92 (2022) nr 2, 131–148
czasopisma.uksw.edu.pl/index.php/ct
DOI: http://doi.org/10.21697/ct.2022.92.2.06
Krzysztof Góźdź
The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin
ORCID 0000-0002-8020-1675
The Mystery of the Eucharist in the Theology
of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI1
Abstract: One will encounter views that there was no Supper of the Lord with His
disciples, with the character of a religious and soteriological mystery, and that it
only had the character of a simple supper or at most a mere Old Testament ritual.
This position is ahistorical and anti-mysterial, and thus Arian and even secularist. On
the other hand, there are frequent attempts to confine the Eucharist to the private
sphere of life of the believers. The article shows that Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict
XVI strongly challenges such views. For him, the Eucharist is not only the heart of
his humble life and a theme of his extraordinary theological thought but also the
central event, as well as the summary (ἀνακεϕαλαιώσις: cf. Eph 1:10) of the entire
history and of all creation, which tends towards union with God. Joseph Ratzinger/
Benedict XVI argues that in the Eucharist the integral Christ is present, with His whole
Person, historical and at the same time glorified, and with Him the entire Holy Trinity.
Such an understanding of the Eucharist has important consequences for the faith
and social commitment of the contemporary Church.
Keywords: Jesus Christ, Eucharist, thanksgiving, Passover, resurrection, bread and
wine
oseph Ratzinger starts from the conciliar understanding of the
Eucharist as the source and summit of Christian life (LG 11).
What this dogmatic expression expresses, to put it briefly, is that
the Eucharist is the Sacrament of Love. This means the gift that
Jesus Christ makes of himself by revealing God’s infinite love for
each person. This gift, revealed in its fullness in the sacrifice of
J
Funding information: The article is a part of the project funded by the Ministry
of Education and Science, Republic of Poland, “Regional Initiative of Excellence”
in 2019–2022, 028/RID/2018/19, the amount of funding: 11,742,500 PLN.
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Krzysztof Góźdź
the Cross, continues in the sacrament of the Eucharist, in which the
Lord becomes sustenance for man, who thirsts for truth and freedom.
This is why the Church, who celebrates the Eucharist, invites man to
receive this gift of God’s love, His agape. This mystery is expressed
in faith, in celebration and in Christian life.
For Ratzinger, the Eucharist is also the central event and summary
of all history and of all creation that strives for union with God. It is
about man’s history with God, which centers around the Lord’s words:
“Take, this is my body […] This is my blood of the covenant, which
will be poured out for many” (Mark 14:22.24). From the moment
Jesus chose bread and wine as signs of His presence among us, He
gives himself to believers in these signs as the Risen One. Thus, the
Eucharist is Christ’s Passover, the Sacrifice of the New and Eternal
Covenant, the sacrificial feast, the bloodless sacrifice of the Cross and
the pulsating heart of the Church and the sacrament of the Church’s
unity. The theology of the Eucharist thus reveals its three fundamental
dimensions: ecclesial, spiritual and liturgical.
The present article is not intended to delve into anti-Eucharistic
concepts, which can be multiplied even further. For this would not
only obscure the Mystery of the Eucharist, which must be brought
out in the theological thought of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI
but would also shatter the whole reality of Christian liturgy. The
very authority of one of the greatest theologians of the turn of the
century, who Benedict XVI certainly is, provides an objective defense
against these views and a positive interpretation of the whole truth
about the Eucharistic Mystery, which expresses the “love of God for
man” (φιλανθρωπία, humanitas Dei: Titus 2:11). For the German
Pope-Theologian it is certain that the Eucharist constitutes the real
and true sacrifice of the New Covenant, that in the Eucharist Jesus
Christ is present as historical and as heavenly, as incarnate and as
paschal, in Humanity and Divinity, in one and the same Person.
Through the Eucharist, Christianity is also intrinsically sacrificial
and liturgical, and the Church is a sacrifice-offerer and sacrificial
victim for humanity and on behalf of humanity. Thus, the Eucharist is
not the private sphere of the believer, but is the offering of the whole
Church, in which the one and the same sacrificial act of Christ and
of priests and faithful is fulfilled.
