The Eucharist - The Christian Identity
Behold the Lamb of GOD
In our attempts to see how far Vatican II teaching influences our celebration of the Eucharist, we now turn to our self-image as Christians. Eucharist, as also all things spiritual, has to deal mainly with God and ourselves and so, our understanding of both these needs to be on the same wave-length.
posted by Neil @ 10:58 PM
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The Eucharist - The Christian Identity
by Fr. Erasto Fernandez
In our attempts to see how far Vatican II teaching influences our celebration of the Eucharist, we now turn to our self-image as Christians. Eucharist, as also all things spiritual, has to deal mainly with God and ourselves and so, our understanding of both these needs to be on the same wave-length.
Who is a Christian?
As we look at the persons Jesus called to be his disciples, we notice that he chose very simple ordinary folk. A good example would be Levi who was actually a tax-collector, belonging to a group that was despised and hated by the Jews in general. Peter when called immediately acknowledged himself to be a sinner - yet Jesus persisted in calling him and even changed his name to Peter, giving him a new identity.
Those who leave everything (their old sinful way of life) to follow Christ, join the bridegroom in a fellowship and solidarity of rejoicing. As Christ's followers, they are on a different plane altogether: no longer outcasts or slaves, they belong to the household as children. They certainly would have periods of 'fasting' (suffering, adversity, disappointment and the like) but these are simply stepping stones to glory, the direct consequences of their choice to accept the invitation to be guests at the wedding of the Son. Their fasting is certainly not a plea to obtain God's forgiveness, made in gloomy and slavish obedience to a law. Even as they fast, they rejoice - 'pour oil on your head and wash your face,' because they know they have been forgiven. This is the "Good News" that Jesus has come to announce. The Christian way of life is a way of rejoicing amidst sorrow. Elsewhere, Jesus compares the Christian life to a woman in travail - caught up in pain, yet deeply rejoicing. This joy, Jesus assures us, is profound and permanent; no one will ever take it away from us.
This then is the image (paradigm) of Christian living as Jesus taught it: we are called as sinners, but are forgiven the moment we genuinely acknowledge our sinfulness and accept God's invitation to share life with him. This acceptance is not possible without repentance - a thorough, radical and personal change of mind and attitude, as also of life-style in keeping with our new dignity as God's children. Re-instated as sons and daughters, we are ushered into the Kingdom, to celebrate the wedding feast of the Lamb. As long as we are one with Christ and do not foolishly choose to go away from the Father's house again, we belong to the Kingdom because the Father, in his gracious love, has gifted it to us and no one can take it away. Our habitual stance towards life is one of joy.
Even at, and especially at, the Eucharist then, the greatest challenge before us is to keep the contrasting elements in balance: joy, festivity, the thrill of being and belonging to the household of God, with the existential and realistic awareness of our painful limitations and sinfulness. It calls for a real conviction that when we sincerely follow the Lord with our hearts clearly set on the kingdom, all the rest will be granted to us - not just material blessings, but the Kingdom itself and its covenantal relationship with God. In practice, the presence or absence of material blessings makes no difference to the Christian, because unlike the Jews, his closeness to the Father is no longer measured in terms of these visible blessings and gifts. So, we can celebrate even with a tiny piece of bread (only five loaves and two fish were available at the feeding of the five thousand) and a few drops of wine because a deep peace and joy pervade our lives as God's children and we can live in harmony with the whole of creation. In fact, it is this kind of ambivalence that keeps us reminded that our earthly Eucharist will always be stamped with the Cross, with real want and suffering - and so we cry out even as we celebrate: Marana tha - 'Come, Lord Jesus' (1 Cor. 16:22). The fullness of his joy and peace await us at the completion of the Kingdom.
If our Christian lives today are characterized by a morose and fatalistic sense of being overwhelmed by sin, by a plethora of novenas and other devotions, all aimed at obtaining forgiveness for which we plead like forlorn outcastes, by our frantic efforts to secure ourselves against "God's wrath" - could it be that we have not really heard the Good News of Jesus yet, that we do not yet feel secure in the Father's unconditional love of us? Or should we say that having tasted the old wine, we just refuse to accept the new wine of Jesus and store it in totally new skins?
Christian Identity versus Jewish Identity
We will appreciate our identity as Christians only when we compare and contrast it with the Jewish identity. We find that both have the same material components, but the treatment or 'form' is radically different. We need to see this clearly especially in order to appreciate the difference this makes as regards Christian worship.
Israel was called out of Egypt and given possession of a new land, the Promised Land. This was given purely as a gift: never were they to consider themselves as owners of the land. "I shall be your God and you shall be My people." The giftedness of the land had to be acknowledged and remembered especially through the annual offering of the first-fruits. Further, this dispossession (not being owners of the land) would be possible only if every generation of Israel remembered its origins, especially the time of their desert wandering when they had absolutely nothing to call their own. In the desert they depended for their sustenance entirely on the manna that God provided each day. So, it is only in reversing the pagan state of affairs in which they (the gentiles) possessed the land as if they were the owners, that Israel could be God's special people and accept God's gift of the Promised Land. Israel possessed this land, and thus 'possessed' God, but always as if not possessing it. The offering of the first-fruits through which they returned their all to God, or let themselves be possessed by God, as it were, involves the essence of Israel's very identity as God's Chosen People.
