Eucharist as charity
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In his new apostolic exhortation, "Sacramentum Caritatis" ("Sacrament of Charity"), Pope Benedict XVI has written three letters within one. In this profound and lengthy meditation on the Eucharist and its significance for Catholics, Pope Benedict combines an exhortation to the general faithful on the centrality of the Eucharist in Catholic life, an instruction to priests to elevate the Eucharist in terms of dignity and beauty and an appeal to bishops to consider changes to enhance the role of the Eucharist in Catholic life.
This division of audiences reflects to a certain extent the challenges of creating a postsynodal apostolic exhortation. This communication grows out of the lengthy series of recommendations that bishops offer to the pope at the end of a synod, or worldwide meeting. In this case, it stems from the bishops' synod on the Eucharist in 2005 that ended the Year of the Eucharist.
It is the pope's task to weave these recommendations into a final, coherent document. This Pope Benedict has done with great skill. "Sacrament of Charity" is first and foremost a catechesis regarding the Eucharist. The pope is aware that Catholic religious practice is waning in developed countries. While weekly Mass attendance in the United States is drifting downward from 50 percent, weekly attendance in Europe has been in freefall - below 10 percent in many urban areas in France, Germany, Ireland and Spain.
The challenge facing the church in the West is one of conversion and catechesis. There must be a conversion of heart in the face of the great temptations of the world, and then there must be education in the faith in a way that interiorizes and deepens that conversion. Pope Benedict's catechesis includes suggestions to help Catholics deepen their Eucharist faith.
- For the laity, he encourages the use of the sacrament of reconciliation. He reminds Catholics of the obligation to attend Mass. He endorses eucharistic adoration and other devotions. He urges Catholics to pray the Liturgy of the Hours.
- He also reminds us of the communion with God and with our fellows signified by the Eucharist. At times, this communion is broken, and he addresses such issues as those in a state of serious sin, the divorced and remarried, non-Catholics and those Catholic public officials who do not accept the teachings of the church, among others.
- For priests, he emphasizes the beauty of the liturgy, from the music to the manner of proclamation to the quality of the homilies to the vestments and vessels. "Beauty is not mere decoration, but rather an essential element of the liturgical action, since it is an attribute of God himself," he notes.
The exhortation ends with a recollection of early Christian martyrs who died because they "could not live" without the sacrament.
Perhaps the current decline in priests and seminarians and the impact that will soon have on our own access to the Eucharist will cause us to more fully appreciate the sacrament. "Sacrament of Charity" may be one way of preparing us for our own time of trial. We must pray that we are worthy of the challenge.
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