The Mystery of the Eucharist
The state of research on the Eucharist in the thought of Joseph
Ratzinger/Benedict XVI is not very extensive in Poland. They are
mostly contributions, which took into account individual texts of
Ratzinger as a professor and based on them there were numerous
references to the Eucharist, e.g., in ecclesiology, liturgy, spirituality,
dogmatic and moral theology. These were based on a collection
of texts published by Ratzinger’s disciples, Stephan O. Horn and
Vinzenz Pfnür, entitled, Gott ist uns nah. Eucharistie: Mitte des
Lebens, Augsburg 2002 (Polish: Eucharystia. Bóg blisko nas, Kraków
2002). It is only the Polish edition of Joseph Ratzinger’s Opera omnia
(22 volumes have been published so far) which opened a wide field of
research not only for theologians, but also for philosophers, historians
and even political scientists. Interest in the Eucharist, however, has
remained rather limited. As an example, let us recall the fact that
out of about 150 master’s theses defended to date at the faculties of
theology in Poland only 4 about such a subject have been written.
1. Eucharist – the sacrament of love
St Thomas Aquinas described the Eucharist as “the sacrament of
love.”2 It is the gift “which Jesus Christ makes of himself, revealing
to us God’s infinite love for every man” (SCa 1) This gift, ultimately
revealed in the sacrifice of the Cross, continues in the sacrament of
the Eucharist, in which the Lord becomes food for human beings
to satisfy our hunger for truth and freedom (SCa 2). Therefore, the
Church, celebrating the Eucharist, sees it as her life-center and invites
man to receive this gift of God’s love, the agape of God.3 This gift
opens before us as a mystery of faith, celebrating and living the
Eucharist. The structure of the post-synodal apostolic exhortation
Sacramentum caritatis constructed in this way reflects the whole
theology of Benedict XVI’s thought on the Eucharist.
2
3
Cf. St Thomas Aquinas, Suma Teologiczna [Summa Theologica], III, q. 73, a. 3.
Benedict XVI, Deus caritas est, no. 14.
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1.1. Mysterium credendum
God, who is the perfect communion of love between Father, Son and
Holy Spirit, reveals his plan of love in the Son sent into the world.
Jesus makes an atoning sacrifice of himself on the Cross, offering his
body and shedding his blood. In this way He gives in the Eucharist his
whole existence, revealing the original source of Trinitarian love. “In
instituting the sacrament of the Eucharist, Jesus anticipates and makes
present the sacrifice of the Cross and the victory of the resurrection.
At the same time, he reveals that he himself is the true sacrificial
lamb, destined in the Father’s plan from the foundation of the world”
(SCa 10). Jesus is the true paschal lamb who offered himself as
a sacrifice for us, thus establishing a new and everlasting Covenant.
The Eucharist contains this radical novelty of Christian worship in
that it involves us in the sacrificial act of Jesus, in the very dynamic of
his sacrifice. He “draws us into himself” (SCa 11), in the substantial
transformation of bread and wine into His Body and into His Blood,
accomplished by the Holy Spirit.
Christ, who in the sacrifice of the cross gave birth to the Church as
his Bride and his Body, actually lives the Eucharist which he celebrates.
“The Eucharist is Christ who gives himself to us and continually builds
us up as his body” (SCa 14). The Eucharist therefore constitutes
the existence and life of the Church as a “universal sacrament of
salvation” (LG 48), it reveals the indissoluble bond between Christ
and the Church. The Eucharist calls us, like Christ – our Passover
and Living Bread – to offer ourselves together with Him in sacrifice.
1.2. Mysterium celebrandum
There is an intrinsic connection between faith and the celebration of
the Eucharist, which must be lived as a mystery of faith authentically
celebrated, in the full awareness that “the intellectus fidei has
a primordial relationship to the Church’s liturgical action” (SCa 34).
