Msgr de Vereteuil

 “When we eat this bread and drink this cup we proclaim your death, Lord Jesus, until you come in glory” --- this is one of the options we can use in response to the priest’s invitation during the Mass, “Let us proclaim the mystery of faith”.

It is based on St Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 11:26). In the previous two articles on the topic of St Paul and the Eucharist, I have discussed his teaching on the unity of the celebrating community as the criterion for an authentic Eucharist, and looked at the ways in which the General Instruction of The Roman Missal (GIRM) seeks to nurture and deepen that unity. In this article I shall look at another aspect of Pauline teaching on the Eucharist and that is the teaching in the verse quoted above.

“Until the Lord comes, therefore, every time you eat this bread and drink this cup you are proclaiming his death….” (v 26). Now if it were a matter of simply repeating the Last Supper gestures of eating and drinking, St Paul might have had no problem with the Corinthians’ celebration.

The fact that he does tells us that the “proclaiming” is far more than the repeating of a historic event. Verses 27-30 tell us that the Corinthians’ proclamation is not authentic, not what it should be, even though they have taken the bread and wine, because they have failed to love.

The eating and drinking of the bread and the cup impels us to love and care, otherwise we “will be behaving unworthily toward the body and blood of the Lord” (v 27-30). In other words, and as we have seen, St Paul teaches us that celebrating the Eucharist includes loving one another – this is how we proclaim the death of the Lord.

Jesus’ absolute love for us is summed up in his death – he gave everything for us, there was nothing left to give. When we proclaim His death, we proclaim His love.

Our Eucharistic celebration of his life-giving death reaches a high-point in our reception of the life-giving bread, the saving cup – but it is not enough simply to receive – we must now proclaim it by our lives, by our commitment to Christ and our imitation of him in our dying to selfishness and indifference to others, and rising to the new life of love. If we do not desire to live out this dying, then, “it is not the Lord’s Supper that you are eating” (v 20).

This teaching of St Paul makes me reflect on how effectively I proclaim the death of the Lord: Is my celebration and reception of communion reflected in a growing love for others? Is it reflected in an increased awareness of my oneness in the Body of Christ with all others celebrating the Eucharist?

Is the parish celebration of Mass reflected in an increasing proclamation among us of the life-giving death of the Lord by a growing care for one another? It is easy for me to receive communion but where is the proclamation of the death of the Lord unless it is in my own death to self-centredness?

Pope Benedict XVI has recently approved two new optional dismissals for the end of Mass to be included in the new missal, which should be ready for use in 2011 or 2012. These options are, “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord” and “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.”

The reason for the addition of these options is to bring out more clearly the mission we receive through our celebration of the Mass, to bring out more clearly the fact that we have to proclaim the death of the Lord, his unselfish love, by how we live our lives.

In his letter “The Day of The Lord”, Pope John Paul II wrote that he thought the concluding rite of the Mass needed to be better understood, that not everyone recognised that at the end of the Eucharistic celebration we were being sent out on a mission of love. Pope Benedict obviously agrees and has attempted to bring us to a deeper awareness of this through these new dismissals.

“Until the Lord comes, therefore, every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord”. Until the Lord comes --- St Paul is also teaching us something in these words ----that the Lord will come again and that we are to celebrate the Eucharist in our assemblies and in our lives until that time.

“We proclaim your death, Lord Jesus, until you come in glory.” This is part of our faith as Catholics, that Christ will come again and that when He does, time as we know it will end. “He will come again in glory” as we say in our Creed, or “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again” as we proclaim in the mystery of faith at Mass.
 
There are many ways in our celebration of the Eucharist that we are reminded of the Second Coming of Christ --- the Advent season highlights this aspect of the mystery of Christ as the prayers and scripture readings of this season focus on this. But in every mass this is held before us.

Many Opening Prayers and Prayers After Communion remind us of the fact that we and all of creation are heading towards that time when Christ will come again and we will see a new heaven and a new earth.

 In the Eucharistic Prayer (EP) we pray, “Make us worthy to share eternal life with Mary, the virgin mother of God, the Apostles and all the saints…(EP 2); “May He make us an everlasting gift to you and enable us to share in the inheritance of the saints …. Advance the peace and salvation of all the world” (EP 3).

Of course, in the Our Father we pray, “your kingdom come”, and just before we receive communion we pray, “Happy are those who are called to His Supper,” reminding us that the Supper we celebrate in the Mass is a foreshadowing of the Supper, the heavenly banquet, which we are called to share in heaven.

In the new missal which is being prepared for use at Mass, this pre-communion prayer will be reworded, “Blessed are those who are called to the banquet of the Lamb” so that the link between our communion here at Mass and the one to come in heaven (the heavenly banquet of the Lamb – Revelation 19:9) will be made clearer.

“Until the Lord comes”. Does the fact that this will happen (and that we are praying in the Mass for it to happen) inform my life in any way? Is all my energy bound up in achieving what this passing world has to offer? And worse again, am I in competition with others for these things, and willing to take advantage of others, treating them badly or ignoring their needs?

“Until the Lord comes, therefore, every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord.” When the Lord comes there will no longer be any need to celebrate the Eucharist for the Kingdom will be complete and we will be in perfect communion with the Lord the and with all our brothers and sisters.

Until that time, not only do we gather to share the life-giving bread and saving cup but as we do so, we commit ourselves to loving our brothers and sisters, thus proclaiming the death of the Lord, and to growing in unity and self-giving love until that time comes when Christ will come again and the kingdom of peace and unity will be present in all its fullness.