Introduction
In this chapter I focus on the centrality of sacrifice in the interrelationship between sacrifice, real presence and communion in texts of Vatican II and in a range of post-conciliar texts.
I start with the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium (SC). I then give special attention to the post-conciliar developments, in particular the following documents from the pontificate of Paul VI: the encyclical Mysterium Fidei (1965) and the instruction Eucharisticum Mysterium of the Sacred Congregation of Rites in 1967.194 I then continue with three documents by John Paul II: the Holy Thursday letter Dominicae Cenae (1980), the encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia (2003), and the apostolic letter Mane Nobiscum Domine (2004). Finally, I treat the following documents from the pontificate of Benedict XVI:
Sacramentum Caritatis (2007) and Recent Teachings of the Roman Catholic Magisterium by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
In discussing these texts I consider the following questions: what kind of teaching on the Eucharist can be found in the documents of Vatican II? What do the documents actually say about the eucharistic sacrifice? Are there new conceptual aspects that give clarity and depth to the Catholic understanding of the Eucharist? Do the post-conciliar texts reflect the results of various eucharistic theologies predominant during and after Vatican II? My examination of the
194See Sacred Congregation of Rites, “Eucharisticum Mysterium,” in Acta Apostolicae Sedis 59 (1967): 539-73. Eng. trans. in Flannery, ed., Vatican Council II, 100-136
<http://www.catholicliturgy.com/index.cfm/FuseAction/DocumentContents/Index/2/SubIndex/11/DocumentIndex /338 > [accessed 19 January 2013].
development in the understanding of the eucharistic sacrifice includes whether or not different interpretations of the Eucharist form lines of demarcation and, if so, how they complement each other. Are there unresolved issues? What problems remain to be clarified? How is the Eucharist understood as sacrifice, real presence and communion, and what is the interrelationship between these? I shall place these questions against the background of Vatican II as a whole and in its context of the modern world, and not only in the sixteen documents of the Council.
The Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) was convoked by Pope John XXIII. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council.195The aim of the Council was to renew the life of the Roman Catholic Church and bring up to date its teaching, discipline, and organization. The pope’s wish was that the Church would become greater in spiritual riches.196His main reason for convoking the Council was to render divine salvation accessible to contemporary humanity.197
The goal of Vatican II was an enrichment of faith and may be seen as a complement to the dogmatic Council of Trent (1545-1563) in placing the ecclesial centrality of the Eucharist as font and summit of the Church, and as strongly concerned with how to live the doctrines in daily life.198 A developed ecclesial theology199 gives new light to the nature of the Church as the mystery of Christ and as Sacrament. The Church is described as a “sacrament of unity”
195See Douglas Bushman’s General Introduction to The Sixteen Documents of Vatican II, xvx. “Theologically and canonically, an ecumenical council is a solemn exercise of the college of the bishop’s pastoral office in the universal Church when the council is convoked, presided over and confirmed by the Bishop of Rome.” (Cf. Lumen Gentium 22). See also xx. : “To the eyes of faith, the Council’s teachings are much more than a merely human attempt to bring the Church up to date. They are the work of the Spirit and a gift of God to the Church of today, containing ‘precisely all that the Spirit says to the churches (cf. Ap 2:29; 3:6; 13:22) with regard to the present phase of the history of salvation.”
196See John XXIII, "Address on the occasion of the solemn opening of the Most Holy Council (October 11, 1962)."
197See Message of His Holiness Benedict XVI on the Occasion of the International Congress on the theme
“The Second Vatican Council in the Pontificate of John Paul II,” the Vatican, 28 October 2008
<http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/pont-messages/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20081028_tasca_en.html> [accessed 3 August 2012].
198See Bushman, The Sixteen Documents of Vatican II, xxv.
199See citation in Address to the Holy Father John Pau II to the Conference Studying the Implementation of the Second Vatican Council, Sunday, 27 February 2000, "The Council, which has given us a rich ecclesiological doctrine, has organically linked its teaching about the Church with its teaching about man's vocation in Christ", 8
<http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/2000/jan-mar/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_20000227_vatican-council-ii_en.html> [accessed 3 August 2012].
(LG1) and as a “universal sacrament of salvation” (LG 48).200 The relation between the Church as community and the Eucharist as communion is found throughout the documents of Vatican II.201 The interrelationship between the Eucharist and the Church is very clear; for example, it is said in Lumen Gentium 3: “The Church, or, in other words, the kingdom of Christ now present in mystery, grows visibly through the power of God in the world. This inauguration and this growth are both symbolized by the blood and water which flowed from the open side of a crucified Jesus…”202 In this way, Vatican II reminds us that the celebration of the Eucharist is at the centre of the growth of the Church.
