(RNS) — Liturgy is one of the topics to be discussed in Pope Leo XIV’s first extraordinary consistory, or meeting of cardinals called to advise the pope on particular topics, on Jan. 7-8.
I hope the cardinals will discuss something besides the Traditional Latin Mass, aka the pre-Vatican II Mass. For example, English-speaking cardinals should take this opportunity to call for a better translation of the liturgy. The easiest way to do this would be to authorize use of the 1998 ICEL sacramentary.
But the cardinals need to get beyond the translation wars and put a deeper understanding of the Eucharist at the top of the agenda. When discussing the Eucharist, they should avoid repeating the mistake made by U.S. bishops during the National Eucharistic Revival of focusing almost entirely on belief in Jesus’ real presence in the bread and wine while neglecting the Eucharist’s other meanings.
Too many Catholics, including bishops, think that the purpose of the Eucharist is to make Jesus present on the altar so we can adore him. There is nothing wrong with adoring Jesus in the consecrated bread, but that is not what the Eucharist is about. If you want to adore Jesus, don’t go to Mass, go to Benediction. The Eucharist is not the same as Benediction; it is much more.
This was the fundamental error in the U.S. bishops’ program of Eucharistic Revival, a three-year initiative launched in 2022 to renew faith in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Christ is truly present in the Eucharist not so we can adore him but so we can join him in worshipping the Father.
The Eucharistic Revival was initiated in response to a 2019 Pew Research Center survey showing that only about a third of Catholics believed in transubstantiation — that the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ during Mass. These results were later questioned by a 2022 study by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. Using different questions, CARA found that almost two-thirds of Catholics believe that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist.
What is the Eucharist about?
In the Eucharist, we join Jesus in giving thanks and praise to God the Father and call on the Spirit to transform us into a community, the body of Christ continuing the mission of Jesus in our world today.
The heart of the Eucharist is the Eucharistic prayer, which is modeled on the Passover prayer that would have been said by Jesus at the Last Supper.
In the Passover prayer, Jews remember and give thanks and praise to God for his actions on their behalf, beginning with creation and progressing through history, especially focusing on his liberation of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt.
Likewise, in the Eucharistic prayer Christians remember and give thanks and praise to God for his actions on our behalf, beginning with creation and progressing through history, but Christians continue by giving thanks to God for sending his son, Jesus, for the salvation of the world.
The Eucharistic prayer is addressed to God the Father, not to Jesus. We pray “through him, with him and in him” but not to him.
Making the consecration the principal focus of the Eucharist distracts from what the Eucharist is about. The story of the Last Supper is part of the entire story of God’s actions in the world for which we are giving thanks and praise to God. This is why liturgists prefer to refer to it as the “institutional narrative” rather than the “consecration.”
The institutional narrative should be seen as part of all this remembering, not simply as a “magic moment” when Christ becomes present in the bread and wine. It is worth noting that the ancient Eucharistic Prayer of Addai and Mari does not have an institutional narrative and yet it was affirmed as legitimate by Pope John Paul II.
After we remember the Last Supper, we continue by remembering the suffering, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus.
After all this remembering, the Eucharistic prayer goes on to offer Jesus as the perfect sacrifice to God.
In Eucharistic Prayer II, the priest prays, “we offer you, Lord, the Bread of Life and the Chalice of salvation.” In Eucharistic Prayer III, he says, “Look, we pray, upon the oblation of your Church … the sacrificial Victim by whose death you willed to reconcile us to yourself.”
Sadly, in most Eucharistic prayers, this offering is expressed in only a few words. And if the priest says it too quickly, most in the congregation will not even notice it.
Finally, the Eucharistic prayer calls down the Spirit so that those who receive the body and blood of Christ might be transformed into a community that continues the work of Christ in the world.
In Eucharistic Prayer II, the priest prays, “Humbly, we pray that, partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ, we may be gathered into one by the Holy Spirit.” It continues to pray that God bring the church “to the fullness of charity.”
Likewise in Eucharistic Prayer III, the priest prays, “grant that we, who are nourished by the Body and Blood of your son and filled with his Holy Spirit, may become one body, one spirit in Christ.”
Eucharistic Prayer for Reconciliation II fleshes out this prayer more completely: graciously “endow us with his very Spirit, who takes away everything that estranges us from one another. May he make your Church a sign of unity and an instrument of your peace among all people.”
Sadly, too many Catholics think the Eucharistic prayer is the priest’s prayer and don’t pay attention to what is prayed. This impression is reinforced by too many priests who rush through the Eucharistic prayer in a monotone as if the words don’t matter.
When the priest prays the Eucharistic prayer, he uses the first-person plural: we, us, our. This is not the royal “we”; rather, it symbolizes that he is saying the prayer in the name of all in the congregation. It is “our” prayer, not simply the priest’s prayer.
A careful reading of the Eucharistic prayers (12 have been approved for use by the church) shows that the purpose of the Eucharist is not to adore Jesus. It is not Benediction.
In the Eucharist, we remember God’s loving actions toward us, especially the sending of his Son. We unite ourselves with Jesus’ sacrificial love of the Father and we pray that we might be transformed by receiving the body and blood of Christ. As St. Augustine would say, “May we become what we receive.”
This richer understanding of the Eucharist should be discussed at the extraordinary consistory.