1. The Church draws her life from the
Eucharist. This truth does not simply
express a daily experience of faith, but
recapitulates the heart of the mystery of
the Church. In a variety of ways she
joyfully experiences the constant fulfilment
of the promise: “Lo, I am with you always,
to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20), but in
the Holy Eucharist, through the changing of
bread and wine into the body and blood of
the Lord, she rejoices in this presence with
unique intensity. Ever since Pentecost, when
the Church, the People of the New Covenant,
began her pilgrim journey towards her
heavenly homeland, the Divine Sacrament has
continued to mark the passing of her days,
filling them with confident hope.
The Second Vatican Council rightly
proclaimed that the Eucharistic sacrifice is
“the source and summit of the Christian
life”.1 “For the most holy Eucharist
contains the Church's entire spiritual
wealth: Christ himself, our passover and
living bread. Through his own flesh, now
made living and life-giving by the Holy
Spirit, he offers life to men”.2
Consequently the gaze of the Church is
constantly turned to her Lord, present in
the Sacrament of the Altar, in which she
discovers the full manifestation of his
boundless love.
2. During the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000
I had an opportunity to celebrate the
Eucharist in the Cenacle of Jerusalem where,
according to tradition, it was first
celebrated by Jesus himself. The Upper Room
was where this most holy Sacrament was
instituted. It is there that Christ took
bread, broke it and gave it to his disciples,
saying: “Take this, all of you, and eat it:
this is my body which will be given up for
you” (cf. Mk 26:26; Lk 22:19; 1 Cor 11:24).
Then he took the cup of wine and said to
them: “Take this, all of you and drink from
it: this is the cup of my blood, the blood
of the new and everlasting covenant. It will
be shed for you and for all, so that sins
may be forgiven” (cf. Mt 14:24; Lk 22:20; 1
Cor 11:25). I am grateful to the Lord Jesus
for allowing me to repeat in that same place,
in obedience to his command: “Do this in
memory of me” (Lk 22:19), the words which he
spoke two thousand years ago.
Did the Apostles who took part in the Last
Supper understand the meaning of the words
spoken by Christ? Perhaps not. Those words
would only be fully clear at the end of the
Triduum sacrum, the time from Thursday
evening to Sunday morning. Those days
embrace the myste- rium paschale; they also
embrace the mysterium eucharisticum.
3. The Church was born of the paschal
mystery. For this very reason the Eucharist,
which is in an outstanding way the sacrament
of the paschal mystery, stands at the centre
of the Church's life. This is already clear
from the earliest images of the Church found
in the Acts of the Apostles: “They devoted
themselves to the Apostles' teaching and
fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the
prayers” (2:42). The “breaking of the bread”
refers to the Eucharist. Two thousand years
later, we continue to relive that primordial
image of the Church. At every celebration of
the Eucharist, we are spiritually brought
back to the paschal Triduum: to the events
of the evening of Holy Thursday, to the Last
Supper and to what followed it. The
institution of the Eucharist sacramentally
anticipated the events which were about to
take place, beginning with the agony in
Gethsemane. Once again we see Jesus as he
leaves the Upper Room, descends with his
disciples to the Kidron valley and goes to
the Garden of Olives. Even today that Garden
shelters some very ancient olive trees.
Perhaps they witnessed what happened beneath
their shade that evening, when Christ in
prayer was filled with anguish “and his
sweat became like drops of blood falling
down upon the ground” (cf. Lk 22:44). The
blood which shortly before he had given to
the Church as the drink of salvation in the
sacrament of the Eucharist, began to be shed;
its outpouring would then be completed on
Golgotha to become the means of our
redemption: “Christ... as high priest of the
good things to come..., entered once for all
into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of
goats and calves but his own blood, thus
securing an eternal redemption” (Heb 9:11-
12).
4. The hour of our redemption. Although
deeply troubled, Jesus does not flee before
his “hour”. “And what shall I say? 'Father,
save me from this hour?' No, for this
purpose I have come to this hour” (Jn
12:27). He wanted his disciples to keep him
company, yet he had to experience loneliness
and abandonment: “So, could you not watch
with me one hour? Watch and pray that you
may not enter into temptation” (Mt 26:40-
41). Only John would remain at the foot of
the Cross, at the side of Mary and the
faithful women. The agony in Gethsemane was
the introduction to the agony of the Cross
on Good Friday. The holy hour, the hour of
the redemption of the world. Whenever the
Eucharist is celebrated at the tomb of Jesus
in Jerusalem, there is an almost tangible
return to his “hour”, the hour of his Cross
and glorification. Every priest who
celebrates Holy Mass, together with the
Christian community which takes part in it,
is led back in spirit to that place and that
hour.
“He was crucified, he suffered death and was
buried; he descended to the dead; on the
third day he rose again”. The words of the
profession of faith are echoed by the words
of contemplation and proclamation: “This is
the wood of the Cross, on which hung the
Saviour of the world. Come, let us worship”.
This is the invitation which the Church
extends to all in the afternoon hours of
Good Friday. She then takes up her song
during the Easter season in order to
proclaim: “The Lord is risen from the tomb;
for our sake he hung on the Cross,
Alleluia”.
5. “Mysterium fidei! - The Mystery of Faith!”.
When the priest recites or chants these
words, all present acclaim: “We announce
your death, O Lord, and we proclaim your
resurrection, until you come in glory”.
In these or similar words the Church, while
pointing to Christ in the mystery of his
passion, also reveals her own mystery:
Ecclesia de Eucharistia. By the gift of the
Holy Spirit at Pentecost the Church was born
and set out upon the pathways of the world,
yet a decisive moment in her taking shape
was certainly the institution of the
Eucharist in the Upper Room. Her foundation
and wellspring is the whole Triduum paschale,
but this is as it were gathered up,
foreshadowed and “concentrated' for ever in
the gift of the Eucharist. In this gift
Jesus Christ entrusted to his Church the
perennial making present of the paschal
mystery. With it he brought about a
mysterious “oneness in time” between that
Triduum and the passage of the centuries.
The thought of this leads us to profound
amazement and gratitude. In the paschal
event and the Eucharist which makes it
present throughout the centuries, there is a
truly enormous “capacity” which embraces all
of history as the recipient of the grace of
the redemption. This amazement should always
fill the Church assembled for the
celebration of the Eucharist. But in a
special way it should fill the minister of
the Eucharist. For it is he who, by the
authority given him in the sacrament of
priestly ordination, effects the
consecration. It is he who says with the
power coming to him from Christ in the Upper
Room: “This is my body which will be given
up for you This is the cup of my blood,
poured out for you...”. The priest says
these words, or rather he puts his voice at
the disposal of the One who spoke these
words in the Upper Room and who desires that
they should be repeated in every generation
by all those who in the Church ministerially
share in his priesthood.
6. I would like to rekindle this Eucharistic
“amazement” by the present Encyclical Letter,
in continuity with the Jubilee heritage
which I have left to the Church in the
Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte and
its Marian crowning, Rosarium Virginis
Mariae. To contemplate the face of Christ,
and to contemplate it with Mary, is the
“programme” which I have set before the
Church at the dawn of the third millennium,
summoning her to put out into the deep on
the sea of history with the enthusiasm of
the new evangelization. To contemplate
Christ involves being able to recognize him
wherever he manifests himself, in his many
forms of presence, but above all in the
living sacrament of his body and his blood.
The Church draws her life from Christ in the
Eucharist; by him she is fed and by him she
is enlightened. The Eucharist is both a
mystery of faith and a “mystery of light”.3
Whenever the Church celebrates the Eucharist,
the faithful can in some way relive the
experience of the two disciples on the road
to Emmaus: “their eyes were opened and they
recognized him” (Lk 24:31).
7. From the time I began my ministry as the
Successor of Peter, I have always marked
Holy Thursday, the day of the Eucharist and
of the priesthood, by sending a letter to
all the priests of the world. This year, the
twenty-fifth of my Pontificate, I wish to
involve the whole Church more fully in this
Eucharistic reflection, also as a way of
thanking the Lord for the gift of the
Eucharist and the priesthood: “Gift and
Mystery”.4 By proclaiming the Year of the
Rosary, I wish to put this, my twenty-fifth
anniversary, under the aegis of the
contemplation of Christ at the school of
Mary. Consequently, I cannot let this Holy
Thursday 2003 pass without halting before
the “Eucharistic face” of Christ and
pointing out with new force to the Church
the centrality of the Eucharist.
From it the Church draws her life. From this
“living bread” she draws her nourishment.
How could I not feel the need to urge
everyone to experience it ever anew?
8. When I think of the Eucharist, and look
at my life as a priest, as a Bishop and as
the Successor of Peter, I naturally recall
the many times and places in which I was
able to celebrate it. I remember the parish
church of Niegowić, where I had my first
pastoral assignment, the collegiate church
of Saint Florian in Krakow, Wawel Cathedral,
Saint Peter's Basilica and so many basilicas
and churches in Rome and throughout the
world. I have been able to celebrate Holy
Mass in chapels built along mountain paths,
on lakeshores and seacoasts; I have
celebrated it on altars built in stadiums
and in city squares... This varied scenario
of celebrations of the Eucharist has given
me a powerful experience of its universal
and, so to speak, cosmic character. Yes,
cosmic! Because even when it is celebrated
on the humble altar of a country church, the
Eucharist is always in some way celebrated
on the altar of the world. It unites heaven
and earth. It embraces and permeates all
creation. The Son of God became man in order
to restore all creation, in one supreme act
of praise, to the One who made it from
nothing. He, the Eternal High Priest who by
the blood of his Cross entered the eternal
sanctuary, thus gives back to the Creator
and Father all creation redeemed. He does so
through the priestly ministry of the Church,
to the glory of the Most Holy Trinity. Truly
this is the mysterium fidei which is
accomplished in the Eucharist: the world
which came forth from the hands of God the
Creator now returns to him redeemed by
Christ.
9. The Eucharist, as Christ's saving
presence in the community of the faithful
and its spiritual food, is the most precious
possession which the Church can have in her
journey through history. This explains the
lively concern which she has always shown
for the Eucharistic mystery, a concern which
finds authoritative expression in the work
of the Councils and the Popes. How can we
not admire the doctrinal expositions of the
Decrees on the Most Holy Eucharist and on
the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass promulgated
by the Council of Trent? For centuries those
Decrees guided theology and catechesis, and
they are still a dogmatic reference-point
for the continual renewal and growth of
God's People in faith and in love for the
Eucharist. In times closer to our own, three
Encyclical Letters should be mentioned: the
Encyclical Mirae Caritatis of Leo XIII (28
May 1902),5 the Encyclical Mediator Dei of
Pius XII (20 November 1947)6 and the
Encyclical Mysterium Fidei of Paul VI (3
September 1965).7
The Second Vatican Council, while not
issuing a specific document on the
Eucharistic mystery, considered its various
aspects throughout its documents, especially
the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church
Lumen Gentium and the Constitution on the
Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium.
I myself, in the first years of my apostolic
ministry in the Chair of Peter, wrote the
Apostolic Letter Dominicae Cenae (24
February 1980),8 in which I discussed some
aspects of the Eucharistic mystery and its
importance for the life of those who are its
ministers. Today I take up anew the thread
of that argument, with even greater emotion
and gratitude in my heart, echoing as it
were the word of the Psalmist: “What shall I
render to the Lord for all his bounty to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation and call
on the name of the Lord” (Ps 116:12-13).
