuries: how much they love and esteem it, and how much they
desire to follow it for the future.
At this point I must add that only a certain number of
matters were dealt with in the letter to priests, as was in fact emphasized at
the beginning of the document.(1) Furthermore, the main stress was laid upon
the pastoral character of the priestly ministry; but this certainly does not
mean that those groups of priests who are not engaged in direct pastoral
activity were not also taken into consideration. In this regard I would refer
once more to the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, and also to the
declarations of the 1971 Synod of Bishops.
The pastoral character of the priestly ministry does
not cease to mark the life of every priest, even if the daily tasks that he
carries out are not explicitly directed to the pastoral administration of the
sacraments. In this sense, the letter written to the priests on Holy Thursday
was addressed to them all, without any exception, even though, as I said above,
it did not deal with all the aspects of the life and activity of priests. I
think this clarification is useful and opportune at the beginning of the
present letter:
1.
THE EUCHARISTIC MYSTERY IN THE LIFE OF THE
CHURCH AND OF THE PRIEST
Eucharist
and Priesthood
2. The present letter that I am addressing to you, my
venerable and dear brothers in the episcopate-and which is, as I have said, in
a certain way a continuation of the previous one-is also closely linked with
the mystery of Holy Thursday, and is related to the priesthood. In fact I
intend to devote it to the Eucharist, and in particular to certain aspects of
the Eucharistic Mystery and its impact on the lives of those who are the
ministers of It: and so those to whom this letter is directly addressed are
you, the bishops of the Church; together with you, all the priests; and, in their
own rank, the deacons too.
In reality, the ministerial and hierarchical
priesthood, the priesthood of the bishops and the priests, and, at their side,
the ministry of the deacons-ministries which normally begin with the
proclamation of the Gospel-are in the closest relationship with the Eucharist.
The Eucharist is the principal and central raison d'etre of the sacrament of
the priesthood, which effectively came into being at the moment of the
institution of the Eucharist, and together with it.(2) Not without reason the
words "Do this in memory of me" are said immediately after the words
of eucharistic consecration, and we repeat them every time we celebrate the
holy Sacrifice.(3)
Through our ordination-the celebration of which is
linked to the holy Mass from the very first liturgical evidence(4)-we are
united in a singular and exceptional way to the Eucharist. In a certain way we
derive from it and exist for it. We are also, and in a special way, responsible
for it-each priest in his own community and each bishop by virtue of the care
of all the communities entrusted to him, on the basis of the sollicitudo omnium
ecclesiarum that St. Paul speaks of.(5) Thus we bishops and priests are
entrusted with the great "mystery of Faith," and while it is also
given to the whole People of God, to all believers in Christ, yet to us has
been entrusted the Eucharist also "for" others, who expect from us a
particular witness of veneration and love towards this sacrament, so that they
too may be able to be built up and vivified "to offer spiritual
sacrifices."(6)
In this way our eucharistic worship, both in the
celebration of Mass and in our devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, is like a
life-giving current that links our ministerial or hierarchical priesthood to
the common priesthood of the faithful, and presents it in its vertical
dimension and with its central value. The priest fulfills his principal mission
and is manifested in all his fullness when he celebrates the Eucharist,(7) and
this manifestation is more complete when he himself allows the depth of that
mystery to become visible, so that it alone shines forth in people's hearts and
minds, through his ministry. This is the supreme exercise of the "kingly
priesthood," "the source and summit of all Christian life."(8)
Worship of the Eucharistic Mystery
3. This worship is directed towards God the Father
through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit. In the first place towards the Father,
who, as St. John's Gospel says, "loved the world so much that he gave his
only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have
eternal life."(9)
It is also directed, in the Holy Spirit, to the
incarnate Son, in the economy of salvation, especially at that moment of
supreme dedication and total abandonment of Himself to which the words uttered
in the Upper Room refer: "This is my body given up for you.... This is the
cup of my blood shed for you...."(10) The liturgical acclamation: "We
proclaim your death, Lord Jesus" takes us back precisely to that moment;
and with the proclamation of His resurrection we embrace in the same act of
veneration Christ risen and glorified "at the right hand of the
Father," as also the expectation of His "coming in glory." Yet
it is the voluntary emptying of Himself, accepted by the Father and glorified
with the resurrection, which, sacramentally celebrated together with the
resurrection brings us to adore the Redeemer who "became obedient unto
death, even death on a cross."(11)
And this adoration of ours contains yet another
special characteristic. It is compenetrated by the greatness of that human
death, in which the world, that is to say each one of us, has been loved
"to the end."(12) Thus it is also a response that tries to repay that
love immolated even to the death on the cross: it is our "Eucharist,"
that is to say our giving Him thanks, our praise of Him for having redeemed us
by His death and made us sharers in immortal life through His resurrection.
This worship, given therefore to the Trinity of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, above all accompanies and
permeates the celebration of the Eucharistic Liturgy. But it must fill our
churches also outside the timetable of Masses. Indeed, since the Eucharistic
Mystery was instituted out of love, and makes Christ sacramentally present, it
is worthy of thanksgiving and worship. And this worship must be prominent in
all our encounters with the Blessed Sacrament, both when we visit our churches
and when the sacred species are taken to the sick and administered to them.
Adoration of Christ in this sacrament of love must
also find expression in various forms of eucharistic devotion: personal prayer
before the Blessed Sacrament, Hours of Adoration, periods of exposition-short,
prolonged and annual (Forty Hours)-eucharistic benediction, eucharistic
processions, eucharistic congresses.(13) A particular mention should be made at
this point of the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ as an act of public
worship rendered to Christ present in the Eucharist, a feast instituted by my
predecessor Urban IV in memory of the institution of this great Mystery.(14)
All this therefore corresponds to the general principles and particular norms
already long in existence but newly formulated during or after the Second
Vatican Council.(15)
The encouragement and the deepening of eucharistic
worship are proofs of that authentic renewal which the council set itself as an
aim and of which they are the central point. And the venerable and dear
brothers, deserves separate reflection. The Church and the world have a great
need of eucharistic worship. Jesus waits for us in this sacrament of love. Let
us be generous with our time in going to meet Him in adoration and in
contemplation that is full of faith and ready to make reparation for the great
faults and crimes of the world by our adoration never cease.
Eucharist and Church
4. Thanks to the Council we have realized with renewed
force the following truth: Just as the Church "makes the Eucharist"
so "the Eucharist builds up" the Church(16); and this truth is closely
bound up with the mystery of Holy Thursday. The Church was founded, as the new
community of the People of God, in the apostolic community of those Twelve who,
at the Last Supper, became partakers of the body and blood of the Lord under
the species of bread and wine. Christ had said to them: "Take and eat....
Take and drink." And carrying out this command of His, they entered for
the first time into sacramental communion with the Son of God, a communion that
is a pledge of eternal life. From that moment until the end of time, the Church
is being built up through that same communion with the Son of God, a communion
which is a pledge of the eternal Passover.
Dear and venerable brothers in the episcopate, as
teachers and custodians of the salvific truth of the Eucharist, we must always
and everywhere preserve this meaning and this dimension of the sacramental
encounter and intimacy with Christ. It is precisely these elements which
constitute the very substance of eucharistic worship. The meaning of the truth
expounded above in no way diminishes-in fact, it facilitates-the eucharistic
character of spiritual drawing together and union between the people who share
in the sacrifice, which then in Communion becomes for them the banquet. This
drawing together and this union, the prototype of which is the union of the
Apostles about Christ at the Last Supper, express the Church and bring her into
being.
