Another thoughtful post from my friend, Fr. Kevin Morris:
http://inwardlydigest.org/2014/06/11/do-we-really-believe-in-the-real-presence/
"The greatest love story of all time is contained in a tiny white host” -Archbishop Fulton Sheen
“You take communion to become holy, not because you already are” -St. Peter Julian Eymard
Episcopalians believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the
Eucharist. That is to say that Jesus Christ is truly and objectively
present on the altar under the form of bread and wine, which are
consecrated as His Body and His Blood. It is an idea that goes back to
the very earliest time in the church and it is one of the greatest
mysteries of the Catholic faith. Medieval theologians went to great
lengths to explain exactly how this happens, but nowadays I think the
average worshiper is content to accept the elements as being what Christ
says they are (i.e., His Body and His Blood) without much exploration
into the intricate philosophical arguments as to how they got that way.
The idea of the Real Presence seems pretty uncontroversial these days,
but I do question sometimes what we actually believe.
Do we actually believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the
Eucharist? If so, do our actions, both in the mass and outside of the
mass, bear witness to that belief? Sometimes I wonder…
I once visited a church where the custom was to take the unconsumed
bread outside after the service (they used leavened bread) and to
scatter it upon the sidewalk in a misguided attempt to feed the birds.
Although this was an extreme example of sacrilege, it was certainly not
the only such experience I have had in my ministry, and I am aware of
many more examples of similar desecration from stories I have heard from
my colleagues. It is a trite saying, but it is true: actions speak
louder than words. If we expect people to take our beliefs seriously,
then those beliefs need to be reflected in our lives; if we are going to
claim in word that the Holy Eucharist is the supreme act of Christian
worship and that Christ is truly present in the sacrament on the altar,
then our actions need to claim it in deed.
I so often hear priests discussing liturgy as if it is merely
concerned with style and not substance. This is a fallacy. The
liturgical actions we employ in the worship of God teach as much, if not
more, than the words we use. Our style of worship conveys the substance
of our faith; in and of itself it is not the substance, but it is an
important tool that we use to point people to deeper realities. G.D.
Carleton, in his classic guide to the Anglo-Catholic faith The King’s Highway writes:
If true worship in the spirit were lacking, all grandeur of
material worship would indeed be a dead and meaningless form: but true
spiritual worship, from beings such as we are, would not be complete and
perfected if it were divorced from as perfect an outward expression as
we are able to give. This is the principle which underlies all the
ceremonial of the church.
The ceremonial is an outward expression of our inner faith and
worship, and although I would argue that it does not need to be (nor
should it be) universally the same, I do think that it should be an
experience of dignity and reverence that is a fitting expression of the
spiritual reality that we are proclaiming. We claim that our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ is actually present in the bread and wine offered on
the altar; do our actions proclaim the same thing? Can people tell from
our posture and actions a sense of respect for the God in our midst?
Would a stranger walking into our churches see in our expressions any
awe and wonder at the great mystery of the incarnation held before us?
If we really believe that Christ is present in the sacrament of the
altar and if we believe that part of our calling as Christians is going
out into the world and making people disciples of that very same Christ,
then what we do, both inside the mass and outside the mass, matters.
Next week is the Feast of Corpus Christi and my church will be
observing it with a service of Choral Evensong and Benediction of the
Blessed Sacrament. Although Benediction, for most Anglicans, may seem a
strange or foreign service, best left to the spikiest of
Anglo-Catholics, there is much to be commended about it, and I am happy
to say that it seems to be gaining in popularity of late. Benediction
and Eucharistic Adoration draw our attention to the mystery of the
incarnation in a way that makes us stop what we are doing and take
notice that there is something very profound happening here. It is a
wonderful compliment to, but not replacement of, the mass itself. Here
we must reflect on the reality to which the Eucharistic prayer speaks:
the great love story of God that is contained in this bread. Our actions
speak to this reality too: we bow, we kneel, we burn candles and
incense all to show the great love and respect for the God who chooses
to be among us.
But of course, our love for God should not stop there. The great
paradox of sanctity, is that when you learn to recognize the holiness of
one thing, you can then see that same holiness reflected in other
things. It is only by recognizing the holiness of God that we are able
to eventually lay claim to our own holiness, as well as the holiness of
others. First we recognize the sacredness of the bread, then we
recognize the sacredness of all that the bread feeds. Saint Peter Julian
Eymard, the French priest and founder of the Congregation of the
Blessed Sacrament, once remarked: “Happy is the soul that knows how to find Jesus in the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in all things.”
Are we helping people to find Jesus in the Eucharist? Do our actions,
whether they be liturgical or in the secular world, point to the great
truth which we claim in the Holy Eucharist? Would a stranger observing
what we do, but ignoring what we say, still understand our worship as
something profound and mysterious, our would they see it simply as
another gathering of like-minded individuals? If we truly believe in the
Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, then our worship and our
lives need to reflect that. We don’t all need to celebrate in exactly
the same way and our liturgies needn’t always be complicated, but what
we do should always help people to find Jesus in the Eucharist and the
Eucharist in all things. It is here where style really matters to the
substance of our faith."
