Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - In his homily for the Solemnity of Corpus Christ 2009, the Holy Father Benedict XVI once again warned the whole Church of the danger of “secularisation” among the Catholic faithful, even among the clergy, and he reaffirmed that in the Eucharist, sacrifice and banquet are co-existential .
The Pope said: “celebrating the Passover with his disciples, in the mystery the Lord the brought forward the sacrifice which would be consumed the next day on the cross. The Institution of the Eucharist appears to us then as the anticipation and acceptance on the part of Jesus of his death. In this regard St Ephrem the Syrian: ‘At the Supper Jesus immolated himself; on the cross He was immolated by others.“
Today it is more than ever urgent, also in view of a rediscovery of the sacred dimension so necessary in Europe, to help the faithful understand, or re-understand the universal sacrificial dimension of the Eucharistic liturgy. Not ceding to pre-Christian “pagan” religiosity but fostering correct understanding of the expiatory sacrifice of Christ Our Lord, who gave Himself for us and for our salvation.
Those who reduce the Holy Mass to a banquet, should recall that the Banquet is the consequence of the Sacrifice. Without Christ's death on the Cross, it would be impossible for man to 'sit at God's table' , or share in physical communion with Him through Eucharistic Communion, a foretaste of the condition of risen humanity, beyond time and space.
In this sense should be no contrast between the sacrificial dimension and the 'Lord's supper' since the former is the very condition for the latter. There can be no “supper” without the Sacrifice!
The Holy Father went on to say: "Today there is a risk that insidious secularisation, even within the
Church, might lead to formal and empty Eucharistic worship, in Liturgies lacking that involvement of the heart expressed in veneration and respect. There is always a strong temptation to reduce prayer to superficial and hurried moments and let earthly activities and concerns take precedence ”.
A proper understanding of the Eucharist as a Sacrifice will avoid any superficial interpretation and, what is more, the desired reciprocal enrichment of the ordinary form and the extraordinary form in the same Latin Rite will, in time, promote also at the liturgical level, that “theological recovery” more than every necessary today. Because “With the Eucharist heaven comes down to earth, God's tomorrow descends into the present and time is, as it were, embraced by divine eternity”. (Agenzia Fides 12/6/2009; righe 31, parole 411)