This means that the relationship between the mystery believed and
celebrated is expressed in the theological and liturgical value of
beauty. Through the beauty of the liturgy one can reach the truth
of the love of God revealed in Christ (SCa 35). For the beauty of
the liturgy has its subject in the risen and glorified Christ. In the
The Mystery of the Eucharist
Eucharistic liturgy it is expressed in an internal and spiritual way
by making us conform to Christ. Following St Augustine, we can
say that “if you have received the Body of the Lord well, you have
become what you have received into your hearts, that is, Christ.”4
Thus, “not only have we become Christians, we have become Christ
himself”5 (SCa 36). This expresses God’s action on us, who receive
the body of Christ.
The Church celebrates the Eucharistic Sacrifice not so much
for the external splendour of the liturgy, but because of Christ’s
command: “Do this in memory of me.” This is why the celebration
must preserve the art of the proper ars celebrandi, starting from the
Liturgist himself, who is Christ, represented by the ordained bishop,
priest and deacon, to the full participation of all the faithful.
1.3. Mysterium vivendum
The celebrated mystery of faith becomes a mystery of life, a new
form of Christian existence: “whoever eats this bread will live for
ever” (John 6:51). By receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ,
we become partakers of the life of God (SCa 70). Through this food,
Christ unites us to himself. This is how a new and definitive worship
is fulfilled, to live in the manner of the Logos: logikē latreia. The
Eucharist thus transforms our whole life into a spiritual worship
offered to and pleasing to God (Rom 12:1), i.e., a self-sacrifice in
communion with the whole Church, the Body of Christ. The Eucharist,
as Christ’s sacrifice, is also the sacrifice of the whole Church, that is,
of the faithful who also offer themselves as a sacrifice.
The Eucharist brings a radical newness into human life, so as to
“live in the manner of the Lord’s day.” Celebrating Christ’s resurrection
on the first day after the Sabbath means living in the awareness
that Christ has freed us from sin and death, and thus gives us the
possibility to realize our own existence as a self-offering given to God
(SCa 72). The freedom brought by the Risen One makes it possible for
4
5
Augustinus, Sermo 227 (PL 38, 1099).
Augustinus, Tract. Ev. Jo XXI, 8 (PL 35, 1568).
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Krzysztof Góźdź
the believer to live fully in the manner of a “new creation” (SCa 92),
in communion with God and with all people for whom Jesus died.
2. Theology of the Eucharist
During the Angelus prayer on the feast of Corpus Christi in Italy
(26 June 2011), Benedict XVI spoke words that expressed his ecclesiology very clearly: “Without the Eucharist the Church quite simply
would not exist.” The argumentation of this statement is as follows:
“The Eucharist is, as it were, the beating heart that gives life to the
whole mystical body of the Church: a social organism wholly based
on the spiritual yet concrete link with Christ.”6 This relationship
has its source in the sacrifice of the cross, which is made present in
a bloodless way in the Eucharistic sacrifice, which is the center of
the Church. It is at the same time a new worship which is a call to
the servant love of Jesus Christ, realistically present in the sign of
bread. “Love is the bread that satiates – not only the stomach, but
also the heart. The Eucharist is the bread of the new world: where it
is celebrated, there God’s Tomorrow is already present for a moment,
illuminating our Today. Where bread is broken, there is the new
world; where people join in thanksgiving to the crucified and risen
Lord, there is part of the new world; where the Eucharist is celebrated,
there Tomorrow is for a moment already today.”7
2.1. The paschal mystery as the source of the Eucharist
The words of Jesus at the Last Supper: “take and eat,” “take and
drink” summarize the earthly history of Jesus of Nazareth and at
the same time set the future of His presence. Both vectors of the
past and the future point to the source of the message to the world,
which is love, which does not cease but endures forever. It reveals
Benedict XVI, Eucharistie.
Ratzinger, “Eucharistie – ‘das Brot’,” 1108 (OO 14/2, 1009). Throughout the
article, English quotations of Ratzinger’s works are my own translation. For the
convenience of the Polish reader, references to the Polish translation (OO) have
been added in brackets.
