The church lives from the eucharist

But only within limits

Ecclesia de eucharistia, the encyclical issued by John Paul II on Holy Thursday, contains an excellently ecumenical theology of the eucharist.

The church draws its life from Christ in the eucharist; by him it is fed and by him it is enlightened. The eucharist is a true banquet, and as Christ's saving presence in the community of the faithful and its spiritual food, the church's most precious possession. It unites heaven and earth. It embraces and permeates all creation.

The eucharist spurs us on our journey through history and plants a seed of living hope in our daily commitment to the work before us. Those who feed on Christ in the eucharist need not wait until the hereafter to receive eternal life: they already possess it on earth, as the first-fruits of a future fullness.

It is this fruit of a transfigured existence and a commitment to transforming the world in accordance with the gospel which splendidly illustrates the eschatological tension inherent in the celebration of the eucharist and in the Christian life as a whole.

The eucharist builds the church

By analogy with the covenant of Mount Sinai, sealed by sacrifice and the sprinkling of blood, the actions and words of Jesus at the Last Supper lay the foundations of the new messianic community, the people of the new covenant. From that time forward, until the end of the age, the church is built up through sacramental communion with the Son of God who was sacrificed for our sake.

Eucharistic communion confirms the church in her unity as the body of Christ. It creates communion and fosters communion. It counters the seeds of disunity, which daily experience shows to be so deeply rooted in humanity as a result of sin. Incorporation into Christ is constantly renewed and consolidated by sharing in sacramental communion. We can say not only that each of us receives Christ, but also that Christ receives each of us.

By its union with Christ, the people of the new covenant, far from closing in upon itself, becomes a "sacrament" for humanity, a sign and instrument of the salvation achieved by Christ, the light of the world and the salt of the earth, for the redemption of all.

This theology of eucharistic worship - couched in characteristically Catholic terms, but informed both by biblical, liturgical and theological renewal in the Roman Catholic church and by the ecumenical engagement licensed by the second Vatican council - contains little with which Reformed churches would wish to quarrel.

Regrettably, the letter also contains less excellent things.

Transubstantiation

Juxtaposed with this ecumenical theology of eucharistic worship is a traditional Roman Catholic theology of eucharistic change: "the consecration of the bread and wine effects the change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord, and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood", as Trent says.

This goes against the trend of contemporary Catholic thinking, shifting the focus of attention back from the eucharist as an act of worship to a fetishistic emphasis on the "blessed sacrament" as an object of worship. Consistent with this is John Paul's lament that in some places Roman Catholics have almost abandoned the practice of eucharistic adoration, and what many will feel is a strident insistence that this practice is of "inestimable value" for the life of the church.

Priest and people

Closely linked with this is a reassertion of the infinite qualitative difference between priest and people. The assembly gathered together for the celebration of the eucharist, if it is to be a truly eucharistic assembly, absolutely requires the presence as its president of an ordained priest, who alone is qualified to offer the eucharist in persona Christi. This has consequences that are merely bizarre, and others that John Paul himself describes as "distressing and irregular": a priest may celebrate the eucharist without a congregation (and priests are encouraged to do so), but a congregation may not celebrate the eucharist without a priest. The result is that in many places, Roman Catholic parishes for months on end are unable to celebrate the sacrament from which the church lives, but the letter has no answer to offer to this predicament.

Ecumenical shadows

Less happy still are the encyclical's reflections on the eucharist in an ecumenical context. "It was," says John Paul, "an efficacious grace which inspired us, the sons and daughters of the Catholic church and our brothers and sisters from other churches and ecclesial communities, to set forth on the path of ecumenism"; but his overriding concern seems to be to discourage Catholics from setting forth too enthusiastically.

Where two or three are gathered in Christ's name, he is there among them. And where two or three, so gathered, break bread and share the cup remembering him, he is there among them sacramentally.

For the letter, things can't be so simple. It warns against "ecumenical initiatives which, albeit well-intentioned, indulge in eucharistic practices contrary to the discipline by which the church expresses her faith".

Unity absolutely requires full communion in the teaching of the apostles, the sacraments and the church's hierarchical order. Precisely for this reason, it is not possible to celebrate the eucharist together until these bonds of unity are fully re-established, and Catholics may not receive communion in those communities which "lack a valid sacrament of orders" - that's us, by the way.

The church lives from the eucharist - but only within the limits set down by a hierarchical understanding of its nature.

This central contradiction in the letter comes to a climax in its concluding section:

"The path [of ecumenical commitment] is long and strewn with obstacles greater than our human resources alone can overcome, yet we have the eucharist, and in its presence we can hear in the depths of our hearts, as if they were addressed to us, the same words heard by the prophet Elijah: "Arise and eat, else the journey will be too great for you' (1 Kg 19.7). The treasure of the eucharist, which the Lord places before us, impels us towards the goal of full sharing with all our brothers and sisters to whom we are joined by our common baptism. But if this treasure is not to be squandered, we need to respect the demands which derive from its being the sacrament of communion in faith and in apostolic succession."

Arise and eat - but on second thoughts, don't.

We are the church

One is tempted to appeal from John Paul the pontiff to John Paul the pastor, but in fact the appeal is superfluous.

In an August 1959 TV talk with Harold Macmillan, Dwight D Eisenhower famously remarked that "people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of their way and let them have it."

Something similar we may say about ecumenism. The hour is coming - it is, perhaps, already here - when ordinary Christians will push the church politicians to one side and seize visible unity in the only sense that matters: open worship, common witness, and a shared struggle for justice, peace and the integrity of God's creation in a world where all these things are gravely compromised.

Páraic Réamonn

• Read Ecclesia de eucharistia on the Vatican website