POST-SYNODAL
APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION
SACRAMENTUM
CARITATIS
OF THE HOLY FATHER
BENEDICT
XVI
TO THE BISHOPS, CLERGY,
CONSECRATED PERSONS
AND THE LAY FAITHFUL
ON THE EUCHARIST
AS THE SOURCE AND SUMMIT
OF THE CHURCH'S LIFE AND MISSION
1. The sacrament of charity (1), the Holy
Eucharist is the gift that Jesus Christ makes of himself, thus revealing to us
God's infinite love for every man and woman. This wondrous sacrament makes
manifest that "greater" love which led him to "lay down his life
for his friends" (Jn 15:13). Jesus did indeed love them "to
the end" (Jn 13:1). In those words the Evangelist introduces
Christ's act of immense humility: before dying for us on the Cross, he tied a
towel around himself and washed the feet of his disciples. In the same way,
Jesus continues, in the sacrament of the Eucharist, to love us "to the
end," even to offering us his body and his blood. What amazement must the
Apostles have felt in witnessing what the Lord did and said during that Supper!
What wonder must the eucharistic mystery also awaken in our own hearts!
The food of truth
2. In the sacrament of the altar, the Lord
meets us, men and women created in God's image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:27),
and becomes our companion along the way. In this sacrament, the Lord truly
becomes food for us, to satisfy our hunger for truth and freedom. Since only
the truth can make us free (cf. Jn 8:32), Christ becomes for us the food
of truth. With deep human insight, Saint Augustine clearly showed how we are
moved spontaneously, and not by constraint, whenever we encounter something
attractive and desirable. Asking himself what it is that can move us most
deeply, the saintly Bishop went on to say: "What does our soul desire more
passionately than truth?" (2) Each of us has an innate and irrepressible
desire for ultimate and definitive truth. The Lord Jesus, "the way, and
the truth, and the life" (Jn 14:6), speaks to our thirsting,
pilgrim hearts, our hearts yearning for the source of life, our hearts longing
for truth. Jesus Christ is the Truth in person, drawing the world to himself.
"Jesus is the lodestar of human freedom: without him, freedom loses its
focus, for without the knowledge of truth, freedom becomes debased, alienated
and reduced to empty caprice. With him, freedom finds itself." (3) In the
sacrament of the Eucharist, Jesus shows us in particular the truth about the
love which is the very essence of God. It is this evangelical truth which
challenges each of us and our whole being. For this reason, the Church, which
finds in the Eucharist the very centre of her life, is constantly concerned to
proclaim to all, opportune importune (cf. 2 Tim 4:2), that God is
love.(4) Precisely because Christ has become for us the food of truth, the
Church turns to every man and woman, inviting them freely to accept God's gift.
The development of the eucharistic rite
3. If we consider the bimillenary history of
God's Church, guided by the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, we can gratefully admire
the orderly development of the ritual forms in which we commemorate the event
of our salvation. From the varied forms of the early centuries, still
resplendent in the rites of the Ancient Churches of the East, up to the spread
of the Roman rite; from the clear indications of the Council of Trent and the Missal
of Saint Pius V to the liturgical renewal called for by the Second Vatican
Council: in every age of the Church's history the eucharistic celebration, as
the source and summit of her life and mission, shines forth in the liturgical
rite in all its richness and variety. The Eleventh Ordinary
General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, held from 2-23 October 2005 in the Vatican,
gratefully acknowledged the guidance of the Holy Spirit in this rich history.
In a particular way, the Synod Fathers acknowledged and reaffirmed the
beneficial influence on the Church's life of the liturgical renewal which began
with the Second Vatican
Ecumenical Council
(5). The Synod of Bishops was able to evaluate the reception of the renewal in
the years following the Council. There were many expressions of appreciation. The
difficulties and even the occasional abuses which were noted, it was affirmed,
cannot overshadow the benefits and the validity of the liturgical renewal,
whose riches are yet to be fully explored. Concretely, the changes which the
Council called for need to be understood within the overall unity of the
historical development of the rite itself, without the introduction of
artificial discontinuities.(6)
The Synod of Bishops and the Year of the
Eucharist
4. We should also emphasize the relationship
between the recent Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist and the events which have
taken place in the Church's life in recent years. First of all, we should
recall the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, with which my beloved Predecessor,
the Servant of God John Paul II, led the Church into the third Christian
millennium. The Jubilee Year clearly had a significant eucharistic dimension.
Nor can we forget that the Synod of Bishops was preceded, and in some sense
prepared for, by the Year of the
Eucharist which
John Paul II had, with great foresight, wanted the whole Church to celebrate.
That year, which began with the International
Eucharistic Congress in Guadalajara in October 2004, ended on 23 October 2005, at the conclusion of the XI
Synodal Assembly, with the canonization of five saints particularly
distinguished for their eucharistic piety: Bishop Józef Bilczewski, Fathers
Gaetano Catanoso, Zygmunt Gorazdowski and Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga, and the
Capuchin Fra Felice da Nicosia. Thanks to the teachings proposed by John Paul
II in the Apostolic Letter Mane Nobiscum
Domine (7) and
to the helpful suggestions of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the
Discipline of the Sacraments,(8) many initiatives were undertaken by Dioceses
and various ecclesial groups in order to reawaken and increase eucharistic
faith, to improve the quality of eucharistic celebration, to promote
eucharistic adoration and to encourage a practical solidarity which, starting
from the Eucharist, would reach out to those in need. Finally, mention should be
made of the significance of my venerable Predecessor's last Encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia (9), in which he left us a sure
magisterial statement of the Church's teaching on the Eucharist and a final
testimony of the central place that this divine sacrament had in his own life.
The purpose of this Exhortation
5. This Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation
seeks to take up the richness and variety of the reflections and proposals
which emerged from the recent Ordinary General
Assembly of the Synod of Bishops – from the Lineamenta to the Propositiones, along
the way of the Instrumentum Laboris, the Relationes ante and
post disceptationem, the interventions of the Synod Fathers, the auditores
and the fraternal delegates – and to offer some basic directions aimed at a
renewed commitment to eucharistic enthusiasm and fervour in the Church. Conscious
of the immense patrimony of doctrine and discipline accumulated over the
centuries with regard to this sacrament,(10) I wish here to endorse the wishes
expressed by the Synod Fathers (11) by encouraging the Christian people to
deepen their understanding of the relationship between the eucharistic
mystery, the liturgical action, and the new spiritual worship
which derives from the Eucharist as the sacrament of charity.
Consequently, I wish to set the present Exhortation alongside my first
Encyclical Letter, Deus Caritas Est, in which I frequently mentioned the
sacrament of the Eucharist and stressed its relationship to Christian love,
both of God and of neighbour: "God incarnate draws us all to himself. We
can thus understand how agape also became a term for the Eucharist:
there God's own agape comes to us bodily, in order to continue his work
in us and through us" (12).
THE EUCHARIST, A MYSTERY
TO BE BELIEVED
"This is the work of God: that you believe
in him whom he has sent" (Jn 6:29)
The Church's eucharistic faith
6. "The mystery of faith!" With
these words, spoken immediately after the words of consecration, the priest
proclaims the mystery being celebrated and expresses his wonder before the
substantial change of bread and wine into the body and blood of the Lord Jesus,
a reality which surpasses all human understanding. The Eucharist is a
"mystery of faith" par excellence: "the sum and summary of our
faith." (13) The Church's faith is essentially a eucharistic faith, and it
is especially nourished at the table of the Eucharist. Faith and the sacraments
are two complementary aspects of ecclesial life. Awakened by the preaching of
God's word, faith is nourished and grows in the grace-filled encounter with the
Risen Lord which takes place in the sacraments: "faith is expressed in the
rite, while the rite reinforces and strengthens faith." (14) For this
reason, the Sacrament of the Altar is always at the heart of the Church's life:
"thanks to the Eucharist, the Church is reborn ever anew!" (15) The more
lively the eucharistic faith of the People of God, the deeper is its sharing in
ecclesial life in steadfast commitment to the mission entrusted by Christ to
his disciples. The Church's very history bears witness to this. Every great
reform has in some way been linked to the rediscovery of belief in the Lord's
eucharistic presence among his people.
The Blessed Trinity and the Eucharist
The bread come down from heaven
7. The first element of eucharistic faith is
the mystery of God himself, trinitarian love. In Jesus' dialogue with
Nicodemus, we find an illuminating expression in this regard: "God so
loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should
not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn
the world, but that the world might be saved through him" (Jn 3:16-17).
These words show the deepest source of God's gift. In the Eucharist Jesus does
not give us a "thing," but himself; he offers his own body and pours
out his own blood. He thus gives us the totality of his life and reveals the
ultimate origin of this love. He is the eternal Son, given to us by the Father.
In the Gospel we hear how Jesus, after feeding the crowds by multiplying the
loaves and fishes, says to those who had followed him to the synagogue of
Capernaum: "My Father gives you the true bread from heaven; for the bread
of God is he who comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world" (Jn
6:32-33), and even identifies himself, his own flesh and blood, with that
bread: "I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats
of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the
life of the world is my flesh" (Jn 6:51). Jesus thus shows that he
is the bread of life which the eternal Father gives to mankind.
A free gift of the Blessed Trinity
8. The Eucharist reveals the loving plan that
guides all of salvation history (cf. Eph 1:10; 3:8- 11). There the
Deus Trinitas, who is essentially love (cf. 1 Jn 4:7-8), becomes
fully a part of our human condition. In the bread and wine under whose
appearances Christ gives himself to us in the paschal meal (cf. Lk
22:14-20; 1 Cor 11:23-26), God's whole life encounters us and is
sacramentally shared with us. God is a perfect communion of love between
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. At creation itself, man was called to have some
share in God's breath of life (cf. Gen 2:7). But it is in Christ, dead
and risen, and in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, given without measure (cf.
Jn 3:34), that we have become sharers of God's inmost life. (16) Jesus
Christ, who "through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to
God" (Heb 9:14), makes us, in the gift of the Eucharist, sharers in
God's own life. This is an absolutely free gift, the superabundant fulfilment
of God's promises. The Church receives, celebrates and adores this gift in
faithful obedience. The "mystery of faith" is thus a mystery of
trinitarian love, a mystery in which we are called by grace to participate. We
too should therefore exclaim with Saint Augustine: "If you see love, you
see the Trinity." (17)
The Eucharist: Jesus the true Sacrificial lamb
The new and eternal covenant in the blood of
the Lamb
9. The mission for which Jesus came among us
was accomplished in the Paschal Mystery. On the Cross from which he draws all
people to himself (cf. Jn 12:32), just before "giving up the
Spirit," he utters the words: "it is finished" (Jn
19:30). In the mystery of Christ's obedience unto death, even death on a Cross
(cf. Phil 2:8), the new and eternal covenant was brought about. In his
crucified flesh, God's freedom and our human freedom met definitively in an
inviolable, eternally valid pact. Human sin was also redeemed once for all by
God's Son (cf. Heb 7:27; 1 Jn 2:2; 4:10). As I have said
elsewhere, "Christ's death on the Cross is the culmination of that turning
of God against himself in which he gives himself in order to raise man up and
save him. This is love in its most radical form." (18) In the Paschal
Mystery, our deliverance from evil and death has taken place. In instituting
the Eucharist, Jesus had spoken of the "new and eternal covenant" in
the shedding of his blood (cf. Mt 26:28; Mk 14:24; Lk 22:20).
This, the ultimate purpose of his mission, was clear from the very beginning of
his public life. Indeed, when, on the banks of the Jordan, John the Baptist saw
Jesus coming towards him, he cried out: "Behold, the Lamb of God, who
takes away the sin of the world" (Jn 1:29). It is significant that
these same words are repeated at every celebration of Holy Mass, when the
priest invites us to approach the altar: "This is the Lamb of God
who takes away the sins of the world. Happy are those who are called to his
supper." Jesus is the true paschal lamb who freely gave himself in
sacrifice for us, and thus brought about the new and eternal covenant. The
Eucharist contains this radical newness, which is offered to us again at every
celebration. (19)
The institution of the Eucharist
10. This leads us to reflect on the institution
of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. It took place within a ritual meal
commemorating the foundational event of the people of Israel: their deliverance
from slavery in Egypt. This ritual meal, which called for the sacrifice of
lambs (cf. Ex 12:1-28, 43-51), was a remembrance of the past, but at the
same time a prophetic remembrance, the proclamation of a deliverance yet to
come. The people had come to realize that their earlier liberation was not
definitive, for their history continued to be marked by slavery and sin. The
remembrance of their ancient liberation thus expanded to the invocation and
expectation of a yet more profound, radical, universal and definitive
salvation. This is the context in which Jesus introduces the newness of his
gift. In the prayer of praise, the Berakah, he does not simply thank the
Father for the great events of past history, but also for his own
"exaltation." In instituting the sacrament of the Eucharist, Jesus
anticipates and makes present the sacrifice of the Cross and the victory of the
resurrection. At the same time, he reveals that he himself is the true sacrificial
lamb, destined in the Father's plan from the foundation of the world, as we
read in The First Letter of Peter (cf. 1:18-20). By placing his gift in
this context, Jesus shows the salvific meaning of his death and resurrection, a
mystery which renews history and the whole cosmos. The institution of the
Eucharist demonstrates how Jesus' death, for all its violence and absurdity,
became in him a supreme act of love and mankind's definitive deliverance from
evil.
Figura transit in veritatem
11. Jesus thus brings his own radical novum
to the ancient Hebrew sacrificial meal. For us Christians, that meal no longer
need be repeated. As the Church Fathers rightly say, figura transit in
veritatem: the foreshadowing has given way to the truth itself. The ancient
rite has been brought to fulfilment and definitively surpassed by the loving
gift of the incarnate Son of God. The food of truth, Christ sacrificed for our
sake, dat figuris terminum. (20) By his command to "do this in
remembrance of me" (Lk 22:19; 1 Cor 11:25), he asks us to
respond to his gift and to make it sacramentally present. In these words the
Lord expresses, as it were, his expectation that the Church, born of his
sacrifice, will receive this gift, developing under the guidance of the Holy
Spirit the liturgical form of the sacrament. The remembrance of his perfect
gift consists not in the mere repetition of the Last Supper, but in the
Eucharist itself, that is, in the radical newness of Christian worship. In this
way, Jesus left us the task of entering into his "hour." "The
Eucharist draws us into Jesus' act of self-oblation. More than just statically
receiving the incarnate Logos, we enter into the very dynamic of his
self-giving." (21) Jesus "draws us into himself." (22) The
substantial conversion of bread and wine into his body and blood introduces
within creation the principle of a radical change, a sort of "nuclear
fission," to use an image familiar to us today, which penetrates to the heart
of all being, a change meant to set off a process which transforms reality, a
process leading ultimately to the transfiguration of the entire world, to the
point where God will be all in all (cf. 1 Cor 15:28).
The Holy Spirit and the Eucharist
Jesus and the Holy Spirit
12. With his word and with the elements of
bread and wine, the Lord himself has given us the essentials of this new
worship. The Church, his Bride, is called to celebrate the eucharistic banquet
daily in his memory. She thus makes the redeeming sacrifice of her Bridegroom a
part of human history and makes it sacramentally present in every culture. This
great mystery is celebrated in the liturgical forms which the Church, guided by
the Holy Spirit, develops in time and space. (23) We need a renewed awareness
of the decisive role played by the Holy Spirit in the evolution of the
liturgical form and the deepening understanding of the sacred mysteries. The
Paraclete, Christ's first gift to those who believe, (24) already at work in
Creation (cf. Gen 1:2), is fully present throughout the life of the
incarnate Word: Jesus Christ is conceived by the Virgin Mary by the power of
the Holy Spirit (cf. Mt 1:18; Lk 1:35); at the beginning of his
public mission, on the banks of the Jordan, he sees the Spirit descend upon him
in the form of a dove (cf. Mt 3:16 and parallels); he acts, speaks and
rejoices in the Spirit (cf. Lk 10:21), and he can offer himself in the
Spirit (cf. Heb 9:14). In the so-called "farewell discourse"
reported by John, Jesus clearly relates the gift of his life in the paschal
mystery to the gift of the Spirit to his own (cf. Jn 16:7). Once risen,
bearing in his flesh the signs of the passion, he can pour out the Spirit upon
them (cf. Jn 20:22), making them sharers in his own mission (cf. Jn
20:21). The Spirit would then teach the disciples all things and bring to their
remembrance all that Christ had said (cf. Jn 14:26), since it falls to
him, as the Spirit of truth (cf. Jn 15:26), to guide the disciples into
all truth (cf. Jn 16:13). In the account in Acts, the Spirit
descends on the Apostles gathered in prayer with Mary on the day of Pentecost
(cf. 2:1-4) and stirs them to undertake the mission of proclaiming the Good
News to all peoples. Thus it is through the working of the Spirit that Christ
himself continues to be present and active in his Church, starting with her
vital centre which is the Eucharist.
The Holy Spirit and the eucharistic celebration
13. Against this backdrop we can understand the
decisive role played by the Holy Spirit in the eucharistic celebration,
particularly with regard to transubstantiation. An awareness of this is clearly
evident in the Fathers of the Church. Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, in his
Catecheses, states that we "call upon God in his mercy to send his Holy
Spirit upon the offerings before us, to transform the bread into the body of
Christ and the wine into the blood of Christ. Whatever the Holy Spirit touches
is sanctified and completely transformed" (25). Saint John Chrysostom too
notes that the priest invokes the Holy Spirit when he celebrates the sacrifice:
(26) like Elijah, the minister calls down the Holy Spirit so that "as
grace comes down upon the victim, the souls of all are thereby inflamed"
(27). The spiritual life of the faithful can benefit greatly from a better
appreciation of the richness of the anaphora: along with the words spoken by
Christ at the Last Supper, it contains the epiclesis, the petition to the
Father to send down the gift of the Spirit so that the bread and the wine will
become the body and blood of Jesus Christ and that "the community as a
whole will become ever more the body of Christ" (28). The Spirit invoked
by the celebrant upon the gifts of bread and wine placed on the altar is the
same Spirit who gathers the faithful "into one body" and makes of
them a spiritual offering pleasing to the Father (29).
The Eucharist, causal principle of the Church
14. Through the sacrament of the Eucharist
Jesus draws the faithful into his "hour;" he shows us the bond that
he willed to establish between himself and us, between his own person and the
Church. Indeed, in the sacrifice of the Cross, Christ gave birth to the Church
as his Bride and his body. The Fathers of the Church often meditated on the
relationship between Eve's coming forth from the side of Adam as he slept (cf. Gen
2:21-23) and the coming forth of the new Eve, the Church, from the open side of
Christ sleeping in death: from Christ's pierced side, John recounts, there came
forth blood and water (cf. Jn 19:34), the symbol of the sacraments (30).
A contemplative gaze "upon him whom they have pierced" (Jn 19:37)
leads us to reflect on the causal connection between Christ's sacrifice, the
Eucharist and the Church. The Church "draws her life from the Eucharist"
(31). Since the Eucharist makes present Christ's redeeming sacrifice, we must
start by acknowledging that "there is a causal influence of the Eucharist
at the Church's very origins" (32). The Eucharist is Christ who gives
himself to us and continually builds us up as his body. Hence, in the striking
interplay between the Eucharist which builds up the Church, and the Church
herself which "makes" the Eucharist (33), the primary causality is
expressed in the first formula: the Church is able to celebrate and adore the
mystery of Christ present in the Eucharist precisely because Christ first gave
himself to her in the sacrifice of the Cross. The Church's ability to
"make" the Eucharist is completely rooted in Christ's self-gift to
her. Here we can see more clearly the meaning of Saint John's words: "he
first loved us" (1 Jn 4:19). We too, at every celebration of the
Eucharist, confess the primacy of Christ's gift. The causal influence of the
Eucharist at the Church's origins definitively discloses both the chronological
and ontological priority of the fact that it was Christ who loved us
"first." For all eternity he remains the one who loves us first.