6
7
The Mystery of the Eucharist
its center in the sacrifice of the Cross. “The Eucharist is a Sacrifice,
the making present of the cross sacrifice of Jesus Christ.”8 Therefore
“the institution of the Eucharist is the anticipation of death, it is an
act of spiritual death. After all, Jesus distributes himself as divided,
torn into Body and Blood.”9 In these words, Jesus transforms “death
into the spiritual act of his ‘yes,’ the act of love that gives itself away,
the act of adoration by which He gives himself to God and for God’s
sake to men. The two things are closely connected: without death,
the words of the Last Supper would be, one might say, a currency
without worth, and on the other hand, death without these words
would be a mere execution of a condemnation without an identifiable
meaning.”10
This love of Jesus found its expression in another image from the
Last Supper, in the washing of the Apostles’ feet (cf. John 13:1–20). He,
the Lord, humbles himself and in the humility of a slave washes their
feet. This is “the meaning of his whole life and suffering: he bends
down to our dirty feet, the filth of humanity, and in his great love
washes and cleanses us. […] Jesus Christ enables us, as it were, before
God and each other to sit at table together and to live in community.”11
The washing of feet becomes a great gift of love, a gift of acceptance
by God.
2.2. The Eucharist – the center of the Church
The love of the incarnate Logos is most fully and definitively revealed
in His death on the Cross. This love, however, does not die on the
Cross, but, as a transfiguration of death, continues eternally in the
word of the Lord and in the sign of bread and wine, the Eucharist.12
Thus the Eucharist is the gift of the Lord and the very center of the
Church. It is the true sacrifice, “it is the word of the Word, in it
speaks the One who as the Word is life.”13 In his word: Behold my
8
9
10
11
12
13
Ratzinger, “Eucharistie – Mitte,” 319 (OO 11, 300).
Ratzinger, “Eucharistie – Mitte,” 308 (OO 11, 289).
Ratzinger, “Eucharistie – Mitte,” 308 (OO 11, 290).
Ratzinger, “Eucharistie – Mitte,” 308–309 (OO 11, 290).
Cf. Ratzinger, “Eucharistie – Mitte,” 327–308 (OO 11, 308).
Ratzinger, “Eucharistie – Mitte,” 324 (OO 11, 305).
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flesh, behold my blood, the human word melts with the Word of
eternal love, with the Son who continually gives himself lovingly
to his Father. The priest who speaks these words of Christ in the
sacrament of the Church, cooperating and co-sacrificing with Him,
makes us partakers of this marvelous Mystery. He involves us in
the prayer of the Sacrifice-Offerer Himself, and thus involves us
in the transformation of His death into an event of love.
Indeed, the open side of Christ is the birthplace of the Church,
the place of efficacy of the sacraments that constitute the Church:
the Eucharist and Baptism. “From His side, from the side opened in
loving self-giving, shoots the spring that fertilizes all history. From
the sacrifice of Jesus’ death flow blood and water, the Eucharist and
Baptism as the source of a new communion.”14 According to the
account of John the Evangelist, Jesus died at precisely the hour when
the Passover lambs for the Jewish Passover were being slaughtered
in the Jerusalem temple. “Jesus here proves to be the true Passover
Lamb.”15 God himself gave Him to us when He sent Him to the world
with the message of reconciliation. Similarly, God gave to Abraham,
in a test of his faith, a lamb entangled in a bush of thorns as a sacrifice
instead of his son Isaac (cf. Gen 22:13). This Old Testament lamb
is a foreshadowing of the New Testament lamb, Jesus Christ, who
bears the crown of thorns of our sins in order to give us what we in
turn can give.
2.3. The theology of the words of the institution
of the Eucharist
The four New Testament accounts of the institution of the Eucharist
(1 Cor 11:24–25; Matt 26:26–28; Mark 14:22–24; Luke 22:19–20),
while differing in emphasis, become united in expressing a great
prayer of thanksgiving and praise to God through the establishment of
the New Covenant. Paul and Luke say, “This is the New Covenant in
my Blood” and refer to the prophecy of Jeremiah (Jer 31:31), indicating
14
15
Ratzinger, “Eucharistie – Mitte,” 317–318 (OO 11, 299).
