EUCHARISTIC ENCYCLICAL - VI

TRUE LOVE
Saint Peter Julian Eymard once said, "We believe in the love of God for us. To believe in love is everything. It is not enough to believe in the Truth. We must believe in Love and Love is our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. That is the faith that makes our Lord loved. Ask for this pure and simple faith in the Eucharist. Men will teach you, but only Jesus will give you the grace to believe in Him. You have the Eucharist. What more do you want?"

In a certain sense those words of that saint from more than one hundred years ago constitute a beautiful summary of a substantial part of the recent encyclical, "Ecclesia de Eucharistia", issued last April 17th, by our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II. A holy priest once remarked that true love must have three basic foundations, sacrifice, union, and presence. It is interesting and important to note that Christ, the divine Bridegroom of His Spouse, the Catholic Church (Ephesians 5:25-32), constantly and perennially provides those three foundational elements to her in the most holy Eucharist.

The holy Eucharist is the sacrament in which Jesus Christ, whole and entire, Body, Soul, and Divinity, is offered (sacrifice), received (union), and contained (presence). Saint Alphonsus Liguori said, "This sacrament infuses into the soul great interior peace, a strong inclination to virtue, and great willingness to practice it, thus rendering it easy to walk in the path of perfection."

GRACE
The Supreme Pontiff writes in the encyclical about the need for both visible and invisible dimensions which are vital and necessary prior to Eucharistic Communion. He says, "Invisible Communion, though by its nature always growing, presupposes the life of grace by which we become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4) and the practice of the virtues of faith, hope, and love. Only in this way do we have true communion with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Nor is faith sufficient. We must persevere in sanctifying grace and love, remaining within the Church bodily as well as in our heart. What is required, in the words of Saint Paul, is faith working through love (Galatians 5:6)."

The Successor of Saint Peter goes on to say, "Keeping these invisible bonds intact is a specific moral duty incumbent upon Christians who wish to participate fully in the Eucharist by receiving the Body and Blood of Christ. The Apostle Paul appeals to this duty (1 Corinthians 11:28)..... Saint John Chrysostom, with his stirring eloquence, exhorted the faithful: I too raise my voice; I beseech, beg, and implore that no one draw near to this sacred table with a sullied and corrupt conscience. Such an act, in fact, can never be called Communion, not even were we to touch the Lord's Body a thousand times over, but condemnation, torment, and increase of punishment."

PENANCE
The Pope cites the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which, he says, "stipulates that anyone conscious of a grave sin must first receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation before coming to Communion." The Vicar of Christ on earth says, "I therefore desire to reaffirm that in the Church there remains in force, now and in the future, the rule by which the Council of Trent gave concrete expression to the Apostle Paul's stern warning when it affirmed that in order to receive the Eucharist in a worthy manner, one must first confess one's sins, when one is aware of mortal sin.... If a Christian's conscience is burdened by serious sin, then the path of penance through the Sacrament of Reconciliation becomes necessary for full participation in the Eucharistic Sacrifice."

The Holy Father, of course, mentions the "stern warning" given by Saint Paul: "Whoever eats this Bread or drinks the Cup of the Lord unworthily will be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord....He who eats or drinks unworthily...eats and drinks judgment to himself" (1 Corinthians 11:27-29).

VISIBLE
Reaffirming the ancient teaching and discipline of the Church, the Pope says that "the judgment of one's state of grace obviously belongs only to the person involved..." But he notes, "However, in cases of outward conduct which is seriously, clearly, and steadfastly contrary to the moral norm, the Church in her pastoral concern for the good order of the community and out of respect for the sacrament, cannot fail to feel directly involved. The Code of Canon Law refers to this situation of a manifest lack of proper moral disposition when it states that those who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Eucharistic Communion."

In the Pope's teaching, "The profound relationship between the invisible and visible elements of ecclesial communion is constitutive of the Church as the sacrament of salvation. Only in this context can there be a legitimate celebration of the Eucharist and true participation in it." The visible dimension "entails communion in the teaching of the Apostles and in the sacraments, and in the Church's hierarchical order."

According to the Roman Pontiff "Ecclesial communion....is visible and finds expression in the series of bonds listed by the (Second Vatican) Council when it teaches: They are fully incorporated into the society of the Church who, possessing the Spirit of Christ, accept her whole structure and all the means of salvation established within her, and within her visible framework are united to Christ, Who governs her through the Supreme Pontiff and the Bishops, by bonds of the profession of faith, the sacraments, ecclesiastical government, and communion."

The Pope teaches, "The Eucharist as the supreme sacramental manifestation of communion in the Church demands to be celebrated in a context where the outward bonds of communion are also intact....The Bishop, in effect, is the visible principle and foundation of unity within his particular Church. It would therefore be a great contradiction if the sacrament 'par excellence' of the Church's unity were celebrated without true communion with the Bishop. As Saint Ignatius of Antioch wrote: That Eucharist which is celebrated under the Bishop or under one to whom the Bishop has given this charge may be considered certain.... From this it follows that a truly Eucharistic community cannot be closed in upon itself, as though it were somehow self-sufficient. Rather, it must persevere in harmony with every other Catholic community."