Dear Friends,
On this 17th Sunday we come to know that the kingdom of heaven is more precious than gold and silver. It is worth selling everything we posses to continue the rule of God and treasure it above all else.
Let us continue to read together the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Benedict XVI entitled: Sacramentum Caritatis. Pope Benedict divides his Exhortation into 3 parts that reflect the harmony among dogma, liturgy, and life. The Eucharist is a mystery to be believed, celebrated, and lived with our whole heart. In the Eucharist we find “reflected a great deal on the intrinsic relation between Eucharistic faith and celebration” (SC 34). The faith that is celebrated is the faith that is believed.
This exercise of reading this beautiful exhortation of Pope Benedict XVI in easy digestible portions is intended to help us to gratefully appreciate anew the gift of the Eucharist!
Have a Blessed Week!
With Love, Fr. John
W e e k 5 — SA C R A M E N T U M C A R I T A T I S ( T H E SA C R A M E N T O F C H A R I T Y : T H E E U C H A R I ST )
CONTINUATION OF THE POST-SYNODAL APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS OF THE HOLY FATHER BENEDICT XVI TO THE BISHOPS, CLERGY, CONSECRATED PERSONS AND THE LAY FAITHFUL ON THE EUCHARIST AS THE SOURCE AND SUMMIT OF THE CHURCH'S LIFE AND MISSION
P A R T O N E : T H E E U C H A R I ST — A M Y ST E R Y T O B E B E L I E V E D ( c on t i n u e d )
“This is the work of God: that you believe in whom he has sent.” (Jn 6:29)
THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE EUCHARIST—JESUS AND THEHOLY SPIRIT
- With his word and with the elements of bread and wine, the Lord himself has given us the essentials of this new The Church, his Bride, is called to celebrate the eucharistic banquet daily in his memory. She thus makes the redeeming sacrifice of her Bridegroom a part of human history and makes it sacramentally present in every culture. This great mystery is celebrated in the liturgical forms which the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, develops in time and space. (23) We need a renewed awareness of the decisive role played by the Holy Spirit in the evolution of the liturgical form and the deepening understanding of the sacred mysteries. The Paraclete, Christ's first gift to those who believe, (24) already at work in Creation (cf. Gen 1:2), is fully present throughout the life of the incarnate Word: Jesus Christ is conceived by the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit (cf. Mt 1:18; Lk 1:35); at the beginning of his public mission, on the banks of the Jordan, he sees the Spirit descend upon him in the form of a dove (cf. Mt 3:16 and parallels); he acts, speaks and rejoices in the Spirit (cf. Lk 10:21), and he can offer himself in the Spirit (cf. Heb 9:14). In the so-called "farewell discourse" reported by John, Jesus clearly relates the gift of his life in the paschal mystery to the gift of the Spirit to his own (cf. Jn 16:7). Once risen, bearing in his flesh the signs of the passion, he can pour out the Spirit upon them (cf. Jn 20:22), making them sharers in his own mission (cf. Jn 20:21). The Spirit would then teach the disciples all things and bring to their remembrance all that Christ had said (cf. Jn 14:26), since it falls to him, as the Spirit of truth (cf. Jn 15:26), to guide the disciples into all truth (cf. Jn 16:13). In the account in Acts, the Spirit descends on the Apostles gathered in prayer with Mary on the day of Pentecost (cf. 2:1-4) and stirs them to undertake the mission of proclaiming the Good News to all peoples. Thus it is through the working of the Spirit that Christ himself continues to be present and active in his Church, starting with her vital centre which is the Eucharist.
THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE EUCHARIST CELEBRATION
- Against this backdrop we can understand the decisive role played by the Holy Spirit in the eucharistic celebration, particularly with regard to transubstantiation. An awareness of this is clearly evident in the Fathers of the Church. Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, in his Catecheses, states that we "call upon God in his mercy to send his Holy Spirit upon the offerings before us, to transform the bread into the body of Christ and the wine into the blood of Christ. Whatever the Holy Spirit touches is sanctified and completely transformed" (25). Saint John Chrysostom too notes that the priest invokes the Holy Spirit when he celebrates the sacrifice: (26) like Elijah, the minister calls down the Holy Spirit so that "as grace comes down upon the victim, the souls of all are thereby inflamed" (27). The spiritual life of the faithful can benefit greatly from a better appreciation of the richness of the anaphora: along with the words spoken by Christ at the Last Supper, it contains the epiclesis, the petition to the Father to send down the gift of the Spirit so that the bread and the wine will become the body and blood of Jesus Christ and that "the community as a whole will become ever more the body of Christ" (28). The Spirit invoked by the celebrant upon the gifts of bread and wine placed on the altar is the same Spirit who gathers the faithful "into one body" and makes of them a spiritual offering pleasing to the Father (29).
(22) Benedict XVI, Homily at Marienfeld Esplanade (21 August 2005): AAS 97 (2005), 891-892.
(23) cf. Propositio 3.
(24) cf. Roman Missal, Eucharistic Prayer IV.
(25) cat. XXIII, 7: PG 33, 1114ff.
(26) cf. De Sacerdotio, VI, 4: PG 48, 681.
(27) Ibid., III, 4: PG 48, 642.
(28) Propositio 22
(29) Propositio 42: "This eucharistic encounter takes place in the Holy Spirit, who transforms and sanctifies us. He re- awakens in the disciple the firm desire toproclaim boldly toothersall that he hasheard and experienced, to bring them to the same encounter with Christ. Thus the disciple, sent forth by the Church, becomesopen toamission without frontiers."