White Robed Monks of St. Benedict

The Eucharist and Justice

If we think of the Eucharist as a form of food, even after consecration then the issue of justice immediately arises. Justice concerns itself with the distribution and sharing of that which pertains to life. This means first of all food. Food has to be shared and starvation is the profoundest form of poverty. Even if food is plentiful, the sharing of food is a profound symbol of the sharing of all other goods. There are things which are our 'food' that is those objects without which we are not able to live a fully human life. The nature of such objects changes with time as culture's change. What are the necessities of life?

The 1st letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians deals with a variety of issues affecting a newly formed church. Paul had founded this church inasmuch as he claims to have laid its foundation (3:9). This foundation was by preaching more than be sacramental acts. It was quite important that he had not baptized many of them (1:14-19). He had founded the church by his teaching and therefore it was his teaching that mattered. They had failed to understand it even though what Paul had given them was the most basic teaching. This teaching is described as being like food. This is more than an analogy. The purpose of the church as it gathers together is to eat. The climax of their eating is to be the eating of the Eucharist, which is the truest form of food. The community comes together and receives the food, which God provides. All food is provided by God. It is gift and the Eucharist is the greatest form of food because it is the greatest form of gift. That food is God's gift can easily be forgotten. Since they bring their own food to the celebration which is eaten by them, the failure to share this food is a grave sin which denies the meaning of the Eucharist. 'For each in the act of eating takes his own dinner and one is hungry while the other is becoming drunk' 11:21

Paul's solution is not to eat at the gathering at all. The failure to understand gives him an opportunity to remind us of the central event of the Eucharist at the last supper. The description is to help us to see what the full meaning of the Eucharist is. 'For the one who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgement to himself, if he does not discern the body.' This statement has two double meanings. Eating and drinking refers both to the meal before the Eucharist and receiving communion and the body, which is not discerned, is both the body which the Eucharist makes present and the mystical body of Christ which is the church. The Eucharist is therefore the ultimate determinant of justice because justice is understood in terms of sharing of God's gifts. The Eucharist as the ultimate gift of God in this life is the way in which we reaffirm our common dependence on each other. This means justice among Christians who share in the Eucharist but what about non-Christians. We might say that we should be equally just to all but this is glib. It is true that there are basic needs which belong to all and which we cannot deprive each other of these needs. The justice between Christians has to be more than that. Christians are sharing a life together.

Justice between Christians is concerned with sharing that life as well as they can. Being one with each other in Christ. This does not mean that there are no subdivisions so that we can show justice and love to each other in a manageable way. Obviously we have families and friends, the communities of parishes and the specialized groups to which we belong. It is usually out of the commitment to the few we know well that our commitment to each other grows. Yet the church herself grows out of the world at large and depends on that world. There is a lot implied about a just and ordered working of the world in the prayer before the Eucharist begins. The prayer in which we acknowledge the bread and wine produced by the world, without which there would be no Eucharist.

'Blessed are you Lord, God of all creation. Through your goodness we have this bread to offer which earth has given and human hands have made.'

Blessed are you Lord, God of all creation. Through your goodness, we have this wine to offer, fruit of the vine and work of human hands, it will become our spiritual drink.

The prayer thanks God first of all but reminds us that the bread has come through the mediation of human work. This work requires a certain measure of organization and in the main the church has never taken an anarchic view of human society. Even communist societies have received a certain measure of support from the church inasmuch as they represent the only available order. When a society breaks down, people starve and we should always have severe reservations about any form of violent revolt. We need bread and wine, we need the work of human hands and the maintenance of the vine. So justice in society at large will always be a concern for the church. A just society is one in which, by its very nature, the church will flourish, or to put it another way, a society in which the church truly flourishes is by its nature a just one.