Synod of Bishops Eucharist

Jesus Christ PRESENT
IN HISTORY toDAY
Here are two extracts from the introduction and the conclusion of the “Relation ante disceptationem” of the Relator General, Angelo Cardinal Scola, Patriarch of Venice, October 3, 2005

Introduction - Eucharist: the freedom of God
encounters the freedom
of man
When they celebrate the Eucharist, “the faithful can relive in some way the experience of the two disciples of Emmaus: ‘and their eyes opened and they recognized Him’ (Lk 24:31)”1. This is why John Paul II asserts that the Eucharistic action incites amazement2. Amazement is the immediate answer of man to the reality calling upon him. It expresses the recognition that reality is a friend to him, it is a positive that encounters his constitutive expectations. Saint Paul, writing to the Romans, explains the reason for this: reality safeguards the good plan of the Creator, to such a point that the Apostle could say of men “who in their injustice hold back the truth,” who “have no excuse” because “for what can be known about God is perfectly plain to them”–because “ever since the creation of the world, the invisible existence of God and His everlasting power have been clearly seen by the mind’s understanding of created things”–“they knew God and yet they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him” (cf., Rom 1:19-21).
Uncertainty and fear, instead, can come into it at a later time in the experience of man when, because of the finite and evil, fear makes its way within him and the positivity of reality does not remain. Thus, on one hand, Eucharistic action, like the rest of entire Christianity inasmuch as source of amazement3, is inscribed in human experience as such. However, on the other hand, this is manifested as an unexpected and completely free event. In the Eucharist, God’s Plan is a plan of love revealed. In this, the Deus Trinitas, which in itself is love (cf., 1 Jn 4:7-8), lowers into the given Body and Blood poured by Jesus Christ, becoming food and drink that nurture man’s life (cf., Lk 22:14-20; 1 Cor 11:23-26).
Like the two of Emmaus, regenerated by Eucharistic amazement, they took up their path again (cf., Lk 24:32-33), thus, the people of God, abandoning themselves to the force of the sacrament, is urged to share the history of all men. […]
Why is the Eucharist, the fascinating heart of the life of the people of God, destined to bring the salvation of all of humanity? Because it reveals and makes present today the history of Jesus Christ as the achieved meaning of human existence in all of its personal and communal dimensions4, and documents it on an anthropological, cosmological, and social level. […] In the Eucharist, Jesus truly becomes the Way to the Truth that gives Life (cf., Jn 14:6)5. In this, the Church, personal and social reality at the same time, concretely becomes a people of peoples, that admirable sui generis ethnic entity Paul VI spoke of 6.

Conclusion - Eucharistic existence in
contemporary trials
In the encounter with freedom that liturgical action favors, for two thousand years the experience of amazement has been renewed for man by the Eucharistic Rite, with particular intensity. In the practice of the rite itself, in the lowering of the risen Son who died on the cross and is risen, and through the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Father shows Himself, gives Himself, and expresses Himself to man. […]
Christians are urged toward a radical commitment for social justice and the achievement of peace above all in these uniquely troubled times in which all cultural areas in the world find themselves. The Christian, living his own communitarian existence in a Eucharistic form, becomes a tireless proclaimer and witness of Jesus Christ and of His Gospel in all fields of human existence: from the local district to the school, to the workplace, to the world of culture, of economics, of politics, of social communications, etc.
Christian communities, Eucharistically founded, become the place in which every individual can experience that the following of Christ opens to eternal life, offering, already from within history, the hundredfold (cf., Mt 19: 29). Women and men from all classes, races, and cultures may at any time in their lives meet other men and women, Christians, who, due to their Eucharistic existence, propose themselves as discreet companions on a path of freedom.

Notes:
1. John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 6.
2. Cf. ibid., 5-6.
3. Cf. John Paul II, Redemptor hominis, 10.
4. Cf. Missale Romanum, Oratio Post Communionem, I Dominica Adventus.
5. Cf. Augustine, Comment on the Gospel of John, 69, 2.
6. “Where is the ‘People of God’ of which so much has been spoken, and still spoken of; where is it? This sui generis ethnic entity which is distinguished and is qualified by its religious or messianic character (priestly and prophetic, if you will), that converges toward Christ, as its focal point, and which derives everything from Christ? How is it made up? How is it characterized? How is it organized? How does it carry out its ideal bracing mission in society in which it is immersed? Well, we know that the people of God now, historically, has a name familiar to all; it is the Church.” Paul VI, General Audience, July 23, 1975.