The Real Presence: Resources

Description:
Looking at the proper theological and liturgical understanding of Eucharsitic adoration.

We often see people praying in front of the tabernacle, that shrine found in every Catholic church, where the eucharistic Body of Jesus is securely "reserved". From this sacred safe-keeping, the Eucharist can be brought to the sick or dying at any time. In this sacred place, people gather to pray directly to Jesus Christ, who is really, truly and substantially present under the appearances of bread.

Praying in front of a tabernacle is known as "eucharistic adoration". At certain times, a larger consecrated Host is taken from the tabernacle and enthroned in a noble vessel often shaped like a sunburst, which we call a monstrance. Candles and flowers are set up near the monstrance during this time of concentrated adoration, described as "exposition of the Blessed Sacrament". Often exposition includes a beautiful ceremony known as Benediction, when a priest or deacon blesses all present by making the sign of the cross with the monstrance. Melbourne's most historic church, Saint Francis Lonsdale Street has been a centre of these forms of eucharistic adoration for many years. This is why so many people are drawn there in personal or communal prayer.

Eucharistic adoration is steadily spreading through the world-wide Church once more. Interestingly enough the impetus for this revival of adoration comes largely from lay people, as I learnt through a "global view" while working in the Vatican (1987-1997). At the World Youth Day in Paris, 1997, many young people gathered in churches for eucharistic adoration. In Australia, lay adoration initiatives increase each year, with planned adoration in parishes. In some places adoration is a rostered watch before the tabernacle or a cycle of regular "holy hours". Elsewhere an adoration chapel has been set up where the Blessed Sacrament is exposed, with lay people authorized to manage exposition and the times of adoration, even in some places "perpetual adoration", that is, for twenty four hours a day.

As the modern liturgical directives make plain, eucharistic adoration is an extension of the sacred liturgy. It flows from the celebration of the Eucharist and leads us back to offer and receive Our Lord with greater fervour. Adoration cannot be defined only as a "private devotion". Nor should adoration be based on pious theories, let alone unsound doctrine, such as, depicting Jesus as the lonely "Prisoner of the tabernacle". The risen Lord is not locked up as a prisoner. His words to his sleepy disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, "Will you not watch one hour with me?" make an excellent motivation for spending time with Jesus in the Eucharist, but that should not define adoration, which has many other dimensions.

Therefore, according to the mind of the post-Vatican II Church and going beyond piety, I would prefer to offer a liturgical interpretation of what we are doing during solemn adoration. This is based on the late medieval origin of the vessel we use for exposition, the monstrance, and how it emerged from the practice of reservation and celebration of the Eucharist.

The monstrance was invented about seven centuries ago as a way of "showing" the consecrated Host to the people to help their adoration, based on the human wish to "see" or find a focus, a centre for prayer. The name of the vessel "monstrance" or "ostensorium" comes from two Latin words meaning "to show" (monstrare, ostensare).

By replacing the hands of the celebrant, the monstrance as it were "freezes" three moments in the celebration of the liturgy, three "showings" of the Body of Christ:

The meaning of these moments is presented to us in the time set aside for eucharistic adoration, most vividly when adoration is focussed around the Host in a monstrance. Moreover, the scriptural revelation of the Eucharist is what we can return to again and again once we reflect on these moments.

1. The wordless elevation, in silence or to the sound of a bell, is simply a call to acknowledge the Lord Jesus now really, truly and substantially present among us in the Eucharist, to adore him, to thank him, to love him in the saving Sacrifice of the Mass. There is also a sense of "lifting up" not only in the word "elevation" but in the gesture itself. While the Sacrifice in fact is offered within the consecration (as Pope Paul teaches in Mysterium Fidei), the elevations of Host and Chalice vividly recall those magnificent words in John's Gospel "and I if I be lifted up with draw all to myself", words which link Jesus to the healing serpent Moses raised in the desert, words realized when he was lifted up on the cross.

2 As the formula in the modern missal reveals, the showing of the broken Host sets before us the Marriage Supper of the slain Lamb: "this is the Lamb of God", a victim for our sins, "who takes away the sins of the world". Thus we are those blessed ones "who are called to his supper", called to share his broken body and outpoured blood. So we are led forward beyond time to the nuptial triumph of the Bride, the Church of the New Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation, that is to the end of time and seasons, to the fulfillment of time. This is an example of the future dimension in the modern Roman rite of Mass, a development which takes up the promise of eternal life Jesus offers to those who eat his body and drink his blood (cf. John 6: 48-51, 53-58).

3. The simple presentation of the Host to each communicant, puts before us the words "The Body of Christ". This is the call to faith, to the "Amen" of assent and hence to eat and drink, to become one with the Lord. This is God's call for us to live the Eucharist, to make a commitment to become a vital cell in the working "Body of Christ" in this world, as Saint Paul has taught us. This is what we are finally challenged to become as we are dismissed at the end of Mass: "God in peace to love and serve the Lord."

During adoration we may choose to reflect on any of these dimensions of the Eucharist, and that reflection leads us from the liturgy in thanksgiving and towards the liturgy in preparation, which sums up the excellent post-conciliar liturgical understanding of adoration.

Recognizing the freedom of our personal responses in the time of adoration, we may prefer simply to "be there", praying before the tabernacle, with the Lord. The tabernacle is "God's tent" is a simple sign of God-with-us, God-among-us, Emmanuel, present in all our churches and among the worshipping community that gathers in each church. In that sacred space we are all free to find the Lord in a silence that speaks loudly to those who would listen, to those who would wait and watch with him.

Pope John Paul II has vigorously promoted adoration of the Eucharist in Rome, by his word and example and by introducing public adoration in the major basilicas. His leadership should encourage us to promote adoration everywhere, especially among children and young people in parishes and schools. This focussed form of prayer gives young people much space to pray at their own pace. Eucharistic adoration invites them to know, worship and love the Lord Jesus in a unique way.