2005: the Year of the Eucharist and the search for peace

At the beginning of each new calendar year much of the world pauses, takes stock of the past and tries its hand at predicting the future. The famous New Year Resolutions, like resolutions at the end of a retreat or a day of recollection or after a good confession, are made, knowing that they are as much wishes of the heart as acts of the will. It’s important, however, to make the wishes of our hearts known to ourselves and others. Resolutions keep us spiritually alive.

Catholics enter 2005 celebrating the Year of the Eucharist, a year “when the Church will be particularly engaged in living out the mystery of the Holy Eucharist.” (Pope John Paul II, Mane Nobiscum Domine, 2) The Pope harbors the hope that the Church, during this year, may “discover new enthusiasm for her mission and come to acknowledge ever more fully that the Eucharist is the source and summit of her entire life.” One can’t act with a divided heart; a divided Church can’t generate enthusiasm for mission, action, evangelization. The Eucharist is the sign of our unity in Christ and the sacrament where Christ himself makes his people one “through him, with him and in him.” The purpose of mission is to share the gifts Christ gives us as widely as possible, because Christ’s love is as wide as this world and the next. Paramount among these gifts of Christ to his people is the Holy Eucharist. Christ wants all to receive it.

The Eucharist is like a life-thread in the long history of the Church. Since the first Christians in Jerusalem discovered their identity around the altar of the Lord on his day, Catholics have known that without the Mass they cannot live fully in Christ. Since Christ himself is truly present in the Eucharist under the appearances of bread and wine, the Mass is often a sign of contradiction. If people disagree about who Christ is, various interpretations of the Eucharist will reflect those divisions. If our understanding of the sacraments is defective, if, for example, we imagine that the Eucharist is a sort of tableau of Christ’s last supper, the Eucharist will divide us rather than unite us. The tearing asunder of the Church’s unity in the 16th century led to the loss of the ordained priesthood and of the Eucharist for many Christians. This centuries-old tragedy should lend urgency to our desire for Christian unity as well as for Christian mission. The Pope in calling us to this year of the Eucharist says, “We are constantly tempted to reduce the Eucharist to our own dimensions, while in reality it is we who must open ourselves up to the dimensions of the mystery.”

The Eucharist creates the Church, the body of Christ, and the Church creates, with the power given her by Christ, the Eucharist, the sacramental body of Christ. Opening ourselves up to the many dimensions of the Eucharistic mystery therefore leads us into Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary, made present in an unbloody manner in the sacrament of the altar. It brings us to a banquet in which we are fed by the living Christ and come to deep and intimate union with him. It convinces us of Christ’s real presence in this sacrament in an altogether unique manner, a presence not just in action but in himself, body and blood, soul and divinity. The Eucharist is a “who,” not a “what” or an “it.”

I have asked Bishop Joseph Perry to guide the celebration of the Year of the Eucharist in the Archdiocese. Plans are being shaped to have parish missions on aspects of the Eucharist. Printed guides to the Pope’s recent encyclical on the Eucharist will be available for parish discussion groups. Brochures are being designed to help organize various forms of Eucharistic devotion. The Office for Divine Worship will provide material for catechesis on the Eucharist and also sponsor a series of six talks for priests, deacons and parish staff, as well as a workshop for pastoral musicians. Homily guides for priests and deacons are being prepared.

The Archdiocese will sponsor a reflection day for extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, and another for those organizing parish adoration, for parish priests and adoration chapel leaders. Marytown will hold a Eucharistic Rally; and the Knights of Columbus annual international convention, held in Chicago at the beginning of August this year, will give the Archdiocese an opportunity to join the Knights in their celebration of the Year of the Eucharist. I hope it can be arranged to have a public procession with the Blessed Sacrament on August 5.

All of this is to deepen our sense of mission, our thirst to be generous in sharing Christ’s gift of himself in the Eucharist. Recently, the Pope spoke to young people: “In the first place, love the Eucharist. Never get tired of celebrating and adoring the Eucharist together with the entire Christian community, especially on Sunday. Know how to put the Eucharist at the center of your personal and community life, so that communion with Christ may help you to carry out your courageous personal choices.”

The Holy Father also calls the Eucharist “a great school of peace.” Peace, which is a sign of God’s presence, should follow the missionary action of the Church. In the early Church, “peace” was one of the names for the Eucharist, which creates communion among Christians and solidarity with the poor. The Pope’s message for January 1, 2005, the annual World Day of Peace, repeats the words of St. Paul in the epistle to the Romans: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good.” (Romans 12: 21) This invitation tells us that war and peace are not, basically, a matter of arbitration, negotiation and treaties. Basically, even human warfare is between principalities and powers. Waging war and making peace are moral actions, to be judged in the light of humanity’s purpose and shared destiny. While evil always has a name and a face, so does good. Jesus Christ, our eucharistic Lord, is our hope for peace. May Christ’s desire that the human race live in peace shape our hopes and actions this special year. Have a blessed New Year!

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Francis Cardinal George, OMI
Archbishop of Chicago

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