Living a Eucharistic Spirituality through the Teachings of Three Modern Popes

by Paul Pham

Why are there conflicts and divisions in society, in families and especially in our parishes? Because of our individuality and selfishness. This cannot be avoided by human efforts. In his homily at Ancona on September 11, 2011, Pope Benedict offered an effective antidote for this problem: the Eucharist. He said, “anyone who can kneel to receive Christ in the Eucharist has the ability to see in all others the same Lord who gave himself for our salvation.” Only when we truly understand and live Eucharistic spirituality can we avoid these conflicts.

To live Eucharistic Spirituality, we need a basic understanding of the Mass. This understanding can be summed up in four questions:

• What is the Mass?
• Why do we attend Mass?
• What do we ask of God when we attend Mass?
• What does God want us to do during and after Mass?

To answer these four questions, this workshop will briefly present some of the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and, in particular, of the three modern Popes on the Eucharist and the Mass.

What is the Mass?

According to the Second Vatican Council, when “taking part in the Eucharistic sacrifice, which is the fount and apex of the whole Christian life, [the faithful] offer the Divine Victim to God, and offer themselves along with It.” (Lumen Gentium (LG), #11).

The Council says that The Eucharist is the fount and summit of the whole Christian life because “at the Last Supper, on the night when He was betrayed, our Savior instituted the eucharistic sacrifice of His Body and Blood. He did this in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout the centuries until He should come again, and so to entrust to His beloved spouse, the Church, a memorial of His death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a paschal banquet in which Christ is eaten, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us. (Sacramentum Concilium (SC), #47).

Thus, the Mass is not only a Meal in Memorial of the Lord’s Passover but also a Thanksgiving Sacrifice that Jesus commissioned the Church to celebrate in order to communicate Himself to us, so that we may be in communion with the Trinity who is Love and be united with our brothers and sisters who are members of the Mystical Body of Christ.

Why do we attend Mass?

We attend the Holy Mass because the Mass is both the Meal in Memorial of the Lord’s Passover and a Thanksgiving Sacrifice, in which we, the body of Christ, together with Him offer ourselves to God. Through communion with the Paschal Mystery of Christ, we are transformed by the Holy Spirit into a sacrifice pleasing to God. How can we partake of the meal and offer ourselves to God if we are not there?

These two elements of Memorial and Sacrifice are inseparable. The Eucharistic Prayer makes it very clear that the main purpose of this Memorial is to offer the Father a living and holy sacrifice in thanksgiving,

“Therefore, O Lord, as we celebrate the memorial of the saving Passion of your Son, his wondrous Resurrection and Ascension into heaven, and as we look forward to his second coming, we offer you in thanksgiving this holy and living sacrifice.” (Eucharistic Prayer III).

Through this Thanksgiving, we become one in Christ and remain in His Love.

“Jesus is a ‘person,’ always alive and present with us! Love Jesus present in the Eucharist. He is present in a sacrificial way in Holy Mass, which renews the Sacrifice of the Cross. To go to Mass means going to Calvary to meet him, our Redeemer.” (John Paul II, Address to the Italian youth, Nov. 8, 1978).

“The Eucharist is the summit of God’s saving action: the Lord Jesus, by becoming bread broken for us, pours upon us all of His mercy and His love, so as to renew our hearts, our lives, and our way of relating with Him and with the brethren…. Go to Mass, not just to pray, but to receive Communion, the bread that is the Body of Jesus Christ who saves us, forgives us, unites us to the Father.” (Francis, General audience, Feb. 5,2014).

“The Eucharist reveals the loving plan that guides all of salvation history (cf. Ephesians 1:10; 3:8-11). There the Deus Trinitas, who is essentially love (cf. 1 John 4:7-8), becomes fully a part of our human condition. In the bread and wine under whose appearances Christ gives himself to us in the paschal meal (cf. Luke 22:14-20; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26), God’s whole life encounters us and is sacramentally shared with us.” (Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, #8).

The Eucharist draws us into Jesus’ act of self-oblation.… We enter into the very dynamic of his self-giving …  Standing in God’s presence… now it becomes union with God through sharing in Jesus’ self-gift, sharing in his body and blood.  (Benedict XVI – Deus Caritas Est. #13).

“Receiving the Eucharist means entering into a profound communion with Jesus. ‘Abide in me, and I in you’ (John 15:4). This relationship of profound and mutual ‘abiding’ enables us to have a certain foretaste of heaven on earth…. Eucharistic communion was given so that we might be ‘sated’ with God here on earth, in expectation of our complete fulfillment in heaven.” (John Paul II, Mane nobiscum Domine, #19). “With the Eucharist the intimacy becomes total; the embrace between God and man reaches its apex.” (John Paul II, General audience, Oct. 11, 2000).

