Fr. Thomas M. Pastorius
August 17, 2014
Spiritual Ponderings
The Many Dimensions of the Eucharist

This month’s Spiritual Ponderings is pondering the source and summit of our faith life which is the great mystery of the Sacrament of the Eucharist. As we do this we turn to Fr. Ronald Rolheiser’s book: Our One Great Act of Fidelity: Waiting for Christ in the Eucharist because in the second part of his book, Fr. Rolheiser looks at the Eucharist from 12 different perspectives. The quotes from his book will be in bold and my personal commentary will be in the regular font.

6: The Eucharist as a Memorial of the Paschal Mystery
Once upon a time there was a rabbi who, whenever he wanted God’s presence, went to a special place in the woods, lit a fire, said some prayers and did a dance. Then God would appear to him. When he died, his disciple did the same. If he wanted God’s presence, he went to the same spot in the woods, lit the fire, and said the same prayers, but nobody had taught him the dance. It still worked. God appeared. When the disciple died, his own disciple carried on the tradition. If he wanted God’s presence, he went to the same spot in the woods and lit the fire. He didn’t know the prayers or the dance, but it still worked. God came. Then that disciple died. He also had a disciple. Whenever he wanted God’s presence, he, too went to the same place in the woods, but nobody had taught him how to light the fire or say the prayers or do the dance, but it still worked, God appeared. That disciple, too, eventually died, but he also had a pupil. One day his pupil wanted God’s presence. So he searched for the place in the woods, but couldn’t find it. And he didn’t know how to light the fire or say the prayers or do the dance. All he knew was how to tell the story. But it worked. He discovered that whenever he told the story of how the others had found God, God would appear… In essence, this story explains how sacred ritual—liturgy—works. Judaism calls this “making zikkaron.” Christians call it “making memorial.” The idea is that a past event can be remembered, ritually recalled, in such a way that it becomes present again and can be participated in. How is this possible? We have no models in physics, metaphysics, or psychology by which to explain this adequately. Like all ritual, it is beyond simple phenomenology. Ritual is best understood through metaphor, through story, as with the tale just told, God appears whenever certain stories are told.

When I think of my grandmother, who was a major role model and influence in my life, I like to recall things that we did together and surround myself with things that belonged to her. In doing this I somehow make her present to me. Fulton Sheen had this to say about the Eucharist: - “If then Death was the supreme moment for which Christ lived, it was therefore the one thing He wished to have remembered. He did not ask that men should write down His Words into a Scripture; He did not ask that His kindness to the poor should be recorded in history; but He did ask that men remember his Death. And in order that its memory might not be any haphazard narrative on the part of men, He himself instituted the precise way it should be recalled.”

7: The Eucharist as Reconciliation –as the New Wine.
Key to grasping the significance of this miracle is the particular jugs of water that got changed into wine. The water that Jesus changed into wine was not the drinking water but the wash water, the water used to ritually cleanse yourself when you entered a house. At the door of every Jewish house stood a series of water jugs, usually six of them, which were kept filled with water. Upon entering a house, you were obliged to first stop and wash your hands and feet, both because they were usually covered with dust and because you were ritually obliged to do this. By washing in this way, you made yourself “clean” so that you could join the household and sit at table with them. What Jesus does at Cana is change this water, used for cleansing, into wine. He replaces the old rite of cleansing with something new—the Eucharist.

The Mass has at least two parts that draw our attention to God’s mercy. The first being the Pentitential rite/sprinkling rite and the second being the Sign of Peace. In the Pentitential rite we do not so much confess our sins but rather we praise our God for being such a loving and merciful God. This is the God that I am called to imitate when I leave Church and so I should be a loving and merciful person. The sign of peace is an opportunity for me to turn to the person next to me and not catch up on the daily gossip but rather I turn to them and say “please before me a symbol of the person that I need to forgive the most in the world at the moment” so that I may tell them I am sorry before I go to the altar. Remember Mathew 5:23 & 24: “Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.”