The Eucharist and ecclesial communion
15. The Eucharist is thus constitutive of the
Church's being and activity. This is why Christian antiquity used the same
words, Corpus Christi, to designate Christ's body born of the Virgin
Mary, his eucharistic body and his ecclesial body.(34) This clear datum of the
tradition helps us to appreciate the inseparability of Christ and the Church.
The Lord Jesus, by offering himself in sacrifice for us, in his gift
effectively pointed to the mystery of the Church. It is significant that the
Second Eucharistic Prayer, invoking the Paraclete, formulates its prayer for
the unity of the Church as follows: "may all of us who share in the
body and blood of Christ be brought together in unity by the Holy Spirit."
These words help us to see clearly how the res of the sacrament of the
Eucharist is the unity of the faithful within ecclesial communion. The
Eucharist is thus found at the root of the Church as a mystery of communion
(35).
The relationship between Eucharist and communio
had already been pointed out by the Servant of God John Paul II in his
Encyclical Ecclesia de
Eucharistia. He
spoke of the memorial of Christ as "the supreme sacramental manifestation
of communion in the Church" (36). The unity of ecclesial communion is
concretely manifested in the Christian communities and is renewed at the
celebration of the Eucharist, which unites them and differentiates them in the
particular Churches, "in quibus et ex quibus una et unica Ecclesia
catholica exsistit" (37). The fact that the one Eucharist is
celebrated in each Diocese around its own Bishop helps us to see how those
particular Churches subsist in and ex Ecclesia. Indeed, "the
oneness and indivisibility of the eucharistic body of the Lord implies the
oneness of his mystical body, which is the one and indivisible Church. From the
eucharistic centre arises the necessary openness of every celebrating
community, of every particular Church. By allowing itself to be drawn into the
open arms of the Lord, it achieves insertion into his one and undivided
body." (38) Consequently, in the celebration of the Eucharist, the
individual members of the faithful find themselves in their Church, that
is, in the Church of Christ. From this eucharistic perspective, adequately
understood, ecclesial communion is seen to be catholic by its very nature (39).
An emphasis on this eucharistic basis of ecclesial communion can also
contribute greatly to the ecumenical dialogue with the Churches and Ecclesial
Communities which are not in full communion with the See of Peter. The
Eucharist objectively creates a powerful bond of unity between the Catholic
Church and the Orthodox Churches, which have preserved the authentic and
integral nature of the eucharistic mystery. At the same time, emphasis on the
ecclesial character of the Eucharist can become an important element of the
dialogue with the Communities of the Reformed tradition (40).
The Eucharist and the Sacraments
The sacramentality of the Church
16. The Second Vatican Council recalled that
"all the sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of
the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are directed towards it.
For in the most blessed Eucharist is contained the entire spiritual wealth of
the Church, namely Christ himself our Pasch and our living bread, who gives
life to humanity through his flesh – that flesh which is given life and gives
life by the Holy Spirit. Thus men and women are invited and led to offer
themselves, their works and all creation in union with Christ." (41) This
close relationship of the Eucharist with the other sacraments and the Christian
life can be most fully understood when we contemplate the mystery of the Church
herself as a sacrament. (42) The Council in this regard stated that "the
Church, in Christ, is a sacrament – a sign and instrument – of communion with
God and of the unity of the entire human race." (43) To quote Saint
Cyprian, as "a people made one by the unity of the Father, the Son and the
Holy Spirit," (44) she is the sacrament of trinitarian communion.
The fact that the Church is the "universal
sacrament of salvation" (45) shows how the sacramental economy ultimately
determines the way that Christ, the one Saviour, through the Spirit, reaches
our lives in all their particularity. The Church receives and at the
same time expresses what she herself is in the seven sacraments, thanks
to which God's grace concretely influences the lives of the faithful, so that
their whole existence, redeemed by Christ, can become an act of worship
pleasing to God. From this perspective, I would like here to draw attention to
some elements brought up by the Synod Fathers which may help us to grasp the
relationship of each of the sacraments to the eucharistic mystery.
I. The Eucharist and Christian initiation
The Eucharist, the fullness of Christian
initiation
17. If the Eucharist is truly the source and
summit of the Church's life and mission, it follows that the process of
Christian initiation must constantly be directed to the reception of this
sacrament. As the Synod Fathers said, we need to ask ourselves whether in our
Christian communities the close link between Baptism, Confirmation and
Eucharist is sufficiently recognized. (46) It must never be forgotten that our
reception of Baptism and Confirmation is ordered to the Eucharist. Accordingly,
our pastoral practice should reflect a more unitary understanding of the
process of Christian initiation. The sacrament of Baptism, by which we were
conformed to Christ,(47) incorporated in the Church and made children of God,
is the portal to all the sacraments. It makes us part of the one Body of Christ
(cf. 1 Cor 12:13), a priestly people. Still, it is our participation in
the Eucharistic sacrifice which perfects within us the gifts given to us at
Baptism. The gifts of the Spirit are given for the building up of Christ's Body
(1 Cor 12) and for ever greater witness to the Gospel in the world. (48)
The Holy Eucharist, then, brings Christian initiation to completion and
represents the centre and goal of all sacramental life. (49)
The order of the sacraments of initiation
18. In this regard, attention needs to be paid
to the order of the sacraments of initiation. Different traditions exist within
the Church. There is a clear variation between, on the one hand, the ecclesial
customs of the East (50) and the practice of the West regarding the initiation
of adults, (51) and, on the other hand, the procedure adopted for children.
(52) Yet these variations are not properly of the dogmatic order, but are
pastoral in character. Concretely, it needs to be seen which practice better
enables the faithful to put the sacrament of the Eucharist at the centre, as
the goal of the whole process of initiation. In close collaboration with the
competent offices of the Roman Curia, Bishops' Conferences should examine the
effectiveness of current approaches to Christian initiation, so that the
faithful can be helped both to mature through the formation received in our
communities and to give their lives an authentically eucharistic direction, so
that they can offer a reason for the hope within them in a way suited to our
times (cf. 1 Pet 3:15).
Initiation, the ecclesial community and the
family
19. It should be kept in mind that the whole of
Christian initiation is a process of conversion undertaken with God's help and
with constant reference to the ecclesial community, both when an adult is
seeking entry into the Church, as happens in places of first evangelization and
in many secularized regions, and when parents request the sacraments for their
children. In this regard, I would like to call particular attention to the
relationship between Christian initiation and the family. In pastoral work it
is always important to make Christian families part of the process of
initiation. Receiving Baptism, Confirmation and First Holy Communion are key moments
not only for the individual receiving them but also for the entire family,
which should be supported in its educational role by the various elements of
the ecclesial community. (53) Here I would emphasize the importance of First
Holy Communion. For many of the faithful, this day continues to be memorable as
the moment when, even if in a rudimentary way, they first came to understand
the importance of a personal encounter with Jesus. Parish pastoral programmes
should make the most of this highly significant moment.
II. The Eucharist and the Sacrament of
Reconciliation
Their intrinsic relationship
20. The Synod Fathers rightly stated that a
love for the Eucharist leads to a growing appreciation of the sacrament of
Reconciliation. (54) Given the connection between these sacraments, an
authentic catechesis on the meaning of the Eucharist must include the call to
pursue the path of penance (cf. 1 Cor 11:27-29). We know that the
faithful are surrounded by a culture that tends to eliminate the sense of sin
(55) and to promote a superficial approach that overlooks the need to be in a
state of grace in order to approach sacramental communion worthily. (56) The
loss of a consciousness of sin always entails a certain superficiality in the
understanding of God's love. Bringing out the elements within the rite of Mass
that express consciousness of personal sin and, at the same time, of God's
mercy, can prove most helpful to the faithful.(57) Furthermore, the
relationship between the Eucharist and the sacrament of Reconciliation reminds
us that sin is never a purely individual affair; it always damages the
ecclesial communion that we have entered through Baptism. For this reason,
Reconciliation, as the Fathers of the Church would say, is laboriosus quidam
baptismus; (58) they thus emphasized that the outcome of the process of
conversion is also the restoration of full ecclesial communion, expressed in a
return to the Eucharist. (59)
Some pastoral concerns
21. The Synod recalled that Bishops have the
pastoral duty of promoting within their Dioceses a reinvigorated catechesis on
the conversion born of the Eucharist, and of encouraging frequent confession
among the faithful. All priests should dedicate themselves with generosity,
commitment and competency to administering the sacrament of Reconciliation.
(60) In this regard, it is important that the confessionals in our churches
should be clearly visible expressions of the importance of this sacrament. I
ask pastors to be vigilant with regard to the celebration of the sacrament of
Reconciliation, and to limit the practice of general absolution exclusively to
the cases permitted, (61) since individual absolution is the only form intended
for ordinary use. (62) Given the need to rediscover sacramental forgiveness,
there ought to be a Penitentiary in every Diocese. (63) Finally, a
balanced and sound practice of gaining indulgences, whether for oneself
or for the dead, can be helpful for a renewed appreciation of the relationship
between the Eucharist and Reconciliation. By this means the faithful obtain
"remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt
has already been forgiven." (64) The use of indulgences helps us to
understand that by our efforts alone we would be incapable of making reparation
for the wrong we have done, and that the sins of each individual harm the whole
community. Furthermore, the practice of indulgences, which involves not only
the doctrine of Christ's infinite merits, but also that of the communion of the
saints, reminds us "how closely we are united to each other in Christ ...
and how the supernatural life of each can help others." (65) Since the
conditions for gaining an indulgence include going to confession and receiving
sacramental communion, this practice can effectively sustain the faithful on
their journey of conversion and in rediscovering the centrality of the
Eucharist in the Christian life.
III. The Eucharist and the Anointing of the
sick
22. Jesus did not only send his disciples forth
to heal the sick (cf. Mt 10:8; Lk 9:2, 10:9); he also instituted
a specific sacrament for them: the Anointing of the Sick.(66) The Letter of
James attests to the presence of this sacramental sign in the early
Christian community (cf. 5:14-16). If the Eucharist shows how Christ's
sufferings and death have been transformed into love, the Anointing of the
Sick, for its part, unites the sick with Christ's self-offering for the
salvation of all, so that they too, within the mystery of the communion of
saints, can participate in the redemption of the world. The relationship
between these two sacraments becomes clear in situations of serious illness:
"In addition to the Anointing of the Sick, the Church offers those who are
about to leave this life the Eucharist as viaticum." (67) On their journey
to the Father, communion in the Body and Blood of Christ appears as the seed of
eternal life and the power of resurrection: "Anyone who eats my flesh and
drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day"
(Jn 6:54). Since viaticum gives the sick a glimpse of the fullness of
the Paschal Mystery, its administration should be readily provided for. (68)
Attentive pastoral care shown to those who are ill brings great spiritual
benefit to the entire community, since whatever we do to one of the least of
our brothers and sisters, we do to Jesus himself (cf. Mt 25:40).
IV. The Eucharist and the Sacrament of Holy
Orders
In persona Christi capitis
23. The intrinsic relationship between the
Eucharist and the sacrament of Holy Orders clearly emerges from Jesus' own
words in the Upper Room: "Do this in memory of me" (Lk 22:19).
On the night before he died, Jesus instituted the Eucharist and at the same
time established the priesthood of the New Covenant. He is priest,
victim and altar: the mediator between God the Father and his people (cf. Heb
5:5-10), the victim of atonement (cf. 1 Jn 2:2, 4:10) who offers himself
on the altar of the Cross. No one can say "this is my body" and
"this is the cup of my blood" except in the name and in the person of
Christ, the one high priest of the new and eternal Covenant (cf. Heb 8-9).
Earlier meetings of the Synod of Bishops had considered the question of the
ordained priesthood, both with regard to the nature of the ministry (69) and
the formation of candidates.(70) Here, in the light of the discussion that took
place during the last Synod, I consider it important to recall several
important points about the relationship between the sacrament of the Eucharist
and Holy Orders. First of all, we need to stress once again that the connection
between Holy Orders and the Eucharist is seen most clearly at Mass, when
the Bishop or priest presides in the person of Christ the Head.
The Church teaches that priestly ordination is
the indispensable condition for the valid celebration of the Eucharist.(71)
Indeed, "in the ecclesial service of the ordained minister, it is Christ
himself who is present to his Church as Head of his Body, Shepherd of his
flock, High Priest of the redemptive sacrifice." (72) Certainly the
ordained minister also acts "in the name of the whole Church, when
presenting to God the prayer of the Church, and above all when offering the
eucharistic sacrifice." (73) As a result, priests should be conscious of
the fact that in their ministry they must never put themselves or their
personal opinions in first place, but Jesus Christ. Any attempt to make
themselves the centre of the liturgical action contradicts their very identity
as priests. The priest is above all a servant of others, and he must
continually work at being a sign pointing to Christ, a docile instrument in the
Lord's hands. This is seen particularly in his humility in leading the
liturgical assembly, in obedience to the rite, uniting himself to it in mind
and heart, and avoiding anything that might give the impression of an
inordinate emphasis on his own personality. I encourage the clergy always to
see their eucharistic ministry as a humble service offered to Christ and his
Church. The priesthood, as Saint Augustine said, is amoris officium,
(74) it is the office of the good shepherd, who offers his life for his sheep
(cf. Jn 10:14-15).
The Eucharist and priestly celibacy
24. The Synod Fathers wished to emphasize that
the ministerial priesthood, through ordination, calls for complete
configuration to Christ. While respecting the different practice and tradition
of the Eastern Churches, there is a need to reaffirm the profound meaning of
priestly celibacy, which is rightly considered a priceless treasure, and is
also confirmed by the Eastern practice of choosing Bishops only from the ranks
of the celibate. These Churches also greatly esteem the decision of many
priests to embrace celibacy. This choice on the part of the priest expresses in
a special way the dedication which conforms him to Christ and his exclusive
offering of himself for the Kingdom of God. (75) The fact that Christ himself,
the eternal priest, lived his mission even to the sacrifice of the Cross in the
state of virginity constitutes the sure point of reference for understanding
the meaning of the tradition of the Latin Church. It is not sufficient to
understand priestly celibacy in purely functional terms. Celibacy is really a
special way of conforming oneself to Christ's own way of life. This choice has
first and foremost a nuptial meaning; it is a profound identification with the
heart of Christ the Bridegroom who gives his life for his Bride. In continuity
with the great ecclesial tradition, with the Second Vatican
Council (76) and
with my predecessors in the papacy, (77) I reaffirm the beauty and the
importance of a priestly life lived in celibacy as a sign expressing total and
exclusive devotion to Christ, to the Church and to the Kingdom of God, and I therefore
confirm that it remains obligatory in the Latin tradition. Priestly celibacy
lived with maturity, joy and dedication is an immense blessing for the Church
and for society itself.
The clergy shortage and the pastoral care of
vocations
25. In the light of the connection between the
sacrament of Holy Orders and the Eucharist, the Synod considered the difficult
situation that has arisen in various Dioceses which face a shortage of priests.
This happens not only in some areas of first evangelization, but also in many
countries of long-standing Christian tradition. Certainly a more equitable
distribution of clergy would help to solve the problem. Efforts need to be made
to encourage a greater awareness of this situation at every level. Bishops
should involve Institutes of Consecrated Life and the new ecclesial groups in
their pastoral needs, while respecting their particular charisms, and they
should invite the clergy to become more open to serving the Church wherever
there is need, even if this calls for sacrifice. (78) The Synod also discussed
pastoral initiatives aimed at promoting, especially among the young, an
attitude of interior openness to a priestly calling. The situation cannot be
resolved by purely practical decisions. On no account should Bishops react to
real and understandable concerns about the shortage of priests by failing to
carry out adequate vocational discernment, or by admitting to seminary
formation and ordination candidates who lack the necessary qualities for
priestly ministry (79). An insufficiently formed clergy, admitted to ordination
without the necessary discernment, will not easily be able to offer a witness
capable of evoking in others the desire to respond generously to Christ's call.
The pastoral care of vocations needs to involve the entire Christian community
in every area of its life. (80) Obviously, this pastoral work on all levels
also includes exploring the matter with families, which are often indifferent
or even opposed to the idea of a priestly vocation. Families should generously
embrace the gift of life and bring up their children to be open to doing God's
will. In a word, they must have the courage to set before young people the
radical decision to follow Christ, showing them how deeply rewarding it is.
Gratitude and hope
26. Finally, we need to have ever greater faith
and hope in God's providence. Even if there is a shortage of priests in some
areas, we must never lose confidence that Christ continues to inspire men to
leave everything behind and to dedicate themselves totally to celebrating the
sacred mysteries, preaching the Gospel and ministering to the flock. In this
regard, I wish to express the gratitude of the whole Church for all those
Bishops and priests who carry out their respective missions with fidelity,
devotion and zeal. Naturally, the Church's gratitude also goes to deacons, who
receive the laying on of hands "not for priesthood but for service."
(81) As the Synod Assembly recommended, I offer a special word of thanks to
those Fidei Donum priests who work faithfully and generously at building
up the community by proclaiming the word of God and breaking the Bread of Life,
devoting all their energy to serving the mission of the Church. (82) Let us
thank God for all those priests who have suffered even to the sacrifice of
their lives in order to serve Christ. The eloquence of their example shows what
it means to be a priest to the end. Theirs is a moving witness that can inspire
many young people to follow Christ and to expend their lives for others, and thus
to discover true life.
V. The Eucharist and Matrimony
The Eucharist, a nuptial sacrament
27. The Eucharist, as the sacrament of charity,
has a particular relationship with the love of man and woman united in
marriage. A deeper understanding of this relationship is needed at the present
time. (83) Pope John Paul II frequently spoke of the nuptial character of the
Eucharist and its special relationship with the sacrament of Matrimony:
"The Eucharist is the sacrament of our redemption. It is the sacrament of
the Bridegroom and of the Bride." (84) Moreover, "the entire
Christian life bears the mark of the spousal love of Christ and the Church.
Already Baptism, the entry into the People of God, is a nuptial mystery; it is
so to speak the nuptial bath which precedes the wedding feast, the
Eucharist." (85) The Eucharist inexhaustibly strengthens the indissoluble
unity and love of every Christian marriage. By the power of the sacrament, the
marriage bond is intrinsically linked to the eucharistic unity of Christ the
Bridegroom and his Bride, the Church (cf. Eph 5:31-32). The mutual
consent that husband and wife exchange in Christ, which establishes them as a
community of life and love, also has a eucharistic dimension. Indeed, in the
theology of Saint Paul, conjugal love is a sacramental sign of Christ's love
for his Church, a love culminating in the Cross, the expression of his
"marriage" with humanity and at the same time the origin and heart of
the Eucharist. For this reason the Church manifests her particular spiritual
closeness to all those who have built their family on the sacrament of
Matrimony. (86) The family – the domestic Church (87) – is a primary sphere of
the Church's life, especially because of its decisive role in the Christian
education of children. (88) In this context, the Synod also called for an
acknowledgment of the unique mission of women in the family and in society, a
mission that needs to be defended, protected and promoted. (89) Marriage and
motherhood represent essential realities which must never be denigrated.