“Thanksgiving” in Greek is expressed as “eucharist.” And that is why the Mass “is the supreme thanksgiving to the Father, who so loved us that He gave us His Son out of love. This is why the term Eucharist includes the whole of that act, which is the act of God and man together, the act of Jesus Christ, true God and true Man.” (Francis, General audience, Feb. 5,2014).

What do we ask of God when we attend Mass?

“The Church, earnestly desires that Christ’s faithful, when present at this mystery of faith, should not be there as strangers or silent spectators; on the contrary, through a good understanding of the rites and prayers they should take part in the sacred action conscious of what they are doing, with devotion and full collaboration. They should be instructed by God’s word and be nourished at the table of the Lord’s body; they should give thanks to God; by offering the Immaculate Victim, not only through the hands of the priest, but also with him, they should learn also to offer themselves; through Christ the Mediator, they should be drawn day by day into ever more perfect union with God and with each other, so that finally God may be all in all. (SC, #48).

Why the Sacrifice we offer are Bread and Wine?

“Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, for through your goodness we have received the bread we offer you: fruit of the earth and work of human hands, it will become for us the bread of life.”

Bread is “a fruit of the work of human hands”, and this truth contains the full responsibility entrusted to our hands and to our ingenuity; but bread is also and before that: “a fruit of the earth”, which receives the sun and the rain from on high: it is a gift to ask for that takes away all our pride and enables us to invoke with the trust of the humble: “Our Father… give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11).

To make a bread, the wheat grains must be milled finely, mixed with water and baked over a fire or in a hot oven. The individuality of each grain must completely disappear. Each of us is a grain, born and raised by our parents under the providence of God. We became members of the Mystical Body of Christ when we were baptized. But if we want to truly become the Body of Christ, we must be crushed and purified like the flours of grains in a basket of flour, we must be mixed with flours of other grains who are our brothers and sisters in the Church. Then, through the water of Baptism and the power of the Fire of the Holy Spirit, we are united to Christ himself, to become the immaculate bread offered to the Father on the altar.

“It is Christ who, in Eucharistic communion, transforms us into Him, our individuality, in this encounter, is opened up, freed from its self-centeredness and placed in the Person of Jesus, …. Thus, while the Eucharist unites us to Christ, we open ourselves to others making us members one of another: we are … one in Him.” (Benedict XVI, Homily on the Feast of Corpus Christi, June 23,2011).

The Role of the Holy Spirit in the Mass and in our Lives

In the Eucharistic Prayer II, the Church solemnly invokes:

“Make holy, therefore, these gifts, we pray, by sending down your Spirit upon them like the dewfall, so that they may become for us the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

… Humbly we pray that, partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ, we may be gathered into one by the Holy Spirit.”

The invocation of the Holy Spirit (Epiclesis) in the Eucharistic Prayer II above has two parts. In the first part before the Consecration, the Church implores the Father to send the Holy Spirit to sanctify the Bread and Wine that we have just offered and transform them into the Body and Blood of Our Lord, Jesus Christ. Since in that Bread and Wine is contained the whole of Christ, that is, the Head and Body of Christ, after the Consecration, the Church again implores that we can be gathered into One through the Holy Spirit.

This meaning is more clearly seen in the second Epiclesis of the Eucharistic Prayer III:

“Grant that we, who are nourished by the Body and Blood of your Son and filled with his Holy Spirit, may become one body, one spirit in Christ.

May he make of us an eternal offering to you, so that we may obtain an inheritance with your elect, especially with the most Blessed Virgin Mary, …”

“By the power of the Holy Spirit, participation in Holy Communion conforms us in a singular and profound way to Christ, giving us a foretaste already now of the full communion with the Father that characterizes the heavenly banquet.” (Francis – General Audience, Feb. 5, 2014).

“The substantial conversion of bread and wine into his body and blood introduces within creation the principle of a radical change, a sort of “nuclear fission,” …, a change meant to set off a process which transforms reality, a process leading ultimately to the transfiguration of the entire world, to the point where God will be all in all. (Benedict XVI – Sacramentum Caritatis, #11).

“In the humble signs of bread and wine, changed into his body and blood, Christ walks beside us as our strength and our food for the journey, and he enables us to become, for everyone, witnesses of hope. (John Paul II – Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 62).

“Through the consecrated bread and wine, in which his Body and Blood is truly present, Christ transforms us, assimilating us in him: he involves us in his redeeming work, enabling us, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, to live according to his same logic of gift, like grains of wheat united with Him and in Him. (Benedict XVI, Homily on the Feast of Corpus Christi, June 23, 2011).

What does God want us to do during and after Mass?

According to all three Popes, God wants us to always live a Eucharistic Spirituality both during and outside of Mass. According to their teachings, Eucharistic Spirituality is also Spirituality of Communion.

“Eucharistic Spirituality is not just participation in Mass. It embraces the whole of life.” …. Hence the Eucharist, as the source and summit of the Church’s life and mission, must be translated into spirituality, into a life lived “according to the Spirit.” It means “not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” In the Mass, Jesus wants us “present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.”  (cf. Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, 77, 83).

