Transcript of Abbot Clement=s Talk on Monday, January 3, 2005
The fact that the Pope has written an encyclical on the Eucharist in 2003, and then had a lineamente, which is a document to prepare for a senate, passed out and now its come to a conclusion at the end of December and people who were participating in it will send responses to the Pope, then the senate will take place on the Eucharist. Obviously this is no small matter because the Eucharist is the center of our life and in some ways the Church is the Eucharist. It
=s important for us to at least plan and take advantage of this movement in the Church. I want to start with the first chapter of the lineamente and to stimulate you so that you can find your own way to deepen this particular aspect of our life. In the mean time I will probably add to it as I come across significant articles.One of the first things that we notice is that the document is more comprehensive then in the past in the sense that things have changed since Trent and certain broader perspectives are put forward simply because Trent was kind of on the defensive and was simply protecting the teachings of the church. Its intent was not to present the whole of the teaching on the Eucharist.
One of the first things we see is that the strong presentation that Jesus is the sacrament of God, is the first real thing to think about because it places Jesus in the position that every time you encounter him you encounter God. What do we do with the statements of Jesus when he says things like in John
=s gospel, AI am the resurrection and life.@ How do we respond to this?Then the second broad comment is that the church is a sacrament of the salvation of Christ so that the whole community is itself the source of Jesus
= redemptive graces and therefore how do we look at that in terms of our worship and in terms of our position in the church.Then comes the fact that the document insists that the prayer of the Eucharist is in dialogical form, that is, God takes the initiative to speak and act and ours is to respond. This has a lot of implications and must invoke in us a proper alertness and response in the prayer. Then the document reminds us that the eucharistic word for the Eucharist is itself and expression of thanksgiving which is obviously a response. Then the document talks about the fact that the liturgy is not simply the property of the priest, it belongs to the whole community. Here, I think, we have a lot of place to grow and to deepen because it is a question of how do we get together and when we get together, how do we pray together? What
=s our consciousness of the community=s part and our part in the community with a consciousness of our brotherhood and sisterhood in Christ? This obviously should have a lot of development because as that grows there should be an impact in the church.Then there
=s some interesting things that are presented. There=s a number of biblical images that are presented that have not been presented before and two of which I want to focus on, that is, Bearaca, which is the prayer at meal times for blessings. Bless the Lord for the fruits of the earth, etc., then also the Toda, which is the prayer in the Jewish community of praise and thanksgiving. These two traditions in the Jewish community certainly have influenced the formation of the Eucharistic prayer.Then it is interesting that the first biblical image is really that of the covenant. The two prophets Ezechiel and Jeremiah remind us that the Lord is going to have a new covenant and that new covenant is in the blood of Christ and in the power of the blood of Christ we are reconciled with God. These images enrich our theology and participation of the Eucharist.
Then there
=s an interesting final presentation which covers the ecumenical dimension even though it=s not sharply presented. It=s presented in kind of a rambling way because there=s not a total agreement between the church and the Protestant church=s in their effort to summarize the Eucharist.The summary is basically of five points: that the Eucharist is the place for thanksgiving to the Father, it
=s the memorial of the Son, it is the place where the Holy Spirit anoints, it=s the place where we have the communion in the church, and then it has the place of what the Protestants call the meal of the kingdom.The document doesn
=t use that language and doesn=t totally agree with those statements mainly because for us the question of communion also includes the question of the Eucharistic presence. The real presence of Christ which is not developed by them and secondly the question of the meal doesn=t really bring out the mission that the Eucharist insists on. After all the church has for a long time said that the Eucharist is the summit and source of our life and our mission. If there=s no mission to the Eucharist then the danger is that we become isolated and not moving out toward the world and bringing apostolic orientation toward it.The reason why I summarized this is to encourage you to start looking up articles as they come in and as they begin to explicate what the synod will talk about and think about it in terms of your own growth. You
=ve been going to the Eucharist all these years, you have picked up certain kinds of ways of expressing your faith, and certain ways of understanding it and therefore a certain kind of quality of presence that you have. It needs to be renewed and deepened and it needs to be expanded and also to embrace what Jesus embraces. Jesus= redemptive presence embraces the whole world and the sanctification and not only of this time but the leading of all people into the kingdom. So we always need to deepen our appreciation of the Eucharist because it=s such a profound and rich mystery.