By Bishop Edward K. Braxton
(Dear Readers,
This is an excerpt of an address I gave in St. Louis at the Eucharistic Congress on June 16th. In light of some discussions I have had with some priests and people of the Diocese about the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and adoration I thought you might find it of interest.)
The current resurgence of devotion to Christ in the Eucharist and the practice of families spending time in adoration is a great blessing for the Church and for our families. But it may not be helpful to give people false assurances and unfounded hope that may suggest we can control God’s inscrutable Providence by means of Eucharistic spirituality. It may not be wise simply to say: “If you and your wife are having difficulties, then go to Mass and Communion together every day and all will be well.” “If you are worried about your teenage children because they are not active in the Church, because they are sexually irresponsible, because they cause conflict at home, then, receive Communion for their intention every Sunday and you will see a change in them soon.” “If you are under a great deal of stress, feeling depressed about your life and work, in bad health, anxious about suffering, old age and death, then turn to the Blessed Sacrament and you’ll feel like a new person.”
It may not be wise to say these things in a tone that suggests these difficulties will certainly be overcome automatically by a renewed Eucharistic devotion. The strength coming from renewed Eucharistic devotion may well help such individuals. But it may not help them to rid themselves of their difficulties. It may simply give them the strength to endure and get through their difficulties in communion with Christ. All Catholics gratefully acknowledge the great value of the prayer of petition. We must always give thanks when our prayers are answered in the way that we hoped they would be. But it may not be a wise practice to announce in church gratitude for favors granted to those who participate in perpetual adoration. What about the young man who prays before the Eucharist day after day that his mother will not die of cancer? And then she dies anyway. Was his faith somehow weak? I do not think so. A true and Catholic understanding of the way in which the Eucharist can renew and support us and our families is not one that is automatic or mechanical. Providence is inscrutable.
It is unwise to imply that our Eucharistic devotion can somehow compel Our Lord to solve on command the serious problems that families face. The family struggling to come to terms with a father who is an alcoholic, violent or unfaithful, a son who is addicted to drugs and steals to support his habit, a daughter who has had one abortion and is pregnant again, a mother who lives in the shadows and requires constant care because she is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, or a newborn who is severely retarded will not be helped in the long run by a few pious exhortations lacking in spiritual depth. If the manifold gifts of Christ in the Eucharist are to touch the members of our families, a sound and authentically Catholic theology of the intimate presence of Christ in the Eucharist must be the starting point.
This can be done, in part, by reminding everyone that each member of a Christian family, whether a grandmother or a newborn, lives in the presence of the absolute mystery of God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit who has been graciously revealed as Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier of all. When Catholics celebrate the mysteries by which we are reborn, in word and sacrament, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are re-presented and Christ Himself is present under the appearance of bread and wine, for those who believe. This abiding apostolic faith makes it possible to approach the altar of sacrifice and the table of the Lord’s Supper with confidence.
Only in the depths of this ecclesial faith, this resurrection faith, can families begin to grasp why and how the Eucharist affords them the spiritual strength that they need. The holy Eucharist is nothing less than the real presence of Christ in the family of faith. It is the inestimable and utterly unmerited participation in divine life.
Catholics regularly speak of the real presence of Christ in the gifts of the altar. But what does this presence mean? Is it merely subjective? Is it some type of scientific wonder? If it is a sacramental presence, in what sense is it objective? Consider some other examples of presence. Think of the ink that makes up the letters that spell out the words on this page. The ink, the letters, and the paper are essential if you are to read what I have written. One could speak of the “presence” of ink on the page. But this presence is merely physical. The ink is not aware of the paper and the paper is not aware of the ink. The presence has no interpersonal or inter-subjective meaning.
Consider another example. A man and a woman who have never met before are sitting next to each other at the Sunday Eucharist. They have no knowledge of each other and their presence to one another is merely physical. However, because they are human and spiritual persons their presence has the potential of changing. After the Liturgy, they have a conversation. Eventually, they become good friends, and begin to date. After several years, they fall in love, get married and have children. What began as a mere physical presence has become personal, intimate and spiritual. As the years pass, this intimate, personal presence becomes so deep that it transcends their physical nearness. When they are hundreds of miles apart, they are still present to one another at the most radical level of their being.