‘“From this Sacrament of love, in fact, flows every authentic journey of faith, of communion, and of witness (Francis, General Audience, Feb. 5, 2014).

God is Love. “The Eucharist educates us to this love in a deeper way; it shows us, in fact, what value each person, our brother or sister, has in God’s eyes, if Christ offers Himself equally to each one, under the species of bread and wine. If our Eucharistic worship is authentic, it must make us grow in awareness of the dignity of each person.” (John Paul II – Dominicae Cenae, #6)

“Eucharistic communion unites me to the person next to me, and with whom I might not even have a good relationship, but also to my brothers and sisters who are far away, in every corner of the world.” (Benedict XVI, Homily on the Feast of Corpus Christi, June 23, 2011).

“At each Holy Mass we are called to measure ourselves against the ideal of communion which the Acts of the Apostles paints as a model for the Church in every age.” (John Paul II – Mane nobiscum Domine, #22).

According to Saint John Paul II, the only way to truly live the Eucharistic Communion is to live and spread the Spirituality of Communion widely in the Church, from the family, the parish, the diocese to the entire Church. Vu (cf. John Paul II, Novo Millennio Ineunte, #43).

Spirituality of Communion

The Church is essentially a mystery of communion, a people made one with the unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This sharing in the life of the Trinity is the source and inspiration for all Christian relationships and every form of Christian community. Communion is the fruit of God’s loving initiative, fulfilled in the Paschal Mystery of Christ by which the Church shares in the divine communion of love between the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit. (cf. John Paul II, Ecclesia in Oceania).

In Novo Millennio Ineunte 43, St. John Paul II writes:

“To make the Church the home and the school of communion: that is the great challenge facing us in the millennium which is now beginning, if we wish to be faithful to God’s plan and respond to the world’s deepest yearnings.

“But what does this mean in practice? Here too, our thoughts could run immediately to the action to be undertaken, but that would not be the right impulse to follow.

“Before making practical plans, we need to promote a spirituality of communion, making it the guiding principle of education wherever individuals and Christians are formed, wherever ministers of the altar, consecrated persons, and pastoral workers are trained, wherever families and communities are being built up.

“A spirituality of communion indicates above all the heart’s contemplation of the mystery of the Trinity dwelling in us, and whose light we must also be able to see shining on the face of the brothers and sisters around us.

“A spirituality of communion also means an ability to think of our brothers and sisters in faith within the profound unity of the Mystical Body, and therefore as “those who are a part of me“. This makes us able to share their joys and sufferings, to sense their desires and attend to their needs, to offer them deep and genuine friendship.

“A spirituality of communion implies also the ability to see what is positive in others, to welcome it and prize it as a gift from God: not only as a gift for the brother or sister who has received it directly, but also as a “gift for me”.

“A spirituality of communion means, finally, to know how to “make room” for our brothers and sisters, bearing “each other’s burdens” (Gal 6:2) and resisting the selfish temptations which constantly beset us and provoke competition, careerism, distrust and jealousy.

“Let us have no illusions: unless we follow this spiritual path, external structures of communion will serve very little purpose. They would become mechanisms without a soul, “masks” of communion rather than its means of expression and growth.”

Conclusion

As we see above, according to Pope Saint John Paul II, the greatest obstacle to living Eucharistic spirituality is selfishness. It is selfishness that causes competition, careerism, distrust and jealousy that divides our community.

Pope Benedict added that we need to give up self-centeredness and live a Christocentric way of life. When I only concentrate on myself, I put my “ego” as the center, I use imyself as a standard, forcing others to do my will, to think like me and to act like me. When I do this, the Holy Spirit cannot make me a member of Christ’s Mystical Body!

Pope Francis emphasized self-righteousness. Self-righteous people often compare others to themselves and judge them according to their own biases or standards. They don’t need God and have no room for Him in their hearts. They are God!

Pope Francis asked, “When we go to Mass on Sunday, how do we live it?” He gave three very concrete signs of how we live and experience the Eucharist:

• The way we look at or consider others. Does the Mass I celebrate lead me to truly consider all people as brothers and sisters? Does it help me to recognize in their faces the face of Jesus?
• The grace of feeling forgiven and ready to forgive. Christ is offering His Body and Blood at Mass for the forgiveness of our sins. Do I humbly go to Mass to receive forgiveness and ready to forgive others?
• The intimate relationship between the celebration of Mass and the life of the Christian community. The Mass is the action of Christ on the altar. He Himself is present and has gathered us together to feed us with His Word and His Life. So, the Church’s mission and very identity flow from the Mass, and always take shape there.

He concluded, “A celebration may be flawless on the exterior, very beautiful, but if it does not lead us to encounter Jesus Christ, it is unlikely to bear any kind of nourishment to our heart and our life.”