Now the Christian too follows the same dynamic or pattern. He too was an alien on this earth, exiled from heavenly intimacy with God through sin. But in Christ, God called him into the new and everlasting Covenant and made him citizen and heir of the heavenly kingdom. He too will have to often remember God's gift of the Kingdom in Christ and return thanks for this gratuitous gift of the Father. That is as far as the similarity goes.
The difference in identity between the Jew and the Christian is seen most clearly in the "object" [the 'what'] that is given by God. In the case of the Jews, it was the land stamped with the seal of the Law, whereas for the Christian it is Jesus, the Christ, marked by the Father with the seal of the Spirit. Here, what God gratuitously gives is the very Grace [life] of God, or better still, "God revealing God fully as grace, in the gift of Self" made by his own Son Jesus, a gift actualized by the Spirit.
Now, this difference in the two objects is not just one of intensity or degree. It rather indicates something radically different, pertaining to the very root of the offered gift and thus to the very relationship between God and humanity. The key to this difference is not to be sought in the moral order [right or wrong], but in the theological [human or divine]. It concerns not human generosity but God's own generosity. If the offered gift is none other than the Spirit, [the fulfillment of the promise of the new covenant, the self-gift of God himself to humanity], then through the acceptance of this very gift Christians are in communion with God; to enter into communion of life with God they do not have to fulfill the works of the Law, but simply to welcome in their daily lives the very gift of God, which is the Spirit of the Risen Lord. This Spirit will transform and sanctify their lives; they become a spiritual worship, a spiritual sacrifice, offered in thanksgiving to the glory of God. Thus, to take one simple example: both the Christian and the Jew spend time in prayer; the Jew would do this in order to gain intimacy with God, while for the Christian it is rather an expression of the intimacy he already has with the Father. And the same can be said of every aspect of our lives.
It is worth noting, however, that while this difference is crucial, it is also so close and subtle, that it can easily be missed. It was this that Paul was struggling with in his dealings with the Galatians (Gal. 3:1) and with the leaders in the early Church (Acts 15). As Louis-Marie Chauvet puts it: "The Christian difference is never as clearly perceived as in its nearness to Jewish identity. Then it probably finds its most appropriate qualification: the difference is eschatological."
Conclusion
Some weighty consequences follow from this understanding of the true Christian identity.
Whereas the Jews sought to separate themselves from the 'profane' in their attempts to draw closer to God, the Christian is called to sanctify the profane by bringing the intimacy with God he possesses to all things he deals with. In this he follows the principle of the Incarnation itself - nothing human is alien to or distant from God and hence is not to be shunned as defiling us or rendering us unworthy of God. Redemption envelops the whole of creation.
The primary 'place' of Christian worship is the ethics of daily living sanctified by the theological virtues of faith, hope and love. Christians have a new 'priesthood' in charge of offering worship as a 'spiritual worship' - the entire new People of God belong to this priesthood.
The function of minister is not totally abolished, but this function is of an entirely different order from that of the Jewish priest. Now for the Christian, there is only one mediator, Christ, whose priesthood is permanent and of a superior order. The Christian priest is no more an intermediary, but his role is to make sacramentally present the unique mediation of Christ in whose name he presides.
Christianity does not end up becoming 'de-sacralized.' Sacred expressions still have a place, especially in liturgical worship. Faith modifies the sacred but in a significantly different manner. In pagan religions, the manifestation of God was done mainly through the "seeing" mode through contemplating God in the cosmos. In the Jewish religion, the revelation of God was done through history, in a "hearing" mode. For Israel God has no face, and hence no 'images' of him could be fashioned. He was discerned through his 'word' that had to be obeyed. While Christianity does not neglect or reject these two, it moves further to the "living" mode: people and their ordinary lives now become the 'place' where God reveals himself. The most spiritual is given in the most bodily - a point that is brought out by the use of earthy elements like water, bread, wine and so on in the liturgy. As Paul put it: "You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all; and you show that you are a letter of Christ prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts" (2 Cor. 3:2-3).
How best can be bring out the new identity that Jesus offers us, especially in the Eucharist? The fact that the difference between Jew and Christian is 'eschatological' simply means that the Christian 'already' enjoys intimacy with God, 'but not yet' in the fullest possible measure. While acknowledging that a lot more needs to be done, we should not forget what we already have - and that seems to be our biggest challenge: to live what we are already.
"Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to grant you the kingdom" (Lk. 12:32)
Excellent piece....for more than 1 reading....
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