Ecclesia de Eucharistia, Part 1

It has been a long while since a Church Document study has been featured on our blog.
Throughout the Church here in America much attention has recently been redirected to Pope St. John Paul II’s last encyclical: Ecclesia de Eucharistia. Let us reflect on some of the highlights from this magnificent encyclical.

This encyclical was given to the Church on Holy Thursday of 2003, during the Year of
the Rosary. St. John Paul II points out in the Introduction that he usually pens a Holy Thursday letter to bishops and priests; but in this 25th year of his pontificate he wishes to extend his reflections to all of the faithful. The Holy Father also mentions that he writes this encyclical in the context of the Year of the Rosary. In light of the Church renewing its practice of sitting in the “school of Mary” and gazing with her eyes on our Lord’s life, St. John Paul II wants us to pause before the “Eucharistic Face” of Jesus and rekindle our amazement at this great mystery.

Pietro Perugino's depiction of Mary at the Cross, 1482.

In Chapter 1: “Mystery of Faith”, we are reminded of the importance of the sacrificial element of the Eucharist. After all, this great Sacrament was instituted “...on the night he was betrayed” (1 Cor. 11:23) and it 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.” This is the great mystery of our Faith. In this Sacrament our Lord’s self-gift of perfect charity in His Passion and Death is proclaimed and “made present ever anew”.

Yet not only is the moment of His Passion and Death made present, but so too is His
glorious Resurrection. “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). The saving efficacy of the entire Paschal Mystery is “fully realized” when the faithful worthily receive our Lord’s Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

Let us close for now with the final paragraph of the encyclical’s first chapter:
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).