The post-conciliar Encyclical Letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia finds it significant that it was the Twelve, the Apostles, that were gathered at the Last Supper, for they “were both the seeds of the new Israel and the beginning of the sacred hierarchy.”203 By offering them his body and blood at the Last Supper, Christ “mysteriously involved them in the sacrifice which would be completed on Calvary.”204 This connects the Eucharist with the Last Supper. By analogy with the Old Covenant of Mount Sinai, which was “sealed by sacrifice and the sprinkling of blood,” the Last Supper is the foundation of the People of the New Covenant and the fulfilment of the Old Covenant.205 This is one way in which the magisterium of the Church establishes the close connection between the Eucharist and the Church as the New People of God.
The focus of this chapter is the place of the Eucharist in the ecclesiology of Vatican II and its interpretation in later texts of the Church. One way to understand the ecclesiology is to
200See also Avery Dulles, “Catholic Ecclesiology Since Vatican II,” Giuseppe Alberigo, and James Provost, eds, Eng. Lang. ed. Marcus Lefebvre, Concilium, Synod 1985: An Evaluation (Edinburgh: T&T Clark Ltd), 1986), 4.
201Gerardo J. Békés, O.S.B., “The Eucharist Makes the Church: The Ecclesial Dimension of the Sacrament”, in Latourelle (ed.), Vatican II: Assessment and Perspectives: Twenty-Five Years After (1962-1987), Vol.2 (Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1989), 347.
202Lumen Gentium, 3.
203Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 21.
204Ibid.
205Ibid.; Ex 24:8.
follow the suggestion that Ratzinger made as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) at the pastoral conference in Aversa (Italy) in 2001.206 He said that there are two main pillars to the understanding of ecclesiology since Vatican II. The first pillar is the Church as the Body of Christ, with the image as the Mystical Body. The second pillar is the Church as the People of God. Ratzinger comes to synthesize these as “one basic concept”, which is the ecclesiology of communion.207 Developing this concept further, Ratzinger refers back to the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops in 1985. This Synod aimed at evaluating and summing up the results of Vatican II twenty years after the end of the Council. Ratzinger said that even if the Council in itself does not use the word communion as a central point of reference, the synthesis arriving at the Synod was that the ecclesiology of communion might be seen as a synthesis of the Council.208 In his encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia John Paul II agrees with this analysis. He states that the “communio-ecclesiology” was the central and foundational idea of the documents of Vatican II.209 The origin both of Vatican II and its documents are, according to John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, the response of the Church to the initiative of the Holy Spirit. This response to the Holy Spirit was also expressed in Paul VI’s first encyclical On the Church (1964) Ecclesiam Suam (1964).210
206See Joseph Ratzinger, “Conference at the opening of the Pastoral Congress of the Diocese of Aversa (Italy)”
15 September 2001 in L’Osservatore Romano English edition no. 4 (23 January 2002), 5-8.
207See ibid. part III.
208See ibid., see also II, Extraordinary General Assembly, Final Report (25 November-8 December 1985), part C, The Church as communion, I. <http://www.saint-mike.org/library/synod_bishops/final_report1985.html>
[accessed 19 January 2013]. The meaning of communion: “The ecclesiology of communion is the central and fundamental idea of the Council’s documents. Koinonia/communion, founded on the Sacred Scripture, has been held in great honor in the early Church and in the Oriental Churches to this day. Thus, much was done by the Second Vatican Council so that the Church as communion might be more clearly understood and concretely incorporated into life.”
209See Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 34. See also Cf. Final Report, II.C.1: L’Osservatore Romano, 10 December 1985, 7; See Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 26.
210See Ecclesiam Suam, Pope Paul VI, August 6 1964
<http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_06081964_ecclesiam_en.html >
[accessed 19 January 2013].
The Liturgy of the Eucharist Introduced after Vatican II
The teaching of Vatican II is expressed in its sixteen documents. The Constitution of the Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium was promulgated on December 4, 1963 and the Novus Ordo Missae (new order of the Mass) on April 3, 1969,211 three days before the publication of the General Instruction on the Roman Missal (GIRM).212
According to the Second Vatican Council and the Catechism of the Catholic Church given by John Paul II 11 October 1992,213 the Mass is a unity consisting of the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist.214 I shall return to this complex unity in my later discussion of the interpretation of the sacrifice of the Mass as gift.215
The Eucharistic Liturgy can be described as consisting of four actions: Taking – Presentation of Gifts, Blessing – Eucharistic Prayer, Breaking – Fraction, and Giving – Communion.216The Mass is the Eucharistic sacrifice, the memorial of the Lord, over which the ordained priest presides and, at the consecration of the bread and wine, acts in the person of Christ.217The Sacramental presence of Christ is defined as being substantially and continuously present under the Eucharistic species during and after the celebration of the Eucharist.218 The
211Mazza, The Celebration of the Eucharist, 263, note 2. Continuity with the Tridentine Reform was ensured through dialogue with the preceding reform of the Missal (Missal of Pius V, 1570). From the latter there was taken over, as a heritage, the intention of returning to the ancient patristic norm: “In setting forth its decrees for the revision of the Order of the Mass, Vatican Council II directed, among other things, that some rites be restored ‘to the vigor they had in the tradition of the Fathers’”[…].
