The Eucharist and Human Liberation

Certainly we can read and consider several commentaries and reflections upon our central and infinite and nourishing mystery of the Eucharist. We can consider how the new letter from Pope Benedict The Sacrament of Charity: Sacramentum Caritatis flows directly from earlier works. We must read carefully the late and great Professor Hellwig's Eucharist and the Hunger of the World: Second Edition, Revised and Expanded. The more scholastic among us may find refreshment and strength in the great Dominican and well respected theologian the Rev. Father Edward Schillebeeckx's The Eucharist, as well as earlier Papal and Conciliar contemplations of the eternally unifying and salvific power of our Eucharist as act of Charity (see Benedict above) and service. Nevertheless we must not overlook this excellent fountainhead and examination of the orthodox sense of the Eucharist. Although written now thirty years ago, it reads more freshly and urgently than ever in calling back to our hearts and minds the full meaning of our Eucharistic Celebration, including an excellent examination of the Lord's Prayer, line by line. The author, Father Balasuriya, studied theology at the historical and orthodox Catholic Gregorian Institute in Rome as well as at the University of Paris. He served as President of the Aquinas University College in Sri Lanka. Yet despite (or because of) this preparation at the highest academic levels, he clearly and concisely illuminates for us, the nonspecialist, the full meaning of the Eucharistic mystery, with infinite food for further thought and prayer. He breaks us fropm our idolatry of ritualism and opens us to the underlying Eucharistic essence which informs our entire lives if we were only aware. He reveals how the Eucharist lives as a Real Presence in our day to day lives in all that we do and see. For example, and realizing it is impossible to draw a representative passage from such a comprehensive work which considers nearly every aspect of the Eucharist, historical and theological, kindly consider the following quote: "In the Eucharist we see Jesus in prayer. It was a prayer that was said at a meal, in the company of the apostles. The ceremony was that of a Jewish festivity that every family could celebrete. There was no priestly garment, no sacred vessel. What he brought to it as exceptional was his commitment to the cause of integral human liberation for which he was offering his life. The first Eucharist was, therefore, an event apart from the synagogue or temple, in which the offering of one's life out of love for one's fellow human beings was the constituent element. His discourse before it emphasizes such love in commitment, service, and fellowship. The priest was also the victim. If there was a pre-eminence in his priesthood, it was in service, and in first offering himself as a victim. Jesus offered the Eucharist only once. (. . . p. 20)" It is very difficult to stop quoting as all that is written is so very valuable, in pa