What
do Catholics REALLY Believe About the Eucharist?
A Catholic
priest acquaintance of mine was ponderously explaining
(and apparently with more than a modicum of synchronicity) the difference
between the Views of a Dutch Reformed minister friend of his and the
�Catholic� one regarding the Eucharist.
The heavy
and drawn out explanation focused on FREQUENCY of reception in that the DRC used
to urge frequent Communion and now advises occasional such usage whereas the
Roman Catholic tradition had been one of very INFREQUENT Communion and now
encourages even daily Communion, since the time of St. Pope Pius X. It had
become counter-positioned and evolved into a kind of circular taking the
other�s previous devotional practice.
While such
a point is historically accurate, I felt it necessary to articulate that such a
distinction, while true, was, from a theological point of view, hopelessly
superficial and, at the very least, seriously limited. I suggested that the true
distinction should center, not on frequency of usage, but in concept. The priest
seemed startled by my pointed challenge and retorted that it was SIMPLY a matter of words and that
my reaction, in essence, was more academic than real.
I had
heard some years previously at a clergy seminar that there was an alarming rise
in non-belief among Catholic laity regarding the Real Presence of Christ in the
Eucharist. I, in a moment of somewhat unbelievable daring, asked the lecturer
what he opined to be the level of non-belief among priests. It was my turn to be
startled when he stated that there was, in his opinion,
a surprising number of
functioning Catholic priests who do not believe
in the True Presence of Jesus under
the appearances of bread and wine. When I asked �How many?� he
declined to put a figure on the opinion.
At that
time I thought he was �pulling the long bow� as the County Cork people used
to say. How could a priest go
through the Sacrifice of the Mass and pretend that he believed when he did not?
How could he �charade� it through, before hundreds of sincere and holy
people who do believe in the reality of the Eucharist?
How could he bend his knee before the Tabernacle in apparently meaningful
genuflection when he believed that only bread was reserved therein?
This would seem to me to be the supreme hypocrisy of all time.
Would not this behavior necessarily
involve him in a typical Festinger
paradygm of
Dissonance? How could he
balance ( cognitively) and accept two antithetical contradictory concepts
at the same time?
At the
Holy Thursday liturgy a few years ago an Up-To-Date Pastor in a large American
city, stated that �It� was ONLY bread and nothing more. Many of the
Catholics present who understood what he was saying, were shocked and several of
the concelebrating priests walked off the altar in
protest. Did he really believe what he was saying or was it a form of
unconscious, personal father-rebellion,
unresolved from early life?
Does his
adolescent behavior reflect what is going in our Church and society in general?
I was
giving a retreat to priests �somewhere� when one of the priest retreatants
consulted me for a private interview.
He announced that he did not BELIEVE IN GOD!!!!!
When I asked him how he managed to offer the Holy Mass for his parish
when he had such a fundamental Faith- lack, he replied
that he was deeply interested in COMMUNITY.
The Mass offered him a great opportunity to mould and influence large numbers of
people into communal behavior and social betterment. This gave him a great
feeling of power and accomplishment which
he probably could not achieve as a layman.
At the same time, it was psychologically interesting that he was involved
in secret sexual activity which he seemed to use as a kind of medication for the
guilt which he denied. Putting on my psychologist�s hat, I cautiously
recommended to him that he could benefit from some extended, deep counseling
with a professional. His problem was neither intellectual nor spiritual (even
though he seriously neglected his prayer life)
but clearly psychological.
It was patently clear that he was seriously distorted in his emotional life.
He hadn�t really grown up!!
Can I
suppose that it is similar in those Catholics
(including with-it-Catholic
clergy and religious) who in one way or another announce their
�Recovering Catholic� status? Is
it really for intellectual reasons that they now are so � mature.�? Or is it
something much deeper?
However, it may be possible --- wild as it may seem�that
some people are unclear about the
teachings of the Church! Perhaps,
there are some poorly educated but well meaning priests. Nevertheless the
teaching on the Eucharist is quite clear:
�By the consecration the transubstantiation of the bread
and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ is brought about. Under the
consecrated species of bread and wine Christ, Himself, living and glorious, is
present in a true, real and substantial manner; His Body and His Blood, with His
soul and Divinity. (Council of
Trent: DS1640: 1651)
Anything else--- for a Catholic-- is inauthentic Catholicism.