Ratzinger, “Kreuzigung,” 584–585 (OO 6/1, 537).
The Mystery of the Eucharist
that this Blood will be shed “for you,” pointing to the community
of disciples.
Therefore, the sign of the New Covenant is the Eucharist –
thanksgiving for the blood of the Son of God shed for us (“for many”).
It is expressed in the “breaking of the bread,” in the distribution of
the bread, and thus in the communion of the table. Jesus also gives
a new depth to this gesture: “He gives himself. […] In the bread the
Son gives and distributes himself.”16 The breaking and distribution
of the bread is thus an act of love towards the one who needs it. This
gesture expresses the intrinsic dimension of the Eucharist and has thus
become a symbol of the Eucharistic mystery, has become a definition
of the Eucharist (cf. Acts 2:42; 20:7).
The New Covenant is based on the principle of obedience. It is
no longer the fragile fidelity of the human will, but the obedience of
the Son, who has made himself the Servant and accepts all human
disobedience, overcoming it in death. The Son’s faithfulness consists
in the fact that he acts “no longer merely as God towards man, but also
as Man towards God, and thus establishes the covenant as binding and
irrevocable.”17 Therefore the figure of the Servant of God, who takes
upon himself the sins of all (Isa 53:12), is linked to the promise of
the indestructible New Covenant. The obedience of the Son opposes
all evil.
2.4. Christ’s real presence in the sacrament
of the Eucharist
God, through the incarnation of his Son, became man among men and
remained with us, giving himself, in the mystery of the transfigured
bread, into our hands and hearts.18 The body of the Son of Man is
henceforth our spiritual food which leads us to eternal life (cf. John
6:53.55). It is not Christ’s physical body, but His whole person existing
in the flesh which, as “flesh given up for us,” is pro-existence,
16
17
18
Ratzinger, “Das letzte,” 515 (OO 6/1, 472).
Ratzinger, “Das letzte,” 517 (OO 6/1, 474).
Cf. Ratzinger, “Eucharistie – Mitte,” 343 (OO 11, 323).
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being-for-others.19 The Risen Lord as crucified Love thus became
the self-giving in a piece of transubstantiated bread, became a gift
to others, gave Himself to others. In the reception of this bread,
communion is built up with Jesus Christ, who gives himself to us
personally. In him, the God-Man, we touch at the same time the
living God. Then receiving communion becomes at the same time
the adoration of the majesty of God, and not simply “taking bread.”
The spirit of adoration “means truly coming out of oneself, giving
oneself, freeing oneself from oneself and finding in this way also
human communion.”20
In receiving the communion, we encounter the real Christ, in
the whole foundation of His being. The body of Christ, that is, the
risen Christ, existing in the flesh, does not exist like ordinary bread,
measurably and materially, but He exists in a new order, in a deeper
dimension which is still a mystery to us. And although bread and
wine remain the same from a physical point of view, in their deeper
dimension they have become something else. It is not the priest who
celebrates the Eucharist who brings about this transformation of
the substance of the bread and wine into the substance of the Body
and Blood of Christ (transubstantiation), but it is the Lord himself
who acts here, bringing about something new, this extraordinary
transformation of the substances offered. This means that his
presence is permanent,21 not limited to the moment of the Eucharistic
celebration, and that is why we adore the Lord in the Host. So, the
reception of Christ in communion means going out to meet Him,
adoring Him, entering into the mystery of God.
3. The Eucharist as the source
of the Church’s life and mission
Saint Justin Martyr († c. 165) gives in eloquent words one of the
oldest extra-biblical testimonies to the celebration of the Eucharist:
“And on the day called the Day of the Sun, there is a gathering in
19
20
21
Cf. Ratzinger, “Eucharistie – Mitte,” 346 (OO 11, 326).
Ratzinger, “Eucharistie – Mitte,” 350 (OO 11, 329).
Cf. Ratzinger, “Eucharistie – Mitte,” 354 (OO 11, 333).