10. The Magisterium's commitment to
proclaiming the Eucharistic mystery has been
matched by interior growth within the
Christian community. Certainly the
liturgical reform inaugurated by the Council
has greatly contributed to a more conscious,
active and fruitful participation in the
Holy Sacrifice of the Altar on the part of
the faithful. In many places, adoration of
the Blessed Sacrament is also an important
daily practice and becomes an inexhaustible
source of holiness. The devout participation
of the faithful in the Eucharistic
procession on the Solemnity of the Body and
Blood of Christ is a grace from the Lord
which yearly brings joy to those who take
part in it.
Other positive signs of Eucharistic faith
and love might also be mentioned.
Unfortunately, alongside these lights, there
are also shadows. In some places the
practice of Eucharistic adoration has been
almost completely abandoned. In various
parts of the Church abuses have occurred,
leading to confusion with regard to sound
faith and Catholic doctrine concerning this
wonderful sacrament. At times one encounters
an extremely reductive understanding of the
Eucharistic mystery. Stripped of its
sacrificial meaning, it is celebrated as if
it were simply a fraternal banquet.
Furthermore, the necessity of the
ministerial priesthood, grounded in
apostolic succession, is at times obscured
and the sacramental nature of the Eucharist
is reduced to its mere effectiveness as a
form of proclamation. This has led here and
there to ecumenical initiatives which,
albeit well-intentioned, indulge in
Eucharistic practices contrary to the
discipline by which the Church expresses her
faith. How can we not express profound grief
at all this? The Eucharist is too great a
gift to tolerate ambiguity and depreciation.
It is my hope that the present Encyclical
Letter will effectively help to banish the
dark clouds of unacceptable doctrine and
practice, so that the Eucharist will
continue to shine forth in all its radiant
mystery.
CHAPTER ONE
THE MYSTERY OF FAITH
11. “The Lord Jesus on the night he was
betrayed” (1 Cor 11:23) instituted the
Eucharistic Sacrifice of his body and his
blood. The words of the Apostle Paul bring
us back to the dramatic setting in which the
Eucharist was born. The Eucharist is
indelibly marked by the event of the Lord's
passion and death, of which it is not only a
reminder but the sacramental re-presentation.
It is the sacrifice of the Cross perpetuated
down the ages.9 This truth is well expressed
by the words with which the assembly in the
Latin rite responds to the priest's
proclamation of the “Mystery of Faith”: “We
announce your death, O Lord”.
The Church has received the Eucharist from
Christ her Lord not as one gift – however
precious – among so many others, but as the
gift par excellence, for it is the gift of
himself, of his person in his sacred
humanity, as well as the gift of his saving
work. Nor does it remain confined to the
past, since “all that Christ is – all that
he did and suffered for all men –
participates in the divine eternity, and so
transcends all times”.10
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”.11
This sacrifice is so decisive for the
salvation of the human race that Jesus
Christ offered it and returned to the Father
only after he had left us a means of sharing
in it as if we had been present there. Each
member of the faithful can thus take part in
it and inexhaustibly gain its fruits. This
is the faith from which generations of
Christians down the ages have lived. The
Church's Magisterium has constantly
reaffirmed this faith with joyful gratitude
for its inestimable gift.12 I wish once more
to recall this truth and to join you, my
dear brothers and sisters, in adoration
before this mystery: a great mystery, a
mystery of mercy. What more could Jesus have
done for us? Truly, in the Eucharist, he
shows us a love which goes “to the end” (cf.
Jn 13:1), a love which knows no measure.
12. This aspect of the universal charity of
the Eucharistic Sacrifice is based on the
words of the Saviour himself. In instituting
it, he did not merely say: “This is my
body”, “this is my blood”, but went on to
add: “which is given for you”, “which is
poured out for you” (Lk 22:19-20). Jesus did
not simply state that what he was giving
them to eat and drink was his body and his
blood; he also expressed its sacrificial
meaning and made sacramentally present his
sacrifice which would soon be offered on the
Cross for the salvation of all. “The Mass is
at the same time, and inseparably, the
sacrificial memorial in which the sacrifice
of the Cross is perpetuated and the sacred
banquet of communion with the Lord's body
and blood”.13
The Church constantly draws her life from
the redeeming sacrifice; she approaches it
not only through faith-filled remembrance,
but also through a real contact, since this
sacrifice is made present ever anew,
sacramentally perpetuated, in every
community which offers it at the hands of
the consecrated minister. The Eucharist thus
applies to men and women today the
reconciliation won once for all by Christ
for mankind in every age. “The sacrifice of
Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist
are one single sacrifice”.14 Saint John
Chrysostom put it well: “We always offer the
same Lamb, not one today and another
tomorrow, but always the same one. For this
reason the sacrifice is always only one...
Even now we offer that victim who was once
offered and who will never be consumed”.15
The Mass makes present the sacrifice of the
Cross; it does not add to that sacrifice nor
does it multiply it.16 What is repeated is
its memorial celebration, its “commemorative
representation” (memorialis demonstratio),17
which makes Christ's one, definitive
redemptive sacrifice always present in time.
The sacrificial nature of the Eucharistic
mystery cannot therefore be understood as
something separate, independent of the Cross
or only indirectly referring to the
sacrifice of Calvary.
13. By virtue of its close relationship to
the sacrifice of Golgotha, the Eucharist is
a sacrifice in the strict sense, and not
only in a general way, as if it were simply
a matter of Christ's offering himself to the
faithful as their spiritual food. The gift
of his love and obedience to the point of
giving his life (cf. Jn 10:17-18) is in the
first place a gift to his Father. Certainly
it is a gift given for our sake, and indeed
that of all humanity (cf. Mt 26:28; Mk
14:24; Lk 22:20; Jn 10:15), yet it is first
and foremost a gift to the Father:
“asacrifice that the Father accepted, giving,
in return for this total self-giving by his
Son, who 'became obedient unto death' (Phil
2:8), his own paternal gift, that is to say
the grant of new immortal life in the
resurrection”.18
In giving his sacrifice to the Church,
Christ has also made his own the spiritual
sacrifice of the Church, which is called to
offer herself in union with the sacrifice of
Christ. This is the teaching of the Second
Vatican Council concerning all the faithful:
“Taking part in the Eucharistic Sacrifice,
which is the source and summit of the whole
Christian life, they offer the divine victim
to God, and offer themselves along with it”.19
14. Christ's passover includes not only his
passion and death, but also his resurrection.
This is recalled by the assembly's
acclamation following the consecration: “We
proclaim your resurrection”. The Eucharistic
Sacrifice makes present not only the mystery
of the Saviour's passion and death, but also
the mystery of the resurrection which
crowned his sacrifice. It is as the living
and risen One that Christ can become in the
Eucharist the “bread of life” (Jn 6:35, 48),
the “living bread” (Jn 6:51). Saint Ambrose
reminded the newly-initiated that the
Eucharist applies the event of the
resurrection to their lives: “Today Christ
is yours, yet each day he rises again for
you”.20 Saint Cyril of Alexandria also makes
clear that sharing in the sacred mysteries
“is a true confession and a remembrance that
the Lord died and returned to life for us
and on our behalf”.21
15. The sacramental re-presentation of
Christ's sacrifice, crowned by the
resurrection, in the Mass involves a most
special presence which – in the words of
Paul VI – “is called 'real' not as a way of
excluding all other types of presence as if
they were 'not real', but because it is a
presence in the fullest sense: a substantial
presence whereby Christ, the God-Man, is
wholly and entirely present”.22 This sets
forth once more the perennially valid
teaching of the Council of Trent: “the
consecration of the bread and wine effects
the change of the whole substance of the
bread into the substance of the body of
Christ our Lord, and of the whole substance
of the wine into the substance of his blood.
And the holy Catholic Church has fittingly
and properly called this change
transubstantiation”.23 Truly the Eucharist
is a mysterium fidei, a mystery which
surpasses our understanding and can only be
received in faith, as is often brought out
in the catechesis of the Church Fathers
regarding this divine sacrament: “Do not see
– Saint Cyril of Jerusalem exhorts – in the
bread and wine merely natural elements,
because the Lord has expressly said that
they are his body and his blood: faith
assures you of this, though your senses
suggest otherwise”.24
Adoro te devote, latens Deitas, we shall
continue to sing with the Angelic Doctor.
Before this mystery of love, human reason
fully experiences its limitations. One
understands how, down the centuries, this
truth has stimulated theology to strive to
understand it ever more deeply.
These are praiseworthy efforts, which are
all the more helpful and insightful to the
extent that they are able to join critical
thinking to the “living faith” of the Church,
as grasped especially by the Magisterium's
“sure charism of truth” and the “intimate
sense of spiritual realities”25 which is
attained above all by the saints. There
remains the boundary indicated by Paul VI:
“Every theological explanation which seeks
some understanding of this mystery, in order
to be in accord with Catholic faith, must
firmly maintain that in objective reality,
independently of our mind, the bread and
wine have ceased to exist after the
consecration, so that the adorable body and
blood of the Lord Jesus from that moment on
are really before us under the sacramental
species of bread and wine”.26
16. The saving efficacy of the sacrifice is
fully realized when the Lord's body and
blood are received in communion. The
Eucharistic Sacrifice is intrinsically
directed to the inward union of the faithful
with Christ through communion; we receive
the very One who offered himself for us, we
receive his body which he gave up for us on
the Cross and his blood which he “poured out
for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Mt
26:28). We are reminded of his words: “As
the living Father sent me, and I live
because of the Father, so he who eats me
will live because of me” (Jn 6:57). Jesus
himself reassures us that this union, which
he compares to that of the life of the
Trinity, is truly realized. The Eucharist is
a true banquet, in which Christ offers
himself as our nourishment. When for the
first time Jesus spoke of this food, his
listeners were astonished and bewildered,
which forced the Master to emphasize the
objective truth of his words: “Truly, truly,
I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of
the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have
no life within you” (Jn 6:53). This is no
metaphorical food: “My flesh is food indeed,
and my blood is drink indeed” (Jn 6:55).
17. Through our communion in his body and
blood, Christ also grants us his Spirit.
Saint Ephrem writes: “He called the bread
his living body and he filled it with
himself and his Spirit...
He who eats it with faith, eats Fire and
Spirit... Take and eat this, all of you, and
eat with it the Holy Spirit. For it is truly
my body and whoever eats it will have
eternal life”.27 The Church implores this
divine Gift, the source of every other gift,
in the Eucharistic epiclesis. In the Divine
Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, for
example, we find the prayer: “We beseech,
implore and beg you: send your Holy Spirit
upon us all and upon these gifts... that
those who partake of them may be purified in
soul, receive the forgiveness of their sins,
and share in the Holy Spirit”.28 And in the
Roman Missal the celebrant prays: “grant
that we who are nourished by his body and
blood may be filled with his Holy Spirit,
and become one body, one spirit in Christ”.29
Thus by the gift of his body and blood
Christ increases within us the gift of his
Spirit, already poured out in Baptism and
bestowed as a “seal” in the sacrament of
Confirmation.
18. The acclamation of the assembly
following the consecration appropriately
ends by expressing the eschatological thrust
which marks the celebration of the Eucharist
(cf. 1 Cor 11:26): “until you come in glory”.
