Meditation Twenty, Fourth Week of July 2003

The Church from the Eucharist

Readings: Heb. 8:1-7; 9:11-28; 1 Cor. 11: 23-34; Phil. 2:5-11.

In the new encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia (The Church from the Eucharist), published on Holy Thursday, April 17, 2003, the Holy Father takes up the beautiful relationship between the Holy Eucharist and the Church. This is not an easy idea to comprehend, but it is one that can give great meaning to the individual's spiritual life. Every day we are invited to share in the Paschal Mystery, the loving and obedient sacrifice of the Son of God, born into this world as the child of Mary and our brother. In this mystery He offers Himself to the Father as the paschal lamb, the little creature sacrificed so that its blood could save the children of God in Egypt from death. Christ offered Himself on the Cross, but the Church, based on Saint Paul (1 Cor. 11:23-34) and the tradition of very early times, teaches us that He continues to offer Himself in what is called the Paschal Mystery. Most Catholics do not think of their lives united to the Paschal Mystery, but that participation, total and mysterious, will be out eternal life in heaven. The Mass here on earth begins our eternal life. If we begin to think of the Paschal Mystery, our personal life can be transformed and our view of the Church, as it really is in God's eyes, would be transformed as well.

Quotation for Meditation

Ecclesia de Eucharistia

The Church was born of the Paschal Mystery. For this very reason the Eucharist, which is in an outstanding way the sacrament of the Paschal Mystery, stands at the center of the Church's life. This is already clear from the earliest images of the Church found in the Acts of the Apostles: "They devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers" (2:42). The "breaking of the bread" refers to the Eucharist. Two thousand years later we continue to relive that primordial image of the Church. At every celebration of the Eucharist we are spiritually brought back to the Paschal Triduum: to the events of the evening of Holy Thursday, to the Last Supper and to what followed it. The institution of the Eucharist sacramentally anticipated the events which were about to take place, beginning with the agony in Gethsemane. Once again we see Jesus as He leaves the Upper Room, descends with His disciples to the Kidron valley and goes to the Garden of Olives. Even today that garden shelters some very ancient olive trees. Perhaps they witnessed what happened beneath their shade that evening, when Christ in prayer was filled with anguish "and His sweat became like drops of blood falling down upon the ground" (cf. Lk. 22:44). The blood which shortly before He had given to the Church as the drink of salvation in the sacrament of the Eucharist, began to be shed; its outpouring would then be completed on Golgotha to become the means of our redemption: "Christ . . . as high priest of the good things to come . . . entered once for all into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of goats and calves but His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption" (Heb. 9:11-12). The hour of our redemption. Although deeply troubled, Jesus does not flee before His "hour." "And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, for this purpose I have come to this hour" (John 12:27). He wanted His disciples to keep Him company, yet He had to experience loneliness and abandonment: "So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation" (Mt. 26:40-41). Only John would remain at the foot of the Cross, at the side of Mary and the faithful women. The agony in Gethsemane was the introduction to the agony of the Cross on Good Friday. The holy hour, the hour of the redemption of the world. Whenever the Eucharist is celebrated at the tomb of Jesus in Jerusalem, there is an almost tangible return to His "hour," the hour of His Cross and glorification. Every priest who celebrates Holy Mass, together with the Christian community which takes part in it, is led back in spirit to that place and that hour.

Quiet Time and Then Discussion

Questions for Meditation

1. Do I think of my life united with Christ in His suffering and death?

2. Do I have a renewed view of the Church as our entrance into the Paschal Mystery?

3. Do I think of each day as part of Christ's offering to the Holy Trinity?

Prayer

O Lord Jesus Christ, You came into this world to be our priest. Because of the sins of human beings You suffered bitterly and offered Your life in obedience on the Cross. You have called each one of us to carry Your Cross. Help us now to see that the carrying of that Cross envelops us in the immense mystery of divine love, which You showed to the Father as You accepted suffering and death peacefully on the Cross. Help us to have a spirit of sacrifice. Amen