But the Church is not through into being only through
the union of people, through the experience of brotherhood to which the
Eucharistic Banquet gives rise. The Church is brought into being when, in that
fraternal union and communion, we celebrate the sacrifice of the cross of
Christ, when we proclaim "the Lord's death until he comes,"(17) and
later, when, being deeply compenetrated with the mystery of our salvation, we
approach as a community the table of the Lord, in order to be nourished there,
in a sacramental manner, by the fruits oś the holy Sacrifice of propitiation.
Therefore in eucharistic Communion we receive Christ, Christ Himself; and our
union with Him, which is a gift and grace for each individual, brings it about
that in Him we are also associated in the unity of His body which is the
Church.
Only in this way, through that faith and that
disposition of mind, is there brought about that building up of the Church,
which in the Eucharist truly finds its "source and summit," according
to the well known expression of the Second Vatican Council.(18) This truth,
which as a result of the same Council has received a new and vigorous
emphasis,(19) must be a frequent theme of our reflection and teaching. Let all
pastoral activity be nourished by it, and may it also be food for ourselves and
for all the priests who collaborate with us, and likewise for the whole of the
communities entrusted to us. In this practice there should thus be revealed,
almost at every step, that close relationship between the Church's spiritual
and apostolic vitality and the Eucharist, understood in its profound
significance and from all points of view.(20)
Eucharist and Charity
5. Before proceeding to more detailed observations on
the subject of the celebration of the holy Sacrifice, I wish briefly to
reaffirm the fact that eucharistic worship constitutes the soul of all
Christian life. In fact, Christian life is expressed in the fulfilling of the
greatest commandment, that is to say, in the love of God and neighbor, and this
love finds its source in the blessed Sacrament, which is commonly called the
sacrament of love.
The Eucharist signifies this charity, and therefore
recalls it, makes it present and at the same time brings it about. Every time
that we consciously share in it, there opens in our souls a real dimension of
that unfathomable love that includes everything that God has done and continues
to do for us human beings, as Christ says: "My Father goes on working, and
so do I."(21) Together with this unfathomable and free gift, which is
charity revealed in its fullest degree in the saving sacrifice of the Son of
God, the sacrifice of which the Eucharist is the indelible sign, there also
springs up within us a lively response of love. We not only know love; we
ourselves begin to love. We enter, so to speak, upon the path of love and along
this path make progress. Thanks to the Eucharist, the love that springs up
within us from the Eucharist develops in us, becomes deeper and grows stronger.
Eucharistic worship is therefore precisely the
expression of that love which is the authentic and deepest characteristic of
the Christian vocation. This worship springs from the love and serves the love
to which we are all called in Jesus Christ.(22) A living fruit of this worship
is the perfecting of the image of God that we bear within us, an image that
corresponds to the one that Christ has revealed in us. As we thus become
adorers of the Father "in spirit and truth,"(23) we mature in an ever
fuller union with Christ, we are ever more united to Him, and-if one may use
the expression-we are ever more in harmony with Him.
The doctrine of the Eucharist, sign of unity and bond
of charity, taught by St. Paul,(24) has been in subsequent times deepened by
the writings of very many saints who are living examples for us of Eucharistic
worship. We must always have this reality before our eyes, and at the same time
we must continually try to bring it about that our own generation too may add
new examples to those marvelous examples of the past, new examples no less
living and eloquent, that will reflect the age to which we belong.
Eucharist and Neighbor
6. The authentic sense of the Eucharist becomes of
itself the school of active love for neighbor. We know that this is the true
and full order of love that the Lord has taught us: "By this love you have
for one another, everyone will know that you are my disciples."(25) The
Eucharist educates us to this love in a deeper way; it shows us, in fact, what
value each person, our brother or sister, has in God's eyes, if Christ offers
Himself equally to each one, under the species of bread and wine. If our
Eucharistic worship is authentic, it must make us grow in awareness of the
dignity of each person. The awareness of that dignity becomes the deepest
motive of our relationship with our neighbor.
We must also become particularly sensitive to all
human suffering and misery, to all injustice and wrong, and seek the way to
redress them effectively. Let us learn to discover with respect the truth about
the inner self that becomes the dwelling place of God present in the Eucharist.
Christ comes into the hearts of our brothers and sisters and visits their
consciences. How the image of each and every one changes, when we become aware
of this reality, when we make it the subject of our reflections! The sense of
the Eucharistic Mystery leads us to a love for our neighbor, to a love for
every human being.(26)
Eucharist and Life
7. Since therefore the Eucharist is the source of
charity, it has always been at the center of the life of Christ's disciples. It
has the appearance of bread and wine, that is to say of food and drink; it is
therefore as familiar to people, as closely linked to their life, as food and
drink. The veneration of God, who is love, springs, in eucharistic worship,
from that kind of intimacy in which He Himself, by analogy with food and drink,
fills our spiritual being, ensuring its life, as food and drink do. This
"eucharistic" veneration of God therefore strictly corresponds to His
saving plan. He Himself, the Father, wants the "true worshipers"(27)
to worship Him precisely in this way, and it is Christ who expresses this
desire, both with His words and likewise with this sacrament in which He makes
possible worship of the Father in the way most in conformity with the Father's
will.
From this concept of eucharistic worship there then
stems the whole sacramental style of the Christian's life. In fact, leading a
life based on the sacraments and animated by the common priesthood means in the
first place that Christians desire God to act in them in order to enable them
to attain, in the Spirit, "the fullness of Christ himself."(28) God,
on His part, does not touch them only through events and by this inner grace;
He also acts in them with greater certainty and power through the sacraments.
The sacraments give the lives of Christians sacramental style.
Now, of all the sacraments it is the Holy Eucharist
that brings to fullness their initiation as Christians and confers upon the
exercise of the common priesthood that sacramental and ecclesial form that
links it-as we mentioned before(29)-to the exercise of the ministerial priesthood.
In this way eucharistic worship is the center and goal of all sacramental
life.(30) In the depths of eucharistic worship we find a continual echo of the
sacraments a Christian initiation: baptism and confirmation. Where better is
there expressed the truth that we are not only "called God's
children" but "that is what we are"(31) by virtue of the
sacrament of Baptism, if not precisely in the fact that in the Eucharist we
become partakers of the body and blood of God's only Son? And what predisposes
us more to be "true witnesses of Christ"(32) before the world-as we
are enabled to be by the sacrament of Confirmation-than Eucharistic Communion,
in which Christ bears witness to us, and we to Him?
It is impossible to analyze here in greater detail the
links between the Eucharist and the other sacraments, in particular with the
sacrament of family life and the sacrament of the sick. In the encyclical
Redemptor hominis(33) I have already drawn attention to the close link between
the sacrament of Penance and the sacrament of the Eucharist. It is not only
that Penance leads to the Eucharist, but that the Eucharist also leads to
Penance. For when we realize who it is that we receive in Eucharistic
Communion, there springs up in us almost spontaneously a sense of unworthiness,
together with sorrow for our sins and an interior need for purification.
But we must always take care that this great meeting
with Christ in the Eucharist does not become a mere habit, and that we do not
receive Him unworthily, that is to say, in a state of mortal sin. The practice
of the virtue of penance and the sacrament of Penance are essential for
sustaining in us and continually deepening that spirit of veneration which man
owes to God Himself and to His love so marvelously revealed. The purpose of
these words is to put forward some general reflections on worship of the
Eucharistic Mystery, and they could be developed at greater length and more
fully. In particular, it would be possible to link what has been said about the
effects of the Eucharist on love for others with what we have just noted about
commitments undertaken towards humanity and the Church in Eucharistic
Communion, and then outline the picture of that "new earth"(34) that
springs from the Eucharist through every "new self."(35) In this
sacrament of bread and wine, of food and drink, everything that is human really
undergoes a singular transformation and elevation. Eucharistic worship is not
so much worship of the inaccessible transcendence as worship of the divine
condescension, and it is also the merciful and redeeming transformation of the
world in the human heart.