The Eucharist is a straining towards the
goal, a foretaste of the fullness of joy
promised by Christ (cf. Jn 15:11); it is in
some way the anticipation of heaven, the
“pledge of future glory”.30 In the Eucharist,
everything speaks of confident waiting “in
joyful hope for the coming of our Saviour,
Jesus Christ”.31 Those who feed on Christ in
the Eucharist need not wait until the
hereafter to receive eternal life: they
already possess it on earth, as the
first-fruits of a future fullness which will
embrace man in his totality. For in the
Eucharist we also receive the pledge of our
bodily resurrection at the end of the world:
“He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood
has eternal life, and I will raise him up at
the last day” (Jn 6:54). This pledge of the
future resurrection comes from the fact that
the flesh of the Son of Man, given as food,
is his body in its glorious state after the
resurrection. With the Eucharist we digest,
as it were, the “secret” of the resurrection.
For this reason Saint Ignatius of Antioch
rightly defined the Eucharistic Bread as “a
medicine of immortality, an antidote to
death”.32
19. The eschatological tension kindled by
the Eucharist expresses and reinforces our
communion with the Church in heaven. It is
not by chance that the Eastern Anaphoras and
the Latin Eucharistic Prayers honour Mary,
the ever-Virgin Mother of Jesus Christ our
Lord and God, the angels, the holy apostles,
the glorious martyrs and all the saints.
This is an aspect of the Eucharist which
merits greater attention: in celebrating the
sacrifice of the Lamb, we are united to the
heavenly “liturgy” and become part of that
great multitude which cries out: “Salvation
belongs to our God who sits upon the throne,
and to the Lamb!” (Rev 7:10). The Eucharist
is truly a glimpse of heaven appearing on
earth. It is a glorious ray of the heavenly
Jerusalem which pierces the clouds of our
history and lights up our journey.
20. A significant consequence of the
eschatological tension inherent in the
Eucharist is also the fact that it spurs us
on our journey through history and plants a
seed of living hope in our daily commitment
to the work before us. Certainly the
Christian vision leads to the expectation of
“new heavens” and “a new earth” (Rev 21:1),
but this increases, rather than lessens, our
sense of responsibility for the world today.33
I wish to reaffirm this forcefully at the
beginning of the new millennium, so that
Christians will feel more obliged than ever
not to neglect their duties as citizens in
this world. Theirs is the task of
contributing with the light of the Gospel to
the building of a more human world, a world
fully in harmony with God's plan.
Many problems darken the horizon of our
time. We need but think of the urgent need
to work for peace, to base relationships
between peoples on solid premises of justice
and solidarity, and to defend human life
from conception to its natural end. And what
should we say of the thousand
inconsistencies of a “globalized” world
where the weakest, the most powerless and
the poorest appear to have so little hope!
It is in this world that Christian hope must
shine forth! For this reason too, the Lord
wished to remain with us in the Eucharist,
making his presence in meal and sacrifice
the promise of a humanity renewed by his
love. Significantly, in their account of the
Last Supper, the Synoptics recount the
institution of the Eucharist, while the
Gospel of John relates, as a way of bringing
out its profound meaning, the account of the
“washing of the feet”, in which Jesus
appears as the teacher of communion and of
service (cf. Jn 13:1-20). The Apostle Paul,
for his part, says that it is “unworthy” of
a Christian community to partake of the
Lord's Supper amid division and indifference
towards the poor (cf. 1 Cor 11:17-22, 27-34).34
Proclaiming the death of the Lord “until he
comes” (1 Cor 11:26) entails that all who
take part in the Eucharist be committed to
changing their lives and making them in a
certain way completely “Eucharistic”. It is
this fruit of a transfigured existence and a
commitment to transforming the world in
accordance with the Gospel which splendidly
illustrates the eschatological tension
inherent in the celebration of the Eucharist
and in the Christian life as a whole: “Come,
Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20).
CHAPTER TWO
THE EUCHARIST
BUILDS THE CHURCH
21. The Second Vatican Council teaches that
the celebration of the Eucharist is at the
centre of the process of the Church's growth.
After stating that “the Church, as the
Kingdom of Christ already present in
mystery, grows visibly in the world through
the power of God”,35 then, as if in answer
to the question: “How does the Church grow?”,
the Council adds: “as often as the sacrifice
of the Cross by which 'Christ our pasch is
sacrificed' (1 Cor 5:7) is celebrated on the
altar, the work of our redemption is carried
out. At the same time in the sacrament of
the Eucharistic bread, the unity of the
faithful, who form one body in Christ (cf. 1
Cor 10:17), is both expressed and brought
about”.36
A causal influence of the Eucharist is
present at the Church's very origins. The
Evangelists specify that it was the Twelve,
the Apostles, who gathered with Jesus at the
Last Supper (cf. Mt 26:20; Mk 14:17; Lk
22:14). This is a detail of notable
importance, for the Apostles “were both the
seeds of the new Israel and the beginning of
the sacred hierarchy”.37 By offering them
his body and his blood as food, Christ
mysteriously involved them in the sacrifice
which would be completed later on Calvary.
By analogy with the Covenant of Mount Sinai,
sealed by sacrifice and the sprinkling of
blood,38 the actions and words of Jesus at
the Last Supper laid the foundations of the
new messianic community, the People of the
New Covenant.
The Apostles, by accepting in the Upper Room
Jesus' invitation: “Take, eat”, “Drink of it,
all of you” (Mt 26:26-27), entered for the
first time into sacramental communion with
him. From that time forward, until the end
of the age, the Church is built up through
sacramental communion with the Son of God
who was sacrificed for our sake: “Do this in
remembrance of me... Do this, as often as
you drink it, in remembrance of me” (1 Cor
11:24-25; cf. Lk 22:19).
22. Incorporation into Christ, which is
brought about by Baptism, is constantly
renewed and consolidated by sharing in the
Eucharistic Sacrifice, especially by that
full sharing which takes place in
sacramental communion. We can say not only
that each of us receives Christ, but also
that Christ receives each of us. He enters
into friendship with us: “You are my friends”
(Jn 15:14). Indeed, it is because of him
that we have life: “He who eats me will live
because of me” (Jn 6:57). Eucharistic
communion brings about in a sublime way the
mutual “abiding” of Christ and each of his
followers: “Abide in me, and I in you” (Jn
15:4).
By its union with Christ, the People of the
New Covenant, far from closing in upon
itself, becomes a “sacrament” for humanity,39
a sign and instrument of the salvation
achieved by Christ, the light of the world
and the salt of the earth (cf. Mt 5:13-16),
for the redemption of all.40 The Church's
mission stands in continuity with the
mission of Christ: “As the Father has sent
me, even so I send you” (Jn 20:21). From the
perpetuation of the sacrifice of the Cross
and her communion with the body and blood of
Christ in the Eucharist, the Church draws
the spiritual power needed to carry out her
mission. The Eucharist thus appears as both
the source and the summit of all
evangelization, since its goal is the
communion of mankind with Christ and in him
with the Father and the Holy Spirit.41
23. Eucharistic communion also confirms the
Church in her unity as the body of Christ.
Saint Paul refers to this unifying power of
participation in the banquet of the
Eucharist when he writes to the Corinthians:
“The bread which we break, is it not a
communion in the body of Christ? Because
there is one bread, we who are many are one
body, for we all partake of the one bread”
(1 Cor 10:16-17). Saint John Chrysostom's
commentary on these words is profound and
perceptive: “For what is the bread? It is
the body of Christ. And what do those who
receive it become? The Body of Christ – not
many bodies but one body. For as bread is
completely one, though made of up many
grains of wheat, and these, albeit unseen,
remain nonetheless present, in such a way
that their difference is not apparent since
they have been made a perfect whole, so too
are we mutually joined to one another and
together united with Christ”.42 The argument
is compelling: our union with Christ, which
is a gift and grace for each of us, makes it
possible for us, in him, to share in the
unity of his body which is the Church. The
Eucharist reinforces the incorporation into
Christ which took place in Baptism though
the gift of the Spirit (cf. 1 Cor 12:13,
27).
The joint and inseparable activity of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit, which is at the
origin of the Church, of her consolidation
and her continued life, is at work in the
Eucharist. This was clearly evident to the
author of the Liturgy of Saint James: in the
epiclesis of the Anaphora, God the Father is
asked to send the Holy Spirit upon the
faithful and upon the offerings, so that the
body and blood of Christ “may be a help to
all those who partake of it ... for the
sanctification of their souls and bodies”.43
The Church is fortified by the divine
Paraclete through the sanctification of the
faithful in the Eucharist.
24. The gift of Christ and his Spirit which
we receive in Eucharistic communion
superabundantly fulfils the yearning for
fraternal unity deeply rooted in the human
heart; at the same time it elevates the
experience of fraternity already present in
our common sharing at the same Eucharistic
table to a degree which far surpasses that
of the simple human experience of sharing a
meal. Through her communion with the body of
Christ the Church comes to be ever more
profoundly “in Christ in the nature of a
sacrament, that is, a sign and instrument of
intimate unity with God and of the unity of
the whole human race”.44
The seeds of disunity, which daily
experience shows to be so deeply rooted in
humanity as a result of sin, are countered
by the unifying power of the body of Christ.
The Eucharist, precisely by building up the
Church, creates human community.
25. The worship of the Eucharist outside of
the Mass is of inestimable value for the
life of the Church. This worship is strictly
linked to the celebration of the Eucharistic
Sacrifice. The presence of Christ under the
sacred species reserved after Mass – a
presence which lasts as long as the species
of bread and of wine remain 45 – derives
from the celebration of the sacrifice and is
directed towards communion, both sacramental
and spiritual.46 It is the responsibility of
Pastors to encourage, also by their personal
witness, the practice of Eucharistic
adoration, and exposition of the Blessed
Sacrament in particular, as well as prayer
of adoration before Christ present under the
Eucharistic species.47
It is pleasant to spend time with him, to
lie close to his breast like the Beloved
Disciple (cf. Jn 13:25) and to feel the
infinite love present in his heart. If in
our time Christians must be distinguished
above all by the “art of prayer”,48 how can
we not feel a renewed need to spend time in
spiritual converse, in silent adoration, in
heartfelt love before Christ present in the
Most Holy Sacrament? How often, dear brother
and sisters, have I experienced this, and
drawn from it strength, consolation and
support!
This practice, repeatedly praised and
recommended by the Magisterium,49 is
supported by the example of many saints.
Particularly outstanding in this regard was
Saint Alphonsus Liguori, who wrote: “Of all
devotions, that of adoring Jesus in the
Blessed Sacrament is the greatest after the
sacraments, the one dearest to God and the
one most helpful to us”.50 The Eucharist is
a priceless treasure: by not only
celebrating it but also by praying before it
outside of Mass we are enabled to make
contact with the very wellspring of grace. A
Christian community desirous of
contemplating the face of Christ in the
spirit which I proposed in the Apostolic
Letters Novo Millennio Ineunte and Rosarium
Virginis Mariae cannot fail also to develop
this aspect of Eucharistic worship, which
prolongs and increases the fruits of our
communion in the body and blood of the Lord.
CHAPTER THREE
THE APOSTOLICITY OF THE EUCHARIST
AND OF THE CHURCH
26. If, as I have said, the Eucharist builds
the Church and the Church makes the
Eucharist, it follows that there is a
profound relationship between the two, so
much so that we can apply to the Eucharistic
mystery the very words with which, in the
Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, we profess
the Church to be “one, holy, catholic and
apostolic”. The Eucharist too is one and
catholic. It is also holy, indeed, the Most
Holy Sacrament. But it is above all its
apostolicity that we must now consider.
27. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in
explaining how the Church is apostolic –
founded on the Apostles – sees three
meanings in this expression. First, “she was
and remains built on 'the foundation of the
Apostles' (Eph 2:20), the witnesses chosen
and sent on mission by Christ himself”.51
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. It is in continuity with
the practice of the Apostles, in obedience
to the Lord's command, that the Church has
celebrated the Eucharist down the centuries.
The second sense in which the Church is
apostolic, as the Catechism points out, is
that “with the help of the Spirit dwelling
in her, the Church keeps and hands on the
teaching, the 'good deposit', the salutary
words she has heard from the Apostles”.52
Here too the Eucharist is apostolic, for it
is celebrated in conformity with the faith
of the Apostles. At various times in the
two-thousand-year history of the People of
the New Covenant, the Church's Magisterium
has more precisely defined her teaching on
the Eucharist, including its proper
terminology, precisely in order to safeguard
the apostolic faith with regard to this
sublime mystery. This faith remains
unchanged and it is essential for the Church
that it remain unchanged.
28. Lastly, the Church is apostolic in the
sense that she “continues to be taught,
sanctified and guided by the Apostles until
Christ's return, through their successors in
pastoral office: the college of Bishops
assisted by priests, in union with the
Successor of Peter, the Church's supreme
pastor”.53 Succession to the Apostles in the
pastoral mission necessarily entails the
sacrament of Holy Orders, that is, the
uninterrupted sequence, from the very
beginning, of valid episcopal ordinations.54
This succession is essential for the Church
to exist in a proper and full sense.
The Eucharist also expresses this sense of
apostolicity. As the Second Vatican Council
teaches, “the faithful join in the offering
of the Eucharist by virtue of their royal
priesthood”,55 yet it is the ordained priest
who, “acting in the person of Christ, brings
about the Eucharistic Sacrifice and offers
it to God in the name of all the people”.56
For this reason, the Roman Missal prescribes
that only the priest should recite the
Eucharistic Prayer, while the people
participate in faith and in silence.57
29. The expression repeatedly employed by
the Second Vatican Council, according to
which “the ministerial priest, acting in the
person of Christ, brings about the
Eucharistic Sacrifice”,58 was already firmly
rooted in papal teaching.59 As I have
pointed out on other occasions, the phrase
in persona Christi “means more than offering
'in the name of' or 'in the place of' Christ.
In persona means in specific sacramental
identification with the eternal High Priest
who is the author and principal subject of
this sacrifice of his, a sacrifice in which,
in truth, nobody can take his place”.60 The
ministry of priests who have received the
sacrament of Holy Orders, in the economy of
salvation chosen by Christ, makes clear that
the Eucharist which they celebrate is a gift
which radically transcends the power of the
assembly and is in any event essential for
validly linking the Eucharistic consecration
to the sacrifice of the Cross and to the
Last Supper. The assembly gathered together
for the celebration of the Eucharist, if it
is to be a truly Eucharistic assembly,
absolutely requires the presence of an
ordained priest as its president. On the
other hand, the community is by itself
incapable of providing an ordained minister.
This minister is a gift which the assembly
receives through episcopal succession going
back to the Apostles. It is the Bishop who,
through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, makes
a new presbyter by conferring upon him the
power to consecrate the Eucharist.
Consequently, “the Eucharistic mystery
cannot be celebrated in any community except
by an ordained priest, as the Fourth Lateran
Council expressly taught”.61
30. The Catholic Church's teaching on the
relationship between priestly ministry and
the Eucharist and her teaching on the
Eucharistic Sacrifice have both been the
subject in recent decades of a fruitful
dialogue in the area of ecumenism. We must
give thanks to the Blessed Trinity for the
significant progress and convergence
achieved in this regard, which lead us to
hope one day for a full sharing of faith.
Nonetheless, the observations of the Council
concerning the Ecclesial Communities which
arose in the West from the sixteenth century
onwards and are separated from the Catholic
Church remain fully pertinent: “The
Ecclesial Communities separated from us lack
that fullness of unity with us which should
flow from Baptism, and we believe that
especially because of the lack of the
sacrament of Orders they have not preserved
the genuine and total reality of the
Eucharistic mystery. Nevertheless, when they
commemorate the Lord's death and
resurrection in the Holy Supper, they
profess that it signifies life in communion
with Christ and they await his coming in
glory”.62
The Catholic faithful, therefore, while
respecting the religious convictions of
these separated brethren, must refrain from
receiving the communion distributed in their
celebrations, so as not to condone an
ambiguity about the nature of the Eucharist
and, consequently, to fail in their duty to
bear clear witness to the truth. This would
result in slowing the progress being made
towards full visible unity. Similarly, it is
unthinkable to substitute for Sunday Mass
ecumenical celebrations of the word or
services of common prayer with Christians
from the aforementioned Ecclesial
Communities, or even participation in their
own liturgical services. Such celebrations
and services, however praiseworthy in
certain situations, prepare for the goal of
full communion, including Eucharistic
communion, but they cannot replace it.
The fact that the power of consecrating the
Eucharist has been entrusted only to Bishops
and priests does not represent any kind of
belittlement of the rest of the People of
God, for in the communion of the one body of
Christ which is the Church this gift
redounds to the benefit of all.
31. If the Eucharist is the centre and
summit of the Church's life, it is likewise
the centre and summit of priestly ministry.
For this reason, with a heart filled with
gratitude to our Lord Jesus Christ, I repeat
that the Eucharist “is the principal and
central raison d'être of the sacrament of
priesthood, which effectively came into
being at the moment of the institution of
the Eucharist”.63
Priests are engaged in a wide variety of
pastoral activities. If we also consider the
social and cultural conditions of the modern
world it is easy to understand how priests
face the very real risk of losing their
focus amid such a great number of different
tasks. The Second Vatican Council saw in
pastoral charity the bond which gives unity
to the priest's life and work. This, the
Council adds, “flows mainly from the
Eucharistic Sacrifice, which is therefore
the centre and root of the whole priestly
life”.64 We can understand, then, how
important it is for the spiritual life of
the priest, as well as for the good of the
Church and the world, that priests follow
the Council's recommendation to celebrate
the Eucharist daily: “for even if the
faithful are unable to be present, it is an
act of Christ and the Church”.65 In this way
priests will be able to counteract the daily
tensions which lead to a lack of focus and
they will find in the Eucharistic Sacrifice
– the true centre of their lives and
ministry – the spiritual strength needed to
deal with their different pastoral
responsibilities. Their daily activity will
thus become truly Eucharistic.
The centrality of the Eucharist in the life
and ministry of priests is the basis of its
centrality in the pastoral promotion of
priestly vocations. It is in the Eucharist
that prayer for vocations is most closely
united to the prayer of Christ the Eternal
High Priest. At the same time the diligence
of priests in carrying out their Eucharistic
ministry, together with the conscious,
active and fruitful participation of the
faithful in the Eucharist, provides young
men with a powerful example and incentive
for responding generously to God's call.
Often it is the example of a priest's
fervent pastoral charity which the Lord uses
to sow and to bring to fruition in a young
man's heart the seed of a priestly calling.
32. All of this shows how distressing and
irregular is the situation of a Christian
community which, despite having sufficient
numbers and variety of faithful to form a
parish, does not have a priest to lead it.
Parishes are communities of the baptized who
express and affirm their identity above all
through the celebration of the Eucharistic
Sacrifice. But this requires the presence of
a presbyter, who alone is qualified to offer
the Eucharist in persona Christi. When a
community lacks a priest, attempts are
rightly made somehow to remedy the situation
so that it can continue its Sunday
celebrations, and those religious and laity
who lead their brothers and sisters in
prayer exercise in a praiseworthy way the
common priesthood of all the faithful based
on the grace of Baptism. But such solutions
must be considered merely temporary, while
the community awaits a priest.
The sacramental incompleteness of these
celebrations should above all inspire the
whole community to pray with greater fervour
that the Lord will send labourers into his
harvest (cf. Mt 9:38). It should also be an
incentive to mobilize all the resources
needed for an adequate pastoral promotion of
vocations, without yielding to the
temptation to seek solutions which lower the
moral and formative standards demanded of
candidates for the priesthood.
33. When, due to the scarcity of priests,
non-ordained members of the faithful are
entrusted with a share in the pastoral care
of a parish, they should bear in mind that –
as the Second Vatican Council teaches – “no
Christian community can be built up unless
it has its basis and centre in the
celebration of the most Holy Eucharist”.66
They have a responsibility, therefore, to
keep alive in the community a genuine
“hunger” for the Eucharist, so that no
opportunity for the celebration of Mass will
ever be missed, also taking advantage of the
occasional presence of a priest who is not
impeded by Church law from celebrating Mass.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE EUCHARIST
AND ECCLESIAL COMMUNION
34. The Extraordinary Assembly of the Synod
of Bishops in 1985 saw in the concept of an
“ecclesiology of communion” the central and
fundamental idea of the documents of the
Second Vatican Council.67 The Church is
called during her earthly pilgrimage to
maintain and promote communion with the
Triune God and communion among the faithful.
For this purpose she possesses the word and
the sacraments, particularly the Eucharist,
by which she “constantly lives and grows”68
and in which she expresses her very nature.
It is not by chance that the term communion
has become one of the names given to this
sublime sacrament.
The Eucharist thus appears as the
culmination of all the sacraments in
perfecting our communion with God the Father
by identification with his only-begotten Son
through the working of the Holy Spirit. With
discerning faith a distinguished writer of
the Byzantine tradition voiced this truth:
in the Eucharist “unlike any other sacrament,
the mystery [of communion] is so perfect
that it brings us to the heights of every
good thing: here is the ultimate goal of
every human desire, because here we attain
God and God joins himself to us in the most
perfect union”.69 Precisely for this reason
it is good to cultivate in our hearts a
constant desire for the sacrament of the
Eucharist. This was the origin of the
practice of “spiritual communion”, which has
happily been established in the Church for
centuries and recommended by saints who were
masters of the spiritual life. Saint Teresa
of Jesus wrote: “When you do not receive
communion and you do not attend Mass, you
can make a spiritual communion, which is a
most beneficial practice; by it the love of
God will be greatly impressed on you”.70
35. The celebration of the Eucharist,
however, cannot be the starting-point for
communion; it presupposes that communion
already exists, a communion which it seeks
to consolidate and bring to perfection. The
sacrament is an expression of this bond of
communion both in its invisible dimension,
which, in Christ and through the working of
the Holy Spirit, unites us to the Father and
among ourselves, and in its visible
dimension, which entails communion in the
teaching of the Apostles, in the sacraments
and in the Church's hierarchical order. The
profound relationship between the invisible
and the visible elements of ecclesial
communion is constitutive of the Church as
the sacrament of salvation.71 Only in this
context can there be a legitimate
celebration of the Eucharist and true
participation in it. Consequently it is an
intrinsic requirement of the Eucharist that
it should be celebrated in communion, and
specifically maintaining the various bonds
of that communion intact.
36. Invisible communion, though by its
nature always growing, presupposes the life
of grace, by which we become “partakers of
the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4), and the
practice of the virtues of faith, hope and
love. Only in this way do we have true
communion with the Father, the Son and the
Holy Spirit. Nor is faith sufficient; we
must persevere in sanctifying grace and
love, remaining within the Church “bodily”
as well as “in our heart”; 72 what is
required, in the words of Saint Paul, is
“faith working through love” (Gal 5:6).