After more than 50 years of marriage, the wife dies. Death brings more than physical distance. Death makes it impossible for them ever to be physically present to one another again. The husband is left with their children, grandchildren and his wife’s personal belongings, letters, home movies and many profound memories. When someone seeks to comfort him in his aloneness, the husband acknowledges that in one sense he is alone, in another he is not. He says that his wife is still present to him. He argues that his experience convinces him that this presence is not simply memory or imagination. It is a real presence born out of the transcendent and spiritual nature of the human condition and authentic loving relationships.
A presence is real when a person is open to being affected by others and other people actually affect them. This presence is utterly different from the presence of ink and letters on the page of a book. Because of their shared history, the depth of their love and the human spirit’s capacity to transcend itself, even in death, the husband continues to be moved by the real presence of his wife.
Understanding the powerful reality of human spiritual communion and presence provides us with an inadequate analogy that may make it possible for us to understand better the mystery of the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. Historically, He was physically present on earth for about thirty-three years. This historical, physical presence occurred a long time ago in a place far away. Christ’s presence in the Eucharist is not the biological body that walked on earth. Nor is it the dead body of Jesus in the tomb. It is not a “physical” presence in the ordinary sense of the term. It is the transformed risen body of the resurrected Christ. Like the resurrection itself, it is a mystery that cannot be fully understood or explained. This objective, sacramental presence of Christ’s “body and blood, soul and divinity” is made real by the Holy Spirit and Christ’s actual and effective openness to the Church, to the sacramental ministry of the priest who consecrates the Eucharist and to each person who comes forward to receive Him or to pray in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. But, just as a husband and wife mutually contribute to their presence to each other, the sacramental presence of Christ in the Eucharist cannot be fully effective and beneficial if the one receiving the sacrament or praying before the tabernacle is not personally open to entering into communion with Christ.
Jesus Christ does not force anyone to accept the offer of His presence in faith. He can be rejected. Besides conversion there is breakdown. Besides belief, there is unbelief. But His offer and His presence are real. Yet, this presence of Christ to His Church and to each faithful communicant is not a mere passive presence. It is the aggressive, active, personal, spiritual, total and complete presence of the Risen Lord that challenges everyone to be present to Him and to their sisters and brothers.
The presence of Jesus Christ, the Word of God to the church is manifold. As creator, Christ is present to the material universe, in the personal existence and history of each individual and in the new life which comes through baptism. This presence is experienced when the People of God gather in prayer, in the ministry of the priest and in the scriptures proclaimed in the liturgy. Within this manifold presence, the grace of the personal and fully actualized presence of Christ in the gifts of consecrated bread and wine in the Mass is pre-eminent. Here Christ comes to the Church as food and drink, as nourishment for a pilgrim people. In the abiding presence of Christ in the Eucharist, Christians are made aware of His great desire to be available to us, to be a companion with us, breaking bread with us. He wishes to walk with us on the road to Emmaus and opens our eyes and our hearts, so that we may understand all the things that happened in Jerusalem. When Catholics do not know or experience this presence, it may be due to a lack of spiritual openness. As a result, Christian families may be spiritually impoverished.
This personal and real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is an intimate gift given to each member of the Church. But it is not a private or exclusive gift. It is a gift that must be shared in every aspect of life, at home and in the neighborhood. Christ is the sacrament of God’s love and the Eucharist is the sacrament of Christ. Every Christian is called to be a sacrament of the Eucharist, that is, every baptized person is called to make Christ personally present in the world.
We are not able to appreciate fully the power of this Great Gift and Grace that Christ has given to the Church. As we speak of this mystery, we must strive for theological accuracy and pastoral balance. In order to speak in a meaningful and credible way about the Eucharist as a source of genuine strength for family life, pietistic assertions reducing the wondrous sacrament of Christ in the Eucharist to a magical charm must be avoided. We must always remember that we do not have God; God has us. We do not have Christ; Christ has us. We do not have the Eucharist; the Eucharist has us!
At our Spring Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia the Bishops of the United States approved a brief document “The Real Presence of Christ n the Sacrament of the Eucharist”. The document’s question and answer format makes it accessible to most readers. It answers and clarifies questions that you and your family members might have. Your pastor or Catholic bookstore can obtain a copy for you. It would assist you in further reflection on the ways in which Christ in the Eucharist can strengthen your family.
17 November 2001
