NOW that we are holding in Cebu the
51st International
Eucharistic Congress (IEC), it is imperative that we once again give
this most important and sublime sacrament a long, hard look if only to
savor more deeply its many implications, spiritual and moral,
theological and practical, and so we can be more in conformity with
them and most generous in living them out.
What we can say as the most crucial part in our
understanding of this sacrament is that it requires tremendous faith,
since everything about it depends on whether we believe that the bread
and wine used in making it are truly the body and blood of Christ, or
Christ himself in all his Christological and soteriological nature.
Obviously, since faith is involved here, what needs to be
done is, first of all and always, to use the spiritual and
supernatural means of prayer and sacrifice, with their accompanying
complement of studying the doctrine, having recourse to the sacrament
itself, waging continuing ascetical struggle, etc. It requires nothing
less than a living piety. Absent these, we would be starting off on
the wrong foot.
These we ought to do before we dare to embark on any
effort to explain it theologically, and much more so before we try to
decipher their implications personally, socially, culturally,
historically, etc.
To be sure, faith is not merely an intellectual affair,
though it certainly presumes the full use of our intelligence. It
should involve our whole being, though our intelligence and will, our
spiritual powers, occupy pride of place.
Faith demands that we give ourselves completely, and not
just our intellectual assent, to what is told to us by Christ. It goes
beyond rationality and comprehensibility, because our belief in it is
not based on whether we understand it, but rather on the fact that it
is told to us by someone who deserves to be believed because he does
not deceive us nor be deceived by us.
The Catechism describes faith with these words: “What
moves us to believe is not the fact that revealed truths appear as
true and intelligible in the light of our natural reason. We believe
‘because of the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can
neither deceive nor be deceived.’” (156)
We believe that what Christ said in the Last Supper, “This
is my body,” and “This is the cup of my blood,” have to be understood
in the literal, if sacramental sense. This, because Christ, as the Son
of God, said so. And so, even if we continue to see, taste and feel
the bread and wine, we are actually seeing, tasting and feeling the
very body and blood of Christ.
That may sound hard to accept especially if we still let
our senses and intelligence, without yet being animated by faith, to
lead us. But if we go beyond them to accept the words of Christ, then
we should have no problem. We live out what Christ himself said and
earn the reward he promised:
“There is no man who has left house or wife or brothers or
parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not
receive more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.” (Lk
18,29-30)
In other words, there is some kind of holy exchange
involved if we want to live our faith and follow Christ and gain
eternal life, which is what piety is all about. We need to give up not
only certain things, but in fact our whole selves, if we want to enter
the world of faith. Without that, we would just be left in our own
world.
Faith is like God asking everything from us, our very own
selves, because he is also giving himself to us. With faith, we start
to live a shared life with God.
If we have faith in the Holy Eucharist, then we are fully
convinced that we have Christ with us, he who is the Son of God who
became man to save us, and continues to be God and man for all
eternity.
Here, we can see how important it is to understand what
faith is all about, and to live it as fully as possible. We also have
to understand that faith is first of all a gift from God, before it is
something that we have to keep and develop.
Let’s hope and pray that we do not waste what we have been
given by God. Let’s do all to make our faith vibrant and to be in
touch with indescribable reality of Christ truly present among us in
the Blessed Sacrament.
Eucharistic Congress (IEC), it is imperative that we once again give
this most important and sublime sacrament a long, hard look if only to
savor more deeply its many implications, spiritual and moral,
theological and practical, and so we can be more in conformity with
them and most generous in living them out.
What we can say as the most crucial part in our
understanding of this sacrament is that it requires tremendous faith,
since everything about it depends on whether we believe that the bread
and wine used in making it are truly the body and blood of Christ, or
Christ himself in all his Christological and soteriological nature.
Obviously, since faith is involved here, what needs to be
done is, first of all and always, to use the spiritual and
supernatural means of prayer and sacrifice, with their accompanying
complement of studying the doctrine, having recourse to the sacrament
itself, waging continuing ascetical struggle, etc. It requires nothing
less than a living piety. Absent these, we would be starting off on
the wrong foot.
These we ought to do before we dare to embark on any
effort to explain it theologically, and much more so before we try to
decipher their implications personally, socially, culturally,
historically, etc.
To be sure, faith is not merely an intellectual affair,
though it certainly presumes the full use of our intelligence. It
should involve our whole being, though our intelligence and will, our
spiritual powers, occupy pride of place.
Faith demands that we give ourselves completely, and not
just our intellectual assent, to what is told to us by Christ. It goes
beyond rationality and comprehensibility, because our belief in it is
not based on whether we understand it, but rather on the fact that it
is told to us by someone who deserves to be believed because he does
not deceive us nor be deceived by us.
The Catechism describes faith with these words: “What
moves us to believe is not the fact that revealed truths appear as
true and intelligible in the light of our natural reason. We believe
‘because of the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can
neither deceive nor be deceived.’” (156)
We believe that what Christ said in the Last Supper, “This
is my body,” and “This is the cup of my blood,” have to be understood
in the literal, if sacramental sense. This, because Christ, as the Son
of God, said so. And so, even if we continue to see, taste and feel
the bread and wine, we are actually seeing, tasting and feeling the
very body and blood of Christ.
That may sound hard to accept especially if we still let
our senses and intelligence, without yet being animated by faith, to
lead us. But if we go beyond them to accept the words of Christ, then
we should have no problem. We live out what Christ himself said and
earn the reward he promised:
“There is no man who has left house or wife or brothers or
parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not
receive more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.” (Lk
18,29-30)
In other words, there is some kind of holy exchange
involved if we want to live our faith and follow Christ and gain
eternal life, which is what piety is all about. We need to give up not
only certain things, but in fact our whole selves, if we want to enter
the world of faith. Without that, we would just be left in our own
world.
Faith is like God asking everything from us, our very own
selves, because he is also giving himself to us. With faith, we start
to live a shared life with God.
If we have faith in the Holy Eucharist, then we are fully
convinced that we have Christ with us, he who is the Son of God who
became man to save us, and continues to be God and man for all
eternity.
Here, we can see how important it is to understand what
faith is all about, and to live it as fully as possible. We also have
to understand that faith is first of all a gift from God, before it is
something that we have to keep and develop.
Let’s hope and pray that we do not waste what we have been
given by God. Let’s do all to make our faith vibrant and to be in
touch with indescribable reality of Christ truly present among us in
the Blessed Sacrament.
No comments:
Post a Comment