As an analogous example, to support �CATHOLICS
FOR A FREE CHOICE� (ABORTION) is
oxymoronic when the Catholic Church stands antithetically opposed to abortion as
the killing of innocent human life. We hold that from the very moment of
conception the embryo inevitably develops into a human being---with an immortal
soul!! Has any human embryo ever developed into a zebra?
All the verbal tap dancing and airy persiflage cannot escape the
inexorable conclusion. Catholics support and proclaim LIFE when the association
mentioned above supports death. While many interpretations range far and wide on
Catholic teachings, it is important to separate the authentic from the
inauthentic. In the discussion on the Eucharist, it seems to me that the best
criterion of authenticity is the OFFICIAL teaching of the
Church, not
New Age types of insight.
Therefore,
again, hear the Council of Trent, which
as a COUNCIL is the Highest Form of Catholic articulation--:
�Because
Our Redeemer said that it was truly His Body that He was offering under the
species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and
this holy Council now declares again, that by the CONSECRATION of the bread and
wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the
substance of the Body of Christ, Our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine
into the substance of His Blood. This change the holy Catholic church has
fittingly and properly called TRAN-
SUBSTANTIATION.�
(CF.
C.of Trent ds1642)
The Catholic catechism teaches
(#1374) that �.. the mode of
Christ�s Presence is unique. It raises the Eucharist above ALL
The
sacraments as the perfection of the spiritual life and the end towards which all
other sacraments trend. In the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist, the body
and blood, together with the soul and the divinity, of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
and therefore the whole Christ is truly, really
and substantially contained. This Presence is called
REAL��������..�
Our
Holy Father, the Pope, strongly
underscores this clear teaching
in his recent encyclical: Eccclesia
de Eucharistia. Although some new age types have expressed some
displeasure at John Paul II�s articulation
of the reverence due to this Most Holy of Sacraments,
the Pope, without apology,
presses for intense Eucharistic
devotion.The implications of his guidance here are enormous. While our theologic
tradition holds that this Sacrament cannot be apprehended by the senses, as
such, but ONLY BY FAITH, the experience of God in the Eucharist is almost
palpable. St. Thomas Aquinas who was called the Angelic Doctor expressed it most
succinctly in his famous ADORO
TE DEVOTE ( translated by
G.M.Hopkins SJ as follows)
Godhead
here in hiding, whom I do adore
Masked
by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more
See,
Lord, at Thy service low lies here a heart
Lost,
all lost in wonder at the God Thou art.
Seeing,
touching, tasting are in Thee deceived;
How
says trusty hearing? That shall be believed;
What
God�s Son has told me, take for truth I do;
Truth Himself speaks truly or
there�s nothing true.
Many
of us recall the lovely story from the life of St. John Vianney, the priest�s
priest which is almost prototypic
of the Union with God which comes so readily to Eucharistic adora- tion. An old
uneducated peasant spent hours before the Blessed Sacrament each day at the
Cure�s Church in Ars and had caught the attention of the saint who asked him
the startling question: � What do you say to Him during these hours?�
We note that BELIEF in the Presence of Christ is simply and utterly taken
for granted. It is the CONTENT of the relationship which interests the Saint.
So, the peasant answers simply (
and profoundly): � I don�t say
anything to Him. I just look at Him and He just looks at me.�
This
represents probably the most mystical of prayers, viz: the prayer of quiet. It
is non-verbal. It is the meta verbal mode by which Jesus spoke to St. Francis
before the San Damiano crucifix wherein the Lord instructs His faithful servant
how to proceed with his own life. In a sense it is beyond dialogue and
conversation. It is Listening to God.
I
can attest from both my personal and my clinical experience to the power of the
Eucharistic Practice. For example, a Father Ignotus who was the pastor of the
Church dedicated to St. Someone was having serious personal problems which were
threatening his spiritual and mental peace of mind. Nothing really helped except
the obvious specific which I have often overlooked in my fascination with the
bizarre and esoteric. I suggested private personal prayer before the Blessed
Sacrament.
It
suited him like an expensive glove. He created
a chapel in his rectory and now spends at least an hour a day in the Listening
to God mode of prayer. Surprising? He
was no adenoidal, leggy new priest.
He had been around the track for years but this NEVER struck him! Why not? Because
he had been conditioned to think COMMUNAL!