Recalling all this only very briefly, I wish,
notwithstanding this brevity, to create a wider context for the questions that
I shall subsequently have to deal with: These questions are closely linked with
the celebration of the holy Sacrifice. In fact, in that celebration there is
expressed in a more direct way the worship of the Eucharist. This worship comes
from the heart, as a most precious homage inspired by the faith, hope and
charity which were infused into us at baptism. And it is precisely about this
that I wish to write to you in this letter, venerable and dear brothers in the
episcopate, and with you to the priests and deacons. It will be followed by detailed
indications from the Sacred Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship.
II.
THE SACRED CHARACTER OF THE EUCHARIST AND
SACRIFICE
Sacred
Character
8. Beginning with the Upper Room and Holy Thursday,
the celebration of the Eucharist has a long history, a history as long as that
of the Church. In the course of this history the secondary elements have
undergone certain changes, but there has been no change in the essence of the
"Mysterium" instituted by the Redeemer of the world at the Last
Supper. The Second Vatican Council too brought alterations, as a result of
which the present liturgy of the Mass is different in some ways from the one
known before the Council. We do not intend to speak of these differences: It is
better that we should now concentrate on what is essential and immutable in the
Eucharistic Liturgy.
There is a close link between this element of the
Eucharist and its sacredness, that is to say, its being a holy and sacred
action. Holy and sacred, because in it are the continual presence and action of
Christ, "the Holy One" of God,(36) "anointed with the Holy
Spirit,"(37) "consecrated by the Father"(38) to lay down His
life of His own accord and to take it up again,(39) and the High Priest of the
New Covenant.(40) For it is He who, represented by the celebrant, makes His
entrance into the sanctuary and proclaims His Gospel. It is He who is "the
offerer and the offered, the consecrator and the consecrated."(41) The
Eucharist is a holy and sacred action, because it constitutes the sacred
species, the Sancta sanctis, that is to say, the "holy things (Christ, the
Holy One) given to the Holy," as all the Eastern liturgies sing at the
moment when the eucharistic Bread is raised in order to invite the faithful to
the Lord's Supper.
The sacredness of the Mass, therefore, is not a
"sacralization," that is to say, something that man adds to Christ's
action in the Upper Room, for the Holy Thursday supper was a sacred rite, a
primary and constitutive liturgy, through which Christ, by pledging to give His
life for us, Himself celebrated sacramentally the mystery of His passion and
resurrection, the heart of every Mass. Our Masses, being derived from this
liturgy, possess of themselves a complete liturgical form, which, in spite of
its variations in line with the families of rites, remains substantially the
same. The sacred character of the Mass is a sacredness instituted by Christ.
The words and actions of every priest, answered by the conscious active
participation of the whole eucharistic assembly, echo the words and actions of
Holy Thursday.
The priest offers the holy Sacrifice in persona
Christi; this means more than offering "in the name of' or "in place
of' Christ. In persona means in specific sacramental identification with
"the eternal High Priest"(42) who is the author and principal subject
of this sacrifice of His, a sacrifice in which, in truth, nobody can take His
place. Only He-only Christ-was able and is always able to be the true and
effective "expiation for our sins and...for the sins of the whole
world."(43) Only His sacrifice-and no one else's-was able and is able to
have a "propitiatory power" be fore God, the Trinity, and the
transcendent holiness. Awareness of this reality throws a certain light on the
character and significance of the priest celebrant who, by confecting the holy
Sacrifice and acting "in persona Christi," is sacramentally (and
ineffably) brought into that most profound sacredness, and made part of it,
spiritually linking with it in turn all those participating in the eucharistic
assembly.
This sacred rite, which is actuated in different
liturgical forms, may lack some secondary elements, but it can in no way lack
its essential sacred character and sacramentality, since these are willed by
Christ and transmitted and regulated by the Church. Neither can this sacred
rite be utilized for other ends. If separated from its distinctive sacrificial
and sacramental nature, the Eucharistic Mystery simply ceases to be. It admits
of no "profane" imitation, an imitation that would very easily
(indeed regularly) become a profanation. This must always be remembered,
perhaps above all in our time, when we see a tendency to do away with the
distinction between the "sacred" and "profane," given the
widespread tendency, at least in some places, to desacralize everything.
In view of this fact, the Church has a special duty to
safeguard and strengthen the sacredness of the Eucharist. In our pluralistic
and often deliberately secularized society, the living faith of the Christian
community-a faith always aware of its rights vis-a-vis those who do not share
that faith-ensures respect for this sacredness. The duty to respect each
person's faith is the complement of the natural and civil right to freedom of
conscience and of religion.
The sacred character of the Eucharist has found and
continues to find expression in the terminology of theology and the
liturgy.(44) This sense of the objective sacred character of the Eucharistic
Mystery is so much part of the faith of the People of God that their faith is
enriched and strengthened by it.(45) Therefore the ministers of the Eucharist
must, especially today, be illumined by the fullness of this living faith, and
in its light they must understand and perform all that is part, by Christ's
will and the will of His Church, of their priestly ministry.
Sacrifice
9. The Eucharist is above all else a sacrifice. It is
the sacrifice of the Redemption and also the sacrifice of the New Covenant,(46)
as we believe and as the Eastern Churches clearly profess: "Today s
sacrifice, the Greek Church stated centuries ago, "is like that offered
once by the Only-begotten Incarnate Word; it is offered by Him (now as then),
since it is one and the same sacrifice."(47) Accordingly, precisely by
making this single sacrifice of our salvation present, men and the world are
restored to God through the paschal newness of Redemption. This restoration
cannot cease to be: it is the foundation of the"new and eternal
covenant" of God with man and of man with God. If it were missing, one
would have to question both the excellence of the sacrifice of the Redemption,
which in fact was perfect and definitive, and also the sacrificial value of the
Mass. In fact, the Eucharist, being a true sacrifice, brings about this
restoration to God.
Consequently, the celebrant, as minister of this
sacrifice, is the authentic priest, performing-in virtue of the specific power
of-sacred ordination-a true sacrificial act that brings creation back to God.
Although all those who participate in the Eucharist do not confect the
sacrifice as He does, they offer with Him, by virtue of the common priesthood,
their own spiritual sacrifices represented by the bread and wine from the
moment of their presentation at the altar. For this liturgical action, which take
a solemn form in almost all liturgies, has a "spiritual value and
meaning."(48) The bread and wine become in a sense a symbol of all that
the eucharistic assembly brings, on its own part, as an offering to God and
offers spiritually.
It is important that this first moment of the Liturgy
of the Eucharist in the strict sense should find expression in the attitude of
the participants. There is a link between this and the offertory
"procession" provided for in the recent liturgical reform(49) and
accompanied, in keeping with ancient tradition, by a psalm or song. A certain
length of time must be allowed, so that all can become aware of this act, which
is given expression at the same time by the words of the celebrant.
