Man: God?
God: Yes?
Man: Can I ask you something?
God: Of course!
Man: What is for you a million years?
God: A second.
Man: And a million dollars?
God: A penny.
Man: God, Can you give me a penny?
God: Sure. Wait a second
Recently I went for a graduation party. While I was talking to some people there and one asked me whether I was a priest by any chance. I replied to him that I am priest not by chance but by the grace of God and my decision. We continued the conversation. He asked me again about how long I take for mass. I said, “half an hour week days and one hour on Sundays”. He said that is too long. He likes very short mass, taking 10 or 15 minutes. I said that I don’t believe in fast food because it gives slow digestion. To which church do you go for mass? I go to St. Mattress church. I know that there are four churches in Lima but not heard about St. Mattress church. He said that it is in the second floor of his house. He never goes for mass on Sundays rather spends his time on the mattress.
Why do you go to Church? Why do we participate in the Church?
The answer is found in today’s feast, the feast of Corpus Christy. At the end of the words of consecration, we are told to do this in memory of, to become Christ’s memorial today.
Today’s homily is a catechesis on the Eucharist. I want to take three central concepts in the Eucharist and discuss it, so that we have a deeper understanding of our gathering each Sunday. The three important concepts are “epiclesis,” “transubstantiation,” and “anamnesis.” a. Epiclesis
Epiclesis, literally means to call out, to invoke. It means to invoke or call out to the Father that he may send the Holy Spirit, or invoke the Holy Spirit that he may come. We invoke the Holy Spirit or invoke the Father to send the Holy Spirit to accomplish an action that is beyond our capacity. In the Eucharist, the priest who is the minister of God invokes the Father to send the Spirit, so that the bread and wine may be transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ. The Epiclesis in the second Eucharist prayer reads: “Let your Spirit come upon these gifts to make them holy so that they may become the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.” In the third Eucharist prayer it reads: “And so Father we bring you these gifts. We ask you to make them holy by the power of your Spirit, so that they may become the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ at whose command we celebrate this Eucharist.” This action is possible not with human hand but with the intervention of the Holy Spirit, because it is the Spirit that gives life. (Ezek 37:1-10). What we are asking, then, that our gifts may cease to be ordinary bread and wine and begin to be a holy reality, the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is also important to note that there is a Trinitarian dimension in the invocation. Father, send... Spirit upon... may become the Body and Blood of Jesus.
This is not the only Epiclesis in the Eucharist Prayer. There is also an invocation for the people. In the second Eucharistic Prayer, the invocation goes this way: “May all of us who share in the Body and Blood of Christ be brought together in unity by the Holy Spirit.” In the third Eucharistic Prayer, it reads: “Grant that we who are nourished by his Body and Blood may be filled with his Holy Spirit and become one body, one spirit in Christ.” Once again, we are asking God to accomplish something that we as human beings cannot do by ourselves. Only the Spirit of God can make us the “body of Christ”, a community, one in mind and heart.
b. Anamnesis
The Greek word Anamnesis (from which comes the English word amnesia), means memory. It is that part of the Eucharist where we relive the memory, reenact what Christ did on the day of the Last Supper. This is what St. Paul says the Lord asks us to remember. “For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and after he had given thanks, broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in memory of me” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes (1 Cor 11:23-26).
The question in focus here is the word remembrance or memory. What do these words mean? As in normal English language, memory in Hebrew or Aramaic did not mean merely a recalling to memory. In fact, this is how the Catholic tradition differs from some other Christian traditions, for whom ‘communion service’ is merely a memory.
Let’s take a peep into the OT to get the Catholic understanding of ‘memory.’ Exodus 12:14, in reference to the Passover event, prescribed for the Israelites, “This day shall be a memorial feast for you… as a perpetual institution.” In the OT, the event that was recalled/remembered/called to memory was the Exodus event, particularly the Passover event. After the original event, each year as families got together to recall the event, it was not just an event recalled to memory but it was a reliving of that event. It was an actualization of that event. So, even after many years of the original event, the event was recalled in the present (Ex 12:27). When Christ used the words “Do this in memory”, he meant that we should relive, not just recall to mind, the new Passover - his passion, death, and resurrection. “For as often as we do this we proclaim the death of the Lord till he comes” (2 Cor 11:26). So when we celebrate the Eucharist and specially recall the Last Supper, we are actually reliving what Christ achieved for us on the Cross. It is as if the passion, death, and resurrection of the Lord is being reenacted in our midst all over again. You might ask but why should the once and for all death of Christ be enacted again? Because as St. Paul says, “…as often as you do this, you proclaim his death until he comes again” (2 Cor 11:26).
c. Trans-substantiation
This word is not a foreign word, but a difficult English term. It is simple if we break the word. Trans would mean change, and we identify the word substance in the word substantiation. The word simply then means change of substance. How this applies to the Eucharist needs some explanation. We are referring here to the change of the substance of the bread and wine into the substance of the Body and Blood of Christ. Anything tangible has two things: substance and its qualities. Let me give you an example. Take a piece of paper. The paper is the substance i.e. the thing the paper is made of. The paper could be white, or red, or pink, and the shape could be round or square, and it could be rough or smooth, and it could be thick or thin. The color, the shape, the quality and the thickness of the paper are its qualities. I can change the qualities of paper but not the substance. If I did, it would not paper any more. In the Eucharist the opposite happens as a work of the Holy Spirit. When the priest prays for the Spirit to come (Epiclesis), the substance of the bread and wine changes into the substance of the Body and blood of Christ, without changing the qualities. That is why the change is not visible. So the bread is no more bread and the wine is no more wine but the Body and Blood of Christ, although the shape and color (qualities) remains the same. This principle is called trans-substantiation, because the substance has changed.
Conclusion
The words of the doxology i.e., “Through Him, with Him, in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all Glory and honor is yours almighty Father, forever and ever,” reveal the entire meaning of the Eucharist. This is the summit or the climax of our worship. This is perfect worship. This worship is not lacking in anything. This is so because we offer worship to the Father, through, with and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Only Christ could have in his lifetime offered perfect worship to the Father. We unite ourselves through, with and in Him, and in the unity of the Holy Spirit to offer perfect worship. This perfect worship is made possible for us because of Christ. Any other form of worship is also worship but they lack the perfection that the Eucharist, (Christ) offers.
Let us then proceed to the table to "relive" the memory of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus in and through this Eucharist. Let this be our perfect worship. Amen.