The Mystery of the Eucharist
one place of all together, both of the cities and of the country. Then
the Apostolic Memoirs or prophetic writings are read […] Then we
all rise from our places and pray […] when the prayer is over, bread
and wine and water are brought, and the president offers prayers
and thanksgiving […] Finally, there is a distribution to each and
a participation of what has become the Eucharist.”22 This testimony
links together the most important events in the life of the Incarnate
Son of God – death on the Cross and Resurrection. At the same time,
it shows that through these events Christ remained with us in the
sacrament of the Eucharist. His presence in the sign of bread and
wine becomes for the baptized the source of their Christian life, which
becomes living out the Divine Love. This life has three fundamental
dimensions: ecclesial, spiritual and liturgical.23
3.1. The ecclesial dimension
Ratzinger rightly says that there can be no alternative here: the people
of God or the Body of Christ. When speaking of the people of God
we, as a rule, refer to the chosen people of Israel, but it is a concept
in close connection with the new people of God – the Church. But
this new people of God is the Church by becoming the Body of
Christ through the celebration of the Eucharist. So, the Church is
the people of God on the part of the Body of Christ, it is not an
imitation of Israel. The Church is understood anew as the Body of
Christ in the celebration of the Eucharist. Accordingly, the Church is
the community constituted by the Eucharist. John Paul II expressed
this in the first words of his encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia: “The
Church draws her life from the Eucharist.”24
Hence one can speak of a “Eucharistic ecclesiology.” “Therefore,
the summit of the Christian’s sacramental life is precisely the
celebration of the Eucharist as the real making present by the Holy
Justinus, Apologia I, 67, 3–5 (PG 6, 429).
These dimensions reveal the three most important thematic circles of J. Ratzinger/Benedict XVI’s understanding of the Eucharist, cf. Voderholzer, “Eucharistie,”
357–370; cf. also Müller, Die Messe.
24
John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, no. 1.
22
23
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Spirit of the one Sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross, and thus the
continuous personal transformation by which we become one body
and one spirit with Christ (cf. 1 Cor 6:17). This is reflected in the
theological category of transubstantiation, that is, the transformation
of the substance of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ.
The paschal mystery thus becomes the source of the Eucharist and the
center of the Church’s life, thus determining the form and content of
the celebration as well as its mission.”25 The Eucharist has therefore
as its content the union of Christians in one bread and one body. The
Eucharist is the living event through which the Church’s becoming
takes place. The Church is therefore a community of the Eucharist.
She is not simply a people, but she exists out of many peoples who
become one people through the one table which the Lord has set for
us all. The Church is like a network of Eucharistic communities and
is constantly united by the one Body which we all receive. “In the
Eucharist we receive the Body of the Lord and therefore we become
one Body with him; we all receive the same Body and therefore we
ourselves become ‘one in Christ’ (Gal 3:28). The Eucharist takes us
out of ourselves and incorporates us into Him, so that consequently
we can say with Paul: ‘It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in
me’ (Gal 2:20). I, but no longer I – a new, greater ‘I’ is formed, the
one Body of the Lord, which is called the Church. The Church is
built on the Eucharist, even more: the Church is the Eucharist.”26
Ratzinger can rightly conclude this: “And this is the deepest meaning
of the Eucharist: by eating one bread, we ourselves enter into this
one center, and in this way, we become one living organism, one
Body of the Lord.”27
3.2. The spiritual dimension
Ratzinger clearly presents the Eucharist as devotion and sacrifice:
“The institution of the Eucharist is the anticipation of death, it is an
act of spiritual death. After all, Jesus gives himself as divided, as torn
25
26
27
Góźdź, “Przedmowa,” IX.
Ratzinger, “Eucharistie und Mission,” 407 (OO 11, 383).
Ratzinger, “Predigten,” 483–484 (OO 11, 453).
