New Page 0

March 23, 2007

A Shepherd’s Message

By Archbishop Daniel N. DiNardo

Last week, the Holy Father published an Apostolic Exhortation in which he summarized and commented on the recent Synod of Bishops in October of 2005. That Synod dealt with the mystery of the Eucharist. As the Bishop of Rome and Head of the Church, the Holy Father explains his purpose in writing this text entitled “Sacramentum Caritatis,” the Sacrament of Charity. His purpose is to take up the richness and variety of the reflections and proposals which emerged during the Synod and to “offer some basic directions aimed at a renewed commitment to Eucharistic enthusiasm and fervor in the Church.” The Pope is modest here. His Exhortation is brilliant and remarkable. The very title is a quote from St. Thomas Aquinas who in his Summa Theologiae summarizes and deepens our understanding of the mystery, the meaning and the “definition” of the Eucharist as “Sacrament of Charity.” From the very first lines of the document’s nearly fifty pages the Pope shows himself a master teacher, a first rate theologian and a superb magisterial witness to the faith. He himself, like Aquinas, distills much in little space. As your bishop, I feel compelled by both the very importance of the mystery addressed and by the excellence of Pope Benedict’s writing to spend a number of columns in the coming months on this important work of the Church’s highest teaching authority.

The Pope divides his reflections into three parts: (1) The Eucharist, A Mystery to be Believed; (2) The Eucharist, A Mystery to be Celebrated; (3) The Eucharist, A Mystery to be Lived. In the Eucharist the food of truth, Christ Himself, is offered to us as gift; the gift saturates us with the very life of God, Love.

In Part One, Pope Benedict “headlines” his reflections with a verse from Chapter 6 of St. John’s Gospel: “This is the work of God: that you believe in Him who He has sent.” (John 6:29) The Eucharist is central to the Church’s faith, to the faith of each person, for it takes us into the personal presence, a grace-filled encounter with the Risen Lord, in whom we believe. That Lord was sent by the Father out of love, a love that lasts to the end, to death on a Cross. To believe in Jesus as Lord and God, as Savior who opens up our freedom to genuine love of God and of the neighbor is sharing in God’s work. Chapter 6 of John’s Gospel begins with the multiplication of loaves and fishes, a genuine foreshadowing of the great gift of the Eucharist. The crowds misconstrue the sign and want to forcefully take Jesus as their political Messiah, but He flees from such misinterpretation. That night He walks on the water and calms the fear of the Twelve in the boat of Peter. On the other side of the Lake on the next day, Jesus begins to unpack the genuine meaning of His miracle for His listeners. The rest of the chapter is dedicated to Jesus leading the people and the Twelve to understand Him as the true Bread of Life, the eternal Son of God, and to believe in Him. But He goes further and promises that His very self will be given as food, bread for the life of the world. “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him.” No one can come to this reality of faith without the Father drawing that person to Jesus and no one can fully live in Jesus without the Spirit of Truth enlivening conscience to freely embrace Jesus. At the end of the chapter many would-be disciples walk away, repelled by such a hard teaching. Jesus does not back down. He even asks the Twelve: “Will you also go?” Peter speaks for them, the foundation stones of the Church, and for us. “Lord, where could we go? You have the words of everlasting life!” This whole scene is a silent witness to the development of Part One of the Pope’s analysis. The Eucharist is a mystery to be believed: faith is awakened by the preaching of God’s word and it is nourished and grows through the Eucharist. The Eucharist is always the sum and summary of our faith!

In a future column I want to detail the Pope’s analysis of the Eucharist as the new and eternal covenant and the Banquet of the Lamb.