Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Powerful Words On The Eucharist From Benedict




The following article is excerpted from Zenit's translation of Pope Benedict's question and answer session with priests of the diocese of Rome. It is part of a longer answer about the centrality of the Eucharistic celebration. The priest who asked the question wanted Benedict's take on the notion that all theology should be connected to the theology of the Eucharist. I think this is one of the most brilliant reflections I have ever read from Benedict.


The mystery is the heart from which comes our strength, and to which we return to find this center. And that is why I think that catechesis, let us say mystagogic [catechesis], is really important. Mystagogic also means realistic, referred to our life of men of today. If it is true that man in himself knows not his measure -- that he is just and that he is not just -- but that he finds his measure outside of himself, in God; it is important that this God not be distant but reconcilable, concrete, that he enter our lives and really be a friend with whom we can talk and who talks with us. We must learn to celebrate the Eucharist, learn to know Jesus Christ, the God with a human face, up close, really enter into contact with him, learn to listen to him and to allow him to enter into us. Because sacramental communion is precisely this interpenetration between two persons. I am not taking a piece of bread, or flesh, but I take or I open my heart so that the Risen One will enter the context of my being, so that he is within me and not just outside of me, and thus speaks with me and transforms my being. He gives me the sense of justice, the dynamism of justice, in zeal for the Gospel. (Wow, finally a confirmation that the Eucharist is about the Risen Christ.)


This celebration, in which God not only comes close to us, but enters into the fabric of our existence, is essential to really be able to live with God and for God and to take the light of God to this world. Let us not go into too many details now. But it is always important that the sacramental catechesis be an existential catechesis. Of course, even accepting and increasingly learning the mystic aspect -- where words and reasoning fail -- the latter is totally realistic, because it leads me to God, and God to me. It leads me to the other because the other receives the same Christ, as I do. Hence, if the same Christ is in him and me, we also are no longer separate individual beings. Herein lies the birth of the doctrine of the Body of Christ, because we have all been incorporated if we receive the Eucharist correctly in the same Christ. Hence, my neighbor is truly close: we are no longer two separate "I"s, but we are united in the same "I" of Christ. (In my book, this is what makes a Catholic a Catholic, the understanding that we are united in the same "I" of Christ through partaking in the Eucharist.)


In other words, Eucharistic and sacramental catechesis must really go to the depth of our existence, to be, in fact, education to open myself to the voice of God, to let myself be opened to break this original sin of egoism and to open my existence profoundly, so that I will really be just. In this sense, it seems to me that we must all learn the liturgy better, not as something exotic but as the heart of our being Christian, which does not open easily to a distant man, but which is, on the other hand, precisely openness to the other, to the world. We must all collaborate in celebrating the Eucharist ever more profoundly: not only as a rite but as an existential process that touches me profoundly, more than anything else, and changes me, transforms me and, by transforming me, sparks the transformation of the world that the Lord desires and of which He wishes to make me an instrument.


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The Eucharist is an existential process that happens to be codified in a ritual. All valid spiritual ceremonies are at their heart existential processes. They derive their power from relationship, not ritual. In the Mass Catholics celebrate and engage in a relationship with the Risen Christ, and it's real. The only limits to the extent of the relationship are ones of our own creating. No one has any God given right to deny this relationship to any other believer. When it happens, it's because it's a Man taken right, and as such it has no basis in God's reality.


If this Eucharistic understanding of Benedict's really was the central teaching around which all other teachings orbit, this understanding of Benedict's would radically reform the Church. It is not only a good place to start, it is the core place to start and this is great theology. At least in my humble opinion.

6 comments:

  1. His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI constantly continues to both amaze and dissapoint me =/ He is indeed a brilliant man and his intellect and theological depth leave no doubt in my mind as to why God chose him to be Roman Pontiff at this point in history. That doesn't exclude the possibility that hopefully in the near future God's will might be to allow a more inclusive, progressive thinking Pope to perhaps reevaluate some issues and doctrines which have been pernicious, and not productive for the Church, and perhaps see if they might be interpreted in light of new global realities as "Gaudium et Spes" encouraged so virgorously.

    As to the Eucharist being the root and foundation of all theology I agree whole heartedly. Although I might disagree a bit with your analysis for what the existensial nature of the Eucharst and the Holy Mass means and implies. Because a relationship and a personal experience with Jesus Christ is indeed the most central and important part of the Holy Mass I don't think that all "ritual" should be discarded. St. Paul exhorts us to hold firm to the traditions which have been handed on to us. I think many of the beautiful rituals of the Holy Mass were indeed placed within the rudiments of the liturgical settings at the behest of the voice of the Holy Spirit in order to enhance and solidify our own personal communions and conversations with the Lord Jesus Christ.

    What I'm about to say may sound a bit harsh and oxymornish. I do think that there are many aspects of Church teaching that need re-evaluation in light of scientific discoveries and what we now know about human experience. But I profoundly refuse to think that these flaws within the Church give us grounds to play with the Holy Mass in any way we see fit. Christ's Words of Instituion of the Eucharist clearly show what the point of the Mass is. He commanded us to eat His Body and to drink His Blood and explained us that this was His very Body and Blood that He sacrificed for our sake upon the Cross. Thus, as the Church so eloquently and correctly teaches, the Eucharist is both a Sacrifice and a Banquet. I agree with Pope Benedict's critique of the way in which some people have watered down and contemporized the Mass following the Second Vatican Council. While, I don't think the Mass necessarily always has to be in Latin, I think some sense of reverence is neccesary as Catholic worship does indeed hold dear the sense of mystery that is due towards the Lord the Incomprehensible. Losing this sense of mystery I think goes down a slipperly slope of eroding the reality of the Divine and slowly attributing more and more power to ourselves...If these sort of theories and opinions continue they could be very dangerous and ultimately cause us to be no different than new age spiritualist who say that all of us our "gods" in our own unique way...

