The Eucharist: Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church

Pastoral Letter to the Clergy, Religious and Lay Faithful of the Diocese of Pittsburgh

Grace and peace to you in Christ.

With the command “Do this in memory of me” Jesus not only instituted the Eucharist as the memorial of his death and resurrection but also established the means by which the Church would find the source and summit of her life and mission. To reflect on and celebrate this extraordinary gift, the year from October 2004 through October 2005 has been set aside by our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, as the Year of the Eucharist. With this letter I call the faithful of the Church of Pittsburgh to participate in this Eucharistic Year as we celebrate it in this diocese.

In his homily at the Basilica of Saint John Lateran on the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ on Thursday, June 10, 2004, Pope John Paul II announced a special Year of the Eucharist and declared that it would begin with the World Eucharistic Congress, planned to take place from October 10 through 17, 2004, in Guadalajara, Mexico and would end with the next ordinary assembly of the Synod of Bishops that will be held in the Vatican from October 2 through 29, 2005. The theme of the synod will be “The Eucharist: Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church.”

In announcing the Year of the Eucharist our Holy Father cited the words of Saint Paul to the Corinthians: “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor. 11.26). Saint Paul reminded the Christians of Corinth and all of us that “the Lord’s Supper” is not only a convivial meeting but also, and above all, the memorial of the redeeming sacrifice of Christ.

Earlier in his first encyclical of the new millennium dedicated to the Eucharist and entitled Ecclesia de Eucharistia, On the Eucharist and its Relationship to the Church, our Holy Father teaches “When the Church celebrates the Eucharist, the memorial of her Lord’s death and resurrection, this central event of salvation becomes really present and ‘the work of our redemption is carried out’… Each member of the faithful can thus take part in it and inexhaustibly gain its fruits” (11).

The one great sacrifice was accomplished by Jesus the Priest and Victim who offered himself on the altar of the cross for our redemption. This sacrifice does not need to be and cannot be repeated. However it can be re-presented so that we today in our moment in history are able sacramentally and spiritually to enter the paschal mystery and draw spiritual nourishment from it.

In homilies at the liturgy for an anniversary of a parish or the blessing or dedication of a church I often reflect on the Acts of the Apostles. In the earliest chapters of that New Testament recounting of the life of the ancient, fledgling Church we find the description of the faithful coming together in order that they might devote “themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2.42). The breaking of the bread refers to the Eucharist, an essential aspect of the life of the Church from her beginning.

The Church shares in the very life of the Risen Lord. Her members, through baptism into the Church, form a body with Christ as its head. It is through the Church that women and men are saved by coming to know Jesus Christ and through him are united in grace to the Father through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This mystery of the faith necessarily involves the mystery of the Eucharist and the Church.

For all of the members of the Church spread throughout the world the principal act of worship and spiritual nourishment is the celebration of the Eucharist. Sunday Mass becomes not only an expression of our membership in the Body of Christ but also our participation in the very mystery of our redemption. Thus the Church speaks of the relationship of the Eucharist to the Body of Christ — the Church. Since priesthood is essential to the celebration of the Eucharist, all three — Eucharist, Church and priesthood — are intimately united.

Our celebration of the Year of the Eucharist should reflect, therefore, both on the nature of the Church and on the priesthood as a sacrament at the service of ecclesial communion. In fact, in his encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia the Pope reminds us that the Eucharist builds the Church and the Church makes the Eucharist. The profound relationship between the two is reflective as well of the apostolic origin of both. “The Eucharist too has its foundation in the Apostles, not in the sense that it did not originate in Christ himself, but because it was entrusted by Jesus to the Apostles and has been handed down to us by them and by their successors” (27). The Pope then makes clear the place of priesthood. “This minister (priest) is a gift which the assembly receives through episcopal succession going back to the Apostles” (29).

Apostolic succession and the Church’s pastoral mission necessarily entail the sacrament of Holy Orders. Just as there is no Church without the Eucharist, so there is no Eucharist without valid ministerial priesthood.

