EUCHARIST TODAY - By Xavier James – Feast of Body & Blood of Christ 26-06-2011

Today we celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi. In the first few decades after resurrection, the Eucharist was not merely a symbolic reality, as we know today.  Rather it was celebrated as part of or in conjunction with a full meal which all would share in common.  Everyone was to bring enough, so that all might share (Acts.2:42-47,4:32-35).  This was done in conscious communion with Jesus’ own practice during his lifetime and especially in memory of the final meal, which he celebrated with his disciples.  The memorial of that meal is what we commemorate as the continuity fact of our salvation.  At the Lord’s Supper everyone shared the one bread of Christ, which made the participants one body, one community of love and salvation.  To Jesus’ mind the Eucharist was essentially action-oriented.  The Eucharist was also to be the bond of the new community he was establishing in his new spirit.  The Eucharist had an important place in the life of the early Christians, who had personal knowledge of Jesus. The life of the early Christians was in sharing their goods with fellow followers and was intimately related to this fellowship.

For Jesus, Eucharist was the supreme symbol of his self-offering unto death.  But over the centuries the Christian tradition has largely diluted or neglected this aspect. The earliest community of believers understood very well the call of their master to commit themselves in giving which multiplies the given and satisfies the needs of all.  This was the community which Jesus himself envisaged (Act.4:32-35).  Early Christians were very generous in giving, sharing and partaking in the pain and suffering, joys and sorrows of men and women of their time.  Today Vatican II also has reaffirmed this fact of solidarity with the men and women of our time (G S.1).

The Eucharist evolved gradually and systematically stressing the core of the Eucharist that can be seen in its various aspects.  There is first of all the meal, the celebration of the Jewish Pasch, the festivity that recalls the liberation by God (Ex.15).  Second is the presence of Jesus, for he said, “This is my body”.  Jesus invites to our own response to his sacrifice in the form of commitment to the society of our time.  Third, related to these, the Eucharist is the memorial of his passion and death.  Fourth, the Eucharist is a renewal of the covenant.  “This is my blood of the Covenant shed for many” (Mk. 14:23).  When the Eucharist originated, it was a meal.  So the fellowship meal was given more importance and coming together was of paramount significance.  As the days passed it took the nature of sacrifice and sacrificial aspect became very prominent.  When the communion was prescribed to distribute to the sick, the importance shifted to the aspect of presence.

Fellowship and spending time together regularly to deepen relationships and serve one another is a significant challenge facing the church, especially the larger communities of heavily populated area. Work schedules, the pull of entertainment and the various aspects undermine community.  The result is that believers sometimes feel disconnected, uncared for and unloved.  Many Christians, even see the church as something that you go to only once a week.  At this point we really need to recall the life of early Christians.  They developed a strong sense of community.  They spent much time together, shared with one another and participated in a common vision and purpose (Acts.2:42-47).  They had everything in common (44).  Their commitment to Jesus and the work of the Spirit in their lives produced in them a completely new attitude to their property.  No longer were they motivated to amass wealth for themselves but they now view what they have as resources for the cause of Christ and for the care of his people.  Extraordinary generosity and a caring sensitivity to the poor characterized the life of early church.  Those virtues are quite contrary to our natural tendency to focus on ourselves.  It is the presence of the Holy Spirit that prompts a desire to give.  This giving we derive from the Eucharist.  Holy Spirit is powerfully at work in transforming the limits of these new believers and shaping this new community.  Unity, generosity and powerful witnessing are some of the key characteristics of this group (Acts. 4:32-37).  Their basic needs were met through the generosity of other followers.                 

Mother Teresa once said, “We begin our day trying to see Christ through the bread and during the day we continue to see him hidden beneath the torn bodies of our poor.  To see him in the poor we must see him through the Eucharist.  The Holy Hour before the Eucharist should lead us to the Holy Hour with the poor.  Our Eucharist lacks something if it does not lead us to love and serve the poor”.  Participating in the Eucharist and serving the poor and the needy are interrelated.  Pedro Arupe notes, “We cannot properly receive the bread of life unless at the same time we give bread for life to those in need wherever and whoever they may be”.

There was a time when the Eucharist was seen as the priest’s offering of the sacrifice of Calvary.  It was the priest’s action, offered for the sake of the people.  Vatican II theology changed this perception.  Eucharist is the people’s action.  It is communion (koinonia) with Jesus and with members of his body.  For some people Eucharist is still just a ritual, obligation, monotony that does not have any relationship with life.

Today fortunately, we see a return to the deeper meaning of the Eucharist, at least among some Christians.  The emphasis is from the number of masses to depth commitment of oneself to the values of Christ.  The Eucharist is challenging the life style especially of us.  We begin to feel uneasy with the way they live.  Now we have become more concerned with values such as love, sharing, friendship, justice, truth, peace, freedom, liberation, struggle, suffering, joy and resurrection.  A meaningful Eucharist requires freedom and spontaneity.   

