Shepherds and Fishermen by Raneiro Cantalamessa OFM Cap

Author:Raneiro Cantalamessa, OFM Cap
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Liturgical Press
Published: 2020-10-15T21:29:47+00:00

2. Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, n. 135.

3. St. Augustine, Confessions VIII, 7, 12.

4. See Søren Kierkegaard, For Self-Examination: Judge for Yourselves!, chapter 1.

5. St. Ambrose, On the Sacraments, V, 3, 17; see also The Blessings of the Patriarchs, 9, 39.

6. Tertullian, On Penitence, 4, 2.

7. Blessed Isaac of Stella, Sermon 11 (PL 194, 1729).

5

Eucharistic Hour

Holy Communion

In his discourse at the synagogue of Capernaum, Jesus said, “Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me” (John 6:57; italics added). The preposition “because of” (in Greek, dià) here indicates cause and purpose. It’s both a movement of origin and of destination. It means that whoever eats the Body of Christ lives “through” him—that is, because of him—in virtue of the life that comes from him, and lives “in view of him”—that is, for his glory, his love, and his kingdom. As Jesus lives because of the Father and for the Father, so by our communing with the holy mystery of his body and his blood we live through Jesus and for Jesus.

It’s, in fact, the stronger vital principle that assimilates the weaker, not vice versa. It’s the vegetable that assimilates the mineral, not vice versa. It’s the animal that assimilates the vegetable and the mineral, not vice versa. So, too, on the spiritual plane, it’s the divine that assimilates the human, not vice versa. Unlike all other cases in which it’s the one who eats who assimilates what is eaten, here it’s the one who is eaten who assimilates the one who eats him. To the person who receives him in the Eucharist, Jesus repeats what he was saying to St. Augustine: “It’s not you who assimilate me into yourself; I am the one who assimilates you into myself.”1

In the Eucharist, therefore, there’s not only a communion but also an assimilation that takes place between Christ and us. Communion is not only the union of two bodies, two minds, two wills, but an assimilation into the one body, the one mind, and the will of Christ: “Whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him” (1 Cor 6:17).

These are classic concepts and examples. But now I would like to stress another aspect of eucharistic Communion that is not so often talked about. The letter to the Ephesians states that human marriage is a symbol of the union between Christ and the church: “ ‘For this reason a man shall leave [his] father and [his] mother / and be joined to his wife, / and the two shall become one flesh.’ / This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church” (Eph 5:31-33). Now, according to St. Paul, the immediate consequence of marriage is that the body of the husband becomes the wife’s and, vice versa, the body of the wife becomes the husband’s (see 1 Cor 7:4).

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