Awareness of the act of presenting the offerings
should be maintained throughout the Mass. Indeed, it should be brought to
fullness at the moment of the consecration and of the anamnesis offering, as is
demanded by the fundamental value of the moment of the sacrifice. This is shown
by the words of the Eucharistic Prayer said aloud by the priest. It seems
worthwhile repeating here some expressions in the third Eucharistic Prayer that
show in particular the sacrificial character of the Eucharist and link the
offering of our persons with Christ's offering: "Look with favor on your
Church's offering, and see the Victim whose death has reconciled us to
yourself. Grant that we, who are nourished by his body and blood, may be filled
with his Holy Spirit, and become one body, one spirit in Christ. May he make us
an everlasting gift to you.
This sacrificial value is expressed earlier in every
celebration by the words with which the priest concludes the presentation of
the gifts, asking the faithful to pray "that my sacrifice and yours may be
acceptable to God, the almighty Father." These words are binding, since
they express the character of the entire Eucharistic Liturgy and the fullness
of its divine and ecclesial content.
All who participate with faith in the Eucharist become
aware that it is a "sacrifice," that is to say, a "consecrated
Offering." For the bread and wine presented at the altar and accompanied
by the devotion and the spiritual sacrifices of the participants are finally
consecrated, so as to become truly, really and substantially Christ's own body
that is given up and His blood that is shed. Thus, by virtue of the
consecration, the species of bread and wine re-present (50) in a sacramental,
unbloody manner the bloody propitiatory sacrifice offered by Him on the cross
to His Father for the salvation of the world. Indeed, He alone, giving Himself
as a propitiatory Victim in an act of supreme surrender and immolation, has
reconciled humanity with the Father, solely through His sacrifice, "having
cancelled the bond which stood against us."(51)
To this sacrifice, which is renewed in a sacramental
form on the altar, the offerings of bread and wine, united with the devotion of
the faithful, nevertheless bring their unique contribution, since by means of
the consecration by the priest they become sacred species. This is made clear
by the way in which the priest acts during the Eucharistic Prayer, especially
at the consecration, and when the celebration of the holy Sacrifice and
participation in it are accompanied by awareness that "the Teacher is here
and is calling for you."(52) This call of the Lord to us through His
Sacrifice opens our hearts, so that, purified in the mystery of our Redemption,
they may be united to Him in Eucharistic Communion, which confers upon
participation at Mass a value that is mature, complete and binding on human
life: "The Church's intention is that the faithful not only offer the
spotless victim but also learn to offer themselves and daily to be drawn into
ever more perfect union, through Christ the Mediator, with the Father and with
each other, so that at last God may be all in all."(53)
It is therefore very opportune and necessary to
continue to actuate a new and intense education, in order to discover all the
richness contained in the new liturgy. Indeed, the liturgical renewal that has
taken place since the Second Vatican Council has given, so to speak, greater
visibility to the Eucharistic Sacrifice. One factor contributing to this is
that the words of the Eucharistic Prayer are said aloud by the celebrant,
particularly the words of consecration, with the acclamation by the assembly
immediately after the elevation.
All this should fill us with joy, but we should also
remember that these changes demand new spiritual awareness and maturity, both
on the part of the celebrant-especially now that he celebrates "facing the
people"-and by the faithful. Eucharistic worship matures and grows when
the words oś the Eucharistic Prayer, especially the words of consecration, are
spoken with great humility and simplicity, in a worthy and fitting way, which
is understandable and in keeping with their holiness; when this essential act
of the Eucharistic Liturgy is performed unhurriedly; and when it brings about
in us such recollection and devotion that the participants become aware of the greatness
of the mystery being accomplished and show it by their attitude.
III.
THE TWO TABLES OF THE LORD AND THE COMMON
POSSESSION OF THE CHURCH
The
Table of the Word of God
10. We are well aware that from the earliest times the
celebration of the Eucharist has been linked not only with prayer but also with
the reading of Sacred Scripture and with singing by the whole assembly. As a
result, it has long been possible to apply to the Mass the comparison, made by
the Fathers, with the two tables, at which the Church prepares for her children
the word of God and the Eucharist, that is, the bread of the Lord. We must
therefore go back to the first part of the sacred mystery, the part that at
present is most often called the Liturgy of the Word, and devote some attention
to it.
The reading of the passages of Sacred Scripture chosen
for each day has been subjected by the Council to new criteria and
requirements.(54) As a result of these norms of the Council a new collection of
readings has been made, in which there has been applied to some extent the
principle of continuity of texts and the principle of making all the sacred
books accessible. The insertion of the Psalms with responses into the liturgy
makes the participants familiar with the great wealth of Old Testament prayer
and poetry. The fact that these texts are read and sung in the vernacular
enables everyone to participate with fuller understanding.
Nevertheless, there are also those people who, having
been educated on the basis of the old liturgy in Latin, experience the lack of
this "one language," which in all the world was an expression of the
unity of the Church and through its dignified character elicited a profound
sense of the Eucharistic Mystery. It is therefore necessary to show not only
understanding but also full respect towards these sentiments and desires. As
far as possible these sentiments and desires are to be accommodated, as is
moreover provided for in the new dispositions.(55) The Roman Church has special
obligations towards Latin, the splendid language of ancient Rome, and she must
manifest them whenever the occasion presents itself.
The possibilities that the post-conciliar renewal has
introduced in this respect are indeed often utilized so as to make us witnesses
of and sharers in the authentic celebration of the Word of God. There is also
an increase in the number of people taking an active part in this celebration.
Groups of readers and cantors, and still more often choirs of men or women, are
being set up and are devoting themselves with great enthusiasm to this aspect.
The Word of God, Sacred Scripture, is beginning to take on new life in many
Christian communities. The faithful gathered for the liturgy prepare with song
for listening to the Gospel, which is proclaimed with the devotion and love due
to it.
All this is noted with great esteem and gratitude, but
it must not be forgotten that complete renewal makes yet other demands. These
demands consist in a new sense of responsibility towards the Word of God
transmitted through the liturgy in various languages, something that is
certainly in keeping with the universality of the Gospel and its purposes. The
same sense of responsibility also involves the performance of the corresponding
liturgical actions (reading or singing), which must accord with the principles
of art. To preserve these actions from all artificiality, they should express
such capacity, simplicity and dignity as to highlight the special character of
the sacred text, even by the very manner of reading or singing.
Accordingly, these demands, which spring from a new
responsibility for the Word of God in the liturgy,(56) go yet deeper and
concern the inner attitude with which the ministers of the Word perform their
function in the liturgical assembly.(57) This responsibility also concerns the
choice of texts. The choice has already been made by the competent
ecclesiastical authority, which has also made provision for the cases in which
readings more suited to a particular situation may be chosen.(58) Furthermore,
it must always be remembered that only the Word of God can be used for Mass
readings. The reading of Scripture cannot be replaced by the reading of other
texts, however much they may be endowed with undoubted religious and moral
values. On the other hand such texts can be used very profitably in the homily.
Indeed the homily is supremely suitable for the use of such texts, provided
that their content corresponds to the required conditions, since it is one of
the tasks that belong to the nature of the homily to show the points of
convergence between revealed divine wisdom and noble human thought seeking the
truth by various paths.
The Table of the Bread of the Lord
11. The other table of the Eucharistic Mystery, that
of the Bread of the Lord, also requires reflection from the viewpoint of the
present- ay liturgical renewal. This is a question of the greatest importance,
since it concerns a special act of living faith, and indeed, as has been
attested since the earliest centuries,(59) it is a manifestation of worship of
Christ, who in Eucharistic Communion entrusts Himself to each one of us, to our
hearts, our consciences, our lips and our mouths, in the form of food.