Keeping these invisible bonds intact is a
specific moral duty incumbent upon
Christians who wish to participate fully in
the Eucharist by receiving the body and
blood of Christ. The Apostle Paul appeals to
this duty when he warns: “Let a man examine
himself, and so eat of the bread and drink
of the cup” (1 Cor 11:28). Saint John
Chrysostom, with his stirring eloquence,
exhorted the faithful: “I too raise my
voice, I beseech, beg and implore that no
one draw near to this sacred table with a
sullied and corrupt conscience. Such an act,
in fact, can never be called 'communion',
not even were we to touch the Lord's body a
thousand times over, but 'condemnation', 'torment'
and 'increase of punishment'”.73
Along these same lines, the Catechism of the
Catholic Church rightly stipulates that
“anyone conscious of a grave sin must
receive the sacrament of Reconciliation
before coming to communion”.74 I therefore
desire to reaffirm that in the Church there
remains in force, now and in the future, the
rule by which the Council of Trent gave
concrete expression to the Apostle Paul's
stern warning when it affirmed that, in
order to receive the Eucharist in a worthy
manner, “one must first confess one's sins,
when one is aware of mortal sin”.75
37. The two sacraments of the Eucharist and
Penance are very closely connected. Because
the Eucharist makes present the redeeming
sacrifice of the Cross, perpetuating it
sacramentally, it naturally gives rise to a
continuous need for conversion, for a
personal response to the appeal made by
Saint Paul to the Christians of Corinth: “We
beseech you on behalf of Christ, be
reconciled to God” (2 Cor 5:20). If a
Christian's conscience is burdened by
serious sin, then the path of penance
through the sacrament of Reconciliation
becomes necessary for full participation in
the Eucharistic Sacrifice.
The judgment of one's state of grace
obviously belongs only to the person
involved, since it is a question of
examining one's conscience. However, in
cases of outward conduct which is seriously,
clearly and steadfastly contrary to the
moral norm, the Church, in her pastoral
concern for the good order of the community
and out of respect for the sacrament, cannot
fail to feel directly involved. The Code of
Canon Law refers to this situation of a
manifest lack of proper moral disposition
when it states that those who “obstinately
persist in manifest grave sin” are not to be
admitted to Eucharistic communion.76
38. Ecclesial communion, as I have said, is
likewise visible, and finds expression in
the series of “bonds” listed by the Council
when it teaches: “They are fully
incorporated into the society of the Church
who, possessing the Spirit of Christ, accept
her whole structure and all the means of
salvation established within her, and within
her visible framework are united to Christ,
who governs her through the Supreme Pontiff
and the Bishops, by the bonds of profession
of faith, the sacraments, ecclesiastical
government and communion”.77
The Eucharist, as the supreme sacramental
manifestation of communion in the Church,
demands to be celebrated in a context where
the outward bonds of communion are also
intact. In a special way, since the
Eucharist is “as it were the summit of the
spiritual life and the goal of all the
sacraments”,78 it requires that the bonds of
communion in the sacraments, particularly in
Baptism and in priestly Orders, be real. It
is not possible to give communion to a
person who is not baptized or to one who
rejects the full truth of the faith
regarding the Eucharistic mystery. Christ is
the truth and he bears witness to the truth
(cf. Jn 14:6; 18:37); the sacrament of his
body and blood does not permit duplicity.
39. Furthermore, given the very nature of
ecclesial communion and its relation to the
sacrament of the Eucharist, it must be
recalled that “the Eucharistic Sacrifice,
while always offered in a particular
community, is never a celebration of that
community alone. In fact, the community, in
receiving the Eucharistic presence of the
Lord, receives the entire gift of salvation
and shows, even in its lasting visible
particular form, that it is the image and
true presence of the one, holy, catholic and
apostolic Church”.79 From this it follows
that a truly Eucharistic community cannot be
closed in upon itself, as though it were
somehow self-sufficient; rather it must
persevere in harmony with every other
Catholic community.
The ecclesial communion of the Eucharistic
assembly is a communion with its own Bishop
and with the Roman Pontiff. The Bishop, in
effect, is the visible principle and the
foundation of unity within his particular
Church.80 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. As Saint Ignatius of Antioch wrote:
“That Eucharist which is celebrated under
the Bishop, or under one to whom the Bishop
has given this charge, may be considered
certain”.81 Likewise, since “the Roman
Pontiff, as the successor of Peter, is the
perpetual and visible source and foundation
of the unity of the Bishops and of the
multitude of the faithful”,82 communion with
him is intrinsically required for the
celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice.
Hence the great truth expressed which the
Liturgy expresses in a variety of ways:
“Every celebration of the Eucharist is
performed in union not only with the proper
Bishop, but also with the Pope, with the
episcopal order, with all the clergy, and
with the entire people. Every valid
celebration of the Eucharist expresses this
universal communion with Peter and with the
whole Church, or objectively calls for it,
as in the case of the Christian Churches
separated from Rome”.83
40. The Eucharist creates communion and
fosters communion. Saint Paul wrote to the
faithful of Corinth explaining how their
divisions, reflected in their Eucharistic
gatherings, contradicted what they were
celebrating, the Lord's Supper. The Apostle
then urged them to reflect on the true
reality of the Eucharist in order to return
to the spirit of fraternal communion (cf. 1
Cor 11:17- 34). Saint Augustine effectively
echoed this call when, in recalling the
Apostle's words: “You are the body of Christ
and individually members of it” (1 Cor 12:
27), he went on to say: “If you are his body
and members of him, then you will find set
on the Lord's table your own mystery. Yes,
you receive your own mystery”.84 And from
this observation he concludes: “Christ the
Lord... hallowed at his table the mystery of
our peace and unity. Whoever receives the
mystery of unity without preserving the
bonds of peace receives not a mystery for
his benefit but evidence against himself”.85
41. The Eucharist's particular effectiveness
in promoting communion is one of the reasons
for the importance of Sunday Mass. I have
already dwelt on this and on the other
reasons which make Sunday Mass fundamental
for the life of the Church and of individual
believers in my Apostolic Letter on the
sanctification of Sunday Dies Domini.86
There I recalled that 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 fulfil
this precept.87 More recently, in my
Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, in
setting forth the pastoral path which the
Church must take at the beginning of the
third millennium, I drew particular
attention to the Sunday Eucharist,
emphasizing its effectiveness for building
communion. “It is” – I wrote – “the
privileged place where communion is
ceaselessly proclaimed and nurtured.
Precisely through sharing in the Eucharist,
the Lord's Day also becomes the Day of the
Church, when she can effectively exercise
her role as the sacrament of unity”.88
42. The safeguarding and promotion of
ecclesial communion is a task of each member
of the faithful, who finds in the Eucharist,
as the sacrament of the Church's unity, an
area of special concern. More specifically,
this task is the particular responsibility
of the Church's Pastors, each according to
his rank and ecclesiastical office. For this
reason the Church has drawn up norms aimed
both at fostering the frequent and fruitful
access of the faithful to the Eucharistic
table and at determining the objective
conditions under which communion may not be
given. The care shown in promoting the
faithful observance of these norms becomes a
practical means of showing love for the
Eucharist and for the Church.
43. In considering the Eucharist as the
sacrament of ecclesial communion, there is
one subject which, due to its importance,
must not be overlooked: I am referring to
the relationship of the Eucharist to
ecumenical activity. We should all give
thanks to the Blessed Trinity for the many
members of the faithful throughout the world
who in recent decades have felt an ardent
desire for unity among all Christians. The
Second Vatican Council, at the beginning of
its Decree on Ecumenism, sees this as a
special gift of God.89 It was an efficacious
grace which inspired us, the sons and
daughters of the Catholic Church and our
brothers and sisters from other Churches and
Ecclesial Communities, to set forth on the
path of ecumenism.
Our longing for the goal of unity prompts us
to turn to the Eucharist, which is the
supreme sacrament of the unity of the People
of God, in as much as it is the apt
expression and the unsurpassable source of
that unity.90 In the celebration of the
Eucharistic Sacrifice the Church prays that
God, the Father of mercies, will grant his
children the fullness of the Holy Spirit so
that they may become one body and one spirit
in Christ.91 In raising this prayer to the
Father of lights, from whom comes every good
endowment and every perfect gift (cf. Jas
1:17), the Church believes that she will be
heard, for she prays in union with Christ
her Head and Spouse, who takes up this plea
of his Bride and joins it to that of his own
redemptive sacrifice.
44. Precisely because the Church's unity,
which the Eucharist brings about through the
Lord's sacrifice and by communion in his
body and blood, absolutely requires full
communion in the bonds of the profession of
faith, the sacraments and ecclesiastical
governance, it is not possible to celebrate
together the same Eucharistic liturgy until
those bonds are fully re-established. Any
such concelebration would not be a valid
means, and might well prove instead to be an
obstacle, to the attainment of full
communion, by weakening the sense of how far
we remain from this goal and by introducing
or exacerbating ambiguities with regard to
one or another truth of the faith. The path
towards full unity can only be undertaken in
truth. In this area, the prohibitions of
Church law leave no room for uncertainty,92
in fidelity to the moral norm laid down by
the Second Vatican Council.93
I would like nonetheless to reaffirm what I
said in my Encyclical Letter Ut Unum Sint
after having acknowledged the impossibility
of Eucharistic sharing: “And yet we do have
a burning desire to join in celebrating the
one Eucharist of the Lord, and this desire
itself is already a common prayer of praise,
a single supplication. Together we speak to
the Father and increasingly we do so 'with
one heart'”.94
45. While it is never legitimate to
concelebrate in the absence of full
communion, the same is not true with respect
to the administration of the Eucharist under
special circumstances, to individual persons
belonging to Churches or Ecclesial
Communities not in full communion with the
Catholic Church. In this case, in fact, the
intention is to meet a grave spiritual need
for the eternal salvation of an individual
believer, not to bring about an
intercommunion which remains impossible
until the visible bonds of ecclesial
communion are fully re-established.
This was the approach taken by the Second
Vatican Council when it gave guidelines for
responding to Eastern Christians separated
in good faith from the Catholic Church, who
spontaneously ask to receive the Eucharist
from a Catholic minister and are properly
disposed.95 This approach was then ratified
by both Codes, which also consider – with
necessary modifications – the case of other
non-Eastern Christians who are not in full
communion with the Catholic Church.96
46. In my Encyclical Ut Unum Sint I
expressed my own appreciation of these norms,
which make it possible to provide for the
salvation of souls with proper discernment:
“It is a source of joy to note that Catholic
ministers are able, in certain particular
cases, to administer the sacraments of the
Eucharist, Penance and Anointing of the Sick
to Christians who are not in full communion
with the Catholic Church but who greatly
desire to receive these sacraments, freely
request them and manifest the faith which
the Catholic Church professes with regard to
these sacraments. Conversely, in specific
cases and in particular circumstances,
Catholics too can request these same
sacraments from ministers of Churches in
which these sacraments are valid”.97
These conditions, from which no dispensation
can be given, must be carefully respected,
even though they deal with specific
individual cases, because the denial of one
or more truths of the faith regarding these
sacraments and, among these, the truth
regarding the need of the ministerial
priesthood for their validity, renders the
person asking improperly disposed to
legitimately receiving them. And the
opposite is also true: Catholics may not
receive communion in those communities which
lack a valid sacrament of Orders.98
The faithful observance of the body of norms
established in this area 99 is a
manifestation and, at the same time, a
guarantee of our love for Jesus Christ in
the Blessed Sacrament, for our brothers and
sisters of different Christian confessions –
who have a right to our witness to the truth
– and for the cause itself of the promotion
of unity.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE DIGNITY
OF THE EUCHARISTIC CELEBRATION
47. Reading the account of the institution
of the Eucharist in the Synoptic Gospels, we
are struck by the simplicity and the
“solemnity” with which Jesus, on the evening
of the Last Supper, instituted this great
sacrament. There is an episode which in some
way serves as its prelude: the anointing at
Bethany. A woman, whom John identifies as
Mary the sister of Lazarus, pours a flask of
costly ointment over Jesus' head, which
provokes from the disciples – and from Judas
in particular (cf. Mt 26:8; Mk 14:4; Jn
12:4) – an indignant response, as if this
act, in light of the needs of the poor,
represented an intolerable “waste”. But
Jesus' own reaction is completely different.
