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Congregation for the Clergy: God Stands Before Us and Invites Us to
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Redemptor hominis - Pope John Paul II
20. Eucharist and Penance
In
the mystery of the Redemption, that is to say in Jesus Christ's saving
work, the Church not only shares in the Gospel of her Master through
fidelity to the word and service of truth, but she also shares, through a
submission filled with hope and love, in the power of his redeeming
action expressed and enshrined by him in a sacramental form, especially
in the Eucharist154.
The Eucharist is the centre and summit of the whole of sacramental
life, through which each Christian receives the saving power of the
Redemption, beginning with the mystery of Baptism, in which we are
buried into the death of Christ, in order to become sharers in his
Resurrection155,
as the Apostle teaches. In the light of this teaching, we see still
more clearly the reason why the entire sacramental life of the Church
and of each Christian reaches its summit and fullness in the Eucharist.
For by Christ's will there is in this Sacrament a continual renewing of
the mystery of the Sacrifice of himself that Christ offered to the
Father on the altar of the Cross, a Sacrifice that the Father accepted,
giving, in return for this total self-giving by his Son, who "became
obedient unto death"156,
his own paternal gift, that is to say the grant of new immortal life in
the resurrection, since the Father is the first source and the giver of
life from the beginning. That new life, which involves the bodily
glorification of the crucified Christ, became an efficacious sign of the
new gift granted to humanity, the gift that is the Holy Spirit, through
whom the divine life that the Father has in himself and gives to his
Son157 is communicated to all men who are united with Christ.
The
Eucharist is the most perfect Sacrament of this union. By celebrating
and also partaking of the Eucharist we unite ourselves with Christ on
earth and in heaven who intercedes for us with the Father158
but we always do so through the redeeming act of his Sacrifice, through
which he has redeemed us, so that we have been "bought with a price"159.
The "price" of our redemption is likewise a further proof of the value
that God himself sets on man and of our dignity in Christ. For by
becoming "children of God"160, adopted sons161, we also become in his likeness "a kingdom and priests" and obtain "a royal priesthood"162,
that is to say we share in that unique and irreversible restoration of
man and the world to the Father that was carried out once for all by
him, who is both the eternal Son163
and also true Man. The Eucharist is the Sacrament in which our new
being is most completely expressed and in which Christ himself
unceasingly and in an ever new manner "bears witness" in the Holy Spirit
to our spirit164 that each of us, as a sharer in the mystery of the Redemption, has access to the fruits of the filial reconciliation with God165 that he himself actuated and continually actuates among us by means of the Church's ministry.
It is an essential truth, not only of doctrine but also of life, that the Eucharist builds the Church166,
building it as the authentic community of the People of God, as the
assembly of the faithful, bearing the same mark of unity that was shared
by the Apostles and the first disciples of the Lord. The Eucharist
builds ever anew this community and unity, ever building and
regenerating it on the basis of the Sacrifice of Christ, since it
commemorates his death on the Cross167,
the price by which he redeemed us. Accordingly, in the Eucharist we
touch in a way the very mystery of the Body and Blood of the Lord, as is
attested by the very words used at its institution, the words that,
because of that institution, have become the words with which those
called to this ministry in the Church un ceasingly celebrate the
Eucharist.
The Church lives by the Eucharist, by the
fullness of this Sacrament, the stupendous content and meaning of which
have often been expressed in the Church's Magisterium from the most
distant times down to our own days168.
However, we can say with certainty that, although this teaching is
sustained by the acuteness of theologians, by men of deep faith and
prayer, and by ascetics and mystics, in complete fidelity to the
Eucharistic mystery, it still reaches no more than the threshold, since
it is incapable of grasping and translating into words what the
Eucharist is in all its fullness, what is expressed by it and what is
actuated by it. Indeed, the Eucharist is the ineffable Sacrament! The
essential commitment and, above all, the visible grace and source of
supernatural strength for the Church as the People of God is to
persevere and advance constantly in Eucharistic life and Eucharistic
piety and to develop spiritually in the climate of the Eucharist. With
all the greater reason, then, it is not permissible for us, in thought,
life or action, to take away from this truly most holy Sacrament its
full magnitude and its essential meaning. It is at one and the same time
a Sacrifice-Sacrament, a Communion-Sacrament, and a Presence-Sacrament
And, although it is true that the Eucharist always was and must continue
to be the most profound revelation of the human brotherhood of Christ's
disciples and confessors, it cannot be treated merely as an "occasion"
for manifesting this brotherhood. When celebrating the Sacrament of the
Body and Blood of the Lord, the full magnitude of the divine mystery
must be respected, as must the full meaning of this sacramental sign in
which Christ is really present and is received, the soul is filled with
grace and the pledge of future glory is given169.