The Eucharist and the unicity of marriage
28. In the light of this intrinsic relationship
between marriage, the family and the Eucharist, we can turn to several pastoral
problems. The indissoluble, exclusive and faithful bond uniting Christ and the
Church, which finds sacramental expression in the Eucharist, corresponds to the
basic anthropological fact that man is meant to be definitively united to one
woman and vice versa (cf. Gen 2:24, Mt 19:5). With this in mind,
the Synod of Bishops addressed the question of pastoral practice regarding
people who come to the Gospel from cultures in which polygamy is practised.
Those living in this situation who open themselves to Christian faith need to
be helped to integrate their life-plan into the radical newness of Christ.
During the catechumenate, Christ encounters them in their specific
circumstances and calls them to embrace the full truth of love, making whatever
sacrifices are necessary in order to arrive at perfect ecclesial communion. The
Church accompanies them with a pastoral care that is gentle yet firm, (90)
above all by showing them the light shed by the Christian mysteries on nature
and on human affections.
The Eucharist and the indissolubility of
marriage
29. If the Eucharist expresses the irrevocable
nature of God's love in Christ for his Church, we can then understand why it
implies, with regard to the sacrament of Matrimony, that indissolubility to
which all true love necessarily aspires. (91) There was good reason for the pastoral
attention that the Synod gave to the painful situations experienced by some of
the faithful who, having celebrated the sacrament of Matrimony, then divorced
and remarried. This represents a complex and troubling pastoral problem, a real
scourge for contemporary society, and one which increasingly affects the
Catholic community as well. The Church's pastors, out of love for the truth,
are obliged to discern different situations carefully, in order to be able to
offer appropriate spiritual guidance to the faithful involved.(92) The Synod of
Bishops confirmed the Church's practice, based on Sacred Scripture (cf. Mk
10:2- 12), of not admitting the divorced and remarried to the sacraments, since
their state and their condition of life objectively contradict the loving union
of Christ and the Church signified and made present in the Eucharist. Yet the
divorced and remarried continue to belong to the Church, which accompanies them
with special concern and encourages them to live as fully as possible the Christian
life through regular participation at Mass, albeit without receiving communion,
listening to the word of God, eucharistic adoration, prayer, participation in
the life of the community, honest dialogue with a priest or spiritual director,
dedication to the life of charity, works of penance, and commitment to the
education of their children.
When legitimate doubts exist about the validity
of the prior sacramental marriage, the necessary investigation must be carried
out to establish if these are well-founded. Consequently there is a need to
ensure, in full respect for canon law (93), the presence of local
ecclesiastical tribunals, their pastoral character, and their correct and
prompt functioning (94). Each Diocese should have a sufficient number of persons
with the necessary preparation, so that the ecclesiastical tribunals can
operate in an expeditious manner. I repeat that "it is a grave obligation
to bring the Church's institutional activity in her tribunals ever closer to
the faithful" (95). At the same time, pastoral care must not be understood
as if it were somehow in conflict with the law. Rather, one should begin by
assuming that the fundamental point of encounter between the law and pastoral
care is love for the truth: truth is never something purely abstract,
but "a real part of the human and Christian journey of every member of the
faithful" (96). Finally, where the nullity of the marriage bond is not
declared and objective circumstances make it impossible to cease cohabitation,
the Church encourages these members of the faithful to commit themselves to
living their relationship in fidelity to the demands of God's law, as friends,
as brother and sister; in this way they will be able to return to the table of
the Eucharist, taking care to observe the Church's established and approved
practice in this regard. This path, if it is to be possible and fruitful, must
be supported by pastors and by adequate ecclesial initiatives, nor can it ever
involve the blessing of these relations, lest confusion arise among the
faithful concerning the value of marriage (97).
Given the complex cultural context which the
Church today encounters in many countries, the Synod also recommended devoting
maximum pastoral attention to training couples preparing for marriage and to
ascertaining beforehand their convictions regarding the obligations required
for the validity of the sacrament of Matrimony. Serious discernment in this
matter will help to avoid situations where impulsive decisions or superficial
reasons lead two young people to take on responsibilities that they are then
incapable of honouring. (98) The good that the Church and society as a whole
expect from marriage and from the family founded upon marriage is so great as
to call for full pastoral commitment to this particular area. Marriage and the
family are institutions that must be promoted and defended from every possible
misrepresentation of their true nature, since whatever is injurious to them is
injurious to society itself.
The Eucharist: a gift to men and women on their
journey
30. If it is true that the sacraments are part
of the Church's pilgrimage through history (99) towards the full manifestation
of the victory of the risen Christ, it is also true that, especially in the
liturgy of the Eucharist, they give us a real foretaste of the eschatological
fulfilment for which every human being and all creation are destined (cf. Rom
8:19ff.). Man is created for that true and eternal happiness which only God's
love can give. But our wounded freedom would go astray were it not already able
to experience something of that future fulfilment. Moreover, to move forward in
the right direction, we all need to be guided towards our final goal. That goal
is Christ himself, the Lord who conquered sin and death, and who makes himself
present to us in a special way in the eucharistic celebration. Even though we
remain "aliens and exiles" in this world (1 Pet 2:11), through
faith we already share in the fullness of risen life. The eucharistic banquet, by
disclosing its powerful eschatological dimension, comes to the aid of our
freedom as we continue our journey.
The eschatological banquet
31. Reflecting on this mystery, we can say that
Jesus' coming responded to an expectation present in the people of Israel, in
the whole of humanity and ultimately in creation itself. By his self-gift, he
objectively inaugurated the eschatological age. Christ came to gather together
the scattered People of God (cf. Jn 11:52) and clearly manifested his
intention to gather together the community of the covenant, in order to bring
to fulfilment the promises made by God to the fathers of old (cf. Jer
23:3; Lk 1:55, 70). In the calling of the Twelve, which is to be
understood in relation to the twelve tribes of Israel, and in the command he
gave them at the Last Supper, before his redemptive passion, to celebrate his
memorial, Jesus showed that he wished to transfer to the entire community which
he had founded the task of being, within history, the sign and instrument of
the eschatological gathering that had its origin in him. Consequently, every
eucharistic celebration sacramentally accomplishes the eschatological gathering
of the People of God. For us, the eucharistic banquet is a real foretaste of
the final banquet foretold by the prophets (cf. Is 25:6-9) and described
in the New Testament as "the marriage-feast of the Lamb" (Rev
19:7-9), to be celebrated in the joy of the communion of saints (100).
Prayer for the dead
32. The eucharistic celebration, in which we
proclaim that Christ has died and risen, and will come again, is a pledge of
the future glory in which our bodies too will be glorified. Celebrating the
memorial of our salvation strengthens our hope in the resurrection of the body
and in the possibility of meeting once again, face to face, those who have gone
before us marked with the sign of faith. In this context, I wish, together with
the Synod Fathers, to remind all the faithful of the importance of prayers for
the dead, especially the offering of Mass for them, so that, once purified,
they can come to the beatific vision of God. (101) A rediscovery of the
eschatological dimension inherent in the Eucharist, celebrated and adored, will
help sustain us on our journey and comfort us in the hope of glory (cf. Rom 5:2;
Tit 2:13).
The Eucharist and the Virgin Mary
33. From the relationship between the Eucharist
and the individual sacraments, and from the eschatological significance of the
sacred mysteries, the overall shape of the Christian life emerges, a life
called at all times to be an act of spiritual worship, a self-offering pleasing
to God. Although we are all still journeying towards the complete fulfilment of
our hope, this does not mean that we cannot already gratefully acknowledge that
God's gifts to us have found their perfect fulfilment in the Virgin Mary,
Mother of God and our Mother. Mary's Assumption body and soul into heaven is
for us a sign of sure hope, for it shows us, on our pilgrimage through time,
the eschatological goal of which the sacrament of the Eucharist enables us even
now to have a foretaste.
In Mary most holy, we also see perfectly
fulfilled the "sacramental" way that God comes down to meet his
creatures and involves them in his saving work. From the Annunciation to
Pentecost, Mary of Nazareth appears as someone whose freedom is completely open
to God's will. Her immaculate conception is revealed precisely in her
unconditional docility to God's word. Obedient faith in response to God's work
shapes her life at every moment. A virgin attentive to God's word, she lives in
complete harmony with his will; she treasures in her heart the words that come
to her from God and, piecing them together like a mosaic, she learns to
understand them more deeply (cf. Lk 2:19, 51); Mary is the great
Believer who places herself confidently in God's hands, abandoning herself to
his will. (102) This mystery deepens as she becomes completely involved in the
redemptive mission of Jesus. In the words of the Second Vatican Council,
"the blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully
persevered in her union with her Son until she stood at the Cross, in keeping
with the divine plan (cf. Jn 19:25), suffering deeply with her
only-begotten Son, associating herself with his sacrifice in her mother's
heart, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of the victim who was born of
her. Finally, she was given by the same Christ Jesus, dying on the Cross, as a
mother to his disciple, with these words: ‘Woman, behold your Son."' (103)
From the Annunciation to the Cross, Mary is the one who received the Word, made
flesh within her and then silenced in death. It is she, lastly, who took into
her arms the lifeless body of the one who truly loved his own "to the
end" (Jn 13:1).
Consequently, every time we approach the Body
and Blood of Christ in the eucharistic liturgy, we also turn to her who, by her
complete fidelity, received Christ's sacrifice for the whole Church. The Synod
Fathers rightly declared that "Mary inaugurates the Church's participation
in the sacrifice of the Redeemer." (104) She is the Immaculata, who
receives God's gift unconditionally and is thus associated with his work of
salvation. Mary of Nazareth, icon of the nascent Church, is the model for each
of us, called to receive the gift that Jesus makes of himself in the Eucharist.
THE EUCHARIST, A MYSTERY
TO BE CELEBRATED
"Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not
Moses who gave you the bread from heaven;
my Father gives you the true bread from heaven" (Jn 6:32)
Lex orandi and lex credendi
34. The Synod of Bishops reflected at length on
the intrinsic relationship between eucharistic faith and eucharistic
celebration, pointing out the connection between the lex orandi and the
lex credendi, and stressing the primacy of the liturgical action.
The Eucharist should be experienced as a mystery of faith, celebrated
authentically and with a clear awareness that "the intellectus fidei
has a primordial relationship to the Church's liturgical action." (105)
Theological reflection in this area can never prescind from the sacramental
order instituted by Christ himself. On the other hand, the liturgical action
can never be considered generically, prescinding from the mystery of faith. Our
faith and the eucharistic liturgy both have their source in the same event: Christ's
gift of himself in the Paschal Mystery.
Beauty and the liturgy
35. This relationship between creed and worship
is evidenced in a particular way by the rich theological and liturgical
category of beauty. Like the rest of Christian Revelation, the liturgy is
inherently linked to beauty: it is veritatis splendor. The liturgy is a
radiant expression of the paschal mystery, in which Christ draws us to himself
and calls us to communion. As Saint Bonaventure would say, in Jesus we
contemplate beauty and splendour at their source. (106) This is no mere
aestheticism, but the concrete way in which the truth of God's love in Christ
encounters us, attracts us and delights us, enabling us to emerge from
ourselves and drawing us towards our true vocation, which is love. (107) God
allows himself to be glimpsed first in creation, in the beauty and harmony of
the cosmos (cf. Wis 13:5; Rom 1:19- 20). In the Old Testament we
see many signs of the grandeur of God's power as he manifests his glory in his
wondrous deeds among the Chosen People (cf. Ex 14; 16:10; 24:12-18; Num
14:20- 23). In the New Testament this epiphany of beauty reaches definitive
fulfilment in God's revelation in Jesus Christ: (108) Christ is the full
manifestation of the glory of God. In the glorification of the Son, the
Father's glory shines forth and is communicated (cf. Jn 1:14; 8:54;
12:28; 17:1). Yet this beauty is not simply a harmony of proportion and form;
"the fairest of the sons of men" (Ps 45[44]:3) is also,
mysteriously, the one "who had no form or comeliness that we should look
at him, and no beauty that we should desire him" (Is 53:2). Jesus
Christ shows us how the truth of love can transform even the dark mystery of
death into the radiant light of the resurrection. Here the splendour of God's
glory surpasses all worldly beauty. The truest beauty is the love of God, who
definitively revealed himself to us in the paschal mystery.
The beauty of the liturgy is part of this
mystery; it is a sublime expression of God's glory and, in a certain sense, a
glimpse of heaven on earth. The memorial of Jesus' redemptive sacrifice
contains something of that beauty which Peter, James and John beheld when the
Master, making his way to Jerusalem, was transfigured before their eyes (cf. Mk
9:2). Beauty, then, is not mere decoration, but rather an essential element of
the liturgical action, since it is an attribute of God himself and his
revelation. These considerations should make us realize the care which is
needed, if the liturgical action is to reflect its innate splendour.
The eucharistic celebration, the work of
"Christus Totus"
Christus totus in capite et in corpore
36. The "subject" of the liturgy's
intrinsic beauty is Christ himself, risen and glorified in the Holy Spirit, who
includes the Church in his work. (109) Here we can recall an evocative phrase
of Saint Augustine which strikingly describes this dynamic of faith proper to
the Eucharist. The great Bishop of Hippo, speaking specifically of the
eucharistic mystery, stresses the fact that Christ assimilates us to himself:
"The bread you see on the altar, sanctified by the word of God, is the
body of Christ. The chalice, or rather, what the chalice contains, sanctified
by the word of God, is the blood of Christ. In these signs, Christ the Lord
willed to entrust to us his body and the blood which he shed for the
forgiveness of our sins. If you have received them properly, you yourselves are
what you have received." (110) Consequently, "not only have we become
Christians, we have become Christ himself." (111) We can thus contemplate
God's mysterious work, which brings about a profound unity between ourselves
and the Lord Jesus: "one should not believe that Christ is in the head but
not in the body; rather he is complete in the head and in the body." (112)
The Eucharist and the risen Christ
37. Since the eucharistic liturgy is
essentially an actio Dei which draws us into Christ through the Holy
Spirit, its basic structure is not something within our power to change, nor
can it be held hostage by the latest trends. Here too Saint Paul's irrefutable
statement applies: "no one can lay any foundation other than the one that
has been laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Cor 3:11). Again it is the
Apostle of the Gentiles who assures us that, with regard to the Eucharist, he
is presenting not his own teaching but what he himself has received (cf. 1
Cor 11:23). The celebration of the Eucharist implies and involves the
living Tradition. The Church celebrates the eucharistic sacrifice in obedience
to Christ's command, based on her experience of the Risen Lord and the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit. For this reason, from the beginning, the
Christian community has gathered for the fractio panis on the Lord's
Day. Sunday, the day Christ rose from the dead, is also the first day of the
week, the day which the Old Testament tradition saw as the beginning of God's
work of creation. The day of creation has now become the day of the "new
creation," the day of our liberation, when we commemorate Christ who died
and rose again (113).
38. In the course of the Synod, there was
frequent insistence on the need to avoid any antithesis between the ars
celebrandi, the art of proper celebration, and the full, active and
fruitful participation of all the faithful. The primary way to foster the
participation of the People of God in the sacred rite is the proper celebration
of the rite itself. The ars celebrandi is the best way to ensure their actuosa
participatio. (114) The ars celebrandi is the fruit of faithful
adherence to the liturgical norms in all their richness; indeed, for two
thousand years this way of celebrating has sustained the faith life of all
believers, called to take part in the celebration as the People of God, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation (cf. 1 Pet 2:4-5, 9) (115).
The Bishop, celebrant par excellence
39. While it is true that the whole People of
God participates in the eucharistic liturgy, a correct ars celebrandi necessarily
entails a specific responsibility on the part of those who have received the
sacrament of Holy Orders. Bishops, priests, and deacons, each according to his
proper rank, must consider the celebration of the liturgy as their principal
duty (116). Above all, this is true of the Diocesan Bishop: as "the chief
steward of the mysteries of God in the particular Church entrusted to his care,
he is the moderator, promoter, and guardian of the whole of its liturgical
life" (117). This is essential for the life of the particular Church, not
only because communion with the Bishop is required for the lawfulness of every
celebration within his territory, but also because he himself is the celebrant
par excellence within his Diocese (118). It is his responsibility to ensure
unity and harmony in the celebrations taking place in his territory.
Consequently the Bishop must be "determined that the priests, the deacons,
and the lay Christian faithful grasp ever more deeply the genuine meaning of
the rites and liturgical texts, and thereby be led to an active and fruitful
celebration of the Eucharist" (119). I would ask that every effort be made
to ensure that the liturgies which the Bishop celebrates in his Cathedral are
carried out with complete respect for the ars celebrandi, so that they
can be considered an example for the entire Diocese (120).
Respect for the liturgical books and the
richness of signs
40. Emphasizing the importance of the ars
celebrandi also leads to an appreciation of the value of the liturgical
norms. (121) The ars celebrandi should foster a sense of the sacred and
the use of outward signs which help to cultivate this sense, such as, for
example, the harmony of the rite, the liturgical vestments, the furnishings and
the sacred space. The eucharistic celebration is enhanced when priests and
liturgical leaders are committed to making known the current liturgical texts
and norms, making available the great riches found in the General
Instruction of the Roman Missal and the Order of Readings for Mass.
Perhaps we take it for granted that our ecclesial communities already know and
appreciate these resources, but this is not always the case. These texts
contain riches which have preserved and expressed the faith and experience of
the People of God over its two-thousand-year history. Equally important for a
correct ars celebrandi is an attentiveness to the various kinds of
language that the liturgy employs: words and music, gestures and silence,
movement, the liturgical colours of the vestments. By its very nature the
liturgy operates on different levels of communication which enable it to engage
the whole human person. The simplicity of its gestures and the sobriety of its
orderly sequence of signs communicate and inspire more than any contrived and
inappropriate additions. Attentiveness and fidelity to the specific structure
of the rite express both a recognition of the nature of Eucharist as a gift
and, on the part of the minister, a docile openness to receiving this ineffable
gift.
Art at the service of the liturgy
41. The profound connection between beauty and
the liturgy should make us attentive to every work of art placed at the service
of the celebration. (122) Certainly an important element of sacred art is
church architecture, (123) which should highlight the unity of the furnishings
of the sanctuary, such as the altar, the crucifix, the tabernacle, the ambo and
the celebrant's chair. Here it is important to remember that the purpose of
sacred architecture is to offer the Church a fitting space for the celebration
of the mysteries of faith, especially the Eucharist. (124) The very nature of a
Christian church is defined by the liturgy, which is an assembly of the
faithful (ecclesia) who are the living stones of the Church (cf. 1
Pet 2:5).
This same principle holds true for sacred art
in general, especially painting and sculpture, where religious iconography
should be directed to sacramental mystagogy. A solid knowledge of the history
of sacred art can be advantageous for those responsible for commissioning
artists and architects to create works of art for the liturgy. Consequently it
is essential that the education of seminarians and priests include the study of
art history, with special reference to sacred buildings and the corresponding
liturgical norms. Everything related to the Eucharist should be marked by
beauty. Special respect and care must also be given to the vestments, the
furnishings and the sacred vessels, so that by their harmonious and orderly
arrangement they will foster awe for the mystery of God, manifest the unity of
the faith and strengthen devotion (125).