While in no way detracting from the duty of
charity towards the needy, for whom the
disciples must always show special care –
“the poor you will always have with you” (Mt
26, 11; Mk 14:7; cf. Jn 12:8) – he looks
towards his imminent death and burial, and
sees this act of anointing as an
anticipation of the honour which his body
will continue to merit even after his death,
indissolubly bound as it is to the mystery
of his person.
The account continues, in the Synoptic
Gospels, with Jesus' charge to the disciples
to prepare carefully the “large upper room”
needed for the Passover meal (cf. Mk 14:15;
Lk 22:12) and with the narration of the
institution of the Eucharist. Reflecting at
least in part the Jewish rites of the
Passover meal leading up to the singing of
the Hallel (cf. Mt 26:30; Mk 14:26), the
story presents with sobriety and solemnity,
even in the variants of the different
traditions, the words spoken by Christ over
the bread and wine, which he made into
concrete expressions of the handing over of
his body and the shedding of his blood. All
these details are recorded by the
Evangelists in the light of a praxis of the
“breaking of the bread” already
well-established in the early Church. But
certainly from the time of Jesus on, the
event of Holy Thursday has shown visible
traces of a liturgical “sensibility” shaped
by Old Testament tradition and open to being
reshaped in Christian celebrations in a way
consonant with the new content of Easter.
48. Like the woman who anointed Jesus in
Bethany, the Church has feared no “extravagance”,
devoting the best of her resources to
expressing her wonder and adoration before
the unsurpassable gift of the Eucharist. No
less than the first disciples charged with
preparing the “large upper room”, she has
felt the need, down the centuries and in her
encounters with different cultures, to
celebrate the Eucharist in a setting worthy
of so great a mystery. In the wake of Jesus'
own words and actions, and building upon the
ritual heritage of Judaism, the Christian
liturgy was born. Could there ever be an
adequate means of expressing the acceptance
of that self-gift which the divine
Bridegroom continually makes to his Bride,
the Church, by bringing the Sacrifice
offered once and for all on the Cross to
successive generations of believers and thus
becoming nourishment for all the faithful?
Though the idea of a “banquet” naturally
suggests familiarity, the Church has never
yielded to the temptation to trivialize this
“intimacy” with her Spouse by forgetting
that he is also her Lord and that the
“banquet” always remains a sacrificial
banquet marked by the blood shed on Golgotha.
The Eucharistic Banquet is truly a “sacred”
banquet, in which the simplicity of the
signs conceals the unfathomable holiness of
God: O sacrum convivium, in quo Christus
sumitur! The bread which is broken on our
altars, offered to us as wayfarers along the
paths of the world, is panis angelorum, the
bread of angels, which cannot be approached
except with the humility of the centurion in
the Gospel: “Lord, I am not worthy to have
you come under my roof ” (Mt 8:8; Lk 7:6).
49. With this heightened sense of mystery,
we understand how the faith of the Church in
the mystery of the Eucharist has found
historical expression not only in the demand
for an interior disposition of devotion, but
also in outward forms meant to evoke and
emphasize the grandeur of the event being
celebrated. This led progressively to the
development of a particular form of
regulating the Eucharistic liturgy, with due
respect for the various legitimately
constituted ecclesial traditions. On this
foundation a rich artistic heritage also
developed. Architecture, sculpture, painting
and music, moved by the Christian mystery,
have found in the Eucharist, both directly
and indirectly, a source of great
inspiration.
Such was the case, for example, with
architecture, which witnessed the transition,
once the historical situation made it
possible, from the first places of
Eucharistic celebration in the domus or
“homes” of Christian families to the solemn
basilicas of the early centuries, to the
imposing cathedrals of the Middle Ages, and
to the churches, large and small, which
gradually sprang up throughout the lands
touched by Christianity. The designs of
altars and tabernacles within Church
interiors were often not simply motivated by
artistic inspiration but also by a clear
understanding of the mystery. The same could
be said for sacred music, if we but think of
the inspired Gregorian melodies and the many,
often great, composers who sought to do
justice to the liturgical texts of the Mass.
Similarly, can we overlook the enormous
quantity of artistic production, ranging
from fine craftsmanship to authentic works
of art, in the area of Church furnishings
and vestments used for the celebration of
the Eucharist?
It can be said that the Eucharist, while
shaping the Church and her spirituality, has
also powerfully affected “culture”, and the
arts in particular.
50. In this effort to adore the mystery
grasped in its ritual and aesthetic
dimensions, a certain “competition” has
taken place between Christians of the West
and the East. How could we not give
particular thanks to the Lord for the
contributions to Christian art made by the
great architectural and artistic works of
the Greco-Byzantine tradition and of the
whole geographical area marked by Slav
culture? In the East, sacred art has
preserved a remarkably powerful sense of
mystery, which leads artists to see their
efforts at creating beauty not simply as an
expression of their own talents, but also as
a genuine service to the faith. Passing well
beyond mere technical skill, they have shown
themselves docile and open to the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
The architectural and mosaic splendours of
the Christian East and West are a patrimony
belonging to all believers; they contain a
hope, and even a pledge, of the desired
fullness of communion in faith and in
celebration. This would presuppose and
demand, as in Rublëv's famous depiction of
the Trinity, a profoundly Eucharistic Church
in which the presence of the mystery of
Christ in the broken bread is as it were
immersed in the ineffable unity of the three
divine Persons, making of the Church herself
an “icon” of the Trinity.
Within this context of an art aimed at
expressing, in all its elements, the meaning
of the Eucharist in accordance with the
Church's teaching, attention needs to be
given to the norms regulating the
construction and decor of sacred buildings.
As history shows and as I emphasized in my
Letter to Artists,100 the Church has always
left ample room for the creativity of
artists. But sacred art must be outstanding
for its ability to express adequately the
mystery grasped in the fullness of the
Church's faith and in accordance with the
pastoral guidelines appropriately laid down
by competent Authority. This holds true both
for the figurative arts and for sacred
music.
51. The development of sacred art and
liturgical discipline which took place in
lands of ancient Christian heritage is also
taking place on continents where
Christianity is younger. This was precisely
the approach supported by the Second Vatican
Council on the need for sound and proper “inculturation”.
In my numerous Pastoral Visits I have seen,
throughout the world, the great vitality
which the celebration of the Eucharist can
have when marked by the forms, styles and
sensibilities of different cultures. By
adaptation to the changing conditions of
time and place, the Eucharist offers
sustenance not only to individuals but to
entire peoples, and it shapes cultures
inspired by Christianity.
It is necessary, however, that this
important work of adaptation be carried out
with a constant awareness of the ineffable
mystery against which every generation is
called to measure itself. The “treasure” is
too important and precious to risk
impoverishment or compromise through forms
of experimentation or practices introduced
without a careful review on the part of the
competent ecclesiastical authorities.
Furthermore, the centrality of the
Eucharistic mystery demands that any such
review must be undertaken in close
association with the Holy See. As I wrote in
my Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation
Ecclesia in Asia, “such cooperation is
essential because the Sacred Liturgy
expresses and celebrates the one faith
professed by all and, being the heritage of
the whole Church, cannot be determined by
local Churches in isolation from the
universal Church”.101
52. All of this makes clear the great
responsibility which belongs to priests in
particular for the celebration of the
Eucharist. It is their responsibility to
preside at the Eucharist in persona Christi
and to provide a witness to and a service of
communion not only for the community
directly taking part in the celebration, but
also for the universal Church, which is a
part of every Eucharist. It must be lamented
that, especially in the years following the
post-conciliar liturgical reform, as a
result of a misguided sense of creativity
and adaptation there have been a number of
abuses which have been a source of suffering
for many. A certain reaction against
“formalism” has led some, especially in
certain regions, to consider the “forms”
chosen by the Church's great liturgical
tradition and her Magisterium as non-binding
and to introduce unauthorized innovations
which are often completely inappropriate.
I consider it my duty, therefore to appeal
urgently that the liturgical norms for the
celebration of the Eucharist be observed
with great fidelity. These norms are a
concrete expression of the authentically
ecclesial nature of the Eucharist; this is
their deepest meaning. Liturgy is never
anyone's private property, be it of the
celebrant or of the community in which the
mysteries are celebrated. The Apostle Paul
had to address fiery words to the community
of Corinth because of grave shortcomings in
their celebration of the Eucharist resulting
in divisions (schismata) and the emergence
of factions (haireseis) (cf. 1 Cor
11:17-34). Our time, too, calls for a
renewed awareness and appreciation of
liturgical norms as a reflection of, and a
witness to, the one universal Church made
present in every celebration of the
Eucharist. Priests who faithfully celebrate
Mass according to the liturgical norms, and
communities which conform to those norms,
quietly but eloquently demonstrate their
love for the Church. Precisely to bring out
more clearly this deeper meaning of
liturgical norms, I have asked the competent
offices of the Roman Curia to prepare a more
specific document, including prescriptions
of a juridical nature, on this very
important subject. No one is permitted to
undervalue the mystery entrusted to our
hands: it is too great for anyone to feel
free to treat it lightly and with disregard
for its sacredness and its universality.
CHAPTER SIX
AT THE SCHOOL OF MARY,
“WOMAN OF THE EUCHARIST”
53. If we wish to rediscover in all its
richness the profound relationship between
the Church and the Eucharist, we cannot
neglect Mary, Mother and model of the Church.
In my Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis
Mariae, I pointed to the Blessed Virgin Mary
as our teacher in contemplating Christ's
face, and among the mysteries of light I
included the institution of the Eucharist.102
Mary can guide us towards this most holy
sacrament, because she herself has a
profound relationship with it.
At first glance, the Gospel is silent on
this subject. The account of the institution
of the Eucharist on the night of Holy
Thursday makes no mention of Mary. Yet we
know that she was present among the Apostles
who prayed “with one accord” (cf. Acts 1:14)
in the first community which gathered after
the Ascension in expectation of Pentecost.
Certainly Mary must have been present at the
Eucharistic celebrations of the first
generation of Christians, who were devoted
to “the breaking of bread” (Acts 2:42).
But in addition to her sharing in the
Eucharistic banquet, an indirect picture of
Mary's relationship with the Eucharist can
be had, beginning with her interior
disposition. Mary is a “woman of the
Eucharist” in her whole life. The Church,
which looks to Mary as a model, is also
called to imitate her in her relationship
with this most holy mystery.
