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THEOLOGY OF SACRAMENT

Communion draws us into the divine drama

As he entered middle age, Tom Riendeau, 42, raised in a largely non-religious family, sought a spiritual home. He decided to go church-shopping, taking in both Catholic and Protestant Sunday services in the Capital District, bringing his background in amateur theater with him.

He discovered that the Catholic Eucharist drew him in personally. 

"The Protestant service is more like a lecture," he said. "The Mass is more of a participatory play. You are in the play; you are one of the characters. What I love about it is that we are involved. Once I was involved in the Mass, saw the mechanics of how it happened, it had tremendous appeal to me."

Theologians and poets have explored the Eucharistic drama for centuries. The "Catechism of the Catholic Church" describes it as "the source and summit of ecclesial life."

Rev. Richard McBrien, a theologian at the University of Notre Dame, notes in his book "Catholicism" (Winston Press, 1980) that the Eucharist was celebrated in the early Church as a meal. The prayers we say today at Mass are directly linked to what the first Christians recited as they recalled the Last Supper.

Because it is so important to the lives of Catholics, and all Christians, descriptions of the Eucharist in Church documents take in a score of descriptions and metaphors. 

Visions varying
The Eucharist is described in the Catechism, for example, as meal, sacrifice, memorial and, through the presence of the consecrated bread and wine, as an offering of the real presence of Jesus. While that last attribute has at times presented an ecumenical obstacle, Catholics in their view of the Eucharist are not far removed in many cases from those of their fellow Christians.

Franciscan Rev. Dennis Tamburello, professor of religious studies at Siena College in Loudonville with a specialty in ecumenical theology, noted that the Catholic understanding of Eucharist does not differ completely from all other Christian views.

Orthodox Christians, for example, also believe in the real presence of Christ. The Catholic Church policy is that Orthodox Christians, Eastern Assyrian Christians and members of the Polish National Catholic Church are welcome to receive at our table. 

For other Christians, "differences in the understanding of Eucharist generally revolve around questions of the real presence and questions of ministry and ecclesiology," noted Father Tamburello.

Then what?
The big question dividing Catholics and Orthodox from Protestant churches is, noted Father Tamburello, a disagreement over "what exactly happens to the bread and wine?" Catholics and some others believe that there is a genuine transformation of the elements.

Protestant reformers held a different view. Still, Martin Luther, while rejecting some aspects of traditional Catholic theology on the Eucharist, held to the real presence of Christ in the bread and wine. John Calvin rejected much of the Catholic understanding of the real presence. But he did say that the believer is drawn up into an experience of Christ's presence through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Other differences have to do with different views about the Church. (This difference can be particularly awkward at weddings and funerals, where non-Catholic Christians are frequently present and explanations of communion policies are announced.) 

According to Catholic teaching, receiving communion is a sign that one is in unity with the Catholic Church. The official "Guidelines for the Reception of Communion" state that "the Eucharist is a sign of the reality of the oneness of faith, life, and worship," and for this reason "members of those churches with whom we are not yet fully united are ordinarily not admitted to Holy Communion." 

While the theology of Eucharist can get complicated, everyday Catholics find in it a spiritual value that transcends doctrinal formulations. 

Deacon Raymond Sullivan of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany finds inspiration in the final words of the Mass, the dismissal rite, when the priest invokes: "The Mass is ended; go in peace." Having received Christ, Catholics are inspired to take Him into the world.

Deacon Sullivan, 68, associate director of ecumenical and interreligious affairs for the Albany Diocese, is a retired executive who assists an agency working with the unemployed in Albany. It's an impressive resume of service, but he noted that the Eucharist offers the constant reminder that it is not intended for the extraordinarily holy.

"Christ calls us in Eucharist as sinners," he said, noting that in word and sacrament, those who regularly attend Eucharist realize "we are not holier-than-thou people. 
We recognize ourselves as we really are."

Christ coming
Aba Waynet Hinds, a member of the Black Apostolate community based at St. Joan of Arc Church in Menands, sensed the presence of God while growing up in Trinidad. 

Participating in Mass, she said, brings forth that sense of God's presence in her life combined with a caring community.

"There is God within me. And there is God in others. The Eucharist brings it all together," she said.

For Mr. Riendeau, his attraction to Catholicism can be found in its incarnational aspects, the use of rituals and signs that invoke the presence of Christ.

Nowhere is that more clearly evident than in the celebration of the Mass, containing as it does elements of meal, sacrifice, offering, commemoration and the real presence. "For me, the Eucharist is everything," he said. 

(10/01/09) [[In-content Ad]]

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