Liturgical song
42. In the ars celebrandi, liturgical
song has a pre-eminent place. (126) Saint Augustine rightly says in a famous
sermon that "the new man sings a new song. Singing is an expression of joy
and, if we consider the matter, an expression of love" (127). The People
of God assembled for the liturgy sings the praises of God. In the course of her
two-thousand-year history, the Church has created, and still creates, music and
songs which represent a rich patrimony of faith and love. This heritage must
not be lost. Certainly as far as the liturgy is concerned, we cannot say that
one song is as good as another. Generic improvisation or the introduction of
musical genres which fail to respect the meaning of the liturgy should be
avoided. As an element of the liturgy, song should be well integrated into the
overall celebration (128). Consequently everything – texts, music, execution –
ought to correspond to the meaning of the mystery being celebrated, the
structure of the rite and the liturgical seasons (129). Finally, while respecting
various styles and different and highly praiseworthy traditions, I desire, in
accordance with the request advanced by the Synod Fathers, that Gregorian chant
be suitably esteemed and employed (130) as the chant proper to the Roman
liturgy (131).
The structure of the eucharistic Celebration
43. After mentioning the more significant
elements of the ars celebrandi that emerged during the Synod, I would
now like to turn to some specific aspects of the structure of the eucharistic
celebration which require special attention at the present time, if we are to
remain faithful to the underlying intention of the liturgical renewal called
for by the Second Vatican
Council, in continuity
with the great ecclesial tradition.
The intrinsic unity of the liturgical action
44. First of all, there is a need to reflect on
the inherent unity of the rite of Mass. Both in catechesis and in the actual
manner of celebration, one must avoid giving the impression that the two parts
of the rite are merely juxtaposed. The liturgy of the word and the Eucharistic
liturgy, with the rites of introduction and conclusion, "are so closely
interconnected that they form but one single act of worship." (132) There
is an intrinsic bond between the word of God and the Eucharist. From listening
to the word of God, faith is born or strengthened (cf. Rom 10:17); in
the Eucharist the Word made flesh gives himself to us as our spiritual food.
(133) Thus, "from the two tables of the word of God and the Body of
Christ, the Church receives and gives to the faithful the bread of life."
(134) Consequently it must constantly be kept in mind that the word of God,
read and proclaimed by the Church in the liturgy, leads to the Eucharist as to
its own connatural end.
The liturgy of the word
45. Together with the Synod, I ask that the
liturgy of the word always be carefully prepared and celebrated. Consequently I
urge that every effort be made to ensure that the liturgical proclamation of
the word of God is entrusted to well- prepared readers. Let us never forget
that "when the Sacred Scriptures are read in the Church, God himself
speaks to his people, and Christ, present in his own word, proclaims the
Gospel"(135). When circumstances so suggest, a few brief words of
introduction could be offered in order to focus the attention of the faithful.
If it is to be properly understood, the word of God must be listened to and
accepted in a spirit of communion with the Church and with a clear awareness of
its unity with the sacrament of the Eucharist. Indeed, the word which we
proclaim and accept is the Word made flesh (cf. Jn 1:14); it is
inseparably linked to Christ's person and the sacramental mode of his continued
presence in our midst. Christ does not speak in the past, but in the present,
even as he is present in the liturgical action. In this sacramental context of
Christian revelation (136), knowledge and study of the word of God enable us
better to appreciate, celebrate and live the Eucharist. Here too, we can see
how true it is that "ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ"
(137).
To this end, the faithful should be helped to
appreciate the riches of Sacred Scripture found in the lectionary through
pastoral initiatives, liturgies of the word and reading in the context of
prayer (lectio divina). Efforts should also be made to encourage those
forms of prayer confirmed by tradition, such as the Liturgy of the Hours,
especially Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer and Night Prayer, and vigil
celebrations. By praying the Psalms, the Scripture readings and the readings
drawn from the great tradition which are included in the Divine Office, we can
come to a deeper experience of the Christ-event and the economy of salvation,
which in turn can enrich our understanding and participation in the celebration
of the Eucharist (138).
The homily
46. Given the importance of the word of God,
the quality of homilies needs to be improved. The homily is "part of the
liturgical action" (139), and is meant to foster a deeper understanding of
the word of God, so that it can bear fruit in the lives of the faithful. Hence
ordained ministers must "prepare the homily carefully, based on an
adequate knowledge of Sacred Scripture" (140). Generic and abstract homilies
should be avoided. In particular, I ask these ministers to preach in such a way
that the homily closely relates the proclamation of the word of God to the
sacramental celebration (141) and the life of the community, so that the word
of God truly becomes the Church's vital nourishment and support (142). The
catechetical and paraenetic aim of the homily should not be forgotten. During
the course of the liturgical year it is appropriate to offer the faithful,
prudently and on the basis of the three-year lectionary, "thematic"
homilies treating the great themes of the Christian faith, on the basis of what
has been authoritatively proposed by the Magisterium in the four
"pillars" of the Catechism of the Catholic
Church and the
recent Compendium, namely: the profession of faith,
the celebration of the Christian mystery, life in Christ and Christian prayer
(143).
The presentation of the gifts
47. The Synod Fathers also drew attention to
the presentation of the gifts. This is not to be viewed simply as a kind of
"interval" between the liturgy of the word and the liturgy of the
Eucharist. To do so would tend to weaken, at the least, the sense of a single
rite made up of two interrelated parts. This humble and simple gesture is
actually very significant: in the bread and wine that we bring to the altar,
all creation is taken up by Christ the Redeemer to be transformed and presented
to the Father. (144) In this way we also bring to the altar all the pain and
suffering of the world, in the certainty that everything has value in God's
eyes. The authentic meaning of this gesture can be clearly expressed without
the need for undue emphasis or complexity. It enables us to appreciate how God
invites man to participate in bringing to fulfilment his handiwork, and in so
doing, gives human labour its authentic meaning, since, through the celebration
of the Eucharist, it is united to the redemptive sacrifice of Christ.
The Eucharistic Prayer
48. The Eucharistic Prayer is "the centre
and summit of the entire celebration" (145). Its importance deserves to be
adequately emphasized. The different Eucharistic Prayers contained in the
Missal have been handed down to us by the Church's living Tradition and are
noteworthy for their inexhaustible theological and spiritual richness. The
faithful need to be enabled to appreciate that richness. Here the General
Instruction of the Roman Missal can help, with its list of the basic
elements of every Eucharistic Prayer: thanksgiving, acclamation, epiclesis,
institution narrative and consecration, anamnesis, offering, intercessions and
final doxology (146). In a particular way, eucharistic spirituality and
theological reflection are enriched if we contemplate in the anaphora the
profound unity between the invocation of the Holy Spirit and the institution
narrative (147) whereby "the sacrifice is carried out which Christ himself
instituted at the Last Supper" (148). Indeed, "the Church implores
the power of the Holy Spirit that the gifts offered by human hands be
consecrated, that is, become Christ's Body and Blood, and that the spotless
Victim to be received in communion be for the salvation of those who will
partake of it" (149).
The sign of peace
49. By its nature the Eucharist is the
sacrament of peace. At Mass this dimension of the eucharistic mystery finds
specific expression in the sign of peace. Certainly this sign has great value
(cf. Jn 14:27). In our times, fraught with fear and conflict, this
gesture has become particularly eloquent, as the Church has become increasingly
conscious of her responsibility to pray insistently for the gift of peace and
unity for herself and for the whole human family. Certainly there is an
irrepressible desire for peace present in every heart. The Church gives voice
to the hope for peace and reconciliation rising up from every man and woman of
good will, directing it towards the one who "is our peace" (Eph 2:14)
and who can bring peace to individuals and peoples when all human efforts fail.
We can thus understand the emotion so often felt during the sign of peace at a
liturgical celebration. Even so, during the Synod of Bishops there was
discussion about the appropriateness of greater restraint in this gesture,
which can be exaggerated and cause a certain distraction in the assembly just
before the reception of Communion. It should be kept in mind that nothing is
lost when the sign of peace is marked by a sobriety which preserves the proper
spirit of the celebration, as, for example, when it is restricted to one's
immediate neighbours (150).
The distribution and reception of the Eucharist
50. Another moment of the celebration needing
to be mentioned is the distribution and reception of Holy Communion. I ask
everyone, especially ordained ministers and those who, after adequate
preparation and in cases of genuine need, are authorized to exercise the
ministry of distributing the Eucharist, to make every effort to ensure that
this simple act preserves its importance as a personal encounter with the Lord
Jesus in the sacrament. For the rules governing correct practice in this
regard, I would refer to those documents recently issued on the subject. (151) All
Christian communities are to observe the current norms faithfully, seeing in
them an expression of the faith and love with which we all must regard this
sublime sacrament. Furthermore, the precious time of thanksgiving after
communion should not be neglected: besides the singing of an appropriate hymn,
it can also be most helpful to remain recollected in silence. (152)
In this regard, I would like to call attention
to a pastoral problem frequently encountered nowadays. I am referring to the
fact that on certain occasions – for example, wedding Masses, funerals and the
like – in addition to practising Catholics there may be others present who have
long since ceased to attend Mass or are living in a situation which does not
permit them to receive the sacraments. At other times members of other
Christian confessions and even other religions may be present. Similar
situations can occur in churches that are frequently visited, especially in
tourist areas. In these cases, there is a need to find a brief and clear way to
remind those present of the meaning of sacramental communion and the conditions
required for its reception. Wherever circumstances make it impossible to ensure
that the meaning of the Eucharist is duly appreciated, the appropriateness of
replacing the celebration of the Mass with a celebration of the word of God
should be considered. (153)
The dismissal: "Ite, missa est"
51. Finally, I would like to comment briefly on
the observations of the Synod Fathers regarding the dismissal at the end of the
eucharistic celebration. After the blessing, the deacon or the priest dismisses
the people with the words: Ite, missa est. These words help us to grasp
the relationship between the Mass just celebrated and the mission of Christians
in the world. In antiquity, missa simply meant "dismissal."
However in Christian usage it gradually took on a deeper meaning. The word
"dismissal" has come to imply a "mission." These few words
succinctly express the missionary nature of the Church. The People of God might
be helped to understand more clearly this essential dimension of the Church's
life, taking the dismissal as a starting- point. In this context, it might also
be helpful to provide new texts, duly approved, for the prayer over the people
and the final blessing, in order to make this connection clear (154).
Authentic participation
52. The Second Vatican Council rightly
emphasized the active, full and fruitful participation of the entire People of
God in the eucharistic celebration (155). Certainly, the renewal carried out in
these past decades has made considerable progress towards fulfilling the wishes
of the Council Fathers. Yet we must not overlook the fact that some
misunderstanding has occasionally arisen concerning the precise meaning of this
participation. It should be made clear that the word "participation"
does not refer to mere external activity during the celebration. In fact, the
active participation called for by the Council must be understood in more
substantial terms, on the basis of a greater awareness of the mystery being
celebrated and its relationship to daily life. The conciliar Constitution Sacrosanctum
Concilium encouraged the faithful to take part
in the eucharistic liturgy not "as strangers or silent spectators,"
but as participants "in the sacred action, conscious of what they are
doing, actively and devoutly" (156). This exhortation has lost none of its
force. The Council went on to say that the faithful "should be instructed
by God's word, and nourished at the table of the Lord's Body. They should give
thanks to God. Offering the immaculate Victim, not only through the hands of
the priest but also together with him, they should learn to make an offering of
themselves. Through Christ, the Mediator, they should be drawn day by day into
ever more perfect union with God and each other" (157).
Participation and the priestly ministry
53. The beauty and the harmony of the liturgy
find eloquent expression in the order by which everyone is called to
participate actively. This entails an acknowledgment of the distinct
hierarchical roles involved in the celebration. It is helpful to recall that active
participation is not per se equivalent to the exercise of a specific ministry.
The active participation of the laity does not benefit from the confusion
arising from an inability to distinguish, within the Church's communion, the
different functions proper to each one. (158) There is a particular need for
clarity with regard to the specific functions of the priest. He alone, and no
other, as the tradition of the Church attests, presides over the entire
eucharistic celebration, from the initial greeting to the final blessing. In
virtue of his reception of Holy Orders, he represents Jesus Christ, the head of
the Church, and, in a specific way, also the Church herself. (159) Every
celebration of the Eucharist, in fact, is led by the Bishop, "either in
person or through priests who are his helpers."(160) He is helped by a
deacon, who has specific duties during the celebration: he prepares the altar,
assists the priest, proclaims the Gospel, preaches the homily from time to
time, reads the intentions of the Prayer of the Faithful, and distributes the
Eucharist to the faithful. (161) Associated with these ministries linked to the
sacrament of Holy Orders, there are also other ministries of liturgical service
which can be carried out in a praiseworthy manner by religious and properly
trained laity. (162)
The eucharistic celebration and inculturation
54. On the basis of these fundamental
statements of the Second Vatican Council, the Synod Fathers frequently stressed
the importance of the active participation of the faithful in the eucharistic
sacrifice. In order to foster this participation, provision may be made for a
number of adaptations appropriate to different contexts and cultures. (163) The
fact that certain abuses have occurred does not detract from this clear
principle, which must be upheld in accordance with the real needs of the Church
as she lives and celebrates the one mystery of Christ in a variety of cultural
situations. In the mystery of the Incarnation, the Lord Jesus, born of woman
and fully human (cf. Gal 4:4), entered directly into a relationship not
only with the expectations present within the Old Testament, but also with
those of all peoples. He thus showed that God wishes to encounter us in our own
concrete situation. A more effective participation of the faithful in the holy
mysteries will thus benefit from the continued inculturation of the eucharistic
celebration, with due regard for the possibilities for adaptation provided in
the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, (164) interpreted in the
light of the criteria laid down by the Fourth Instruction of the Congregation
for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments Varietates Legitimae
of 25 January 1994 (165) and the directives expressed by Pope John Paul II in
the Post-Synodal Exhortations Ecclesia in Africa, Ecclesia in America, Ecclesia in Asia, Ecclesia in Oceania and Ecclesia in Europa (166). To this end, I encourage
Episcopal Conferences to strive to maintain a proper balance between the
criteria and directives already issued and new adaptations (167), always in
accord with the Apostolic See.
Personal conditions for an "active
participation"
55. In their consideration of the actuosa
participatio of the faithful in the liturgy, the Synod Fathers also
discussed the personal conditions required for fruitful participation on the
part of individuals. (168) One of these is certainly the spirit of constant
conversion which must mark the lives of all the faithful. Active participation
in the eucharistic liturgy can hardly be expected if one approaches it
superficially, without an examination of his or her life. This inner
disposition can be fostered, for example, by recollection and silence for at
least a few moments before the beginning of the liturgy, by fasting and, when
necessary, by sacramental confession. A heart reconciled to God makes genuine
participation possible. The faithful need to be reminded that there can be no
actuosa participatio in the sacred mysteries without an accompanying effort
to participate actively in the life of the Church as a whole, including a
missionary commitment to bring Christ's love into the life of society.
Clearly, full participation in the Eucharist
takes place when the faithful approach the altar in person to receive communion
(169). Yet true as this is, care must be taken lest they conclude that the mere
fact of their being present in church during the liturgy gives them a right or
even an obligation to approach the table of the Eucharist. Even in cases where
it is not possible to receive sacramental communion, participation at Mass
remains necessary, important, meaningful and fruitful. In such circumstances it
is beneficial to cultivate a desire for full union with Christ through the
practice of spiritual communion, praised by Pope John Paul II (170) and
recommended by saints who were masters of the spiritual life (171).
Participation by Christians who are not
Catholic
56. The subject of participation in the
Eucharist inevitably raises the question of Christians belonging to Churches or
Ecclesial Communities not in full communion with the Catholic Church. In this
regard, it must be said that the intrinsic link between the Eucharist and the
Church's unity inspires us to long for the day when we will be able to
celebrate the Holy Eucharist together with all believers in Christ, and in this
way to express visibly the fullness of unity that Christ willed for his
disciples (cf. Jn 17:21). On the other hand, the respect we owe to the
sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood prevents us from making it a mere
"means" to be used indiscriminately in order to attain that unity.
(172) The Eucharist in fact not only manifests our personal communion with
Jesus Christ, but also implies full communio with the Church. This is
the reason why, sadly albeit not without hope, we ask Christians who are not
Catholic to understand and respect our conviction, which is grounded in the
Bible and Tradition. We hold that eucharistic communion and ecclesial communion
are so linked as to make it generally impossible for non-Catholic Christians to
receive the former without enjoying the latter. There would be even less sense
in actually concelebrating with ministers of Churches or ecclesial communities
not in full communion with the Catholic Church. Yet it remains true that, for
the sake of their eternal salvation, individual non-Catholic Christians can be
admitted to the Eucharist, the sacrament of Reconciliation and the Anointing of
the Sick. But this is possible only in specific, exceptional situations and
requires that certain precisely defined conditions be met (173). These are
clearly indicated in the Catechism of the Catholic
Church (174)
and in its Compendium (175). Everyone is obliged to
observe these norms faithfully.
Participation through the communications media
57. Thanks to the remarkable development of the
communications media, the word "participation" has taken on a broader
meaning in recent decades. We all gladly acknowledge that the media have also
opened up new possibilities for the celebration of the Eucharist. (176) This
requires a specific preparation and a keen sense of responsibility on the part
of pastoral workers in the sector. When Mass is broadcast on television, it
inevitably tends to set an example. Particular care should therefore be taken
to ensure that, in addition to taking place in suitable and well-appointed
locations, the celebration respects the liturgical norms in force.
Finally, with regard to the value of taking
part in Mass via the communications media, those who hear or view these
broadcasts should be aware that, under normal circumstances, they do not fulfil
the obligation of attending Mass. Visual images can represent reality, but they
do not actually reproduce it.(177) While it is most praiseworthy that the
elderly and the sick participate in Sunday Mass through radio and television,
the same cannot be said of those who think that such broadcasts dispense them
from going to church and sharing in the eucharistic assembly in the living
Church.
Active participation by the sick
58. In thinking of those who cannot attend
places of worship for reasons of health or advanced age, I wish to call the
attention of the whole Church community to the pastoral importance of providing
spiritual assistance to the sick, both those living at home and those in
hospital. Their situation was often mentioned during the Synod of Bishops.
These brothers and sisters of ours should have the opportunity to receive
sacramental communion frequently. In this way they can strengthen their
relationship with Christ, crucified and risen, and feel fully involved in the
Church's life and mission by the offering of their sufferings in union with our
Lord's sacrifice. Particular attention needs to be given to the disabled. When
their condition so permits, the Christian community should make it possible for
them to attend the place of worship. Buildings should be designed to provide
ready access to the disabled. Finally, whenever possible, eucharistic communion
should be made available to the mentally handicapped, if they are baptized and
confirmed: they receive the Eucharist in the faith also of the family or the
community that accompanies them. (178)
Care for prisoners
59. The Church's spiritual tradition, basing
itself on Christ's own words (cf. Mt 25:36), has designated the visiting
of prisoners as one of the corporal works of mercy. Prisoners have a particular
need to be visited personally by the Lord in the sacrament of the Eucharist.
Experiencing the closeness of the ecclesial community, sharing in the Eucharist
and receiving holy communion at this difficult and painful time can surely
contribute to the quality of a prisoner's faith journey and to full social
rehabilitation. Taking up the recommendation of the Synod, I ask Dioceses to do
whatever is possible to ensure that sufficient pastoral resources are invested
in the spiritual care of prisoners. (179)
Migrants and participation in the Eucharist
60. Turning now to those people who for various
reasons are forced to leave their native countries, the Synod expressed
particular gratitude to all those engaged in the pastoral care of migrants.