The Mystery of the Eucharist
into Body and Blood.”28 The words of the institution of the Eucharist
at the Last Supper are a response to the interpretation of His death
that it is a consequence of the preaching of the kingdom of God and,
in the gesture of the breaking of the bread, they capture His whole
existence as a giving and sacrifice and thus as an anticipation of the
death of the cross. In the words of the Last Supper “the spiritual
process of death takes place or, more correctly, in these words Jesus
transforms death into the spiritual act of His ‘yes’, into the act of
love which gives itself out, into the act of adoration through which
He gives himself to God and for God’s sake to men.”29
The Eucharist, then, is not a repetition, supplement or completion
of the sacrifice of the cross of Jesus Christ, but a memorable and
sacramental making present, which includes an interior acceptance
of this attitude of sacrifice.30 “The Christian celebration, the
Eucharist, reaches that depth of death. It is not a pious amusement
or entertainment, a kind of religious embellishment or decoration of
the world. It descends into the deepest abyss, which is called death,
opening the way to life which conquers death.”31 The Eucharist is thus
a sacrifice following the model of the Logos, to which St Paul calls us.
The Apostle calls this logikē latreia, which means expressing in
words the service oriented towards the Logos. This means that “the
sacrifice expressed in words referred already the Greek thinkers
to the Logos, to the Word itself and to the fact that the sacrifice of
prayer should not be just speaking, but a profound transformation
of our being in the Logos and a union with Him. Worship consists
in conforming ourselves to the Logos, uniting ourselves in perfect
harmony with the creative Reason.”32
Becoming conformed to the Logos is therefore a call for the
believer to spiritually enter, already now, into the movement of the
very Word of God, returning gloriously to the bosom of the Triune
God, and ultimately to enter into the circle of God’s eternal life. This
28
29
30
31
32
Ratzinger, “Eucharistie – Mitte,” 307–308 (OO 11, 289).
Ratzinger, “Eucharistie – Mitte,” 308 (OO 11, 290).
Cf. Voderholzer, “Eucharistie,” 362.
Ratzinger, “Eucharistie – Mitte,” 319 (OO 11, 300).
Ratzinger, “Die Disskusion,” 654 (OO 11, 615–616).
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entering is now accomplished in the Eucharist through adoration of
God in His Son and in the Holy Spirit. For the Eucharist is God’s
communion with us and grace-filled empowerment for communion
among believers to form the one Body of Christ (the Church).
3.3. The liturgical dimension
The Eucharist in its Greek wording eucharistoumen expresses
thanksgiving and love not only in a human sense, but in an even
deeper sense which appears in the liturgy in the words “gratias agens
benedixit fregit deditque” (giving thanks to You, blessed it, broken
and distributed). “Eucharistoumen refers us back to this reality of
thanksgiving, to this new dimension given by Christ. In this way
He transformed the cross, together with suffering and all the evils
of the world, into thanksgiving and therefore into blessing and in
this way He substantially transformed life and the world, gave us
and gives us every day the bread of true life, which surpasses the
world by the power of His love.”33 Thanksgiving for this continual
transfiguration of life and the world is continually accomplished in
every celebration of the Eucharist, celebrated above all on the Lord’s
Day – Sunday – the memorial of the Resurrection.34 “To celebrate
the Eucharist means: to enter into the mystery of the Cross made
present, to place ourselves in the arms of Christ and to ask Him to
take us and the whole world in His arms and to heal us. To celebrate
the Eucharist thus also means to live personally the mystery of the
Cross.”35 And this means to live it in thanksgiving and love.
The name of Sunday in Latin comes from the word dominicus.
It has many meanings. “It means first ‘the Lord’s day’, but at the
same time it points to its content, to the sacrament of the Lord, to
His Resurrection and His presence in the Eucharistic event.”36 In
this word the whole essence of liturgy – celebration – is contained,
i.e., anticipatory participation in Christ’s resurrection. He who has
33
34
35
36
Benedict XVI, “Address.”
Cf. Krakowiak, “Kult Eucharystii,” 67–91.
Ratzinger, “Glaube,” 1740 (OO 14/3, 1579–1580).
Ratzinger, “Von der Bedeutung,” 235 (OO 11, 221).
