The Year of the Eucharist

            One of the last, major initiatives of Pope John Paul II before he died – requiescat in pace – was his call for a year of the Eucharist, from October 2004 through October 2005.  At present, bishops from all over the world are in Rome for a Synod of Bishops, whose gathering will conclude the year-long celebration of what is at the heart of the Catholic Faith – the Eucharist.  Reports of their discussions repeatedly refer to a near universal concern that this precious treasury of grace is threatened by a lack of understanding on the part of many Catholics as to the true nature of the Eucharist, as well as of the Mass itself. 

            As if to confirm the accuracy of the bishops’ concern, and to remind me of the constant need for teaching on this subject, a friend’s email came to me a few days ago, pointing to a website report that an organization of Catholics has sent a letter of protest to Rome about this very issue.  The letter-writers complain about the Church’s continual insistence on the need for the term transubstantiation in seeking to explain the nature of Christ’s presence with us at Mass under the outward signs of Bread and Wine.  They also state in their letter their convinced opposition to any reference to the Mass as a “holy sacrifice”; indeed, they champion the idea that all reference to “sacrifice” be removed from the Mass.  They go on to claim, as so many of those do who want some change in official Church teaching, that their “authority” for making such demands flows from the Second Vatican Council.

            After pondering all this for a while, I remembered the extraordinary move by Pope Paul VI, while presiding over the Vatican Council, whereby he promulgated the encyclical, Mysterium Fidei.   What was the purpose of this encyclical?  To uphold the Church's Traditional teaching concerning the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, as well as condemn any false teachings that had begun to surface within the Church.  

            Below I have excerpted a number of sections from this document, which will make clear, both the erroneous nature of present-day clamoring for a change in the Church’s teaching concerning the Eucharist, as well as give us all lucid reminders of what the Church has always understood and taught about this central reality of our Faith.  (The relatively modern incorporation of the term transubstantiation was simply, on the part of the Council of Trent, a further clarification of constant Catholic teaching.  The glossary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church gives the following definition of this term:  “The scholastic term used to designate the unique change of the Eucharistic bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ.  [It] indicates that through the consecration of the bread and wine there occurs the change of the entire substance of the bread into the substance of the Body of Christ, and the entire substance of the wine into the Blood of Christ – even though the appearances or ‘species’ of bread and wine remain.”)

From Mysterium Fidei:

            When dealing with the restoration of the sacred liturgy, the Fathers of the council, by reason of their pastoral concern for the whole Church, considered it of the highest importance to exhort the faithful to participate actively with sound faith and with the utmost devotion in the celebration of this Most Holy Mystery, to offer it with the priest to God as a sacrifice for their own salvation and for that of the whole world, and to find in it spiritual nourishment.  

            The Church, therefore, with the long labor of centuries, and, not without the help of the Holy Spirit, has established a rule of language and confirmed it with the authority of the councils. This rule, which has more than once been the watchword and banner of Orthodox faith, must be religiously preserved, and let no one presume to change it at his own pleasure or under the pretext of new science. Who would ever tolerate that the dogmatic formulas used by ecumenical councils for the mysteries of the Holy Trinity and the Incarnation be judged as no longer appropriate for men of our times and therefore that others be rashly substituted for them? In the same way it cannot be tolerated that any individual should on his own authority modify the formulas which were used by the Council of Trent to express belief in the Eucharistic Mystery. For these formulas, like the others which the Church uses to propose the dogmas of faith, express concepts which are not tied to a certain form of human culture, nor to a specific phase of human culture, nor to one or other theological school.

            The constant teaching which the Catholic Church passes on to her catechumens, the understanding of the Christian people, the doctrine defined by the Council of Trent, the very words used by Christ when He instituted the Most Holy Eucharist, compel us to acknowledge that "the Eucharist is that flesh of Our Savior Jesus Christ who suffered for our sins and whom the Father in His loving-kindness raised again." To these words of St. Ignatius of Antioch, we may add those which Theodore of Mopsueta, a faithful witness to the faith of the Church on this point, addressed to the faithful: "The Lord did not say: This is a symbol of My Body, and this is a symbol of My blood but: This is My Body and My Blood." He teaches us not to look to the nature of those things which lie before us and are perceived by the senses, for by the prayer of thanksgiving and the words spoken over them, they have been changed into Flesh and Blood."

            The Council of Trent, basing itself on this faith of the Church, "openly and sincerely professes that within the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, after the Consecration of the bread and wine, Our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, really, truly and substantially is contained under those outward appearances."

            After the Council of Trent, our predecessor, Pius VI, on the occasion of the errors of the Synod of Pistoia, warned parish priests when carrying out their office of teaching, not to neglect to speak of transubstantiation, one of the articles of faith.