White Robed Monks of St. Benedict

The Eucharist and Liturgy

In the Early Church, liturgy (leitourgia) would not have necessarily meant the Eucharist. The Divine office which consisted chiefly of morning and evening prayer, using the psalms as its basis was regarded as more important on a day to day basis. In many parts of the church, the attendance at these prayers was regarded as compulsory. The Eucharistic celebration was reserved for Sundays, though the faithful often received communion at home.

Liturgy means literally, work of the people. This meant not so much work of the people as work for the people. In ancient Greece, it was common for leading to citizens to pay their taxes by contributing a certain work for the people. This might be to put on a play, or to build a Trireme, a warship of the time. Liturgy was in effect a form of service to others, which could also be seen as a service to God. The incarnation makes this secondary meaning possible. God is served through his Son. Liturgy could therefore mean both service and worship. Both meanings existed side by side. The ravens who fed Elijah in the book of Kings are described by St Basil as engaging in Liturgy. 1Kings 17:6 And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.

Liturgy then was a service in both meanings of the word. Yet there has been a tension between the Eucharist as the prime service and choral or personal prayer. When St. Jerome was ordained he refused to say mass again because it went against his own wish to be monk, though later on he insisted on the primacy of priests over deacons. St. Augustine too, had no intention of being a priest but was coerced by the people of the local town of Hippo. This suggests that in the 4th century there was already a rift growing between personal sanctity and the exercise of office. The distinction made in the last talk between the mass as a sacrifice and as a sacrament comes out of this. The priest's job was to say mass, the people had a role to ensure that the priest said mass but not necessarily be more than present at the mass. This is not to say that people had a purely passive role. Building churches, providing stipends and endowments are all active enough but there was less sense of the need to participate by receiving the sacrament. The law of the church ensured that some tenuous connection was maintained since it was necessary to receive communion once a year.

The Second Vatican council though, although it appears to have ushered in an era of laxity, is in many ways more demanding. People are expected to receive communion, to prepare themselves for this, not just by confession where necessary but by hearing the word of God which is seen as a call to repentance in itself. This is why there is more emphasis on preaching, and on the bible readings. This is also why the other sacraments are placed between the liturgy of the word and the liturgy of the Eucharist. The hearing of the word, its acceptance and then the other sacraments are all seen as a preparation for the Eucharist. This is the ideal, even though the reality seems at times to have diverged from this. It is important though not to make charitable acts the sole determinant of what is a good life, a life which increasingly shares in the Eucharist. There are many ways of living a eucharistic life, a life of service to God and each other, including the Arts, Science, Philosophy or Business.