212See also Gerard Moore, Understanding the General Instruction of The Roman Missal (New York: Paulist Press, 2007).
213See Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), Pocket Edition (Stratfield, NSW: St. Pauls, 1994), 1346;
1349.
214Cf. Sacrosanctum Concilium, 56; Eucharisticum Mysterium, 25.
215For a deeper analysis, see John F. Baldovin, Reforming the Liturgy: A Response to the Crisis (Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2008), 149. “The priority of God’s action/gift in the liturgy is affirmed by the Christian theology of grace, which insists on God’s prior action in saving us.”
216See ibid., 146.
217 Cf. Presbyterorum Ordinis, 2 (priests, by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, are signed with a special character and are conformed to Christ the Priest in such a way that they can act in the person of Christ the Head);
13 (in the person of Christ as ministers of holy things, particularly in the Sacrifice of the Mass ); 5 (that being made sharers by special title in the priesthood of Christ, they might act as his ministers in performing sacred functions); Sacrosanctum Concilium, 33 (the priest who presides over the assembly in the person of Christ are said in the name of the entire holy people and of all present).
218 Cf. Sacrosanctum Concilium, 7; Mysterium Fidei, 35-39; Sacred Congregation of Rites, Eucharisticum Mysterium (Instruction on eucharistic worship) 25 May 1967, 9.
sacrifice of the Mass is considered, in Catholic teaching, as the place in which the sacrifice of the Cross is perpetuated.219
It is in the Eucharistic Prayer, after the epiclesis and the institution narrative, that the consecration is carried out and the sacrifice is made present.220It is the offering to the Father in the Holy Spirit of the Spotless Victim, the living and glorious body of Christ, resurrected and present under the species of bread and wine. The faithful “should also learn to offer themselves;
through Christ the Mediator,”221into unity with God and with each other, so that in the end God may be all in all.222The Eucharistic Celebration is the Paschal Banquet, the aim of which is the fruitful reception of Christ’s Body and Blood, has a “communitarian” nature. The Mass is highly important as it is, in the words of the liturgy, the work “through which our redemption is accomplished.”223 The essence of the Church is both human and divine224, and “Christ’s faithful, though not of this world are to be light of the world, and to glorify the Father before men.”225 “For the aim and object of apostolic work the baptized shall come together to praise God and take part in the sacrifice and take part in eating the Lord’s supper.”226“[T]he liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the font
219 Cf. Denzinger, 1940, Ecumenical council of Trent, Session 22, Doctrina de ss. Missae sacrificio, 17 September 1562, chapter 1; Paul VI, solemn Profession of Faith, 30 June 1968, 24.
220See United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Committee on the Liturgy, 9.The main elements of the Eucharistic Prayer are: (1) The thanksgiving, expressed especially in the Preface. (2) The acclamation, by which the whole congregation, joining with the heavenly powers, sings the Sanctus. (3) The epiclesis, in which, the Church implores the power of the Holy Spirit that the gifts offered by human hands be consecrated, and that the unblemished sacrificial Victim to be consumed in Communion may be for the salvation of those who will partake of it. (4) The institution narrative and consecration. 5) The anamnesis, by which the Church, fulfilling the command that she received from Christ the Lord through the Apostles, celebrates the memorial of Christ, recalling especially his blessed Passion, glorious Resurrection, and Ascension into heaven. (6) The oblation, by which, in this very memorial, the Church, in particular that gathered here and now, offers the unblemished sacrificial Victim in the Holy Spirit to the Father. (7) The intercessions, by which expression is given to the fact that the Eucharist is celebrated in communion with the whole Church. (8) The concluding doxology, by which the glorification of God is expressed and which is affirmed and concluded by the people’s acclamation Amen.
<http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/roman-missal/general-instruction-of-the-roman-missal/girm-chapter-2.cfm> [accessed 17 January 2013].
221Cf. Sacrosanctum Concilium, 48; Eucharisticum Mysterium, 25
222Cf. Sacrosanctum Concilium, 48; Presbyterorum Ordinis, 5. The last words are a quotation from 1 Cor 15:28.
223Sacrosanctum Concilium 2, note from the Secret prayer of the ninth Sunday after Pentecost.
224See ibid., 2.
225Ibid., 9.
226See ibid., 10.
from which all her power flows.”227
Vatican II: Sacrosanctum Concilium