Jesus connected food to Himself

By KATE BLAIN- | Comments: 0 | Leave a comment

Jesus' last meeting with His Apostles took the form of a meal. At the Last Supper, Jesus instructed His followers to continue to break bread in His memory, a practice that has withstood the test of nearly two millennia.

But according to Rev. Charles Gusmer, Catholics often overlook the fact that the Mass, where the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ, began as a meal.

Father Gusmer, chair of the Commission for Divine Worship for the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, spoke at the 1976 Eucharistic Congress on that very topic. "Christ is the head of a family who graciously invites us, His followers today, to share a pleasant meal with Him," he stated.

Actions of meal

In a recent interview with The Evangelist, the lecturer explained that when priests celebrate Mass, their actions clearly indicate that "they're celebrating a meal. The actions of the Eucharist are those of a meal; the words are those of the Eucharistic prayers. The meaning of it is that of a sacrifice."

However, he said, Catholics have traditionally emphasized the aspect of the Mass as a sacrifice, in response to Protestant reformers who stressed "the meal aspect of the Lord's Supper."

"What we do in the Mass is to recall what Jesus did in the Last Supper," Father Gusmer said. "If you think [the Mass] is a meal, you also have to be open to the idea that it's thanksgiving and sacrifice."

Ironically, the priest said, the most important experiences of our lives often take place within the setting of a meal, even though we may not emphasize the Mass as one such experience.

Connections

There are several ways, he added, to make the Mass more of a meal:

* Be sure the bread and wine are visible on the altar. "They should not be obscured by the Sacramentary or a microphone," Father Gusmer stated. The priest admitted that as he gets older, he is struggling not to put a stand for the Sacramentary on the altar, which would be easier on his eyes, but might hide the gifts from the congregation.

* Make available Communion under both species -- "even if not everyone takes it," he said. "Jesus said, `Take and eat' and `Take and drink.' That's the fullness of the Eucharist."

* Bless the bread at the same Mass during which it is consumed. "If the Eucharist is a meal as well as a sacrifice, then the food we eat should be present to us on the table from the beginning of Mass," the priest wrote in his lecture. Taking previously-consecrated hosts from the tabernacle "is almost like sending out for food," he told The Evangelist. "It's like the Eucharist is just an occasion to make Christ present," rather than part of the meal of the Mass itself.

* Use bread that resembles bread. Father Gusmer complained that many parishes still use paper-thin, white hosts that have more of a plastic texture than that of bread, when unleavened bread is readily available. This takes away from the idea of the Mass as a meal: The priest joked that a child once said, "It's a bigger act of faith to believe that the bread is real bread than to believe in the real presence" of Christ in the Eucharist.

Other ideas

Father Gusmer offered several other suggestions to keep in mind that the Eucharist is a meal as well as a sacrifice, including Mass-goers' singing as they line up for communion (preferably a song with a simple refrain like "One Bread, One Body," which doesn't require songbooks); and Eucharistic ministers' being formally dismissed at the end of the Mass to bring communion to the sick and homebound.

When Catholics don't remember that the Eucharist is both a meal and a sacrifice, Father Gusmer said, Mass "becomes too wordy." However, he cautioned that there should be "no diminishment of the specialness of the Eucharist as food. The Eucharist is primarily there to be recognized as food, as nourishment."

("Is the Mass a Meal?" by Rev. Charles Gusmer is available as a four-page Catholic Update from St. Anthony Messenger Press. Call 513-241-5615).

(11-27-97) [[In-content Ad]]