Specific attention needs to be paid to migrants belonging to the Eastern
Catholic Churches; in addition to being far from home, they also encounter the
difficulty of not being able to participate in the eucharistic liturgy in their
own rite. For this reason, wherever possible, they should be served by priests
of their rite. In all cases I would ask Bishops to welcome these brothers and
sisters with the love of Christ. Contacts between the faithful of different
rites can prove a source of mutual enrichment. In particular, I am thinking of
the benefit that can come, especially for the clergy, from a knowledge of the
different traditions. (180)
Large-scale concelebrations
61. The Synod considered the quality of
participation in the case of large-scale celebrations held on special occasions
and involving not only a great number of the lay faithful, but also many
concelebrating priests. (181) On the one hand, it is easy to appreciate the
importance of these moments, especially when the Bishop himself celebrates,
surrounded by his presbyterate and by the deacons. On the other hand, it is not
always easy in such cases to give clear expression to the unity of the
presbyterate, especially during the Eucharistic Prayer and the distribution of
Holy Communion. Efforts need to be made lest these large-scale concelebrations
lose their proper focus. This can be done by proper coordination and by
arranging the place of worship so that priests and lay faithful are truly able
to participate fully. It should be kept in mind, however, that here we are
speaking of exceptional concelebrations, limited to extraordinary situations.
The Latin language
62. None of the above observations should cast
doubt upon the importance of such large-scale liturgies. I am thinking here
particularly of celebrations at international gatherings, which nowadays are
held with greater frequency. The most should be made of these occasions. In
order to express more clearly the unity and universality of the Church, I wish
to endorse the proposal made by the Synod of Bishops, in harmony with the
directives of the Second Vatican
Council, (182)
that, with the exception of the readings, the homily and the prayer of the
faithful, it is fitting that such liturgies be celebrated in Latin. Similarly,
the better-known prayers (183) of the Church's tradition should be recited in
Latin and, if possible, selections of Gregorian chant should be sung. Speaking
more generally, I ask that future priests, from their time in the seminary,
receive the preparation needed to understand and to celebrate Mass in Latin,
and also to use Latin texts and execute Gregorian chant; nor should we forget
that the faithful can be taught to recite the more common prayers in Latin, and
also to sing parts of the liturgy to Gregorian chant. (184)
Eucharistic celebrations in small groups
63. A very different situation arises when, in
the interest of more conscious, active and fruitful participation, pastoral
circumstances favour small group celebrations. While acknowledging the
formative value of this approach, it must be stated that such celebrations
should always be consonant with the overall pastoral activity of the Diocese.
These celebrations would actually lose their catechetical value if they were
felt to be in competition with, or parallel to, the life of the particular
Church. In this regard, the Synod set forth some necessary criteria: small
groups must serve to unify the community, not to fragment it; the beneficial
results ought to be clearly evident; these groups should encourage the fruitful
participation of the entire assembly, and preserve as much as possible the
unity of the liturgical life of individual families. (185)
Interior participation in the celebration
Mystagogical catechesis
64. The Church's great liturgical tradition
teaches us that fruitful participation in the liturgy requires that one be
personally conformed to the mystery being celebrated, offering one's life to
God in unity with the sacrifice of Christ for the salvation of the whole world.
For this reason, the Synod of Bishops asked that the faithful be helped to make
their interior dispositions correspond to their gestures and words. Otherwise,
however carefully planned and executed our liturgies may be, they would risk
falling into a certain ritualism. Hence the need to provide an education in
eucharistic faith capable of enabling the faithful to live personally what they
celebrate. Given the vital importance of this personal and conscious participatio,
what methods of formation are needed? The Synod Fathers unanimously indicated,
in this regard, a mystagogical approach to catechesis, which would lead the
faithful to understand more deeply the mysteries being celebrated. (186) In
particular, given the close relationship between the ars celebrandi and
an actuosa participatio, it must first be said that "the best
catechesis on the Eucharist is the Eucharist itself, celebrated well."
(187) By its nature, the liturgy can be pedagogically effective in helping the
faithful to enter more deeply into the mystery being celebrated. That is why,
in the Church's most ancient tradition, the process of Christian formation
always had an experiential character. While not neglecting a systematic
understanding of the content of the faith, it centred on a vital and convincing
encounter with Christ, as proclaimed by authentic witnesses. It is first and
foremost the witness who introduces others to the mysteries. Naturally, this
initial encounter gains depth through catechesis and finds its source and
summit in the celebration of the Eucharist. This basic structure of the
Christian experience calls for a process of mystagogy which should always
respect three elements:
a) It interprets the rites in the light of the events of our salvation,
in accordance with the Church's living tradition. The celebration of the
Eucharist, in its infinite richness, makes constant reference to salvation
history. In Christ crucified and risen, we truly celebrate the one who has
united all things in himself (cf. Eph 1:10). From the beginning, the
Christian community has interpreted the events of Jesus' life, and the Paschal
Mystery in particular, in relation to the entire history of the Old Testament.
b) A mystagogical catechesis must also be concerned with presenting
the meaning of the signs contained in the rites. This is particularly
important in a highly technological age like our own, which risks losing the
ability to appreciate signs and symbols. More than simply conveying
information, a mystagogical catechesis should be capable of making the faithful
more sensitive to the language of signs and gestures which, together with the
word, make up the rite.
c) Finally, a mystagogical catechesis must be concerned with bringing out
the significance of the rites for the Christian life in all its
dimensions – work and responsibility, thoughts and emotions, activity and
repose. Part of the mystagogical process is to demonstrate how the mysteries
celebrated in the rite are linked to the missionary responsibility of the
faithful. The mature fruit of mystagogy is an awareness that one's life is
being progressively transformed by the holy mysteries being celebrated. The aim
of all Christian education, moreover, is to train the believer in an adult
faith that can make him a "new creation", capable of bearing witness
in his surroundings to the Christian hope that inspires him.
If we are to succeed in carrying out this work
of education in our ecclesial communities, those responsible for formation must
be adequately prepared. Indeed, the whole people of God should feel involved in
this formation. Each Christian community is called to be a place where people
can be taught about the mysteries celebrated in faith. In this regard, the
Synod Fathers called for greater involvement by communities of consecrated
life, movements and groups which, by their specific charisms, can give new
impetus to Christian formation. (188) In our time, too, the Holy Spirit freely
bestows his gifts to sustain the apostolic mission of the Church, which is
charged with spreading the faith and bringing it to maturity. (189)
Reverence for the Eucharist
65. A convincing indication of the
effectiveness of eucharistic catechesis is surely an increased sense of the
mystery of God present among us. This can be expressed in concrete outward
signs of reverence for the Eucharist which the process of mystagogy should
inculcate in the faithful. (190) I am thinking in general of the importance of
gestures and posture, such as kneeling during the central moments of the
Eucharistic Prayer. Amid the legitimate diversity of signs used in the context
of different cultures, everyone should be able to experience and express the
awareness that at each celebration we stand before the infinite majesty of God,
who comes to us in the lowliness of the sacramental signs.
Adoration and eucharistic devotion
The intrinsic relationship between celebration
and adoration
66. One of the most moving moments of the Synod
came when we gathered in Saint Peter's Basilica, together with a great number
of the faithful, for eucharistic adoration. In this act of prayer, and not just
in words, the assembly of Bishops wanted to point out the intrinsic
relationship between eucharistic celebration and eucharistic adoration. A
growing appreciation of this significant aspect of the Church's faith has been
an important part of our experience in the years following the liturgical
renewal desired by the Second Vatican Council. During the early phases of the
reform, the inherent relationship between Mass and adoration of the Blessed
Sacrament was not always perceived with sufficient clarity. For example, an
objection that was widespread at the time argued that the eucharistic bread was
given to us not to be looked at, but to be eaten. In the light of the Church's
experience of prayer, however, this was seen to be a false dichotomy. As Saint
Augustine put it: "nemo autem illam carnem manducat, nisi prius
adoraverit; peccemus non adorando – no one eats that flesh without first
adoring it; we should sin were we not to adore it." (191) In the
Eucharist, the Son of God comes to meet us and desires to become one with us;
eucharistic adoration is simply the natural consequence of the eucharistic
celebration, which is itself the Church's supreme act of adoration. (192)
Receiving the Eucharist means adoring him whom we receive. Only in this way do
we become one with him, and are given, as it were, a foretaste of the beauty of
the heavenly liturgy. The act of adoration outside Mass prolongs and
intensifies all that takes place during the liturgical celebration itself.
Indeed, "only in adoration can a profound and genuine reception mature.
And it is precisely this personal encounter with the Lord that then strengthens
the social mission contained in the Eucharist, which seeks to break down not
only the walls that separate the Lord and ourselves, but also and especially
the walls that separate us from one another." (193)
The practice of eucharistic adoration
67. With the Synod Assembly, therefore, I
heartily recommend to the Church's pastors and to the People of God the
practice of eucharistic adoration, both individually and in community. (194)
Great benefit would ensue from a suitable catechesis explaining the importance
of this act of worship, which enables the faithful to experience the liturgical
celebration more fully and more fruitfully. Wherever possible, it would be
appropriate, especially in densely populated areas, to set aside specific
churches or oratories for perpetual adoration. I also recommend that, in their
catechetical training, and especially in their preparation for First Holy Communion,
children be taught the meaning and the beauty of spending time with Jesus, and
helped to cultivate a sense of awe before his presence in the Eucharist.
Here I would like to express appreciation and
support for all those Institutes of Consecrated Life whose members dedicate a
significant amount of time to eucharistic adoration. In this way they give us
an example of lives shaped by the Lord's real presence. I would also like to
encourage those associations of the faithful and confraternities specifically
devoted to eucharistic adoration; they serve as a leaven of contemplation for
the whole Church and a summons to individuals and communities to place Christ
at the centre of their lives.
Forms of eucharistic devotion
68. The personal relationship which the
individual believer establishes with Jesus present in the Eucharist constantly
points beyond itself to the whole communion of the Church and nourishes a
fuller sense of membership in the Body of Christ. For this reason, besides
encouraging individual believers to make time for personal prayer before the
Sacrament of the Altar, I feel obliged to urge parishes and other church groups
to set aside times for collective adoration. Naturally, already existing forms
of eucharistic piety retain their full value. I am thinking, for example, of
processions with the Blessed Sacrament, especially the traditional procession
on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Forty Hours devotion, local,
national and international Eucharistic Congresses, and other similar initiatives.
If suitably updated and adapted to local circumstances, these forms of devotion
are still worthy of being practised today. (195)
The location of the tabernacle
69. In considering the importance of
eucharistic reservation and adoration, and reverence for the sacrament of
Christ's sacrifice, the Synod of Bishops also discussed the question of the
proper placement of the tabernacle in our churches. (196) The correct
positioning of the tabernacle contributes to the recognition of Christ's real
presence in the Blessed Sacrament. Therefore, the place where the eucharistic
species are reserved, marked by a sanctuary lamp, should be readily visible to
everyone entering the church. It is therefore necessary to take into account
the building's architecture: in churches which do not have a Blessed Sacrament
chapel, and where the high altar with its tabernacle is still in place, it is
appropriate to continue to use this structure for the reservation and adoration
of the Eucharist, taking care not to place the celebrant's chair in front of
it. In new churches, it is good to position the Blessed Sacrament chapel close
to the sanctuary; where this is not possible, it is preferable to locate the
tabernacle in the sanctuary, in a sufficiently elevated place, at the centre of
the apse area, or in another place where it will be equally conspicuous.
Attention to these considerations will lend dignity to the tabernacle, which
must always be cared for, also from an artistic standpoint. Obviously it is
necessary to follow the provisions of the General Instruction of the Roman
Missal in this regard. (197) In any event, final judgment on these matters
belongs to the Diocesan Bishop.
THE EUCHARIST, A MYSTERY
TO BE LIVED
"As the living Father sent me, and I live
because of the Father,
so he who eats me will live because of me" (Jn 6:57)
The eucharistic form of the christian life
Spiritual worship – logiké latreía (Rom 12:1)
70. The Lord Jesus, who became for us the food
of truth and love, speaks of the gift of his life and assures us that "if
any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever" (Jn 6:51). This
"eternal life" begins in us even now, thanks to the transformation
effected in us by the gift of the Eucharist: "He who eats me will live
because of me" (Jn 6:57). These words of Jesus make us realize how
the mystery "believed" and "celebrated" contains an innate
power making it the principle of new life within us and the form of our
Christian existence. By receiving the body and blood of Jesus Christ we become
sharers in the divine life in an ever more adult and conscious way. Here too,
we can apply Saint Augustine's words, in his Confessions, about the
eternal Logos as the food of our souls. Stressing the mysterious nature
of this food, Augustine imagines the Lord saying to him: "I am the food of
grown men; grow, and you shall feed upon me; nor shall you change me, like the
food of your flesh, into yourself, but you shall be changed into me."
(198) It is not the eucharistic food that is changed into us, but rather we who
are mysteriously transformed by it. Christ nourishes us by uniting us to
himself; "he draws us into himself."(199)
Here the eucharistic celebration appears in all
its power as the source and summit of the Church's life, since it expresses at
once both the origin and the fulfilment of the new and definitive worship of
God, the logiké latreía. (200) Saint Paul's exhortation to the Romans in
this regard is a concise description of how the Eucharist makes our whole life
a spiritual worship pleasing to God: "I appeal to you therefore, my
brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship" (Rom 12:1).
In these words the new worship appears as a total self-offering made in communion
with the whole Church. The Apostle's insistence on the offering of our bodies
emphasizes the concrete human reality of a worship which is anything but
disincarnate. The Bishop of Hippo goes on to say that "this is the
sacrifice of Christians: that we, though many, are one body in Christ. The
Church celebrates this mystery in the sacrament of the altar, as the faithful
know, and there she shows them clearly that in what is offered, she herself is
offered." (201) Catholic doctrine, in fact, affirms that the Eucharist, as
the sacrifice of Christ, is also the sacrifice of the Church, and thus of all
the faithful. (202) This insistence on sacrifice – a "making sacred"
– expresses all the existential depth implied in the transformation of our human
reality as taken up by Christ (cf. Phil 3:12).
The all-encompassing effect of eucharistic
worship
71. Christianity's new worship includes and
transfigures every aspect of life: "Whether you eat or drink, or whatever
you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor 10:31). Christians, in
all their actions, are called to offer true worship to God. Here the
intrinsically eucharistic nature of Christian life begins to take shape. The
Eucharist, since it embraces the concrete, everyday existence of the believer,
makes possible, day by day, the progressive transfiguration of all those called
by grace to reflect the image of the Son of God (cf. Rom 8:29ff.). There
is nothing authentically human – our thoughts and affections, our words and
deeds – that does not find in the sacrament of the Eucharist the form it needs
to be lived to the full. Here we can see the full human import of the radical
newness brought by Christ in the Eucharist: the worship of God in our lives
cannot be relegated to something private and individual, but tends by its
nature to permeate every aspect of our existence. Worship pleasing to God thus
becomes a new way of living our whole life, each particular moment of which is
lifted up, since it is lived as part of a relationship with Christ and as an
offering to God. The glory of God is the living man (cf. 1 Cor 10:31).
And the life of man is the vision of God. (203)
Iuxta dominicam viventes – living in accordance
with the Lord's Day
72. From the beginning Christians were clearly
conscious of this radical newness which the Eucharist brings to human life. The
faithful immediately perceived the profound influence of the eucharistic
celebration on their manner of life. Saint Ignatius of Antioch expressed this
truth when he called Christians "those who have attained a new hope,"
and described them as "those living in accordance with the Lord's
Day" (iuxta dominicam viventes). (204) This phrase of the great
Antiochene martyr highlights the connection between the reality of the
Eucharist and everyday Christian life. The Christians' customary practice of
gathering on the first day after the Sabbath to celebrate the resurrection of
Christ – according to the account of Saint Justin Martyr(205) – is also what
defines the form of a life renewed by an encounter with Christ. Saint Ignatius'
phrase – "living in accordance with the Lord's Day" – also emphasizes
that this holy day becomes paradigmatic for every other day of the week.
Indeed, it is defined by something more than the simple suspension of one's
ordinary activities, a sort of parenthesis in one's usual daily rhythm.
Christians have always experienced this day as the first day of the week, since
it commemorates the radical newness brought by Christ. Sunday is thus the day
when Christians rediscover the eucharistic form which their lives are meant to
have. "Living in accordance with the Lord's Day" means living in the
awareness of the liberation brought by Christ and making our lives a constant
self-offering to God, so that his victory may be fully revealed to all humanity
through a profoundly renewed existence.
Living the Sunday obligation
73. Conscious of this new vital principle which
the Eucharist imparts to the Christian, the Synod Fathers reaffirmed the
importance of the Sunday obligation for all the faithful, viewing it as a
wellspring of authentic freedom enabling them to live each day in accordance
with what they celebrated on "the Lord's Day." The life of faith is
endangered when we lose the desire to share in the celebration of the Eucharist
and its commemoration of the paschal victory. Participating in the Sunday
liturgical assembly with all our brothers and sisters, with whom we form one
body in Jesus Christ, is demanded by our Christian conscience and at the same
time it forms that conscience. To lose a sense of Sunday as the Lord's Day, a
day to be sanctified, is symptomatic of the loss of an authentic sense of
Christian freedom, the freedom of the children of God. (206) Here some
observations made by my venerable predecessor John Paul II in his Apostolic Letter
Dies Domini (207) continue to have great value.
Speaking of the various dimensions of the Christian celebration of Sunday, he
said that it is Dies Domini with regard to the work of creation, Dies
Christi as the day of the new creation and the Risen Lord's gift of the
Holy Spirit, Dies Ecclesiae as the day on which the Christian community
gathers for the celebration, and Dies hominis as the day of joy, rest
and fraternal charity.
Sunday thus appears as the primordial holy day,
when all believers, wherever they are found, can become heralds and guardians
of the true meaning of time. It gives rise to the Christian meaning of life and
a new way of experiencing time, relationships, work, life and death. On the
Lord's Day, then, it is fitting that Church groups should organize, around
Sunday Mass, the activities of the Christian community: social gatherings,
programmes for the faith formation of children, young people and adults,
pilgrimages, charitable works, and different moments of prayer. For the sake of
these important values – while recognizing that Saturday evening, beginning
with First Vespers, is already a part of Sunday and a time when the Sunday
obligation can be fulfilled – we need to remember that it is Sunday itself that
is meant to be kept holy, lest it end up as a day "empty of God."
(208)
The meaning of rest and of work
74. Finally, it is particularly urgent nowadays
to remember that the day of the Lord is also a day of rest from work. It is
greatly to be hoped that this fact will also be recognized by civil society, so
that individuals can be permitted to refrain from work without being penalized.
Christians, not without reference to the meaning of the Sabbath in the Jewish
tradition, have seen in the Lord's Day a day of rest from their daily
exertions. This is highly significant, for it relativizes work and
directs it to the person: work is for man and not man for work. It is easy to
see how this actually protects men and women, emancipating them from a possible
form of enslavement. As I have had occasion to say, "work is of
fundamental importance to the fulfilment of the human being and to the
development of society. Thus, it must always be organized and carried out with
full respect for human dignity and must always serve the common good. At the
same time, it is indispensable that people not allow themselves to be enslaved
by work or to idolize it, claiming to find in it the ultimate and definitive
meaning of life." (209) It is on the day consecrated to God that men and
women come to understand the meaning of their lives and also of their work.