Therefore there is special need, with regard to this question, for the
watchfulness spoken of by the Gospel, on the part of the pastors who have
charge of eucharistic worship and on the part of the People of God, whose
"sense of the faith"(60) must be very alert and acute particularly in
this area.
I therefore wish to entrust this question to the heart
of each one of you, venerable and dear brothers in the episcopate. You must
above all make it part of your care for all the churches entrusted to you. I
ask this of you in the name of the unity that we have received from the
Apostles as our heritage unity. This unity came to birth, in a sense, at the
table of the Bread of the Lord on Holy Thursday. With the help of your brothers
in the priesthood, do all you can to safeguard the sacred dignity of the
eucharistic ministry and that deep spirit of Eucharistic Communion which
belongs in a special way to the Church as the People of God, and which is also
a particular heritage transmitted to us from the Apostles, by various
liturgical traditions, and by unnumbered generations of the faithful, who were
often heroic witnesses to Christ, educated in "the school of the
cross" (Redemption) and of the Eucharist.
It must be remembered that the Eucharist as the table
of the Bread of the Lord is a continuous invitation. This is shown in the
liturgy when the celebrant says: "This is the Lamb of God. Happy are those
who are called to his supper"(61); it is also shown by the familiar Gospel
parable about the guests invited to the marriage banquet.(62) Let us remember
that in this parable there are many who excuse themselves from accepting the
invitation for various reasons.
Moreover our Catholic communities certainly do not
lack people who could participate in Eucharistic Communion and do not, even
though they have no serious sin on their conscience as an obstacle. To tell the
truth, this attitude, which in some people is linked with an exaggerated
severity, has changed in the present century, though it is still to be found
here and there. In fact what one finds most often is not so much a feeling of
unworthiness as a certain lack of interior willingness, if one may use this
expression, a lack of Eucharistic "hunger" and "thirst,"
which is also a sign of lack of adequate sensitivity towards the great
sacrament of love and a lack of understanding of its nature.
However, we also find in recent years another
phenomenon. Sometimes, indeed quite frequently, everybody participating in the
eucharistic assembly goes to Communion; and on some such occasions, as
experienced pastors confirm, there has not been due care to approach the sacrament
of Penance so as to purify one's conscience. This can of course mean that those
approaching the Lord's table find nothing on their conscience, according to the
objective law of God, to keep them from this sublime and joyful act of being
sacramentally united with Christ. But there can also be, at least at times,
another idea behind this: the the life of our communities to lose the good
quality of sensitiveness of Christian conscience, guided solely by respect for
Christ, who, when He is received in the Eucharist, should find in the heart of
each of us a worthy abode. This question is closely linked not only with the
practice of the sacrament of Penance but also with a correct sense of
responsibility for the whole deposit of moral teaching and for the precise
distinction between good and evil, a distinction which then becomes for each
person sharing in the Eucharist the basis for a correct judgment of self to be
made in the depths of the personal conscience. St. Paul's words, "Let a
man examine himself,"(64) are well known; this judgment is an
indispensable condition for a personal decision whether to approach Eucharistic
Communion or to abstain.
Celebration of the Eucharist places before us many
other requirements regarding the ministry of the eucharistic table. Some of
these requirements concern only priests and deacons, others concern all who
participate in the Eucharistic Liturgy. Priests and deacons must remember that
the service of the table of the Bread of the Lord imposes on them special
obligations which refer in the first place to Christ Himself present in the
Eucharist and secondly to all who actually participate in the Eucharist or who
might do so. With regard to the first, perhaps it will not be superfluous to
recall the words of the Pontifical which on the day of ordination the bishop
addresses to the new priest as he hands to him on the paten and in the chalice
the bread and wine offered by the faithful and prepared by the deacon:
"Accipe oblationem plebis sanctae Deo offerendam. Agnosce quod agis,
imitare quod tractabis, et vitam tuam mysterio dominicae crucis
conforma."(65) This last admonition made to him by the bishop should
remain as one of the most precious norms of his eucharistic ministry.
It is from this admonition that the priest's attitude
in handling the bread and wine which have become the body and blood of the
Redeemer should draw its inspiration. Thus it is necessary for all of us who
are ministers of the Eucharist to examine carefully our actions at the altar,
in particular the way in which we handle that food and drink which are the body
and blood of the Lord our God in our hands: the way in which we distribute Holy
Communion; the way in which we perform the purification.
All these actions have a meaning of their own.
Naturally, scrupulosity must be avoided, but God preserve us from behaving in a
way that lacks respect, from undue hurry, from an impatience that causes
scandal. Over and above our commitment to the evangelical mission, our greatest
commitment consists in exercising this mysterious power over the body of the
Redeemer, and all that is within us should be decisively ordered to this. We
should also always remember that to this ministerial power we have been
sacramentally consecrated, that we have been chosen from among men "for
the good of men."(66) We especially, the priests of the Latin Church,
whose ordination rite added in the curse of the centuries the custom of
anointing the priest's hands, should think about this.
In some countries the practice of receiving Communion
in the hand has been introduced. This practice has been requested by individual
episcopal conferences and has received approval from the Apostolic See.
However, cases of a deplorable lack of respect towards the eucharistic species
have been reported, cases which are imputable not only to the individuals
guilty of such behavior but also to the pastors of the church who have not been
vigilant enough regarding the attitude of the faithful towards the Eucharist.
It also happens, on occasion, that the free choice of those who prefer to
continue the practice of receiving the Eucharist on the tongue is not taken
into account in those places where the distribution of Communion in the hand
has been authorized. It is therefore difficult in the context of this present
letter not to mention the sad phenomena previously referred to. This is in no
way meant to refer to those who, receiving the Lord Jesus in the hand, do so
with profound reverence and devotion, in those countries where this practice
has been authorized.
But one must not forget the primary office of priests,
who have been consecrated by their ordination to represent Christ the Priest:
for this reason their hands, like their words and their will, have become the
direct instruments of Christ. Through this fact, that is, as ministers of the
Holy Eucharist, they have a primary responsibility for the sacred species,
because it is a total responsibility: they offer the bread and wine, they
consecrate it, and then distribute the sacred species to the participants in
the assembly who wish to receive them. Deacons can only bring to the altar the
offerings of the faithful and, once they have been consecrated by the priest,
distribute them. How eloquent therefore, even if not of ancient custom, is the
rite of the anointing of the hands in our Latin ordination, as though precisely
for these hands a special grace and power of the Holy Spirit is necessary!
To touch the sacred species and to distribute them
with their own hands is a privilege of the ordained, one which indicates an
active participation in the ministry of the Eucharist. It is obvious that the
Church can grant this faculty to those who are neither priests nor deacons, as
is the case with acolytes in the exercise of their ministry, especially if they
are destined for future ordination, or with other lay people who are chosen for
this to meet a just need, but always after an adequate preparation.
A Common Possession of the Church
12. We cannot, even for a moment, forget that the
Eucharist is a special possession belonging to the whole Church. It is the
greatest gift in the order of grace and of sacrament that the divine Spouse has
offered and unceasingly offers to His spouse. And precisely because it is such
a gift, all of us should in a spirit of profound faith let ourselves be guided
by a sense of truly Christian responsibility. A gift obliges us ever more
profoundly because it speaks to us not so much with the force of a strict right
as with the force of personal confidence, and thus-without legal obligations-it
calls for trust and gratitude. The Eucharist is just such a gift and such a
possession. We should remain faithful in every detail to what it expresses in
itself and to what it ask of us, namely, thanksgiving.