The Eucharist has an extraordinary potential for bringing about personal and global transformation.  If ever it is vitalized into being a sacrament of communion through effective personal sharing, it can successfully challenge the comfortable cultural values most people blindly accept.  If Christians ever begin to practice what Jesus has taught and exemplified when he took, blessed, broke and gave bread to be distributed, many of the global problems would be solved at both personal and institutional levels.  A true Eucharist is never a passive, comforting moment alone with God, something that allows us to escape the cares and concerns of our everyday life.  But it is active and affective both individually and in community.   

‘Small Conscious Communities’, which reflect and act, help the desire to create such Small Christian Communities (SCC).  To this awareness is of utmost significant.  A community which is Church i.e. which makes possible the effective and life giving encounters with Christ our Lord.  Community is the only indispensable means of giving meaning and values to the life of the individual.  Community is dynamic.  In it all bear with one another’s burden.  Community is formed to that extent that members acquire a sense of belonging which leads to solidarity in the common mission and participative life in the community.  It is a new way of being a Church although old in the biblical traditions. 

Family plays an important role in formation of small christian communities.  A healthy family is a fountain of renewal for the community.  Pope John Paul calls family as ‘domestic church’.  Family is a fully-fledged christian community in time, which strives to reflect the church.  It is the church in microcosm.  This means that the community in the neighbourhood is primarily missionary, outreaching, serving (Apostolic) Christ-centered (Holy) in communion with the parish and the whole church (One) excludes no one from its membership (Catholic).  Family is a basic unit of the life of the parish, hence enough care is to be taken to nurture the family life and the small christian communities will help to achieve this goal.  We need to become conscious of the fact that no group of people can become fully human unless they transcend, tribe, caste, clan, region and language to accept people as brothers and sisters and live in harmony and tranquility.  Unless our families lose their lives in Small Christian Communities, they will not be able to find themselves (cf. Mt.16:24-25).          

It is not the festivity that gives rise to the Eucharistic assembly, but it is the Eucharistic assembly that creates festivity.  We need to realize that meeting and greeting one another in the celebration of the Eucharist is the source of greater joy.  Hence, it is the people who make the celebration of the Eucharist meaningful.  It is a good custom in our parish we meet and wish each other after the Eucharistic celebration. Let us pray that we may be a vibrant Eucharistic community.

The Christian Passover has now become the deliverance of the new people of God from the slavery of sin through the waters of baptism in union with Christ.  Passover lamb was replaced by Christ.  In sharing this meal we enter into greater intimacy with Christ and with one another.  Passover meal was a memorial; an institution annually recalled the deliverance granted by God to his people (Ex.15).  Jesus reinforced their attachment to the God of their liberation in the Eucharist as a new memorial.  He transformed the Passover meal into the Eucharistic meal.     

Our focus here is that the Corinthian community gradually lost the sense of communitarian aspect of the Eucharist.  There were divisions, disharmony and fraction in the community.  Paul wanted to say that if the Eucharist is not celebrated in the community in unity then it is an abomination and insult to the body of Christ.  If we have the divisions as poor and rich among us, then how can our celebration of Eucharist be having an important effect?

We all celebrate Eucharist with humility, knowing that we always fall short of the self-gift, which it implies.  Eucharist is an important social ritual in which all share.  Jesus also taught at meals.  He used them especially to teach about God’s mercy.  We can see that a deeper understanding of the values of a meal highlights several important points.  The first is the forgiveness and reconciliation implied.  The second is the notion of solidarity - the love and friendship that bind together those at the same table.  The third is the sacrificial dimension, which Jesus gave to our meal of fellowship to live for others as Zecchaeus did.  Jesus envisages a society where all can live together in peace and friendship (Isaiah.11:6).  If our own Eucharistic celebrations are to reflect the actuality of our lives, we must learn to extend our reach beyond its present limits.  Frequent sharing at the Lord’s table should fill us with a desire to bring all men and women within the range of Christ’s action.  It means not being blinded by the sociological homogeneity of our present parish structures.  We who share at Jesus’ table are expected to extend his concern and love to all who need it.  The sign of the Eucharist lies in the human experience of a meal wherein is an experience of friendship and community.  It is a mystery of love and compassion.     

Generally, the Catholics are not yet ready for commitment.  It is more likely that they do not feel challenged by an active sense of commitment on the part of those who do celebrate the Eucharist.  Eucharist is the obvious expression of an ongoing Christian gift of self.  It celebrates our willingness to place our lives on the love and concern for others.  This will attract others.