54. Mysterium fidei! If the Eucharist is a
mystery of faith which so greatly transcends
our understanding as to call for sheer
abandonment to the word of God, then there
can be no one like Mary to act as our
support and guide in acquiring this
disposition. In repeating what Christ did at
the Last Supper in obedience to his command:
“Do this in memory of me!”, we also accept
Mary's invitation to obey him without
hesitation: “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn
2:5). With the same maternal concern which
she showed at the wedding feast of Cana,
Mary seems to say to us: “Do not waver;
trust in the words of my Son. If he was able
to change water into wine, he can also turn
bread and wine into his body and blood, and
through this mystery bestow on believers the
living memorial of his passover, thus
becoming the 'bread of life'”.
55. In a certain sense Mary lived her
Eucharistic faith even before the
institution of the Eucharist, by the very
fact that she offered her virginal womb for
the Incarnation of God's Word. The Eucharist,
while commemorating the passion and
resurrection, is also in continuity with the
incarnation. At the Annunciation Mary
conceived the Son of God in the physical
reality of his body and blood, thus
anticipating within herself what to some
degree happens sacramentally in every
believer who receives, under the signs of
bread and wine, the Lord's body and blood.
As a result, there is a profound analogy
between the Fiat which Mary said in reply to
the angel, and the Amen which every believer
says when receiving the body of the Lord.
Mary was asked to believe that the One whom
she conceived “through the Holy Spirit” was
“the Son of God” (Lk 1:30-35). In continuity
with the Virgin's faith, in the Eucharistic
mystery we are asked to believe that the
same Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of
Mary, becomes present in his full humanity
and divinity under the signs of bread and
wine.
“Blessed is she who believed” (Lk 1:45).
Mary also anticipated, in the mystery of the
incarnation, the Church's Eucharistic faith.
When, at the Visitation, she bore in her
womb the Word made flesh, she became in some
way a “tabernacle” – the first “tabernacle”
in history – in which the Son of God, still
invisible to our human gaze, allowed himself
to be adored by Elizabeth, radiating his
light as it were through the eyes and the
voice of Mary. And is not the enraptured
gaze of Mary as she contemplated the face of
the newborn Christ and cradled him in her
arms that unparalleled model of love which
should inspire us every time we receive
Eucharistic communion?
56. Mary, throughout her life at Christ's
side and not only on Calvary, made her own
the sacrificial dimension of the Eucharist.
When she brought the child Jesus to the
Temple in Jerusalem “to present him to the
Lord” (Lk 2:22), she heard the aged Simeon
announce that the child would be a “sign of
contradiction” and that a sword would also
pierce her own heart (cf. Lk 2:34-35). The
tragedy of her Son's crucifixion was thus
foretold, and in some sense Mary's Stabat
Mater at the foot of the Cross was
foreshadowed. In her daily preparation for
Calvary, Mary experienced a kind of
“anticipated Eucharist” – one might say a
“spiritual communion” – of desire and of
oblation, which would culminate in her union
with her Son in his passion, and then find
expression after Easter by her partaking in
the Eucharist which the Apostles celebrated
as the memorial of that passion.
What must Mary have felt as she heard from
the mouth of Peter, John, James and the
other Apostles the words spoken at the Last
Supper: “This is my body which is given for
you” (Lk 22:19)? The body given up for us
and made present under sacramental signs was
the same body which she had conceived in her
womb! For Mary, receiving the Eucharist must
have somehow meant welcoming once more into
her womb that heart which had beat in unison
with hers and reliving what she had
experienced at the foot of the Cross.
57. “Do this in remembrance of me” (Lk
22:19). In the “memorial” of Calvary all
that Christ accomplished by his passion and
his death is present. Consequently all that
Christ did with regard to his Mother for our
sake is also present. To her he gave the
beloved disciple and, in him, each of us:
“Behold, your Son!”. To each of us he also
says: “Behold your mother!” (cf. Jn 19:
26-27).
Experiencing the memorial of Christ's death
in the Eucharist also means continually
receiving this gift. It means accepting –
like John – the one who is given to us anew
as our Mother. It also means taking on a
commitment to be conformed to Christ,
putting ourselves at the school of his
Mother and allowing her to accompany us.
Mary is present, with the Church and as the
Mother of the Church, at each of our
celebrations of the Eucharist. If the Church
and the Eucharist are inseparably united,
the same ought to be said of Mary and the
Eucharist. This is one reason why, since
ancient times, the commemoration of Mary has
always been part of the Eucharistic
celebrations of the Churches of East and
West.
58. In the Eucharist the Church is
completely united to Christ and his
sacrifice, and makes her own the spirit of
Mary. This truth can be understood more
deeply by re-reading the Magnificat in a
Eucharistic key. The Eucharist, like the
Canticle of Mary, is first and foremost
praise and thanksgiving. When Mary exclaims:
“My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit
rejoices in God my Saviour”, she already
bears Jesus in her womb. She praises God
“through” Jesus, but she also praises him
“in” Jesus and “with” Jesus. This is itself
the true “Eucharistic attitude”.
At the same time Mary recalls the wonders
worked by God in salvation history in
fulfilment of the promise once made to the
fathers (cf. Lk 1:55), and proclaims the
wonder that surpasses them all, the
redemptive incarnation. Lastly, the
Magnificat reflects the eschatological
tension of the Eucharist. Every time the Son
of God comes again to us in the “poverty” of
the sacramental signs of bread and wine, the
seeds of that new history wherein the mighty
are “put down from their thrones” and “those
of low degree are exalted” (cf. Lk 1:52),
take root in the world. Mary sings of the
“new heavens” and the “new earth” which find
in the Eucharist their anticipation and in
some sense their programme and plan. The
Magnificat expresses Mary's spirituality,
and there is nothing greater than this
spirituality for helping us to experience
the mystery of the Eucharist. The Eucharist
has been given to us so that our life, like
that of Mary, may become completely a
Magnificat!
CONCLUSION
59. Ave, verum corpus natum de Maria Virgine!
Several years ago I celebrated the fiftieth
anniversary of my priesthood. Today I have
the grace of offering the Church this
Encyclical on the Eucharist on the Holy
Thursday which falls during the twenty-fifth
year of my Petrine ministry. As I do so, my
heart is filled with gratitude. For over a
half century, every day, beginning on 2
November 1946, when I celebrated my first
Mass in the Crypt of Saint Leonard in Wawel
Cathedral in Krakow, my eyes have gazed in
recollection upon the host and the chalice,
where time and space in some way “merge” and
the drama of Golgotha is re-presented in a
living way, thus revealing its mysterious “contemporaneity”.
Each day my faith has been able to recognize
in the consecrated bread and wine the divine
Wayfarer who joined the two disciples on the
road to Emmaus and opened their eyes to the
light and their hearts to new hope (cf. Lk
24:13-35).
Allow me, dear brothers and sisters, to
share with deep emotion, as a means of
accompanying and strengthening your faith,
my own testimony of faith in the Most Holy
Eucharist. Ave verum corpus natum de Maria
Virgine, vere passum, immolatum, in cruce
pro homine! Here is the Church's treasure,
the heart of the world, the pledge of the
fulfilment for which each man and woman,
even unconsciously, yearns. A great and
transcendent mystery, indeed, and one that
taxes our mind's ability to pass beyond
appearances. Here our senses fail us: visus,
tactus, gustus in te fallitur, in the words
of the hymn Adoro Te Devote; yet faith
alone, rooted in the word of Christ handed
down to us by the Apostles, is sufficient
for us. Allow me, like Peter at the end of
the Eucharistic discourse in John's Gospel,
to say once more to Christ, in the name of
the whole Church and in the name of each of
you: “Lord to whom shall we go? You have the
words of eternal life” (Jn 6:68).
60. At the dawn of this third millennium, we,
the children of the Church, are called to
undertake with renewed enthusiasm the
journey of Christian living. As I wrote in
my Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte,
“it is not a matter of inventing a 'new
programme'. The programme already exists: it
is the plan found in the Gospel and in the
living Tradition; it is the same as ever.
Ultimately, it has its centre in Christ
himself, who is to be known, loved and
imitated, so that in him we may live the
life of the Trinity, and with him transform
history until its fulfilment in the heavenly
Jerusalem”.103 The implementation of this
programme of a renewed impetus in Christian
living passes through the Eucharist.
Every commitment to holiness, every activity
aimed at carrying out the Church's mission,
every work of pastoral planning, must draw
the strength it needs from the Eucharistic
mystery and in turn be directed to that
mystery as its culmination. In the Eucharist
we have Jesus, we have his redemptive
sacrifice, we have his resurrection, we have
the gift of the Holy Spirit, we have
adoration, obedience and love of the Father.
Were we to disregard the Eucharist, how
could we overcome our own deficiency?
61. The mystery of the Eucharist – sacrifice,
presence, banquet – does not allow for
reduction or exploitation; it must be
experienced and lived in its integrity, both
in its celebration and in the intimate
converse with Jesus which takes place after
receiving communion or in a prayerful moment
of Eucharistic adoration apart from Mass.
These are times when the Church is firmly
built up and it becomes clear what she truly
is: one, holy, catholic and apostolic; the
people, temple and family of God; the body
and bride of Christ, enlivened by the Holy
Spirit; the universal sacrament of salvation
and a hierarchically structured communion.
The path taken by the Church in these first
years of the third millennium is also a path
of renewed ecumenical commitment. The final
decades of the second millennium,
culminating in the Great Jubilee, have
spurred us along this path and called for
all the baptized to respond to the prayer of
Jesus “ut unum sint ” (Jn 17:11). The path
itself is long and strewn with obstacles
greater than our human resources alone can
overcome, yet we have the Eucharist, and in
its presence we can hear in the depths of
our hearts, as if they were addressed to us,
the same words heard by the Prophet Elijah:
“Arise and eat, else the journey will be too
great for you” (1 Kg 19:7). The treasure of
the Eucharist, which the Lord places before
us, impels us towards the goal of full
sharing with all our brothers and sisters to
whom we are joined by our common Baptism.
But if this treasure is not to be squandered,
we need to respect the demands which derive
from its being the sacrament of communion in
faith and in apostolic succession.
By giving the Eucharist the prominence it
deserves, and by being careful not to
diminish any of its dimensions or demands,
we show that we are truly conscious of the
greatness of this gift. We are urged to do
so by an uninterrupted tradition, which from
the first centuries on has found the
Christian community ever vigilant in
guarding this “treasure”. Inspired by love,
the Church is anxious to hand on to future
generations of Christians, without loss, her
faith and teaching with regard to the
mystery of the Eucharist. There can be no
danger of excess in our care for this
mystery, for “in this sacrament is
recapitulated the whole mystery of our
salvation”.104
62. Let us take our place, dear brothers and
sisters, at the school of the saints, who
are the great interpreters of true
Eucharistic piety. In them the theology of
the Eucharist takes on all the splendour of
a lived reality; it becomes “contagious”
and, in a manner of speaking, it “warms our
hearts”. Above all, let us listen to Mary
Most Holy, in whom the mystery of the
Eucharist appears, more than in anyone else,
as a mystery of light. Gazing upon Mary, we
come to know the transforming power present
in the Eucharist. In her we see the world
renewed in love. Contemplating her, assumed
body and soul into heaven, we see opening up
before us those “new heavens” and that “new
earth” which will appear at the second
coming of Christ. Here below, the Eucharist
represents their pledge, and in a certain
way, their anticipation: “Veni, Domine Iesu!”