One of the pastoral implications for the Church’s teaching on the relationship of priesthood and the Eucharist is the recognition that there are profound differences in the understanding of the nature of Church, the Eucharist and Holy Orders. These differences in understanding between the Catholic Church and those ecclesial communities which arose in the west from the sixteenth century onwards and which are separated from the Catholic Church are the focus of much ecumenical attention.

One sad consequence of these divisions is that those outside the Catholic Church cannot receive Communion at the celebration of the Eucharist in the Catholic Church. Our Holy Father reminds us “It would therefore be a great contradiction if the sacrament ‘par excellence’ of the Church’s unity were celebrated without true communion with the bishop.” In this Year of the Eucharist let us pray for renewed effort at healing the divisions among Christians.

Each of the Eucharistic prayers includes an intercession on behalf of the Pope and the bishop, both by name, asking God’s blessing on their pastoral ministry. It is the relationship of apostolic ministry to the Eucharist that is the foundation for our obligation to pray for both the bishop and the Roman Pontiff. “The ecclesial communion of the Eucharistic assembly is a communion with its own bishop and with the Roman Pontiff” (39).

At the end of Mass in parishes I visit I often call on the congregation to identify within the parish young women who might be called to religious life and young men who might be called to priesthood. I am firmly convinced that God continues to call. We need to encourage our young people to respond to that call. All of us are obliged to pray and work for an increase in priestly vocations.

Participation in the Sunday Eucharist is not incidental to the life of a Catholic. It is not just the manifestation of our identity but the source of our unity with Christ and his Church. The Pope reminds us “The faithful have the obligation to attend Mass, unless they are seriously impeded, and that Pastors have the corresponding duty to see that it is practical and possible for all to fulfill this precept” (41).

In this Year of the Eucharist we should be attentive to our own devout participation in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. We should take this time of reflection on the Eucharist to renew our own commitment to a renewal of our own personal fervor in devotion to the Eucharist. For priests and deacons this can take the form, as well, of providing parish opportunities for such devotion and using homilies to highlight and encourage such particular personal prayer practices. This can also be an occasion of evangelization and a time of outreach. There are many people who we know should be with us at Sunday Mass. Perhaps all that these family members, friends, neighbors, acquaintances or co-workers need is a reminder and an invitation from us that the Lord awaits them at his Table.

The real presence of Christ endures after the celebration of the Eucharistic Liturgy. Following the distribution of Communion the remaining consecrated hosts are placed in the tabernacle. Devotion to the real presence of the Lord in the Eucharist is a hallmark of the Catholic faithful. The hosts in the tabernacle provide “viaticum” (literally food for the journey), Communion for those who turn to the Church in their final hour, and also a focal point for prayer and worship of Christ in his real presence. The tabernacle calls us to find the time to come prayerfully and quietly before Jesus.

The faith of the Church in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is found in the words of Jesus himself, as recorded in the Gospel of Saint John. In the Eucharistic discourse after the multiplication of the loaves, our Lord contrasted ordinary bread with a bread that is not of this world but which contains eternal life for those who eat it. He said: “I am the bread of life… I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats of this bread will live forever and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (Jn. 6.48, 51).

With the passage of time, however, reverent reflection led the Church to enrich its Eucharistic devotion. Faith that Jesus is truly present in the sacrament led believers to worship Christ dwelling with us permanently in the sacrament. Wherever the sacrament is, there is Christ who is our Lord and our God. Hence he is ever to be worshiped in this mystery. Such worship is expressed in many ways: in genuflection before the tabernacle, in adoration of the Eucharist and in the many forms of Eucharistic devotion that faith has nourished.

The fact that the Pope chose to announce the Year of the Eucharist while celebrating Mass and the Eucharistic procession for the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ in Rome is testimony to the significance and popularity of this feast with its joyful hymns and public processions all of which encourage further development of Eucharistic devotions.

In every church the Eucharistic presence of Christ is found in the tabernacle. In this Year of the Eucharist I ask every pastor to call to the attention of the faithful the great grace that is Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and invite the faithful to visit the church and pray before the tabernacle. The faithful should be encouraged to designate specific times in the course of a week when they might spend some time before the Blessed Sacrament. This could be a time of prayer for many special intentions but particularly for peace among people, an increase in vocations to priesthood and religious life, for the poor and for those with spiritual, physical or other personal needs.

