Gathering for
Sunday Eucharist

In Catholic periodical literature, there is much to think about during this Year of the Eucharist. The purpose of the year is to offer the opportunity to reflect on the importance of the Eucharist, to inspire greater devotion, and, hopefully, to increase our “full and active participation” in the liturgy.

As someone who has studied the liturgy for most of my seminary days, and the whole of my priesthood, the current Eucharistic conversation is interesting. Beginning with the first document of the Second Vatican Council, The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, most of our memories are of the excitement and energy for the renewed and reformed liturgy. Over forty years has passed since that document and many documents have followed. These have been refined, rewritten, and now we seem to be in a time of reassessment of our Eucharistic theology and resulting practice.

In much of the writing and renewed interest in devotion, we can find a goodly touch of nostalgia. As one nurtured in my childhood with the Latin Mass and with participation mostly through the singing of vernacular hymns, much of the longing is for a church-that-never-was. The liturgy was devotional, for often enough the faithful were separated from the liturgical actions. I have often remarked that as a child I was very competent to handle both rosary and Latin hand missal at the same time!

How well I remember the evenings of novenas, sodality meetings, Stations of the Cross along with the Exposition and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. I do not at all discount my years as an altarboy with incense, candles, the glittering monstrance, and the soft romantic glow of the sanctuary lights. In those days we were moved to devotion and piety. We were moved to faith and the Lord showed himself in the community of the Church.

Renewed and Reformed

Then came 1964 and we began to hear English more and more. We began to sing new songs, a little closer to our cultural mode of expression. We learned the word “vernacular”, which we translated as “English”, while in fact throughout the world the Church discovered how to pray in the language of the people. The songs, while not the most elegant and sophisticated, were the beginning steps of a Church trying to create new ways of looking for and finding God-with-us.

We stumbled through various experiments and reforms and, little by little, the Church came to express itself with renewed liturgical books. There was something organic and wonderful about the experience. The liturgy, as its Greek roots indicate, is the “work of the people." In a broader sense, it was the “energy of the people.” At least, the Church in the United States began to be renewed in many liturgical ways.

We learned through experience about lay ministry and the collegial nature of the Church. We were moved by scriptural renewal so that we could better proclaim God’s Word and better understand. We searched out new musical sounds and we formed new artistic and architectural shapes for our worshipping communities.

Consistent Presence

Earlier on in the documents of the Church and throughout most of our forty years of liturgical renewal, we found a way to express the Presence of Christ in the Eucharistic community. In instructional models we heard about the fivefold Presence of Christ in the Eucharist:

– in the gathering community
– in the Word proclaimed and
heard
– in the bread and wine of the
Lord’s Table
– in the ministry of the priest-
presider
– and finally in the Sacrament
reserved for the sick and dying,
and for the adoration of the
faithful.

Christ was present through a vibrant and dynamic liturgy Assembly.

Sunday Liturgy

Parishes across the country rediscovered Sunday morning. The Lord’s Day was given new emphasis: we celebrated who and what we were, the Body of Christ, once dead now risen from the dead. Sunday became the day that one could see the action of the Father in Christ among us. The Church gathered. All kinds of ministers gave visual and physical presence to God’s Word and action among us. We ate and drank at the Lord’s Table. We were gathered by the priest whose minsitry it was to call us together in Christ.

From within this Assembly the Eucharist was shared with the sick and the dying. And through it all, the reserved Eucharist continued to be the sign of the Presence of God in Christ with his People.

Such was the richness of the Eucharist which we discovered and for which we can give thanks to God.

Exposition and Benediction

Much of the writing and the conversation in these days is about devotion. One reads of longing for the days of Eucharistic Exposition and Benediction. While one can hardly be against the devotion and adoration of spending time with the Lord, one need not discount the vibrant and wonderful Eucharistic life which is our’s since Vatican II.

Sunday continues to be a wonderful blessing where we celebrate the Word of God and where we encounter the Lord among us at his Table. While a Year of the Eucharist is wonderful thing, we are blessed each and every Sunday where the Lord gathers us around his Eucharistic Table.

CDH