(210)
Sunday assemblies in the absence of a priest
75. Rediscovering the significance of the
Sunday celebration for the life of Christians naturally leads to a
consideration of the problem of those Christian communities which lack priests
and where, consequently, it is not possible to celebrate Mass on the Lord's
Day. Here it should be stated that a wide variety of situations exists. The
Synod recommended first that the faithful should go to one of the churches in
their Diocese where the presence of a priest is assured, even when this demands
a certain sacrifice. (211) Wherever great distances make it practically
impossible to take part in the Sunday Eucharist, it is still important for
Christian communities to gather together to praise the Lord and to commemorate
the Day set apart for him. This needs, however, to be accompanied by an adequate
instruction about the difference between Mass and Sunday assemblies in the
absence of a priest. The Church's pastoral care must be expressed in the latter
case by ensuring that the liturgy of the word – led by a deacon or a community
leader to whom this ministry has been duly entrusted by competent authority –
is carried out according to a specific ritual prepared and approved for this
purpose by the Bishops' Conferences. (212) I reiterate that only Ordinaries may
grant the faculty of distributing holy communion in such liturgies, taking
account of the need for a certain selectiveness. Furthermore, care should be
taken that these assemblies do not create confusion about the central role of
the priest and the sacraments in the life of the Church. The importance of the
role given to the laity, who should rightly be thanked for their generosity in
the service of their communities, must never obscure the indispensable ministry
of priests for the life of the Church. (213) Hence care must be taken to ensure
that such assemblies in the absence of a priest do not encourage
ecclesiological visions incompatible with the truth of the Gospel and the
Church's tradition. Rather, they should be privileged moments of prayer for God
to send holy priests after his own heart. It is touching, in this regard, to
read the words of Pope John Paul II in his Letter to Priests for Holy
Thursday 1979 about those places where the faithful, deprived of a priest by a
dictatorial regime, would meet in a church or shrine, place on the altar a
stole which they still kept and recite the prayers of the eucharistic liturgy,
halting in silence "at the moment that corresponds to the
transubstantiation," as a sign of how "ardently they desire to hear
the words that only the lips of a priest can efficaciously utter." (214)
With this in mind, and considering the incomparable good which comes from the
celebration of the Eucharist, I ask all priests to visit willingly and as often
as possible the communities entrusted to their pastoral care, lest they remain
too long without the sacrament of love.
A eucharistic form of Christian life,
membership in the Church
76. The importance of Sunday as the Dies
Ecclesiae brings us back to the intrinsic relationship between Jesus'
victory over evil and death, and our membership in his ecclesial body. On the
Lord's Day, each Christian rediscovers the communal dimension of his life as
one who has been redeemed. Taking part in the liturgy and receiving the Body
and Blood of Christ intensifies and deepens our belonging to the one who died
for us (cf. 1 Cor 6:19ff; 7:23). Truly, whoever eats of Christ lives for
him. The eucharistic mystery helps us to understand the profound meaning of the
communio sanctorum. Communion always and inseparably has both a vertical
and a horizontal sense: it is communion with God and communion with our
brothers and sisters. Both dimensions mysteriously converge in the gift of the
Eucharist. "Wherever communion with God, which is communion with the
Father, with the Son and with the Holy Spirit, is destroyed, the root and
source of our communion with one another is destroyed. And wherever we do not
live communion among ourselves, communion with the Triune God is not alive and
true either."(215) Called to be members of Christ and thus members of one
another (cf. 1 Cor 12:27), we are a reality grounded ontologically in
Baptism and nourished by the Eucharist, a reality that demands visible
expression in the life of our communities.
The eucharistic form of Christian life is
clearly an ecclesial and communitarian form. Through the Diocese and the
parish, the fundamental structures of the Church in a particular territory,
each individual believer can experience concretely what it means to be a member
of Christ's Body. Associations, ecclesial movements and new communities – with
their lively charisms bestowed by the Holy Spirit for the needs of our time –
together with Institutes of Consecrated Life, have a particular responsibility
for helping to make the faithful conscious that they belong to the Lord
(cf. Rom 14:8). Secularization, with its inherent emphasis on
individualism, has its most negative effects on individuals who are isolated
and lack a sense of belonging. Christianity, from its very beginning, has meant
fellowship, a network of relationships constantly strengthened by hearing God's
word and sharing in the Eucharist, and enlivened by the Holy Spirit.
Spirituality and eucharistic culture
77. Significantly, the Synod Fathers stated
that "the Christian faithful need a fuller understanding of the
relationship between the Eucharist and their daily lives. Eucharistic
spirituality is not just participation in Mass and devotion to the Blessed
Sacrament. It embraces the whole of life." (216) This observation is
particularly insightful, given our situation today. It must be acknowledged
that one of the most serious effects of the secularization just mentioned is
that it has relegated the Christian faith to the margins of life as if it were
irrelevant to everyday affairs. The futility of this way of living – "as
if God did not exist" – is now evident to everyone. Today there is a need
to rediscover that Jesus Christ is not just a private conviction or an abstract
idea, but a real person, whose becoming part of human history is capable of renewing
the life of every man and woman. Hence the Eucharist, as the source and summit
of the Church's life and mission, must be translated into spirituality, into a
life lived "according to the Spirit" (Rom 8:4ff.; cf. Gal 5:16,
25). It is significant that Saint Paul, in the passage of the Letter to the
Romans where he invites his hearers to offer the new spiritual worship,
also speaks of the need for a change in their way of living and thinking:
"Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your
mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable
and perfect" (12:2). In this way the Apostle of the Gentiles emphasizes
the link between true spiritual worship and the need for a new way of
understanding and living one's life. An integral part of the eucharistic form
of the Christian life is a new way of thinking, "so that we may no longer
be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of
doctrine" (Eph 4:14).
The Eucharist and the evangelization of
cultures
78. From what has been said thus far, it is
clear that the eucharistic mystery puts us in dialogue with various
cultures, but also in some way challenges them. (217) The intercultural
character of this new worship, this logiké latreía, needs to be recognized.
The presence of Jesus Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit are events
capable of engaging every cultural reality and bringing to it the leaven of the
Gospel. It follows that we must be committed to promoting the evangelization of
cultures, conscious that Christ himself is the truth for every man and woman,
and for all human history. The Eucharist becomes a criterion for our evaluation
of everything that Christianity encounters in different cultures. In this
important process of discernment, we can appreciate the full meaning of Saint
Paul's exhortation, in his First Letter to the Thessalonians, to
"test everything; and hold fast to what is good" (5:21).
The Eucharist and the lay faithful
79. In Christ, Head of his Body, the Church,
all Christians are "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a
people he claims for his own, to declare his wonderful deeds" (1 Pet 2:9).
The Eucharist, as a mystery to be "lived", meets each of us as we
are, and makes our concrete existence the place where we experience daily the
radical newness of the Christian life. The eucharistic sacrifice nourishes and
increases within us all that we have already received at Baptism, with its call
to holiness, (218) and this must be clearly evident from the way individual
Christians live their lives. Day by day we become "a worship pleasing to
God" by living our lives as a vocation. Beginning with the liturgical
assembly, the sacrament of the Eucharist itself commits us, in our daily lives,
to doing everything for God's glory.
And because the world is "the field"
(Mt 13:38) in which God plants his children as good seed, the Christian
laity, by virtue of their Baptism and Confirmation, and strengthened by the
Eucharist, are called to live out the radical newness brought by Christ
wherever they find themselves. (219) They should cultivate a desire that the
Eucharist have an ever deeper effect on their daily lives, making them
convincing witnesses in the workplace and in society at large. (220) I
encourage families in particular to draw inspiration and strength from this
sacrament. The love between man and woman, openness to life, and the raising of
children are privileged spheres in which the Eucharist can reveal its power to
transform life and give it its full meaning. (221) The Church's pastors should
unfailingly support, guide and encourage the lay faithful to live fully their
vocation to holiness within this world which God so loved that he gave his Son
to become its salvation (cf. Jn 3:16).
The Eucharist and priestly spirituality
80. The eucharistic form of the Christian life
is seen in a very special way in the priesthood. Priestly spirituality is
intrinsically eucharistic. The seeds of this spirituality are already found in
the words spoken by the Bishop during the ordination liturgy: "Receive the
oblation of the holy people to be offered to God. Understand what you do,
imitate what you celebrate, and conform your life to the mystery of the Lord's
Cross." (222) In order to give an ever greater eucharistic form to his
existence, the priest, beginning with his years in the seminary, should make
his spiritual life his highest priority. (223) He is called to seek God
tirelessly, while remaining attuned to the concerns of his brothers and
sisters. An intense spiritual life will enable him to enter more deeply into
communion with the Lord and to let himself be possessed by God's love, bearing
witness to that love at all times, even the darkest and most difficult. To this
end I join the Synod Fathers in recommending "the daily celebration of
Mass, even when the faithful are not present." (224) This recommendation
is consistent with the objectively infinite value of every celebration of the
Eucharist, and is motivated by the Mass's unique spiritual fruitfulness. If
celebrated in a faith-filled and attentive way, Mass is formative in the
deepest sense of the word, since it fosters the priest's configuration to
Christ and strengthens him in his vocation.
The Eucharist and the consecrated life
81. The relationship of the Eucharist to the various
ecclesial vocations is seen in a particularly vivid way in "the prophetic
witness of consecrated men and women, who find in the celebration of the
Eucharist and in eucharistic adoration the strength necessary for the radical
following of Christ, obedient, poor and chaste." (225) Though they provide
many services in the area of human formation and care for the poor, education
and health care, consecrated men and women know that the principal purpose of
their lives is "the contemplation of things divine and constant union with
God in prayer." (226) The essential contribution that the Church expects
from consecrated persons is much more in the order of being than of doing. Here
I wish to reaffirm the importance of the witness of virginity, precisely in relation
to the mystery of the Eucharist. In addition to its connection to priestly
celibacy, the eucharistic mystery also has an intrinsic relationship to
consecrated virginity, inasmuch as the latter is an expression of the Church's
exclusive devotion to Christ, whom she accepts as her Bridegroom with a radical
and fruitful fidelity.(227 In the Eucharist, consecrated virginity finds
inspiration and nourishment for its complete dedication to Christ. From the
Eucharist, moreover, it draws encouragement and strength to be a sign, in our
own times too, of God's gracious and fruitful love for humanity. Finally, by
its specific witness, consecrated life becomes an objective sign and
foreshadowing of the "wedding- feast of the Lamb" (Rev 19:7-9)
which is the goal of all salvation history. In this sense, it points to that
eschatological horizon against which the choices and life decisions of every
man and woman should be situated.
The Eucharist and moral transformation
82. In discovering the beauty of the eucharistic
form of the Christian life, we are also led to reflect on the moral energy it
provides for sustaining the authentic freedom of the children of God. Here I
wish to take up a discussion that took place during the Synod about the
connection between the eucharistic form of life and moral
transformation. Pope John Paul II stated that the moral life "has the
value of a 'spiritual worship' (Rom 12:1; cf. Phil 3:3), flowing
from and nourished by that inexhaustible source of holiness and glorification
of God which is found in the sacraments, especially in the Eucharist: by
sharing in the sacrifice of the Cross, the Christian partakes of Christ's
self-giving love and is equipped and committed to live this same charity in all
his thoughts and deeds" (228). In a word, "'worship' itself,
eucharistic communion, includes the reality both of being loved and of loving
others in turn. A Eucharist which does not pass over into the concrete practice
of love is intrinsically fragmented" (229).
This appeal to the moral value of spiritual
worship should not be interpreted in a merely moralistic way. It is before all
else the joy-filled discovery of love at work in the hearts of those who accept
the Lord's gift, abandon themselves to him and thus find true freedom. The
moral transformation implicit in the new worship instituted by Christ is a
heartfelt yearning to respond to the Lord's love with one's whole being, while
remaining ever conscious of one's own weakness. This is clearly reflected in
the Gospel story of Zacchaeus (cf. Lk 19:1-10). After welcoming Jesus to
his home, the tax collector is completely changed: he decides to give half of
his possessions to the poor and to repay fourfold those whom he had defrauded.
The moral urgency born of welcoming Jesus into our lives is the fruit of
gratitude for having experienced the Lord's unmerited closeness.
Eucharistic consistency
83. Here it is important to consider what the
Synod Fathers described as eucharistic consistency, a quality which our
lives are objectively called to embody. Worship pleasing to God can never be a
purely private matter, without consequences for our relationships with others:
it demands a public witness to our faith. Evidently, this is true for all the
baptized, yet it is especially incumbent upon those who, by virtue of their
social or political position, must make decisions regarding fundamental values,
such as respect for human life, its defence from conception to natural death,
the family built upon marriage between a man and a woman, the freedom to educate
one's children and the promotion of the common good in all its forms (230).
These values are not negotiable. Consequently, Catholic politicians and
legislators, conscious of their grave responsibility before society, must feel
particularly bound, on the basis of a properly formed conscience, to introduce
and support laws inspired by values grounded in human nature (231). There is an
objective connection here with the Eucharist (cf. 1 Cor 11:27-29).
Bishops are bound to reaffirm constantly these values as part of their
responsibility to the flock entrusted to them (232).
The Eucharist, a mystery to be proclaimed
The Eucharist and mission
84. In my homily at the eucharistic celebration
solemnly inaugurating my Petrine ministry, I said that "there is nothing more
beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel, by the encounter with Christ.
There is nothing more beautiful than to know him and to speak to others of our
friendship with him." (233) These words are all the more significant if we
think of the mystery of the Eucharist. The love that we celebrate in the
sacrament is not something we can keep to ourselves. By its very nature it
demands to be shared with all. What the world needs is God's love; it needs to
encounter Christ and to believe in him. The Eucharist is thus the source and
summit not only of the Church's life, but also of her mission: "an
authentically eucharistic Church is a missionary Church." (234) We too
must be able to tell our brothers and sisters with conviction: "That which
we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship
with us" (1 Jn 1:3). Truly, nothing is more beautiful than to know
Christ and to make him known to others. The institution of the Eucharist, for
that matter, anticipates the very heart of Jesus' mission: he is the one sent
by the Father for the redemption of the world (cf. Jn 3:16-17; Rom
8:32). At the Last Supper, Jesus entrusts to his disciples the sacrament which
makes present his self-sacrifice for the salvation of us all, in obedience to
the Father's will. We cannot approach the eucharistic table without being drawn
into the mission which, beginning in the very heart of God, is meant to reach
all people. Missionary outreach is thus an essential part of the eucharistic
form of the Christian life.
The Eucharist and witness
85. The first and fundamental mission that we
receive from the sacred mysteries we celebrate is that of bearing witness by
our lives. The wonder we experience at the gift God has made to us in Christ
gives new impulse to our lives and commits us to becoming witnesses of his
love. We become witnesses when, through our actions, words and way of being,
Another makes himself present. Witness could be described as the means by which
the truth of God's love comes to men and women in history, inviting them to
accept freely this radical newness. Through witness, God lays himself open, one
might say, to the risk of human freedom. Jesus himself is the faithful and true
witness (cf. Rev 1:5; 3:14), the one who came to testify to the truth
(cf. Jn 18:37). Here I would like to reflect on a notion dear to the
early Christians, which also speaks eloquently to us today: namely, witness
even to the offering of one's own life, to the point of martyrdom. Throughout
the history of the Church, this has always been seen as the culmination of the
new spiritual worship: "Offer your bodies" (Rom 12:1). One
thinks, for example, of the account of the martyrdom of Saint Polycarp of
Smyrna, a disciple of Saint John: the entire drama is described as a liturgy,
with the martyr himself becoming Eucharist. (235) We might also recall the
eucharistic imagery with which Saint Ignatius of Antioch describes his own
imminent martyrdom: he sees himself as "God's wheat" and desires to
become in martyrdom "Christ's pure bread." (236) The Christian who
offers his life in martyrdom enters into full communion with the Pasch of Jesus
Christ and thus becomes Eucharist with him. Today too, the Church does not lack
martyrs who offer the supreme witness to God's love. Even if the test of
martyrdom is not asked of us, we know that worship pleasing to God demands that
we should be inwardly prepared for it. (237) Such worship culminates in the
joyful and convincing testimony of a consistent Christian life, wherever the
Lord calls us to be his witnesses.
Christ Jesus, the one Saviour
86. Emphasis on the intrinsic relationship
between the Eucharist and mission also leads to a rediscovery of the ultimate
content of our proclamation. The more ardent the love for the Eucharist in the
hearts of the Christian people, the more clearly will they recognize the goal
of all mission: to bring Christ to others. Not just a theory or a way of
life inspired by Christ, but the gift of his very person. Anyone who has not
shared the truth of love with his brothers and sisters has not yet given
enough. The Eucharist, as the sacrament of our salvation, inevitably reminds us
of the unicity of Christ and the salvation that he won for us by his blood. The
mystery of the Eucharist, believed in and celebrated, demands a constant
catechesis on the need for all to engage in a missionary effort centred on the
proclamation of Jesus as the one Saviour. (238) This will help to avoid a
reductive and purely sociological understanding of the vital work of human
promotion present in every authentic process of evangelization.
Freedom of worship
87. In this context, I wish to reiterate the
concern expressed by the Synod Fathers about the grave difficulties affecting
the mission of those Christian communities in areas where Christians are a
minority or where they are denied religious freedom. (239) We should surely
give thanks to the Lord for all those Bishops, priests, consecrated persons and
laity who devote themselves generously to the preaching of the Gospel and
practise their faith at the risk of their lives. In not a few parts of the
world, simply going to church represents a heroic witness that can result in
marginalization and violence. Here too, I would like to reaffirm the solidarity
of the whole Church with those who are denied freedom of worship. As we know,
wherever religious freedom is lacking, people lack the most meaningful freedom
of all, since it is through faith that men and women express their deepest
decision about the ultimate meaning of their lives. Let us pray, therefore, for
greater religious freedom in every nation, so that Christians, as well as the
followers of other religions, can freely express their convictions, both as
individuals and as communities.
The Eucharist, a mystery to be offered to the
world
The Eucharist, bread broken for the life of the
world
88. "The bread I will give is my flesh,
for the life of the world" (Jn 6:51). In these words the Lord
reveals the true meaning of the gift of his life for all people. These words
also reveal his deep compassion for every man and woman. The Gospels frequently
speak of Jesus' feelings towards others, especially the suffering and sinners
(cf. Mt 20:34; Mk 6:34; Lk 19:41). Through a profoundly
human sensibility he expresses God's saving will for all people – that they may
have true life. Each celebration of the Eucharist makes sacramentally present
the gift that the crucified Lord made of his life, for us and for the whole
world. In the Eucharist Jesus also makes us witnesses of God's compassion
towards all our brothers and sisters. The eucharistic mystery thus gives rise
to a service of charity towards neighbour, which "consists in the very
fact that, in God and with God, I love even the person whom I do not like or
even know. This can only take place on the basis of an intimate encounter with
God, an encounter which has become a communion of will, affecting even my
feelings. Then I learn to look on this other person not simply with my eyes and
my feelings, but from the perspective of Jesus Christ." (240) In all those
I meet, I recognize brothers or sisters for whom the Lord gave his life, loving
them "to the end" (Jn 13:1). Our communities, when they
celebrate the Eucharist, must become ever more conscious that the sacrifice of
Christ is for all, and that the Eucharist thus compels all who believe in him
to become "bread that is broken" for others, and to work for the
building of a more just and fraternal world. Keeping in mind the multiplication
of the loaves and fishes, we need to realize that Christ continues today to
exhort his disciples to become personally engaged: "You yourselves, give
them something to eat" (Mt 14:16). Each of us is truly called,
together with Jesus, to be bread broken for the life of the world.