The Eucharist is a common possession of the whole
Church as the sacrament of her unity. And thus the Church has the strict duty
to specify everything which concerns participation in it and its celebration.
We should therefore act according to the principles laid down by the last
Council, which, in the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, defined the
authorizations and obligations of individual bishops in their dioceses and of
the episcopal conferences, given the fact that both act in collegial unity with
the Apostolic See.
Furthermore we should follow the directives issued by
the various departments of the Holy See in this field: be it in liturgical
matters, in the rules established by the liturgical books in what concerns the
Eucharistic Mystery,(67) and in the Instructions devoted to this mystery, be it
with regard to communication in sacris, in the norms of the Directorium de re
oecumenica(68) and in the Instructio de peculiaribus casibus admittendi alios
christianos ad communionem eucharisticam in Ecclesia catholica.(69) And
although at this stage of renewal the possibility of a certain
"creative" freedom has been permitted, nevertheless this freedom must
strictly respect the requirements of substantial unity. We can follow the path
of this pluralism (which arises in part from the introduction itself of the
various languages into the liturgy) only as long as the essential
characteristics of the celebration of the Eucharist are preserved, and the
norms prescribed by the recent liturgical reform are respected.
Indispensable effort is required everywhere to ensure
that within the pluralism of eucharistic worship envisioned by the Second
Vatican Council the unity of which the Eucharist is the sign and cause is
clearly manifested.
This task, over which in the nature of things the
Apostolic See must keep careful watch, should be assumed not only by each
episcopal conference but by every minister of the Eucharist, without exception.
Each one should also remember that he is responsible for the common good of the
whole Church. The priest as minister, as celebrant, as the one who presides
over the eucharistic assembly of the faithful, should have a special sense of
the common good of the Church, which he represents through his ministry, but to
which he must also be subordinate, according to a correct discipline of faith.
He cannot consider himself a "proprietor" who can make free use of
the liturgical text and of the sacred rite as if it were his own property, in
such a way as to stamp it with his own arbitrary personal style. At times this
latter might seem more effective, and it may better correspond to subjective
piety; nevertheless, objectively it is always a betrayal of that union which
should find its proper expression in the sacrament of unity.
Every priest who offers the holy Sacrifice should
recall that during this Sacrifice it is not only he with his community that is
praying but the whole Church, which is thus expressing in this sacrament her
spiritual unity, among other ways by the use of the approved liturgical text.
To call this position "mere insistence on uniformity" would only show
ignorance of the objective requirements of authentic unity, and would be a
symptom of harmful individualism.
This subordination of the minister, of the celebrant,
to the mysterium which has been entrusted to him by the Church for the good of
the whole People of God, should also find expression in the observance of the
liturgical requirements concerning the celebration of the holy Sacrifice. These
refer, for example, to dress, in particular to the vestments worn by the celebrant.
Circumstances have of course existed and continue to exist in which the
prescriptions do not oblige. We have been greatly moved when reading books
written by priests who had been prisoners in extermination camps, with
descriptions of Eucharistic Celebrations without the above- mentioned rules,
that is to say, without an altar and without vestments. But although in those
conditions this was a proof of heroism and deserved profound admiration,
nevertheless in normal conditions to ignore the liturgical directives can be
interpreted as a lack of respect towards the Eucharist, dictated perhaps by
individualism or by an absence of a critical sense concerning current opinions,
or by a certain lack of a spirit of faith.
Upon all of us who, through the grace of God, are
ministers of the Eucharist, there weighs a particular responsibility for the
ideas and attitudes of our brothers and sisters who have been entrusted to our
pastoral care. It is our vocation to nurture, above all by personal example,
every healthy manifestation of worship towards Christ present and operative in
that sacrament of love. May God preserve us from acting otherwise and weakening
that worship by "becoming unaccustomed" to various manifestations and
forms of eucharistic worship which express a perhaps "traditional"
but healthy piety, and which express above all that "sense of the
faith" possessed by the whole People of God, as the Second Vatican Council
recalled.(70)
As I bring these considerations to an end, I would
like to ask forgiveness-in my own name and in the name of all of you, venerable
and dear brothers in the episcopate-for everything which, for whatever reason,
through whatever human weakness, impatience or negligence, and also through the
at times partial, one-sided and erroneous application of the directives of the
Second Vatican Council, may have caused scandal and disturbance concerning the
interpretation of the doctrine and the veneration due to this great sacrament.
And I pray the Lord Jesus that in the future we may avoid in our manner of
dealing with this sacred mystery anything which could weaken or disorient in
any way the sense of reverence and love that exists in our faithful people.
May Christ Himself help us to follow the path of true
renewal towards that fullness of life and of eucharistic worship whereby the
Church is built up in that unity that she already possesses, and which she
desires to bring to ever greater perfection for the glory of the living God and
for the salvation of all humanity.
CONCLUSION
13. Permit me, venerable and dear brothers, to end
these reflections of mine, which have been restricted to a detailed examination
of only a few questions. In undertaking these reflections, I have had before my
eyes all the work carried out by the Second Vatican Council, and have kept in
mind Paul VI's Encyclical Mysterium Fidei, promulgated during that Council, and
all the documents issued after the same Council for the purpose of implementing
the post-conciliar liturgical renewal. A very close and organic bond exists
between the renewal of the liturgy and the renewal of the whole life of the
Church.
The Church not only acts but also expresses herself in
the liturgy, lives by the liturgy and draws from the liturgy the strength for
her life. For this reason liturgical renewal carried out correctly in the
spirit of the Second Vatican Council is, in a certain sense, the measure and
the condition for putting into effect the teaching of that Council which we
wish to accept with profound faith, convinced as we are that by means of this
Council the Holy Spirit "has spoken to the Church" the truths and
given the indications for carrying out her mission among the people of today
and tomorrow.
We shall continue in the future to take special care
to promote and follow the renewal of the Church according to the teaching of
the Second Vatican Council, in the spirit of an ever living Tradition. In fact,
to the substance of Tradition properly understood belongs also a correct
re-reading of the "signs of the times, which require us to draw from the
rich treasure of Revelation "things both new and old."(71) Acting in
this spirit, in accordance with this counsel of the Gospel, the Second Vatican
Council carried out a providential effort to renew the face of the Church in
the sacred liturgy, most often having recourse to what is "ancient,"
what comes from the heritage of the Fathers and is the expression of the faith
and doctrine of a Church which has remained united for so many centuries.
In order to be able to continue in the future to put
into practice the directives of the Council in the field of liturgy, and in
particular in the field of eucharistic worship, close collaboration is
necessary between the competent department of the Holy See and each episcopal
conference, a collaboration which must be at the same time vigilant and
creative. We must keep our sights fixed on the greatness of the most holy
Mystery and at the same time on spiritual movements and social changes, which
are so significant for our times, since they not only sometimes create
difficulties but also prepare us for a new way of participating in that great
Mystery of Faith.
Above all I wish to emphasize that the problems of the
liturgy, and in particular of the Eucharistic Liturgy, must not be an occasion
of dividing Catholics and for threatening the unity of the Church. This is
demanded by an elementary understanding of that sacrament which Christ has left
us as the source of spiritual unity. And how could the Eucharist, which in the
Church is the sacramentum pietatis, signum unitatis, vinculum caritatis,(72)
form between us at this time a point or division and a source of distortion of
thought and of behavior, instead of being the focal point and constitutive
center, which it truly is in its essence, of the unity of the Church herself?