This
is the source of the duty to carry out rigorously the liturgical rules
and everything that is a manifestation of community worship offered to
God himself, all the more so because in this sacramental sign he
entrusts himself to us with limitless trust, as if not taking into
consideration our human weakness, our unworthiness, the force of habit,
routine, or even the possibility of insult. Every member of the Church,
especially Bishops and Priests, must be vigilant in seeing that this
Sacrament of love shall be at the centre of the life of the People of
God, so that through all the manifestations of worship due to it Christ
shall be given back «love for love "and truly become "the life of our
souls"170.
Nor can we, on the other hand, ever forget the following words of Saint
Paul: "Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of
the cup"171.
This
call by the Apostle indicates at least indirectly the close link
between the Eucharist and Penance. Indeed, if the first word of Christ's
teaching, the first phrase of the Gospel Good News, was "Repent, and
believe in the gospel" (metanoeite),172
the Sacrament of the Passion, Cross and Resurrection seems to
strengthen and consolidate in an altogether special way this call in our
souls. The Eucharist and Penance thus become in a sense two closely
connected dimensions of authentic life in accordance with the spirit of
the Gospel, of truly Christian life. The Christ who calls to the
Eucharistic banquet is always the same Christ who exhorts us to penance
and repeats his "Repent"173.
Without this constant ever renewed endeavour for conversion, partaking
of the Eucharist would lack its full redeeming effectiveness and there
would be a loss or at least a weakening of the special readiness to
offer God the spiritual sacrifice174
in which our sharing in the priesthood of Christ is expressed in an
essential and universal manner. In Christ, priesthood is linked with his
Sacrifice, his selfgiving to the Father; and, precisely because it is
without limit, that self-giving gives rise in us human beings subject to
numerous limitations to the need to turn to God in an ever more mature
way and with a constant, ever more profound, conversion.
In
the last years much has been done to highlight in the Church's
practice-in conformity with the most ancient tradition of the Church- he
community aspect of penance and especially of the sacrament of Penance.
We cannot however forget that conversion is a particularly profound
inward act in which the individual cannot be replaced by others and
cannot make the community be a substitute for him. Although the
participation by the fraternal community of the faithful in the
penitential celebration is a great help for the act of personal
conversion, nevertheless, in the final analysis, it is necessary that in
this act there should be a pronouncement by the individual himself with
the whole depth of his conscience and with the whole of his sense of
guilt and of trust in God, placing himself like the Psalmist before God
to confess: "Against you... have I sinned"175.
In faithfully observing the centuries-old practice of the Sacrament of
Penance-the practice of individual confession .with a personal act of
sorrow and the intention to amend and make satisfaction-the Church is
therefore defending the human soul's individual right: man's right to a
more personal encounter with the crucified forgiving Christ, with Christ
saying, through the minister of the sacrament of Reconciliation: "Your
sins are forgiven"176; "Go, and do not sin again"177.
As is evident, this is also a right on Christ's part with regard to
every human being redeemed by him: his right to meet each one of us in
that key moment in the soul's life constituted by the moment of
conversion and forgiveness. By guarding the sacrament of Penance, the
Church expressly affirms her faith in the mystery of the Redemption as a
living and life-giving reality that fits in with man's inward truth,
with human guilt and also with the desires of the human conscience.
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they
shall be satisfied"178. The sacrament of Penance is the means to satisfy man with the righteousness that comes from the Redeemer himself.
In
the Church, gathering particularly today in a special way around the
Eucharist and desiring that the authentic Eucharistic community should
become a sign of the gradually maturing unity of all Christians, there
must a lively-felt need for penance, both in its sacramental aspect179, and in what concerns penance as a virtue. This second aspect was expressed by Paul VI in the Apostolic Constitution Paenitemini180. One of the Church's tasks is to put into practice the teaching Paenitemini contains;
this subject must be investigated more deeply by us in common
reflection, and many more decisions must be made about it in a spirit of
pastoral collegiality and with respect for the different traditions in
this regard and the different circumstances of the lives of the people
of today. Nevertheless, it is certain that the Church of the new Advent,
the Church that is continually preparing for the new coming of the
Lord, must be the Church of the Eucharist and of Penance. Only when
viewed in this spiritual aspect of her life and activity is she seen to
be the Church of the divine misison, the Church in statu missionis, as the Second Vatican Council has shown her to be.
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