(Rev 22:20).
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. If, in the
presence of this mystery, reason experiences
its limits, the heart, enlightened by the
grace of the Holy Spirit, clearly sees the
response that is demanded, and bows low in
adoration and unbounded love.
Let us make our own the words of Saint
Thomas Aquinas, an eminent theologian and an
impassioned poet of Christ in the Eucharist,
and turn in hope to the contemplation of
that goal to which our hearts aspire in
their thirst for joy and peace:
Bone pastor, panis vere,
Iesu, nostri miserere...
Come then, good Shepherd, bread divine,
Still show to us thy mercy sign;
Oh, feed us, still keep us thine;
So we may see thy glories shine
in fields of immortality.
O thou, the wisest, mightiest, best,
Our present food, our future rest,
Come, make us each thy chosen guest,
Co-heirs of thine, and comrades blest
With saints whose dwelling is with thee.
Given in Rome, at Saint Peter's, on 17 April,
Holy Thursday, in the year 2003, the Twenty-
fifth of my Pontificate, the Year of the
Rosary.
IOANNES PAULUS II
NOTES
1Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium,
11.
2Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Decree
on the Ministry and Life of Priests
Presbyterorum Ordinis, 5.
3Cf. John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Rosarium
Virginis Mariae (16 October 2002), 21: AAS
95 (2003), 19.
4This is the title which I gave to an
autobiographical testimony issued for my
fiftieth anniversary of priestly ordination.
5Leonis XIII P.M. Acta, XXII (1903),
115-136.
6AAS 39 (1947), 521-595.
7AAS 57 (1965), 753-774.
8AAS 72 (1980), 113-148.
9Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium, 47:
“... our Saviour instituted the Eucharistic
Sacrifice of his body and blood, in order to
perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross
throughout time, until he should return”.
10Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1085.
11Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen
Gentium, 3.
12Cf. Paul VI, Solemn Profession of Faith,
30 June 1968, 24: AAS 60 (1968), 442; John
Paul II, Apostolic Letter Dominicae Cenae
(24 February 1980), 12: AAS 72 (1980), 142.
13Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1382.
14Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1367.
15In Epistolam ad Hebraeos Homiliae, Hom.
17,3: PG 63, 131.
16Cf. Ecumenical Council of Trent, Session
XXII, Doctrina de ss. Missae Sacrificio,
Chapter 2: DS 1743: “It is one and the same
victim here offering himself by the ministry
of his priests, who then offered himself on
the Cross; it is only the manner of offering
that is different”.
17Pius XII, Encyclical Letter Mediator Dei
(20 November 1947): AAS 39 (1947), 548.
18John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Redemptor
Hominis (15 March 1979), 20: AAS 71 (1979),
310.
19Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen
Gentium, 11.
20De Sacramentis, V, 4, 26: CSEL 73, 70.
21In Ioannis Evangelium, XII, 20: PG 74,
726.
22Encyclical Letter Mysterium Fidei (3
September 1965): AAS 57 (1965), 764.
23Session XIII, Decretum de ss. Eucharistia,
Chapter 4: DS 1642.
24Mystagogical Catecheses, IV, 6: SCh 126,
138.
25Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation
Dei Verbum, 8.
26Solemn Profession of Faith, 30 June 1968,
25: AAS 60 (1968), 442-443.
27Sermo IV in Hebdomadam Sanctam: CSCO 413/Syr.
182, 55.
28Anaphora.
29Eucharistic Prayer III.
30Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ,
Second Vespers, Antiphon to the Magnificat.
31Missale Romanum, Embolism following the
Lord's Prayer.
32Ad Ephesios, 20: PG 5, 661.
33Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the
Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 39.
34“Do you wish to honour the body of Christ?
Do not ignore him when he is naked. Do not
pay him homage in the temple clad in silk,
only then to neglect him outside where he is
cold and ill-clad. He who said: 'This is my
body' is the same who said: 'You saw me
hungry and you gave me no food', and 'Whatever
you did to the least of my brothers you did
also to me' ... What good is it if the
Eucharistic table is overloaded with golden
chalices when your brother is dying of
hunger. Start by satisfying his hunger and
then with what is left you may adorn the
altar as well”: Saint John Chrysostom, In
Evangelium S. Matthaei, hom. 50:3-4: PG 58,
508-509; cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter
Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (30 December 1987),
31: AAS 80 (1988), 553-556.
35Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, 3.
36Ibid.
37Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Decree
on the Missionary Activity of the Church Ad
Gentes, 5.
38“Moses took the blood and threw it upon
the people, and said: 'Behold the blood of
the Covenant which the Lord has made with
you in accordance with all these words'” (Ex
24:8).
39Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen
Gentium, 1.
40Cf. ibid., 9.
41Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Decree on the Life and Ministry of Priests
Presbyterorum Ordinis, 5. The same Decree,
in No. 6, says: “No Christian community can
be built up which does not grow from and
hinge on the celebration of the most holy
Eucharist”.
42In Epistolam I ad Corinthios Homiliae, 24,
2: PG 61, 200; Cf. Didache, IX, 4: F.X. Funk,
I, 22; Saint Cyprian, Ep. LXIII, 13: PL 4,
384.
43PO 26, 206.
44Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen
Gentium, 1.
45Cf. Ecumenical Council of Trent, Session
XIII, Decretum de ss. Eucharistia, Canon 4:
DS 1654.
46Cf. Rituale Romanum: De sacra communione
et de cultu mysterii eucharistici extra
Missam, 36 (No. 80).
47Cf. ibid., 38-39 (Nos. 86-90).
48John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Novo
Millennio Ineunte (6 January 2001), 32: AAS
93 (2001), 288.
49“In the course of the day the faithful
should not omit visiting the Blessed
Sacrament, which in accordance with
liturgical law must be reserved in churches
with great reverence in a prominent place.
Such visits are a sign of gratitude, an
expression of love and an acknowledgment of
the Lord's presence”: Paul VI, Encyclical
Letter Mysterium Fidei (3 September 1965):
AAS 57 (1965), 771.
50Visite al SS. Sacramento e a Maria
Santissima, Introduction: Opere Ascetiche,
Avellino, 2000, 295.
51No. 857.
52Ibid.
53Ibid.
54Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith, Letter Sacerdotium Ministeriale (6
August 1983), III.2: AAS 75 (1983), 1005.
55Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen
Gentium, 10.
56Ibid.
57Cf. Institutio Generalis: Editio typica
tertia, No. 147.
58Cf. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church
Lumen Gentium, 10 and 28; Decree on the
Ministry and Life of Priests Presbyterorum
Ordinis, 2.
59“The minister of the altar acts in the
person of Christ inasmuch as he is head,
making an offering in the name of all the
members”: Pius XII, Encyclical Letter
Mediator Dei (20 November 1947): AAS 39
(1947), 556; cf. Pius X, Apostolic
Exhortation Haerent Animo (4 August 1908):
Acta Pii X, IV, 16; Pius XI, Encyclical
Letter Ad Catholici Sacerdotii (20 December
1935): AAS 28 (1936), 20.
60Apostolic Letter Dominicae Cenae (24
February 1980), 8: AAS 72 (1980), 128-129.
61Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith, Letter Sacerdotium Ministeriale (6
August 1983), III.4: AAS 75 (1983), 1006;
cf. Fourth Lateran Ecumenical Council,
Chapter 1, Constitution on the Catholic
Faith Firmiter Credimus: DS 802.
62Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Decree
on Ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio, 22.
63Apostolic Letter Dominicae Cenae (24
February 1980), 2: AAS 72 (1980), 115.
64Decree on the Life and Ministry of Priests
Presbyterorum Ordinis, 14.
65Ibid., 13; cf. Code of Canon Law, Canon
904; Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches,
Canon 378.
66Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests
Presbytero- rum Ordinis, 6.
67Cf. Final Report, II.C.1: L'Osservatore
Romano, 10 December 1985, 7.
68Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen
Gentium, 26.
69Nicolas Cabasilas, Life in Christ, IV, 10:
SCh 355, 270.
70Camino de Perfección, Chapter 35.
71Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith, Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic
Church on Some Aspects of the Church
Understood as Communion Communionis Notio
(28 May 1992), 4: AAS 85 (1993), 839-840.
72Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen
Gentium, 14.
73Homiliae in Isaiam,6, 3: PG 56, 139.
74No. 1385; cf. Code of Canon Law, Canon
916; Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches,
Canon 711.
75Address to the Members of the Sacred
Apostolic Penitentiary and the
Penitentiaries of the Patriarchal Basilicas
of Rome (30 January 1981): AAS 73 (1981),
203. Cf. Ecumenical Council of Trent, Sess.
XIII, Decretum de ss. Eucharistia, Chapter 7
and Canon 11: DS 1647, 1661.
76Canon 915; Code of Canons of the Eastern
Churches, Canon 712.
77Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen
Gentium, 14.
78Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae,
III, q. 73, a. 3c.
79Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith, Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic
Church on Some Aspects of the Church
Understood as Communion Communionis Notio
(28 May 1992), 11: AAS 85 (1993), 844.
80Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen
Gentium, 23.
81Ad Smyrnaeos, 8: PG 5, 713.
82Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen
Gentium, 23.
83Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith, Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic
Church on Some Aspects of the Church
Understood as Communion Communionis Notio
(28 May 1992), 14: AAS 85 (1993), 847.
84Sermo272: PL 38, 1247.
85Ibid., 1248.
86Cf. Nos. 31-51: AAS 90 (1998), 731-746.
87Cf. ibid., Nos. 48-49: AAS 90 (1998), 744.
88No. 36: AAS 93 (2001), 291-292.
89Cf. Decree on Ecumenism Unitatis
Redintegratio, 1.
90Cf. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church
Lumen Gentium, 11.
91“Join all of us, who share the one bread
and the one cup, to one another in the
communion of the one Holy Spirit”: Anaphora
of the Liturgy of Saint Basil.
92Cf. Code of Canon Law, Canon 908; Code of
Canons of the Eastern Churches, Canon 702;
Pontifical Council for the Promotion of
Christian Unity, Ecumenical Directory, 25
March 1993, 122-125, 129-131: AAS 85 (1993),
1086-1089; Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith, Letter Ad Exsequendam, 18 May
2001: AAS 93 (2001), 786.
93“Divine law forbids any common worship
which would damage the unity of the Church,
or involve formal acceptance of falsehood or
the danger of deviation in the faith, of
scandal, or of indifferentism”: Decree on
the Eastern Catholic Churches Orientalium
Ecclesiarum, 26.
94No. 45: AAS 87 (1995), 948.
95Decree on the Eastern Catholic Churches
Orientalium Ecclesiarum, 27.
96Cf. Code of Canon Law, Canon 844 §§ 3-4;
Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches,
Canon 671 §§ 3-4.
97No. 46: AAS 87 (1995), 948.
98Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Decree on Ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio,
22.
99Code of Canon Law, Canon 844; Code of
Canons of the Eastern Churches, Canon 671.
100Cf. AAS 91 (1999), 1155-1172.
101No. 22: AAS 92 (2000), 485.
102Cf. No. 21: AAS 95 (2003), 20.
103No. 29: AAS 93 (2001), 285.
104Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae,
III, q. 83, a. 4c.