The Mystery of the Eucharist
•
believed in the Risen Christ cannot fail to speak of it and cannot
live without Him, without the Lord’s Day. The mandate stemming
from faith does not allow us to remain silent, but commands us to
proclaim the miracle of the Resurrection. Just as Peter and John said
boldly before the Sanhedrin: “For we cannot but speak of what we
have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20).
Christians believe that Sunday, the Lord’s Day, expresses Christ’s
victory over death. At the same time, in the Resurrection eternity
received into itself body, humanity which proved itself capable of
eternal life and of receiving God.37 This means the salvation of man,
the salvation of humanity in general, which the divine Logos took
upon himself. Thus God, in the event of the Resurrection, shows
himself to be the Lord of the whole creation, of the whole cosmos,
because God here definitively tells the creature that it is “good” and
receives it anew and thus transforms it into a permanent reality, free
from all transience.38 He shows the creature the way to the future city
(cf. Heb 13:14), the way to the holy Jerusalem, the way to God as the
supreme Good. This path is the liturgy of the Eucharistic Sacrifice,
accomplished in virtue of the new covenant in the Blood of Christ and
built upon the reality of the Paschal mystery. “In the Divine Sacrifice
of the Eucharist the work of our Redemption is accomplished” (SCa 2),
accomplished “once for all” on the Cross, and constantly continuing
to be accomplished in believers in the Church.
Conclusion
The Eucharist, as the bloodless Sacrifice of Christ, is the center of the
Church’s life. Thanks to it the community of the Church lives, and
within it every believer is directed towards eternal life with God and
in God. The Eucharist is therefore the anakephalaiōsis (St Irenaeus
of Lyon) of the whole Event of Christ, which leads to the final union
of creation with the Creator. “The Word became flesh” (John 1:14)
so that it could always be our bread. The Blood of the Son of God
became the atonement for the sin of the personal creation. It is made
37
38
Cf. Ratzinger, “Von der Bedeutung,” 240 (OO 11, 226).
Cf. Ratzinger, “Von der Bedeutung,” 241 (OO 11, 227).
145
146 •
Krzysztof Góźdź
present on the altar of the offered gifts of bread and wine until the end
of the world. This sacrifice has an ontic dimension in the Cross and
Resurrection, and it takes place continually in the Church as Eucharistic celebration and adoration. In this way it becomes for believers
an active vertical and horizontal love, a not-fully-comprehensible
thanksgiving for God’s being with us and a constant desire for peace
during the breaking of the one bread. Thus Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI is a faithful preacher of the death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ and of living the Eucharist daily, in which He offers himself
to us as Love, Thanksgiving and Peace.
Eucharystia w teologii Josepha Ratzingera/Benedykta XVI
Abstrakt: Można spotkać się z poglądem, że Wieczerza Pana z Jego uczniami nie
posiadała charakteru misterium religijnego i soteryjnego, a miała ona tylko charakter
zwykłej wieczerzy lub co najwyżej prostego rytu starotestamentalnego. Stanowisko
to jest ahistoryczne i antymisteryjne, a przez to ariańskie i nawet sekularystyczne.
Z drugiej strony próbuje się często zawęzić Eucharystię do prywatnej sfery życia
ludzi wierzących. Artykuł wskazuje, że Joseph Ratzinger/Benedykt XVI stanowczo
się takim poglądom sprzeciwia. Eucharystia jest dla niego nie tylko sercem jego pokornego życia i tematem jego wspaniałej myśli teologicznej, ale przede wszystkim
centralnym wydarzeniem i streszczeniem (ἀνακεϕαλαιώσις: por. Ef 1,10) całej historii
oraz całego stworzenia, które dąży do zjednoczenia z Bogiem. Joseph Ratzinger/
Benedykt XVI dowodzi, że w Eucharystii jest obecny Chrystus integralny – z całą
swoją Osobą, historyczny i zarazem uwielbiony, a z Nim cała Trójca Święta. Takie
pojmowanie Eucharystii ma ważne konsekwencje dla wiary i społecznego zaangażowania współczesnego Kościoła.
Słowa kluczowe: Jezus Chrystus, Eucharystia, dziękczynienie, Pascha, zmartwychwstanie, chleb i wino
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