We are all equally indebted to our Redeemer. We should
all listen together to that spirit of truth and of love whom He has promised to
the Church and who is operative in her. In the name of this truth and of this
love, in the name of the crucified Christ and of His Mother, I ask you, and beg
you: Let us abandon all opposition and division, and let us all unite in this
great mission of salvation which is the price and at the same time the fruit of
our redemption. The Apostolic See will continue to do all that is possible to
provide the means of ensuring that unity of which we speak. Let everyone avoid
anything in his own way of acting which could "grieve the Holy
Spirit."(73)
In order that this unity and the constant and
systematic collaboration which leads to it may be perseveringly continued, I
beg on my knees that, through the intercession of Mary, holy spouse of the Holy
Spirit and Mother of the Church, we may all receive the light of the Holy
Spirit. And blessing everyone, with all my heart I once more address myself to
you, my venerable and dear brothers in the episcopate, with a fraternal
greeting and with full trust. In this collegial unity in which we share, let us
do all we can to ensure that the Eucharist may become an ever greater source of
life and light for the consciences of all our brothers and sisters of all the
communities in the universal unity of Christ's Church on earth.
In a spirit of fraternal charity, to you and to all
our confreres in the priesthood I cordially impart the apostolic blessing.
From the Vatican, February 24, First Sunday of Lent,
in the year 1980, the second of the Pontificate.
NOTES
1. Cf. Chapter
2: AAS 71 (1979), pp. 395f.
2. Cf. Ecumenical Council of Trent, Session XXII, Can.
2: Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Decreta, ed. 3, Bologna 1973, p. 735.
3. Because of this precept of the Lord, an Ethiopian
Eucharistic Liturgy recalls that the Apostles "established for us
patriarchs, archbishops, priests and deacons to celebrate the ritual of your
holy Church": Anaphora Sancti Athanasii: Prex Eucharistica, Haenggi-Pahl,
Fribourg (Switzerland) 1968, p. 183.
4. Cf. La Tradition apostolique de saint Hippolyte, nos.
2-4, ed. Botte,
Munster-Westfalen 1963, pp. 5-17.
5. 2 Cor.
11:28.
6. 1 Pt.
2:5.
7. Cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution
on the Church Lumen gentium, 28; AAS 57 (1965), pp. 33f.; Decree on the
Ministry and Life of Priests Presbyterorum Ordinis, 2, 5: AAS 58 (1966), pp.
993, 998; Decree on the Missionary Activity of the Church Ad gentes, 39: AAS 58
(1966), p. 986.
8. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church Lumen gentium, 11: AAS 57 (1965), p. 15.
9. Jn. 3:16. It is interesting to note how these words
are taken up by the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom immediately before the words
of consecration and introduce the latter: cf. La divina Liturgia del nostro
Padre Giovanni Crisostomo, Roma-Grottaferrata 1967, pp. 104f.
10. Cf. Mt. 26:26-28; Mk. 14:22-25; Lk. 22:18-20; 1
Cor. 11:23-5; cf. also the Eucharistic Prayers.
11. Phil.
2:8.
12. Jn.
13:1.
13. Cf. John Paul II, Homily in Phoenix Park, Dublin,
7: AAS 71 (1979), pp. 1074ff.; Sacred Congregation of Rites, instruction
Eucharisticum mysterium: AAS 59 (1967), pp. 539-573; Rituale Romanum, De sacra
communione et de cultu Mysterii eucharistici extra Missam, ed. typica, 1973. It
should be noted that the value of the worship and the sanctifying power of
these forms of devotion to the Eucharist depend not so much upon the forms
themselves as upon interior attitudes.
14. Cf. Bull Trasiturus de hoc mundo (Aug. 11, 1264):
Aemilii Friedberg, Corpus lulris Canonici, Pars II. Decretalium Collectiones, Leipzig 1881, pp.
1174-1177; Studi eucharistici, VII Centenario della Bolla 'Transiturus,'
1264-1964, Orvieto 1966, pp. 302-317.
15. Cf. Paul VI,
encyclical letter Mysterium Fidei: AAS 57 (1965), pp. 753-774; Sacred
Congregation of Rites, Instruction Eucharisticum Mysterium: AAS 59 (1967), pp.
539-573; Rituale Romanum, De sacra communione et de cultu Mysterii eucharistici
extra Mts am, ed. typica, 1973.
16. John Paul II, encyclical letter Redemptor Hominis,
20: AAS 71 (1979), p. 311; cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church, Lumen gentium, 11: AAS 57 (1965), pp.15f; also,
note 57 to Schema II of the same dogmatic constitution, in Acta Synodalia
Sacrosancti Concilii Oecumenici Vaticani 11, vol. II, periodus 2a, pars I,
public session II, pp. 251f.; Paul VI, address at the general audience of
September 15, 1965: Insegnamenti di Paolo Vl, III (1965), p. 103; H. de Lubac,
Meditation sur l'Eglise, 2 ed., Paris 1963, pp. 129-137.
17. 1
Cor. 11:26.
18. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church Lumen gentium, 11: AAS 57 (1965) pp.15f;
Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, 10: AAS 56 (1964),
p. 102; Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests, Presbyterorum Ordints, 5:
AAS 58 (1966), pp. 997f.; Decree on the Bishops' Pastoral Offlce in the Church
Christus Dominus, 30: AAS 58 (1966), pp. 688f.; Decree on the Church's
Missionary Activity, Ad gentes, 9: AAS 58 (1966), pp. 957f.
19. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church Lumen gentium, 26: AAS 57 (1965), pp. 31f.; Decree
on Ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio, 15: AAS 57 (1965), pp. 101f.
20. This is what the Opening Prayer of Holy Thursday
asks for: "We pray that in this Eucharist we may find the fullness of love
and life": Missale Romanum, ed. typica altera 1975, p. 244; also the
communion epiclesis of the Roman Missal: "May all of us who share in the
body and blood of Christ be brought together in unity by the Holy Spirit. Lord,
remember your Church throughout the world; make us grow in love":
Eucharistic Prayer II: ibid., pp. 458f.; Eucharistic Prayer III, p. 463.
21. Jn.
5:17.
22. Cf. Prayer after communion of the Mass for the
Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time: "Lord, you renew us at your table
with the bread of life. May this food strengthen us in love and help us to
serve you in each other": Missale Romanum, ed. cit., p. 361.
23. Jn.
4:23.
24. Cf. 1 Cor. 10:17; commented upon by St. Augustine:
In Evangelium Ioannis tract. 31, 13; PL 35, 1613; also commented upon by the
Ecumenical Council of Trent, Session XIII, can. 8; Conciliorum Oecumenicorum
Decreta, ed. 3, Bologna 1973, p. 697, 7; cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen gentium, 7: AAS 57 (1965), p. 9.
25. Jn.
13:35.
26. This is expressed by many prayers of the Roman
Missal: the Prayer over the Gifts from the Common, "For those who work for
the underprivileged"; "May we who celebrate the love of your Son also
follow the example of your saints and grow in love for you and for one
another": Missale Romanum, ed. cit., p. 721; also the Prayer after
Communion of the Mass "For Teachers": "May this holy meal help
us to follow the example of your saints by showing in our lives the light of
truth and love for our brothers": ibid., p. 723; cf. also the Prayer after
Communion of the Mass for the Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, quoted in
note 22.
27. Jn.
4:23.
28. Eph.
4:13.
29. Cf.
above, no. 2.
30. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Decree on
the Missionary Activity of the Church Ad gentes, 9, 12: AAS 58 (1966), pp.