The social implications of the eucharistic
mystery
89. The union with Christ brought about by the
Eucharist also brings a newness to our social relations: "this sacramental
‘mysticism' is social in character." Indeed, "union with Christ is
also union with all those to whom he gives himself. I cannot possess Christ
just for myself; I can belong to him only in union with all those who have
become, or who will become, his own."(241) The relationship between the
eucharistic mystery and social commitment must be made explicit. The Eucharist
is the sacrament of communion between brothers and sisters who allow themselves
to be reconciled in Christ, who made of Jews and pagans one people, tearing
down the wall of hostility which divided them (cf. Eph 2:14). Only this
constant impulse towards reconciliation enables us to partake worthily of the
Body and Blood of Christ (cf. Mt 5:23-24). (242) In the memorial of his
sacrifice, the Lord strengthens our fraternal communion and, in a particular
way, urges those in conflict to hasten their reconciliation by opening
themselves to dialogue and a commitment to justice. Certainly, the restoration
of justice, reconciliation and forgiveness are the conditions for building true
peace.(243) The recognition of this fact leads to a determination to transform
unjust structures and to restore respect for the dignity of all men and women,
created in God's image and likeness. Through the concrete fulfilment of this
responsibility, the Eucharist becomes in life what it signifies in its
celebration. As I have had occasion to say, it is not the proper task of the
Church to engage in the political work of bringing about the most just society
possible; nonetheless she cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the
struggle for justice. The Church "has to play her part through rational
argument and she has to reawaken the spiritual energy without which justice,
which always demands sacrifice, cannot prevail and prosper." (244)
In discussing the social responsibility of all
Christians, the Synod Fathers noted that the sacrifice of Christ is a mystery
of liberation that constantly and insistently challenges us. I therefore urge
all the faithful to be true promoters of peace and justice: "All who
partake of the Eucharist must commit themselves to peacemaking in our world
scarred by violence and war, and today in particular, by terrorism, economic
corruption and sexual exploitation." (245) All these problems give rise in
turn to others no less troubling and disheartening. We know that there can be
no superficial solutions to these issues. Precisely because of the mystery we
celebrate, we must denounce situations contrary to human dignity, since Christ
shed his blood for all, and at the same time affirm the inestimable value of
each individual person.
The food of truth and human need
90. We cannot remain passive before certain
processes of globalization which not infrequently increase the gap between the
rich and the poor worldwide. We must denounce those who squander the earth's
riches, provoking inequalities that cry out to heaven (cf. Jas 5:4). For
example, it is impossible to remain silent before the "distressing images
of huge camps throughout the world of displaced persons and refugees, who are
living in makeshift conditions in order to escape a worse fate, yet are still
in dire need. Are these human beings not our brothers and sisters? Do their
children not come into the world with the same legitimate expectations of
happiness as other children?" (246) The Lord Jesus, the bread of eternal
life, spurs us to be mindful of the situations of extreme poverty in which a
great part of humanity still lives: these are situations for which human beings
bear a clear and disquieting responsibility. Indeed, "on the basis of
available statistical data, it can be said that less than half of the huge sums
spent worldwide on armaments would be more than sufficient to liberate the
immense masses of the poor from destitution. This challenges humanity's
conscience. To peoples living below the poverty line, more as a result of
situations to do with international political, commercial and cultural
relations than as a result of circumstances beyond anyone's control, our common
commitment to truth can and must give new hope" (247).
The food of truth demands that we denounce
inhumane situations in which people starve to death because of injustice and
exploitation, and it gives us renewed strength and courage to work tirelessly
in the service of the civilization of love. From the beginning, Christians were
concerned to share their goods (cf. Acts 4:32) and to help the poor (cf.
Rom 15:26). The alms collected in our liturgical assemblies are an eloquent
reminder of this, and they are also necessary for meeting today's needs. The
Church's charitable institutions, especially Caritas, carry out at
various levels the important work of assisting the needy, especially the
poorest. Inspired by the Eucharist, the sacrament of charity, they become a
concrete expression of that charity; they are to be praised and encouraged for
their commitment to solidarity in our world.
The Church's social teaching
91. The mystery of the Eucharist inspires and
impels us to work courageously within our world to bring about that renewal of
relationships which has its inexhaustible source in God's gift. The prayer
which we repeat at every Mass: "Give us this day our daily bread,"
obliges us to do everything possible, in cooperation with international, state
and private institutions, to end or at least reduce the scandal of hunger and
malnutrition afflicting so many millions of people in our world, especially in
developing countries. In a particular way, the Christian laity, formed at the
school of the Eucharist, are called to assume their specific political and
social responsibilities. To do so, they need to be adequately prepared through
practical education in charity and justice. To this end, the Synod considered
it necessary for Dioceses and Christian communities to teach and promote the
Church's social doctrine. (248) In this precious legacy handed down from the
earliest ecclesial tradition, we find elements of great wisdom that guide
Christians in their involvement in today's burning social issues. This
teaching, the fruit of the Church's whole history, is distinguished by realism
and moderation; it can help to avoid misguided compromises or false utopias.
The sanctification of the world and the
protection of creation
92. Finally, to develop a profound eucharistic
spirituality that is also capable of significantly affecting the fabric of
society, the Christian people, in giving thanks to God through the Eucharist,
should be conscious that they do so in the name of all creation, aspiring to
the sanctification of the world and working intensely to that end.(249) The
Eucharist itself powerfully illuminates human history and the whole cosmos. In
this sacramental perspective we learn, day by day, that every ecclesial event
is a kind of sign by which God makes himself known and challenges us. The
eucharistic form of life can thus help foster a real change in the way we
approach history and the world. The liturgy itself teaches us this, when,
during the presentation of the gifts, the priest raises to God a prayer of
blessing and petition over the bread and wine, "fruit of the earth,"
"fruit of the vine" and "work of human hands." With these
words, the rite not only includes in our offering to God all human efforts and
activity, but also leads us to see the world as God's creation, which brings
forth everything we need for our sustenance. The world is not something
indifferent, raw material to be utilized simply as we see fit. Rather, it is
part of God's good plan, in which all of us are called to be sons and daughters
in the one Son of God, Jesus Christ (cf. Eph 1:4-12). The justified
concern about threats to the environment present in so many parts of the world
is reinforced by Christian hope, which commits us to working responsibly for
the protection of creation. (250) The relationship between the Eucharist and
the cosmos helps us to see the unity of God's plan and to grasp the profound
relationship between creation and the "new creation" inaugurated in
the resurrection of Christ, the new Adam. Even now we take part in that new
creation by virtue of our Baptism (cf. Col 2:12ff.). Our Christian life,
nourished by the Eucharist, gives us a glimpse of that new world – new heavens
and a new earth – where the new Jerusalem comes down from heaven, from God,
"prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" (Rev 21:2).
The usefulness of a Eucharistic Compendium
93. At the conclusion of these reflections, in
which I have taken up a number of themes raised at the Synod, I also wish to
accept the proposal which the Synod Fathers advanced as a means of helping the
Christian people to believe, celebrate and live ever more fully the mystery of
the Eucharist. The competent offices of the Roman Curia will publish a Compendium
which will assemble texts from the Catechism of the Catholic
Church,
prayers, explanations of the Eucharistic Prayers of the Roman Missal and other
useful aids for a correct understanding, celebration and adoration of the
Sacrament of the Altar (251). It is my hope that this book will help make the
memorial of the Passover of the Lord increasingly the source and summit of the
Church's life and mission. This will encourage each member of the faithful to
make his or her life a true act of spiritual worship.
94. Dear brothers and sisters, the Eucharist is
at the root of every form of holiness, and each of us is called to the fullness
of life in the Holy Spirit. How many saints have advanced along the way of
perfection thanks to their eucharistic devotion! From Saint Ignatius of Antioch
to Saint Augustine, from Saint Anthony Abbot to Saint Benedict, from Saint
Francis of Assisi to Saint Thomas Aquinas, from Saint Clare of Assisi to Saint
Catherine of Siena, from Saint Paschal Baylon to Saint Peter Julian Eymard,
from Saint Alphonsus Liguori to Blessed Charles de Foucauld, from Saint John
Mary Vianney to Saint Thérčse of Lisieux, from Saint Pius of Pietrelcina to
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, from Blessed Piergiorgio Frassati to Blessed Ivan
Merz, to name only a few, holiness has always found its centre in the sacrament
of the Eucharist.
This most holy mystery thus needs to be firmly
believed, devoutly celebrated and intensely lived in the Church. Jesus' gift of
himself in the sacrament which is the memorial of his passion tells us that the
success of our lives is found in our participation in the trinitarian life
offered to us truly and definitively in him. The celebration and worship of the
Eucharist enable us to draw near to God's love and to persevere in that love
until we are united with the Lord whom we love. The offering of our lives, our
fellowship with the whole community of believers and our solidarity with all
men and women are essential aspects of that logiké latreía, spiritual
worship, holy and pleasing to God (cf. Rom 12:1), which transforms every
aspect of our human existence, to the glory of God. I therefore ask all pastors
to spare no effort in promoting an authentically eucharistic Christian
spirituality. Priests, deacons and all those who carry out a eucharistic
ministry should always be able to find in this service, exercised with care and
constant preparation, the strength and inspiration needed for their personal
and communal path of sanctification. I exhort the lay faithful, and families in
particular, to find ever anew in the sacrament of Christ's love the energy
needed to make their lives an authentic sign of the presence of the risen Lord.
I ask all consecrated men and women to show by their eucharistic lives the
splendour and the beauty of belonging totally to the Lord.
95. At the beginning of the fourth century,
Christian worship was still forbidden by the imperial authorities. Some
Christians in North Africa, who felt bound to celebrate the Lord's Day, defied
the prohibition. They were martyred after declaring that it was not possible
for them to live without the Eucharist, the food of the Lord: sine dominico
non possumus. (252) May these martyrs of Abitinae, in union with all those
saints and beati who made the Eucharist the centre of their lives, intercede
for us and teach us to be faithful to our encounter with the risen Christ. We
too cannot live without partaking of the sacrament of our salvation; we too
desire to be iuxta dominicam viventes, to reflect in our lives what we
celebrate on the Lord's Day. That day is the day of our definitive deliverance.
Is it surprising, then, that we should wish to live every day in that newness
of life which Christ has brought us in the mystery of the Eucharist?
96. May Mary Most Holy, the Immaculate Virgin,
ark of the new and eternal covenant, accompany us on our way to meet the Lord
who comes. In her we find realized most perfectly the essence of the Church.
The Church sees in Mary – "Woman of the Eucharist," as she was called
by the Servant of God John Paul II (253) – her finest icon, and she
contemplates Mary as a singular model of the eucharistic life. For this reason,
as the priest prepares to receive on the altar the verum Corpus natum de
Maria Virgine, speaking on behalf of the liturgical assembly, he says in
the words of the canon: "We honour Mary, the ever-virgin mother of Jesus
Christ our Lord and God" (254). Her holy name is also invoked and
venerated in the canons of the Eastern Christian traditions. The faithful, for
their part, "commend to Mary, Mother of the Church, their lives and the
work of their hands. Striving to have the same sentiments as Mary, they help
the whole community to become a living offering pleasing to the Father"
(255). She is the tota pulchra, the all-beautiful, for in her the
radiance of God's glory shines forth. The beauty of the heavenly liturgy, which
must be reflected in our own assemblies, is faithfully mirrored in her. From
Mary we must learn to become men and women of the Eucharist and of the Church,
and thus to present ourselves, in the words of Saint Paul, "holy and
blameless" before the Lord, even as he wished us to be from the beginning
(cf. Col 1:22; Eph 1:4) (256).
97. Through the intercession of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, may the Holy Spirit kindle within us the same ardour experienced
by the disciples on the way to Emmaus (cf. Lk 24:13-35) and renew our
"eucharistic wonder" through the splendour and beauty radiating from
the liturgical rite, the efficacious sign of the infinite beauty of the holy
mystery of God. Those disciples arose and returned in haste to Jerusalem in
order to share their joy with their brothers and sisters in the faith. True joy
is found in recognizing that the Lord is still with us, our faithful companion
along the way. The Eucharist makes us discover that Christ, risen from the
dead, is our contemporary in the mystery of the Church, his body. Of this
mystery of love we have become witnesses. Let us encourage one another to walk
joyfully, our hearts filled with wonder, towards our encounter with the Holy
Eucharist, so that we may experience and proclaim to others the truth of the
words with which Jesus took leave of his disciples: "Lo, I am with you
always, until the end of the world" (Mt 28:20).
Given in Rome, at Saint Peter's, on 22
February, the Feast of the Chair of Peter, in the year 2007, the second of my
Pontificate.
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
(1) Cf. Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa
Theologiae III, q. 73, a. 3.
(2) Saint Augustine, In Iohannis Evangelium
Tractatus, 26,5: PL 35, 1609.
(3) Benedict XVI, Address to Participants in
the Plenary Assembly of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (10
February 2006): AAS 98 (2006), 255.
(4) Benedict XVI, Address to the Members of the
Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops (1 June
2006): L'Osservatore Romano, 2 June 2006, p. 5.
(5) Cf. Propositio 2.
(6) I am referring here to the need for a
hermeneutic of continuity also with regard to the correct interpretation of the
liturgical development which followed the Second Vatican Council: cf. Benedict
XVI, Address to the Roman Curia (22 December 2005): AAS 98 (2006), 44-45.
(7) Cf. AAS 97 (2005), 337-352.
(8) The Year of the Eucharist: Suggestions
and Proposals (15 October 2004): L'Osservatore Romano, 15 October
2004, Supplement.
(9) Cf. AAS 95 (2003), 433-475. Also, the
Instruction of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the
Sacraments Redemptionis Sacramentum (25 March 2004): AAS 96 (2004),
549-601, expressly desired by John Paul II.
(10) To name only the more important documents:
Ecumenical Council of Trent, Doctrina et canones de ss. Missae sacrificio,
DS 1738-1759; Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Mirae Caritatis (28 May 1902):
ASS (1903), 115-136; Pius XII, Encyclical Letter Mediator Dei (20
November 1947): AAS 39 (1947), 521-595; Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Mysterium
Fidei (3 September 1965): AAS 57 (1965), 753-774; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter
Ecclesia de Eucharistia (17 April 2003): AAS 95 (2003), 433-475;
Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments,
Instruction Eucharisticum Mysterium (25 May 1967): AAS 59 (1967),
539-573; Instruction Liturgiam Authenticam (28 March 2001): AAS 93
(2001), 685-726.
(11) Cf. Propositio 1.
(12) No. 14: AAS 98 (2006), 229.
(13) Catechism of the Catholic Church,
1327.
(14) Propositio 16.
(15) Benedict XVI, Homily at the Mass of
Installation in the Cathedral of Rome (7 May 2005): AAS 97 (2005), 752.
(16) Cf. Propositio 4.
(17) De Trinitate, VIII, 8, 12: CCL 50,
287.
(18) Encyclical Letter Deus Caritas Est
(25 December 2005), 12: AAS 98 (2006), 228.
(19) Cf. Propositio 3.
(20) Roman Breviary, Hymn for the Office of
Readings of the Solemnity of Corpus Christi.
(21) Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Deus
Caritas Est (25 December 2005), 13: AAS 98 (2006), 228.
(22) Benedict XVI, Homily at Marienfeld
Esplanade (21 August 2005): AAS 97 (2005), 891-892.
(23) Cf. Propositio 3.
(24) Cf. Roman Missal, Eucharistic Prayer IV.
(25) Cat. XXIII, 7: PG 33, 1114ff.
(26) Cf. De Sacerdotio, VI, 4: PG 48, 681.
(27) Ibid., III, 4: PG 48, 642.
(28) Propositio 22.
(29) Cf. Propositio 42: "This
eucharistic encounter takes place in the Holy Spirit, who transforms and
sanctifies us. He re- awakens in the disciple the firm desire to proclaim
boldly to others all that he has heard and experienced, to bring them to the
same encounter with Christ. Thus the disciple, sent forth by the Church,
becomes open to a mission without frontiers."
(30) Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 3; for an example,
see: Saint John Chrysostom, Catechesis 3, 13-19: SC 50, 174-177.
(31) John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Ecclesia
de Eucharistia (17 April 2003), 1: AAS 95 (2003), 433.
(32) Ibid., 21: AAS 95 (2003), 447.
(33) Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter
Redemptor Hominis (4 March 1979), 20: AAS 71 (1979), 309-316; Apostolic
Letter Dominicae Cenae (24 February 1980), 4: AAS 72 (1980), 119-121.
(34) Cf. Propositio 5.
(35) Cf. Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa
Theologiae, III, q. 80, a. 4.
(36) No. 38: AAS 95 (2003), 458.
(37) Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 23.
(38) Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith, Letter on Some Aspects of the Church Understood as Communion
Communionis Notio (28 May 1992), 11: AAS 85 (1993), 844-845.
(39) Propositio 5: "The term
‘catholic' expresses the universality deriving from the unity that the
Eucharist, celebrated in each Church, fosters and builds up. The particular
Churches in the universal Church thus have, in the Eucharist, the duty to make
visible their own unity and diversity. This bond of fraternal love allows the
trinitarian communion to become apparent. The Councils and Synods express in
history this fraternal aspect of the Church."
(40) Cf. ibid.
(41) Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests
Presbyterorum Ordinis, 5.
(42) Cf. Propositio 14.
(43) Dogmatic Constitution on the Church
Lumen Gentium, 1.
(44) De Orat. Dom., 23: PL 4, 553.
(45) Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 48, cf. ibid., 9.
(46) Cf. Propositio 13.
(47) Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 7.
(48) Cf. ibid., 11; Second Vatican
Ecumenical Council, Decree on the Church's Missionary Activity Ad Gentes,
9, 13.
(49) Cf. John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Dominicae
Cenae (24 February 1980), 7: AAS 72 (1980), 124-127; Second Vatican
Ecumenical Council, Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests Presbyterorum
Ordinis, 5.
(50) Cf. Code of Canons of the Eastern
Churches, can. 710.
(51) Cf. Rite of the Christian Initiation of
Adults, General Introduction, 34-36.
(52) Cf. Rite of Baptism for Children,
Introduction, 18-19.
(53) Cf. Propositio 15.
(54) Cf. Propositio 7; John Paul II,
Encyclical Letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia (17 April 2003), 36: AAS 95
(2003), 457-458.
(55) Cf. John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic
Exhortation Reconciliatio et Paenitentia (2 December 1984), 18: AAS 77
(1985), 224-228.
(56) Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church,
1385.
(57) For example, the Confiteor, or the
words of the priest and people before receiving Communion: "Lord, I am
not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed."
Not insignificantly does the liturgy also prescribe certain very beautiful
prayers for the priest, handed down by tradition, which speak of the need for
forgiveness, as, for example, the one recited quietly before inviting the
faithful to sacramental communion: "By the mystery of your body and
blood, free me from all my sins and from every evil. Keep me always faithful to
your teachings and never let me be parted from you."
(58) Cf. Saint John Damascene, Exposition of
the Faith, IV, 9: PG 94, 1124C; Saint Gregory Nazianzen, Oratio 39,
17: PG 36, 356A; Ecumenical Council of Trent, Doctrina de sacramento
paenitentiae, Chapter 2: DS 1672.
(59) Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 11; John Paul II,
Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliatio et Paenitentia (2
December 1984), 30: AAS 77 (1985), 256-257.
(60) Cf. Propositio 7.