The personal face to face wrestling with the Lord frightened him since he
was so oriented to meeting the Lord �
with others.�
A
street smart, tough, retired New York city detective, permits me to share the
following very personal Eucharist story with the world. After years of spiritual
neglect and wallowing in the �fleshpots of life�, he attended the funeral of
a fellow officer in a Catholic church ---now a strange and alien locale. As he
entered the Church he insists that HE HEARD A VOICE which said to him:
� I HAVE MISSED YOU!� At
the conclusion of the Mass he sought out a random Capuchin Friar, made a
ruthlessly honest confession and received his Lord in Holy Communion the
following day. Since that experience ( two years ago ) he has not missed
the Eucharistic Communion once.
What
happened? He believes it was
meta-communication. And so do I. To hear this huge, burly, big fisted real Macho
man speak of his awareness of God�s love for him would move even the most
cynical icy heart. � I love Him so much because He loves me so much.� Shades of 1 John !!!!
It
is said that Love serves and responds. Each time he receives his Lord and Master
in Communion at the Holy Mass this love deepens and deepens and deepens
and���..
This
awareness of God�s love in this most special manner is a treasure beyond
words. The Catholic Church has known this for all her history. Hence, the
safeguards and restraints. There are requirements and conditions for anyone to
approach this sum and summary of the Catholic Faith. State of grace. Fasting.
Awareness of what one is doing. Decorum and devout demeanor. Some New
age type priest has said that God
doesn�t need our protection. He asks why is the Pope so concerned? A fair
enough question but we need to be protected from ourselves and our human
inclination to trivialize even the most sacred of things.
No wonder Cardinal O�Connor was devastated when some
activists took the Sacred Host, spit it out on the floor of St. Patrick�s
Cathedral and shouted: � That�s
what I think of your God.� The
raw evil of the act centers accurately on the very essence of Catholicism. Who
was harmed more by this sacrilege? God
or the activist? And Ironically,
one of the activists died and was buried�by whom?
By the very Church which venerates the Sacred Eucharist he desecrated.
This man needed to be protected from his own irreverence.
It
becomes increasingly obvious why it is that, in many countries where the Church
has been persecuted, the Enemy has said: �
You can have your societies and your parties and your dances and your anything
BUT NOT THE MASS.� Evil knows
that shutting down the Mass, shuts down the Church. The personal and powerful
individual relationship with God which the Eucharist engenders, is apparently
abhorrent to whose who would
manipulate the �lambs� into the New Age. Only the passive melding into the
facelessness of the group is ultimately acceptable. The melding is subtle and
patient but relentless�and sadly often by those who were called to be
shepherds but who themselves may have been brainwashed.
Many of our Protestant brethren know all this. The eloquent
William Sloane Coffin, once chaplain at Yale University
and Rector of Riverside Church once said:
� There is no substitute for the Mass���..(and)��.if those
guys could only preach.� A
Protestant Minister in South Africa
told one of our priests that if he
could believe what Catholics believe about the Eucharist, he would crawl on his
hand and knees to the tabernacle!!!
The
encyclical ECCLESIA DE EUCHARISTIA
by our beautiful Pope John Paul II, clearly lays out what Catholics
REALLY believe. This is the REAL
Jesus under the appearances of bread and wine. The Catholic priest is the ONLY
one who is used by the Father for this Miracle. And every priest knows that he
is only an instrument of the Lord and even should he be a proud priest, he is
forced to be humble at the consecration of the Mass when the �Change�
occurs. It is the Lord Who offers Himself !
Mary the Mother of Jesus was the First Tabernacle for Jesus
(a statement which drew the epithet
� YUK� from
one of the enlightened new priests.)
So important is the CELEBRATION of the Mass that the Pope urges priests
to say Mass even if THERE IS NO CONGREGATION, speaking clearly to the Catholic
doctrine of the Communion of Saints wherein the priest is surrounded by the vast
assembly of saints and angels whose function is to honor and praise the Lord. I
can only comment in the New York manner that any priest who passes up what is given to him to offer
what is not given to angels to offer---to offer God back to God---just to be
�hip� with some presently trendy faction,
is really a jerk.
I
recall the famous scene in AJ Cronin�s book THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM
wherein the young Father Chisolm, newly arrived in pagan China,
frightened and lonely finds a real consolation. He says Mass by himself and then
� feels better.� How often I thought of that scene in my many lonely and
frightening years in South Africa and how much comfort and strength I derived
from a �Private� Mass to minister to God�s people!
If
I am asked to choose, I will opt
for Jesus and His Vicar on Earth, the Pope, with his genius in philosophy,
theology and practical love of God. Angry
theologians and derailed nuns may have a point in some other Forum. But as for
me, I�ll go with Pope John
Paul II whom I predict will some day be called
THE GREAT!!!!!!