Think about the Eucharist
At the heart of the Catholic Church is the celebration of the Eucharist, when the faithful are united in the partaking of Christ truly present.
Pope John Paul, in last year’s encyclical on the Eucharist, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, placed a direct timeline between our regular reception of holy Communion and the events of almost 2000 years ago: “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.”
In this way, recipients of the Eucharist form a communion with all Catholics throughout the world and indeed throughout time. Paradoxically, receiving holy Communion is at the same time a most intimate encounter with Christ.
On Sunday, October 17, the Church will inaugurate the Year of the Eucharist, which Pope John Paul proclaimed in June. During the coming 12 months, the Church invites us to reflect and pray on the mystery of the Eucharist. This can be done profitably in many ways.
Much benefit can be derived from veneration before the exposed blessed sacrament or by attending daily Mass, if one does not do so already.
The Year of the Eucharist is also an opportune time to contemplate the practical application of Communion. Introspection forms part of this. Are we always deserving of receiving the body and blood of Christ? (Of course, in the Eucharistic prayers we acknowledge that we never really are worthy.) What changes to our lives can we make to become more deserving? What does the Eucharist mean to us?
The Year of the Eucharist requires us to turn or focus on the nature of sin. The on-going spat in the United States concerning Catholic politicians who do not follow all Church teachings in their voting behaviour, for example, is instructive.
While some bishops have threatened to ban such politicians from receiving the Eucharist in their diocese, other bishops strongly disagree. Who is right, and who is wrong?
While the US debate concerns mainly politicians’ stand on life issues, Southern African Catholics may ponder whether the Church should withhold Communion from a despot such as Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, whose reception of the Eucharist is a source of scandal to some Catholics.
While Mr Mugabe is a regular communicant, some good Catholics are not. In the Year of the Eucharist we may contemplate the predicament of those devout Catholics who divorced and remarried and are therefore excluded from the Lord’s Table.
According to canon law, such Catholics are barred from receiving Communion as “grave sinners” by virtue of their enjoying sexual relations in an “invalid marriage.” The Church has not found a suitable pastoral solution to their plight (though some compassionate priests exercise their discretion in such cases).
One may also think of fellow Christians who are not in communion with the Catholic Church. Although Pope John Paul is said to have on occasion administered Communion to non-Catholics, the ban on inter-communion remains a source of much hurt among Christians.
One may also keep in mind Catholics who only rarely receive Communion because there are too few priests to serve them. Here one thinks particularly of rural Catholics in Africa and Asia.
In the Year of the Eucharist we are called to honour the gift of the Eucharist, receive it more faithfully, and to reflect on its meaning in our lives and that of the Church. May the coming year remind us that the Eucharist is the life of the Church.
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