958-961f.; Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests Presbyterorum Ordinis, 5:
AAS 58 (1966), p. 997.
31. 1 Jn.
3:1.
32.
Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen
gentium, 11: AAS 57 (1965), p. 15.
33. Cf.
no. 20: AAS 71 (1979), pp. 313f.
34. 2 Pt.
3:13.
35. Col.
3:10.
36. Lk.
1:34; Jn. 6:69; Acts 3:14; Rev. 3:7.
37. Acts
10:38; Lk. 4:18.
38. Jn.
10:36.
39. Cf. Jn.
10:17.
40. Heb. 3:1;
4:15, etc.
41. As was stated in the ninth-century Byzantine
liturgy, according to the most ancient codex, known formerly as Barberino di
San Marco (Florence), and, now that it is kept in the Vatican Apostolic
Library, as Barberini Greco 366 f. 8 verso, lines 17-20. This part has been
published by F.E. Brightman, Liturgies Eastern and Western, I. Eastern
Liturgies, Oxford 1896, p. 318, 34-35.
42. Opening Prayer of the Second Votive Mass of the
Holy Eucharist: Missale Romanum, ed. cit., p. 858.
43. 1 Jn.
2:2; cf. ibid., 4:10.
44. We speak of the divinum Mysterium, the
Sanctissimum, the Sacrosanctum, meaning what is sacred and holy par excellence.
For their part, the Eastern churches call the Mass raza or mysterion,
hagiasmos, quddasa, qedasse, that is to say "consecration" par
excellence. Furthermore there are the liturgical rites, which, in order to
inspire a sense of the sacred, prescribe silence, and standing or kneeling, and
likewise professions of faith, and the incensation of the Gospel book, the
altar, the celebrant and the sacred species. They even recall the assistance of
the angelic beings created to serve the Holy God, i.e., with the Sanctus of our
Latin churches and the Trisagion and Sancta Sanctis of the Eastern liturgies.
45. For instance, in the invitation to receive
communion, this faith has been so formed as to reveal complementary aspects of
the presence of Christ the Holy One: the epiphanic aspect noted by the
Byzantines ("Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord: The Lord is
God and has appeared to us". La divina Liturgia del santo nostro Padre
Giovanni Crisostomo, Roma Grotta ferrata 1967, pp.136f.); the aspect of
relation and union sung of by the Armenians [Liturgy of St. Ignatius of
Antioch: "Unus Pater sanctus nobiscum, unus Filius sanctus nobiscum, unus
Spiritus sanctus nobiscum" Die Anaphora des heiligen Ignatius von
Antiochien, libersetzt von A. Rucker, Oriens Christianus, 3 ser., 5 [1930], p.
76); and the hidden heavenly aspect celebrated by the Chaldeans and Malabars
(cf. the antiphonal hymn sung by the priest and the assembly after Communion:
F.E. Brightman, op. cit., p. 299.
46. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Constitution
on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, 2, 47: AAS 56 (1964), pp. 83f.;
113; Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen gentium, 3 and 28: AAS 57
(1965). pp. 6. 33f.: Decree on Ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio 2: AAS 57
(1965), p. 91; Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests Presbyterorum
Ordinis, 13: AAS 58 (1966), pp.1011f., Ecumenical Council of Trent, Session
XXII, chap. I and II: Conciliorum
Oecumenorum Decreta, ed. 3, Bologna 1973, pp. 732f. especially: una eademque
est hostia, idem nunc offerens sacerdotum ministerio, qui se ipsum tunc in
cruce obtulit, sola offerendi ratione diversa (ibid., p. 733).
47. Synodus Constantinopolita adversus Sotericum
(January 1156 and May 1157): Angelo Mai, Spicilegium romanum, t. X, Rome 1844,
p. 77; PG 140, 190; cf. Martin Jugie, Dict. Theol. Cath., t. X, 1338; Theologia
dogmatica christianorum orientalium, Paris, 1930, pp. 317-320.
48. Instituto Generalis Missalis Romani, 49c: Missale
Romanum, ed. cit., p. 39; cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Decree on the
Ministry and Life of Priests Presbyterorum Ordinis, 5: AAS 58 (1966), pp. 997f.
49. Ordo Missae cum populo, 18: Missale
Romanum, ed. cit., p. 390.
50. Cf.
Ecumenical Council of Trent, Session 22, chap I, Conciliorum Oecumenicorum
Decreta, ed. 3, Bologna 1973, pp.732f.
51. Col. 2:14.
52. Jn. 11:28.
53. Instituto Generalis Mlssalis Romani,
55f.: Missale Romanum, ed. cit., p. 40.
54. Cf. Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy
Sacrosanctum Concilium 35, 51: AAS 56 (1964), pp. 109, 114.
55. Cf. Sacred Congregation of Rites, Instruction In
edicendis normis VI, 17-18; VII, 19-20: AAS 57 (1965), pp. 1012f.; Instruction
Musicam Sacram, IV, 48: AAS 59 (1967), p. 314; Decree De Titulo Basilicae
Minoris II, 8: AAS 60 (1968), p. 538; Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship
Notif. De Missali Romano, Liturgia
Horarum et Calendario, I, 4: AAS 63 (1971), p. 714.
56. Cf. Paul VI, Apostolic Constitution Missale
Romanum: "We are fully confident that both priests and faithful will
prepare their minds and hearts more devoutly for the Lord's Supper, meditating
on the scriptures nourished day by day with the words of the Lord": AAS 61
(1969), pp. 220f.; Missale Romanum, ed. cit., p. 15.
57. Cf.
Pontificale Romanum. De Institutione Lectorum et Acolythorum, 4, ed. typica, 1972, pp. 19f.
58. Cf. Instituto
Generalis Missalis Romani, 319-320: Missale Romanum, ed. cit., p. 87.
59. Cf. Fr. J. Dolger, Das Segnen der Sinne mit der
Eucharistie. Eine altchristliche Kommunionsitte: Antike und Christentum, t. 3
(1932), pp. 231-244; Das Kultvergehen der Donatistin Lucilla von Karthago.
Reliquienkuss vor dem Kuss der Eucharistie, ibid., pp. 245-252.
60. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church Lumen gentium, 12, 35; AAS 57 (1965), pp. 16, 40.
61. Cf.
Jn. 1:29; Rv. 19:9.
62. Cf.
Lk. 14:16ff.
63. Cf. Instituto
Generalis Missalis Romani, 7-8: Missale Romanum ed. cit., p. 29.
64. 1 Cor. 11:28.
65. Pontificale
Romanum. De Ordinatione Diaconi, Presbyteri et Episcopi, ed. typica, l9ff8, p.
93.
66. Heb. 5:1.
67. Sacred Congregation of Rites, Instruction
Eucharisticum Mysterium: AAS 59 (1967), pp. 539-573; Rituale Romanum. De sacra
communione et de cultu Mysterii eucharistici extra Missam, ed. typica, 1973;
Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship, Litterae circulares ad Conferentiarum
Episcopalium Praesides de precibus eucharisticis: AAS 65 (1973), pp. 340-347.
68. Nos. 38-63:
AAS 59 (1967), pp. 586-592.
69. AAS 64 (1972), pp. 518-525. cf. also the
Communication published the following year for the correct application of the
above-mentioned Instruction: AAS 65 (1973), pp. 616-619.
70. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church Lumen gentium, 12: AAS 57 (1965), pp.16f.
71. Mt.
13:52.
72. Cf. St. Augustine, In Evangelium Ioannis tract.
26, 13: PL 35 1612f.
73. Eph. 4:30.