The Effective Sign of the Divine in History

John Paul II The Year of the Eucharist

The Effective Sign
of the Divine in History
The Pope called for the Year of the Eucharist in order to re-propose the centrality of this sacrament in the lives of Christians. “Every Mass, even when celebrated in hiding in a remote region of the world, always bears the sign of universality”

by Laura Cioni

Pope John Paul II’s apostolic letter Mane nobiscum Domine, published October 7, 2004, announcing the opening of the Year of the Eucharist, combines Peter’s firmness with John’s tenderness. Aware of the inevitable organizational aspects connected with all great social manifestations, as well as of their educative value, the Pope again and again refers to the interior character of the event he is promoting and asks pastors and people to participate in the planned initiatives aimed at deepening the faith. The Year of the Eucharist began with the Eucharistic Congress in Guadalajara in October 2004 and will end with the Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in Rome, October 2005.

The Pope asks Christians to make their own the reasons that led him to proclaim this year dedicated to the rediscovery of the Eucharist, and he does it by retracing the steps of the pastoral impulse he wanted to give the Church over the past ten years. He situates the Year of the Eucharist in the course that began with the preparation for the Jubilee in 2000, linked with the recuperation of the value of Sunday as the Lord’s Day, the successive stress on the supremacy of the art of prayer over every other activity of Christians in the world affirmed in the apostolic letter Novo millennio ineunte, with the proclamation of the Year of the Rosary, and finally with the promulgation of the encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia. So it is clear that the year dedicated to the Eucharist is situated as the summit of a pastoral journey pivoted on Christ as its center, which the Pontiff very much wanted and has proved to be bearing more fruit year after year.

The primacy of Christ
One page of the apostolic letter Novo millennio ineunte reveals the Pope’s intention clearly: “We commit ourselves more confidently to a pastoral activity that gives personal and communal prayer its proper place; we shall be observing an essential principle of the Christian view of life: the primacy of grace. There is a temptation which perennially besets every spiritual journey and pastoral work: that of thinking that the results depend on our ability to act and to plan. (…) It is prayer which roots us in this truth. It constantly reminds us of the primacy of Christ and, in union with Him, the primacy of the interior life and of holiness (…) allow the Successor of Peter to invite the whole Church to make this act of faith.”

So, in this Year of the Eucharist, in the organizational efforts of the various events, the Pope asks no more of us than to rediscover the vital center of the Church’s activity, which is precisely the mystery of Christ’s presence beneath the “veil” of the Eucharistic Sacrament. What is needed is not the planning of extraordinary events, which can interfere with the pastoral programs of the individual churches, but all the initiatives already planned should be enlightened by greater interiority. “If the only result of this Year were the revival in all Christian communities of the celebration of Sunday Mass and an increase in Eucharistic worship outside Mass, this Year of Grace would be abundantly successful,” John Paul II writes at the end of the letter, and he adds, “At the same time, it is good to aim high, and not to be content with mediocrity, since we know we can always count on God’s help.” From the prudence and daring of Peter, “the Rock,” he passes to the Johannine recommendation that the Church fix its eyes on Jesus, light of the world. He does not hide the fact that in the Eucharist this light is veiled and that the Sacrament of the Eucharist is pre-eminently a mystery of faith. He says that, precisely through His total hiddenness, Christ becomes a mystery of light, thanks to which believers are led to the depths of the divine life. Suggestively, he refers to Rublëv’s icon of the Trinity, letting art, as it were, indicate what words cannot express.

The disciples
of Emmaus
Every human expression is inadequate for defining the unfathomable Mystery. Biblical wisdom knows this and confesses humbly, “Truly, God of Israel, the Savior, You are a God who lies hidden,” and among the many voices that echo this is that of Thomas Aquinas, the great philosopher so devoted to the Eucharist. “I adore you devoutly, hidden divinity, who truly hide Yourself beneath these signs [Adoro te devote, latens deitas, quae sub his figuris vere latitas],” thus showing that the summit of human reflection lies in the affective silence of adoration, not as its defeat, but as its fulfillment.
The whole letter traces the experience of the disciples of Emmaus. “Amid the shadows of the passing day and the darkness that clouded their spirit, (…) amid our questions and difficulties, and even our bitter disappointments”–so John Paul II describes the condition in which we all live–a mysterious Wayfarer joins us, illumines with His word the mystery of God, He grants the prayer of those who want the ardor of those moments of intimacy to last forever, and reveals Himself in the daily, sublime act of the breaking of bread. “Stay with us, Lord,” an inevitable request for those who have tasted the sweetness of Christ, a request to which the Lord responds with the grace of his friendship. The memory of the evening at Emmaus echoes down the centuries, in a mutual affection that the power of the Risen Lord makes possible and that the Church expresses in its most beautiful songs. “Stay with us, Lord, and illumine us with your light, drive away the darkness of our minds and fill the world with sweetness.” The Pope recalls this companionship that embraces the world: “Every Mass, even when celebrated in hiding in a remote region of the world, always bears the sign of universality.”

Christian presence in the world
Certainly, it is a great mystery. This otherwise unimaginable offer of communion of God with man, the sacrifice that Christ made of Himself and the hope of His return, are dimensions that “come together in one aspect which more than any other makes a demand on our faith: the mystery of the ‘real’ presence. With the entire tradition of the Church, we believe that Jesus is truly present under the Eucharistic species. Faith demands that we approach the Eucharist fully aware that we are approaching Christ Himself. (…) The Eucharist is a mystery of presence, the perfect fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to remain with us until the end of the world.”
The veil of the sacrament suggests interior strength and the plan for the mission. This is a mode of being which spreads into society and culture. So it is in gratitude, in peace, and in attention for the person that John Paul II indicates the mode that the mystery of the Eucharist suggests for Christian presence in the world. This clarity enables him to affirm, “This transcendent point of reference (…) in no way detracts from the legitimate autonomy of earthly realities, but grounds that autonomy more firmly by setting it within its proper limits. (…) It is a mistake to think that any public reference to faith will somehow undermine the rightful autonomy of the State and civil institutions, or that it can even encourage attitudes of intolerance. If history demonstrates that mistakes have also been made in this area by believers, (…) this must be attributed not to ‘Christian roots,’ but to the failure of Christians to be faithful to those roots.”