(61) Cf. John Paul II, Motu Proprio Misericordia Dei (7 April 2002): AAS 94 (2002), 452-459.
(62) Together with the Synod Fathers I wish to
note that the non-sacramental penitential services mentioned in the ritual of
the sacrament of Reconciliation can be helpful for increasing the spirit of
conversion and of communion in Christian communities, thereby preparing hearts
for the celebration of the sacrament: cf. Propositio 7.
(63) Cf. Code of Canon Law, can. 508.
(64) Paul VI, Apostolic Constitution
Indulgentiarum Doctrina (1 January 1967), Norms, No. 1: AAS 59
(1967), 21.
(65) Ibid., 9: AAS 59 (1967), 18-19.
(66) Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church,
1499-1532.
(67) Ibid., 1524.
(68) Cf. Propositio 44.
(69) Cf. Synod of Bishops, Second General
Assembly, Document on the Ministerial Priesthood Ultimis Temporibus (30
November 1971): AAS 63 (1971), 898-942.
(70) Cf. John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic
Exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis (25 March 1992), 42-69: AAS 84 (1992),
729-778.
(71) Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 10; Congregation for
the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter on Certain Questions Concerning the Minister
of the Eucharist Sacerdotium Ministeriale (6 August 1983): AAS 75
(1983), 1001-1009.
(72) Catechism of the Catholic Church,
1548.
(73) Ibid., 1552.
(74) Cf. In Iohannis Evangelium Tractatus,
123, 5: PL 35, 1967.
(75) Cf. Propositio 11.
(76) Cf. Decree on the Ministry and Life of
Priests Presbyterorum Ordinis, 16.
(77) Cf. John XXIII, Encyclical Letter
Sacerdotii Nostri Primordia (1 August 1959): AAS 51 (1959), 545-579; Paul
VI, Encyclical Letter Sacerdotalis Coelibatus (24 June 1967): AAS 59
(1967), 657-697; John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Pastores
Dabo Vobis (25 March 1992), 29: AAS 84 (1992), 703-705; Benedict XVI,
Address to the Roman Curia (22 December 2006): L'Osservatore Romano, 23
December 2006, p. 6.
(78) Cf. Propositio 11.
(79) Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Decree on Priestly Formation Optatam Totius, 6; Code of Canon Law, can.
241, § 1 and can. 1029; Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, can. 342 § 1
and can. 758; John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Pastores Dabo
Vobis (25 March 1992), 11, 34, 50: AAS 84 (1992), 673-675; 712-714;
746-748; Congregation for the Clergy, Directory for the Ministry and Life of
Priests Dives Ecclesiae (31 March 1994), 58; Congregation for Catholic
Education, Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations
with regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in view of their Admission to
the Seminary and to Holy Orders (4 November 2005): AAS 97 (2005), 1007-1013.
(80) Cf. Propositio 12; John Paul II,
Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis (25 March 1992),
41: AAS 84 (1992), 726-729.
(81) Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 29.
(82) Cf. Propositio 38.
(83) Cf. John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic
Exhortation Familiaris Consortio (22 November 1981), 57: AAS 74 (1982),
149-150.
(84) Apostolic Letter Mulieris Dignitatem
(15 August 1988), 26: AAS 80 (1988), 1715-1716.
(85) Catechism of the Catholic Church,
1617.
(86) Cf. Propositio 8.
(87) Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 11.
(88) Cf. Propositio 8.
(89) Cf. John Paul II, Apostolic Letter
Mulieris Dignitatem (15 August 1988): AAS 80 (1988), 1653-1729; Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church
on the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World (31
May 2004): AAS 96 (2004), 671-687.
(90) Cf. Propositio 9.
(91) Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church,
1640.
(92) Cf. John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic
Exhortation Familiaris Consortio (22 November 1981), 84: AAS 74 (1982),
184- 186; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter to the Bishops of
the Catholic Church concerning the Reception of Holy Communion by Divorced and
Remarried Members of the Faithful Annus Internationalis Familiae (14
September 1994): AAS 86 (1994), 974-979.
(93) Cf. Pontifical Council for Legislative
Texts, Instruction on the Norms to be Observed at Ecclesiastical Tribunals in
Matrimonial Proceedings Dignitas Connubii (25 January 2005), Vatican
City, 2005.
(94) Cf. Propositio 40.
(95) Benedict XVI, Address to the Tribunal of
the Roman Rota for the Inauguration of the Judicial Year (28 January 2006): AAS
98 (2006), 138.
(96) Cf. Propositio 40.
(97) Cf. ibid.
(98) Cf. ibid.
(99) Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 48.
(100) Cf. Propositio 3.
(101) Here I would recall the words filled with
hope and consolation found in Eucharistic Prayer II: "Remember our
brothers and sisters who have gone to their rest in the hope of rising again.
Bring them and all the departed into the light of your presence."
(102) Cf. Benedict XVI, Homily (8 December
2005): AAS 98 (2006), 15-16.
(103) Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen
Gentium, 58.
(104) Propositio 4.
(105) Relatio post disceptationem, 4:
L'Osservatore Romano, 14 October 2005, p. 5.
(106) Cf. Serm. 1, 7; 11, 10; 22, 7; 29,
76: Sermones dominicales ad fidem codicum nunc denuo editi, Grottaferrata,
1977, pp. 135, 209ff., 292ff.; 337; Benedict XVI, Message to Ecclesial
Movements and New Communities (22 May 2006): AAS 98 (2006), 463.
(107) Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 22.
(108) Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, 2, 4.
(109) Propositio 33.
(110) Sermo 227, 1: PL 38, 1099.
(111) In Iohannis Evangelium Tractatus,
21, 8: PL 35, 1568.
(112) Ibid., 28, 1: PL 35, 1622.
(113) Cf. Propositio 30. Weekday Masses,
which the faithful are encouraged to attend, find their proper form on the day
of the Lord, the day of Christ's resurrection; Propositio 43.
(114) Cf. Propositio 2.
(115) Cf. Propositio 25.
(116) Cf. Propositio 19. Propositio
25 states: "An authentic liturgical action expresses the sacredness of the
eucharistic mystery. This should be evident from the words and actions of the
priest who celebrates, as he intercedes to God the Father both with the faithful
and on their behalf."
(117) General Instruction of the Roman
Missal, 22; Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Constitution on the
Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, 41; cf. Congregation for Divine
Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Instruction Redemptionis
Sacramentum (25 March 2004), 19-25: AAS 96 (2004), 555-557.
(118) Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Decree on the Pastoral Office of Bishops in the Church Christus Dominus,
14; Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, 41.
(119) General Instruction of the Roman
Missal, 22.
(120) Cf. ibid.
(121) Cf. Propositio 25.
(122) Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, 112-130.
(123) Cf. Propositio 27.
(124) Cf. ibid.
(125) In these matters the provisions of the
General Instruction of the Roman Missal, 319-351, are to be faithfully
observed.
(126) Cf. General Instruction of the Roman
Missal, 39-41; Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Constitution on the
Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, 112-118.
(127) Sermo 34, 1: PL 38, 210.
(128) Cf. Propositio 25: "Like
every artistic expression, singing must be closely adapted to the liturgy and
contribute effectively to its aim; in other words, it must express faith,
prayer, wonder and love of Jesus present in the Eucharist."
(129) Cf. Propositio 29.
(130) Cf. Propositio 36.
(131) Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, 116;
General Instruction of the Roman Missal, 41.
(132) General Instruction of the Roman
Missal, 28; cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Constitution on the
Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, 56; Sacred Congregation of Rites,
Instruction Eucharisticum Mysterium (25 May 1967), 3: AAS 57 (1967),
540-543.
(133) Cf. Propositio 18.
(134) Ibid.
(135) General Instruction of the Roman
Missal, 29.
(136) Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter
Fides et Ratio (14 September 1998), 13: AAS 91 (1999), 15-16.
(137) Saint Jerome, Comm. in Is., Prol.:
PL 24, 17; cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on
Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, 25.
(138) Cf. Propositio 31.
(139) General Instruction of the Roman
Missal, 29; cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Constitution on the
Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, 7, 33, 52.
(140) Cf. Propositio 19.
(141) Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, 52.
(142) Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, 21.
(143) To this end the Synod has called for the
preparation of pastoral aids based on the three-year lectionary, to help
connect the proclamation of the readings with the doctrine of the faith; cf.
Propositio 19.
(144) Cf. Propositio 20.
(145) General Instruction of the Roman
Missal, 78.
(146) Cf. ibid., 78-79.
(147) Cf. Propositio 22.
(148) General Instruction of the Roman
Missal, 79d.
(149) Ibid., 79c.
(150) Taking into account ancient and venerable
customs and the wishes expressed by the Synod Fathers, I have asked the
competent curial offices to study the possibility of moving the sign of peace
to another place, such as before the presentation of the gifts at the altar. To
do so would also serve as a significant reminder of the Lord's insistence that
we be reconciled with others before offering our gifts to God (cf. Mt
5:23 ff.); cf. Propositio 23.
(151) Cf. Congregation for Divine Worship and
the Discipline of the Sacraments, Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum
(25 March 2004), 80-96: AAS 96 (2004), 574-577.
(152) Cf. Propositio 34.
(153) Cf. Propositio 35.
(154) Cf. Propositio 24.
(155) Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, 14-20; 30ff.;
48ff; Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments,
Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum (25 March 2004), 36-42: AAS 96
(2004), 561-564.
(156) No. 48.
(157) Ibid.
(158) Cf. Congregation for the Clergy,
Instruction on Certain Questions Regarding the Collaboration of the Non-
Ordained Faithful in the Ministry of Priests Ecclesiae de Mysterio (15
August 1997): AAS 89 (1997), 852-877.
(159) Cf. Propositio 33.
(160) General Instruction of the Roman
Missal, 92.
(161) Cf. ibid., 94.
(162) Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity Apostolicam Actuositatem, 24;
General Instruction of the Roman Missal, 95-111; Congregation for Divine
Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Instruction Redemptionis
Sacramentum (25 March 2004), 43-47: AAS 96 (2004), 564-566; Propositio
33: "These ministries must be introduced in accordance with a specific
mandate and in accordance with the real needs of the celebrating community.
Those entrusted with these liturgical services must be chosen with care, well
prepared, and provided with ongoing formation. Their appointment must be for a
limited term. They must be known to the community and be gratefully
acknowledged by the community."
(163) Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, 37-42.
(164) Cf. General Instruction of the Roman
Missal, 386-399.
(165) Cf. Congregation for Divine Worship and
the Discipline of the Sacraments, Instruction on the Roman Liturgy and
Inculturation Varietates Legitimae (25 January 1994): AAS 87 (1995),
288-314.
(166) Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation
Ecclesia in Africa (14 September 1995), 55-71: AAS 88 (1996), 34-47;
Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in America (22 January
1999), 16, 40, 64, 70-72: AAS 91 (1999), 752-753, 775-776, 799, 805-809;
Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Asia (6 November 1999),
21ff.: AAS 92 (2000), 482-487; Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia
in Oceania (22 November 2001), 16: AAS 94 (2002), 382-384; Post-Synodal
Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Europa (28 June 2003), 58-60: AAS 95
(2003), 685-686.
(167) Cf. Propositio 26.
(168) Cf. Propositio 35; Second Vatican
Ecumenical Council, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum
Concilium, 11.
(169) Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church,
1388; Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy
Sacrosanctum Concilium, 55.
(170) Cf. Encyclical Letter Ecclesia de
Eucharistia (17 April 2003), 34: AAS 95 (2003), 456.
(171) See, for example, Saint Thomas Aquinas,
Summa Theologiae, III, q. LXXX, a. 1, 2; Saint Teresa of Jesus, The Way
of Perfection, Chapter 35. The doctrine was authoritatively confirmed by
the Council of Trent, Session XIII, c. VIII.
(172) Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Ut
Unum Sint (25 May 1995), 8: AAS 87 (1995), 925-926.
(173) Cf. Propositio 41; Second Vatican
Ecumenical Council, Decree on Ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio, 8, 15;
John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Ut Unum Sint (25 May 1995), 46: AAS 87
(1995), 948; Encyclical Letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia (17 April 2003),
45-46: AAS 95 (2003), 463-464; Code of Canon Law, can. 844 §§ 3-4; Code
of Canons of the Eastern Churches, can. 671 §§ 3-4; Pontifical Council for
Promoting Christian Unity, Directoire pour l'application des principes et
des normes sur l'ścuménisme (25 March 1993), 125, 129-131: AAS 85 (1993),
1087, 1088-1089.
(174) Cf. Nos. 1398-1401.
(175) Cf. No. 293.
(176) Cf. Pontifical Council for Social
Communications, Pastoral Instruction on Social Communications on the Twentieth
Anniversary of "Communio et Progressio" Aetatis Novae (22
February 1992): AAS 84 (1992), 447-468.
(177) Cf. Propositio 29.
(178) Cf. Propositio 44.
(179) Cf. Propositio 48.
(180) Candidates for the priesthood can be
introduced to these traditions as part of their seminary training: cf.
Propositio 45.
(181) Cf. Propositio 37.
(182) Cf. Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum
Concilium, 36, 54.
(183) Propositio 36.
(184) Cf. ibid.
(185) Cf. Propositio 32.
(186) Cf. Propositio 14.
(187) Propositio 19.
(188) Cf. Propositio 14.
(189) Cf. Benedict XVI, Homily at First Vespers
of Pentecost (3 June 2006): AAS 98 (2006), 509.
(190) Cf. Propositio 34.
(191) Enarrationes in Psalmos 98:9,
CCL XXXIX, 1385; cf. Benedict XVI, Address to the Roman Curia (22
December 2005): AAS 98 (2006), 44-45.
(192) Cf. Propositio 6.
(193) Benedict XVI, Address to the Roman Curia
(22 December 2005): AAS 98 (2006), 45.
(194) Cf. Propositio 6; Congregation for
Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Directory on Popular
Piety and the Liturgy (17 December 2001), Nos. 164-165, Vatican City, 2002;
Sacred Congregation of Rites, Instruction Eucharisticum Mysterium (25
May 1967): AAS 57 (1967), 539-573.
(195) Cf. Relatio post disceptationem,
11: L'Osservatore Romano, 14 October 2005, p. 5.
(196) Cf. Propositio 28.
(197) Cf. No. 314.
(198) VII, 10, 16: PL 32, 742.
(199) Benedict XVI, Homily at Marienfeld
Esplanade (21 August 2005): AAS 97 (2005), 892; cf. Homily for the Vigil of
Pentecost (3 June 2006): AAS 98 (2006), 505.
(200) Cf. Relatio post disceptationem,
6, 47: L'Osservatore Romano, 14 October 2005, pp. 5-6; Propositio 43.
(201) De Civitate Dei, X, 6: PL 41, 284.
(202) Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church,
1368.
(203) Cf. Saint Irenaeus, Adv. Haer.,
IV, 20, 7: PG 7, 1037.
(204) Ad Magnes., 9, 1: PG 5, 670.
(205) Cf. I Apologia, 67, 1-6; 66: PG 6,
430ff., 427, 430.
(206) Cf. Propositio 30.
(207) Cf. AAS 90 (1998), 713-766.
(208) Propositio 30.
(209) Homily (19 March 2006): AAS 98 (2006),
324.
(210) The Compendium of the Social Doctrine
of the Church, 258, rightly notes in this regard: "For man, bound as
he is to the necessity of work, this rest opens to the prospect of a fuller
freedom, that of the eternal Sabbath (cf. Heb 4:9-10). Rest gives men
and women the possibility to remember and experience anew God's work, from
Creation to Redemption, to recognize themselves as his work (cf. Eph
2:10), and to give thanks for their lives and for their subsistence to him who
is their author."
(211) Cf. Propositio 10.
(212) Cf. ibid.
(213) Cf. Benedict XVI, Address to the Bishops
of Canada – Quebec during their Visit ad Limina (11 May 2006): cf. L'Osservatore
Romano, 12 May 2006, p. 5.
(214) No. 10: AAS 71 (1979), 414-415.
(215) Benedict XVI, General Audience of 29
March 2006: L'Osservatore Romano, 30 March 2006, p. 4.
(216) Propositio 39.
(217) Cf. Relatio post disceptationem,
30: L'Osservatore Romano, 14 October 2005, p. 6.
(218) Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 39-42.
(219) Cf. John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic
Exhortation Christifideles Laici (30 December 1988), 14, 16: AAS 81
(1989), 409-413; 416-418.
(220) Cf. Propositio 39.
(221) Cf. ibid.
(222) The Roman Pontifical, Rites of
Ordination of a Bishop, of Priests and of Deacons, Ordination of a Priest,
No. 163.
(223) Cf. John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic
Exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis (25 March 1992), 19-33; 70-81: AAS 84
(1992), 686-712; 778-800.
(224) Propositio 38.
(225) Propositio 39. Cf. John Paul
II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata (25 March 1996),
95: AAS 88 (1996), 470-471.
(226) Code of Canon Law, can. 663 § 1.
(227) Cf. John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic
Exhortation Vita Consecrata (25 March 1996), 34: AAS 88 (1996), 407-408.
(228) Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor
(6 August 1993), 107: AAS 85 (1993), 1216-1217.
(229) Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Deus
Caritas Est (25 December 2005), 14: AAS 98 (2006), 229.
(230) Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Evangelium
Vitae (25 March 1995): AAS 87 (1995), 401-522; Benedict XVI, Address to the
Pontifical Academy for Life (27 February 2006): AAS 98 (2006), 264-265.
(231) Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith, Doctrinal Note on Some Questions Regarding the Participation of
Catholics in Political Life (24 November 2002): AAS 96 (2004), 359-370.
(232) Cf. Propositio 46.
(233) AAS 97 (2005), 711.
(234) Propositio 42.
(235) Cf. Mart. Polycarp., XV, 1: PG 5,
1039, 1042.
(236) Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Ad. Rom.,
IV, 1: PG 5, 690.
(237) Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 42.
(238) Cf. Propositio 42; Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration on the Unicity and Salvific
Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church Dominus Iesus (6 August
2000), 13- 15: AAS 92 (2000), 754-755.
(239) Cf. Propositio 42.
(240) Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Deus Caritas Est (25 December 2005), 18: AAS 98 (2006), 232.
(241) Ibid., 14.
(242) During the Synod sessions we heard very
moving and significant testimonies about the effectiveness of the Eucharist in
peacemaking. In this regard, Propositio 49 states that: "Thanks to
eucharistic celebrations, peoples engaged in conflict have been able to gather
around the word of God, hear his prophetic message of reconciliation through
gratuitous forgiveness, and receive the grace of conversion which allows them
to share in the same bread and cup."
(243) Cf. Propositio 48.
(244) Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Deus
Caritas Est (25 December 2005), 28: AAS 98 (2006), 239.
(245) Propositio 48.
(246) Benedict XVI, Address to the Diplomatic
Corps Accredited to the Holy See (9 January 2006): AAS 98 (2006), 127.
(247) Ibid.
(248) Cf. Propositio 48. In this regard,
the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church has proved most
helpful.
(249) Cf. Propositio 43.
(250) Cf. Propositio 47.
(251) Cf. Propositio 17.
(252) Martyrium Saturnini, Dativi et aliorum
plurimorum, 7, 9, 10: PL 8, 707, 709-710.
(253) Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter
Ecclesia de Eucharistia (17 April 2003), 53: AAS 95 (2003), 469.
(254) Eucharistic Prayer I (Roman Canon).
(255) Propositio 50.
(256) Cf. Benedict XVI, Homily (8 December
2005): AAS 98 (2006), 15.
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