At times the Blessed Sacrament is removed from the tabernacle in which it is ordinarily kept and placed upon the altar in a monstrance for adoration. These periods of exposition are sometimes extended into holy hours. One particularly popular parish tradition is a Eucharistic day or the “Forty Hours” devotion with exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and a homily calling particular attention to this glorious, divine gift. Pastors might consider having occasional celebrations of Eucharistic devotions especially during this Year of the Eucharist.

Since the Year of the Eucharist will begin on Sunday, October 10, 2004 I invite every pastor, where appropriate and feasible, to consider having a period of exposition of the Blessed Sacrament sometime following the last Sunday Eucharistic Liturgy and concluding with benediction of the Blessed Sacrament in the late afternoon or even early evening. All of this necessarily would depend upon the capabilities of the parish. Another alternative would be to use the weekend of October 9-10 to invite people to come to the church regularly during that week to join in solidarity with the World Eucharistic Congress by spending some time in private prayer before the tabernacle. The opening week of the Year of the Eucharist could conclude with exposition and benediction of the Blessed Sacrament on either Saturday, October 16 or Sunday, October 17 depending upon the schedule and possibilities within the parish. At Saint Paul Cathedral we will have evening prayer concluding with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament on Sunday, October 17, 2004 at 5 p.m.

As we focus our attention on the Eucharist each of us can set personal and ecclesial goals. First and most important should be our own renewed appreciation for the extraordinary gift of the re-presentation of Jesus’ death and resurrection spiritually and sacramentally for us in the Eucharist. We should also renew our faith in the enduring real presence of Christ in Communion and in the tabernacle. At the same time we should re-commit ourselves to the challenge to see the implications of our faith in our daily life.

In the Sunday Angelus immediately following the Feast of Corpus Christi in Rome our Holy Father reminded us “The ‘Year of the Eucharist’ fits into the context of the pastoral project that I pointed out in the Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, in which I invited the faithful to ‘start afresh from Christ’” (Angelus, June 13, 2004). The Holy Father asks us to contemplate with greater perseverance the Face of the Incarnate Word truly present in the sacrament and therefore undertake that “high standard of Christian living, an indispensable condition for effectively developing the new evangelization” (Angelus, June 13, 2004).

Our Holy Father concludes his reflection on the Eucharist with a meditation on Mary, Mother and Model of the Church. He speaks of our learning devotion “at the school of Mary, ‘woman of the Eucharist.’” He reminds us that “Mary can guide us towards this most holy sacrament, because she herself has a profound relationship with it” (53).

This is an appropriate time as well to recall that this year will mark the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is under that title that Mary is the principal patroness of the Diocese of Pittsburgh. In this year of the Eucharist we should find occasion on December 8, the holyday of obligation, to reflect on Mary’s unique relationship with her Son and Our Lord. I intend to celebrate the 8:00 a.m. televised Mass at Saint Paul Cathedral on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. In this way I can join those unable physically to be present for the Eucharist.

Not only is this Year of the Eucharist a time for renewed fervor, devotion, commitment and faith involving the Lord Jesus present in the Eucharist, it is also a time to let the energizing spirit of the Eucharist so fill us that we become evangelists as were the first disciples of Jesus — people intent on sharing the Good News with others.

All around us in this secular world that increasingly marginalizes the idea of transcendent truth, absolute values and a spiritual dimension to life, we are called to proclaim the reality of God, the Incarnation of God’s Son who came among us as God-with-us and the enduring presence of Christ in the Eucharist. We who have received so much have an obligation to share. This we can do by the witness we bear to our faith in Jesus in the Eucharist.

May this Year of the Eucharist be a time of grace for all of us and of thanksgiving to God for the presence of Christ in his most holy Body and Blood celebrated in the Eucharist and present to us in the tabernacle.

Faithfully in Christ,

Donald W. Wuerl
Bishop of Pittsburgh

September 3, 2004
Saint Gregory the Great
Pope and Doctor