    Yes, some Church teachings do need correction and redefinition. But personally, the Eucharist and the way it should be celebrated is where I draw the line... =/

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  2. I've been sitting with what you wrote all day, trying to coalesce what I am feeling into something halfway intelligible.

    Like Phillip, Benedicts back and forth is at best disconcerting and frequently causes me to wonder which God he is serving in any given moment.

    In this case however, I believe what he wrote was at least in part, divinely inspired.

    There is no question about the corruption of the Magisterial Authority, other than how much and how deep. Many questions about whether or not what we are being taught is Christs teachings or a man made assemblage. Within all of that however, there has remained one relatively stable forum, and that has been the liturgy of the mass.

    I cant speak with authority, but as near as I can tell, there really hasnt been a significant change in the mass for a very long time. Superficial changes, such as common vernacular vs latin, facing the congregation, vestments, etc. But the structure of the mass has remained stable and constant.

    If my premise is accurate, then it would lead me to the conclusion that the mass is the core of catholicism. Not the catechism, not the canon law, not the Magisterial Authority, but the mass.

    Perhaps that is the message that Pope Benedict is truly communicating to us.

    ----------------------
    FOOD FOR THOUGHT
    ----------------------

    Point #2: Original Sin

    What was the first sin?
    Who committed the first sin?

    Disobedience? No, that was #2
    Eve? No, she was #2

    The first sin was deception.
    The first sinner was lucifer.

    Honesty and Integrity is ALL that really matter. Everything else flows out of those. What could we accomplish if that was the rally cry instead of "abortion is all that matters".

    ----------------

    Point #3:

    In revelation, there are verses that indicate that 1/3 of the angels were cast out of heaven. Interesting number.

    It is estimated that:
    1/3 of the clergy is gay
    1/3 of the bishops protected pedophiles
    I'm sure there are other relevant 1/3's in the RCC

    my word is (seriously) bless

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  3. Such a pity that Benedict misunderstood the whole point of the question, which was this: If liturgy is of such importance, why is it still not treated as a major subject in seminary formation?

    The fact is that despite Roman documents such as the Plan for Priestly Formation, liturgy is still a kind of add-on in seminary training all over the world. Nothing like the amount of time that is allocated to philosophy, different branches of theology, church history, canon law, etc, is allocated to liturgy. It's rather like training a doctor with only the most cursory coverage of basic anatomy. And yet that knowledge is crucial to everything else.

    What this means is that there is a very shallow base on which to found the kind of deepening that the Pope talks about.

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  4. Good point cardinal, I left out the question because I didn't think Benedict really answered it, as I too took it to be a question about priestly formation. Sometimes I'm not sure Zenit's translations convey what Benedict is trying to say.

    The other thing I was thinking, which goes to the points by Phillip and Carl is that in this question and answer session he gives two very different interpretations of the Eucharist, one centered only on atonement theology, and this one on the nature of the Risen Christ.

    The other answer seems to be worded the way it was in order to reaffirm the special nature of the clerical caste.

    I'm going to have to go back and read the totality of this question and answer session, because Benedict seems to be throwing out something for everyone even if it's contradictory on the surface.

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  5. "Mystagogic also means realistic, referred to our life of men (and women) of today. If it is true that man in himself knows not his measure -- that he is just and that he is not just -- but that he finds his measure outside of himself, in God; it is important that this God not be distant but reconcilable, concrete, that he enter our lives and really be a friend with whom we can talk and who talks with us. We must learn to celebrate the Eucharist, learn to know Jesus Christ, the God with a human face, up close, really enter into contact with him, learn to listen to him and to allow him to enter into us. Because sacramental communion is precisely this interpenetration between two persons. I am not taking a piece of bread, or flesh, but I take or I open my heart so that the Risen One will enter the context of my being, so that he is within me and not just outside of me, and thus speaks with me and transforms my being. He gives me the sense of justice, the dynamism of justice, in zeal for the Gospel."

    "We must learn to know Jesus Christ" is the key to our salvation.

    "that he enter our lives and really be a friend with whom we can talk and who talks with us."

    One is truly transformed when one enters into relationship with the Risen Christ. One's seeing and hearing changes. We can speak to Him and He does send his Holy Spirit to give us everything we need to be the person He has in mind for us to be.

    This is when true Freedom of the person begins, when one is united to Him and His creation. We become a part of God's Kingdom on Earth and He Reigns in our Hearts.

    We begin to experience compassion with our own feeble weaknesses and are transformed into someone, a true person, who is forgiven all past weaknesses and given strength and wisdom to move forward and live a new life as a new human being with love for oneself and one's neighbor.

    The Mass would be a time and place in eternity with Our Loving God where we are under one roof that shelters us from the storms in the world, that heals our wounds, that feeds our hungry souls.

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  6. I have noticed how often Pope Benedict says he and never she, as if she did not exist.

    But he does know that we exist and this should come more into his consciousness.

    God speaks to women too and women speak to God.

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