The Glory of Eucharistic Theology

Rorate Caeli ^ | 150307 | Anonymous

[Arthur McGowan]

Saint Thomas has sometimes been portrayed, especially in the theological anarchy of the postconciliar period, as a hidebound medieval scholastic trapped in a rationalistic methodology, whose works lack a palpable spirituality that resonates in the hearts of modern people. As a lifelong student and teacher of Aquinas’s works, I have two reactions: first, this stance betrays a poor understanding of the enterprise of theology itself; and second, it is simply not true on the ground, if I may judge from countless experiences I have had over the past twenty-five years with students from many countries, whom I have the privilege to see coming alive in the joy of intellectual discovery and in a growing love for the Catholic faith, as they go more and more deeply into the wisdom found in Aquinas’s works.

With St. Thomas, we learn that the essential purpose of investigating a divinely revealed truth that is inaccessible to natural reason is to raise our minds to a more intense appreciation of the very mysteriousness of the mystery. In other words, we are helped to see it in all its “dark luminosity,” a mysterium tremendum et fascinans, opaque to our intellects but full of wonder and fascination. We see the mystery as mystery only when we apply our reason to the fullest extent to see the marvelousness of the miracle; more broadly, to see the supernatural, the super-rational, in its very beyondness.

This is true of the Blessed Trinity above all, and of the Incarnation, and therefore of the Eucharist, which is a kind of replication or representation of the Incarnation and the primary means by which the life of the Trinity, the life of grace in the soul of Christ, is poured into the Christian soul.

A secondary purpose is to defend the faith against the objections of unbelievers, and to defend our own faith against the kind of doubts that our fallen, sense-bound, rationalistic nature will suggest to us, if we are thoughtful people. God wants us to be thoughtful people, otherwise He would not have created us as intellectual beings; but He wants us to be thoughtfully faithful, rather than superficially skeptical, which is generally the alternative. The most thoughtful people are either already believers or on their way to becoming believers.

There is a danger in intellectual study of the highest truths, and that is that we will forget that their opacity is due to our feebleness of intellect, our lack of profound meditation, and our distractedness, and we might begin to attribute the lack of light to a lack of intelligibility in the object, the thing known, rather than in the subject, the one knowing. We may also find a stumbling block in the relative dryness of the intellectual approach itself, which is like dry seed that must be watered by the dew of devotion—that is, personal prayer and a sacramental life—in order to grow into healthy vegetation. The fault, again, is not in the scholastic style, which has a kind of intense purity to it, but in the carnal weakness of our mind, which is usually not equipped to sustain such exercises. It’s like being in poor physical shape. A race that would exhilarate another person may leave us feeling half-dead.

Study must be surrounded by prayer the way the earth is surrounded by a life-giving moist and oxygen-rich atmosphere. Without this atmosphere, the earth could not sustain life, but would be a frigid desert like Mars or a furnace like Venus.

There have been thousands of documented miracles in the history of the Church. Every beatification or canonization requires such a miracle, with testimony taken by preference from non-Catholic witnesses. We are inclined to think of the more dramatic miracles as deserving our admiration: the miracle of the dancing sun at Fatima, for example. But more wondrous than any miracle that has been or could be performed is the quiet daily miracle of transubstantiation, by which the Creator effects in a hidden way a suspension of the most fundamental metaphysical relationships in order to feed our bodies and souls. He stops at nothing to ensure that we may come into direct contact with the only Reality that can save us from our unreality.

This is why Pope John Paul II exhorted us in his last encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, to rekindle a “Eucharistic amazement” at this Most Blessed Sacrament of Divine Love. We so easily and frequently underestimate It, as we tend to do with everything. I am reminded of a passage from G. K. Chesterton:

A child kicks its legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough . . . It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again,” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again,” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike: it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.

God is the most childlike of all, because every day, like an infant, He rejoices anew at the rising of the sun, whose being and action He causes. We should ask for the grace to rejoice anew every day at the raising of the sacred Host, which is the sun of the spiritual life, the cause of our Christian being and action—and rejoice even more at the thought that we can consume this sun, making its light and heat our own, making ourselves belong to Him, the Son of Righteousness.

This Eucharistic theology is what I have learned from St. Thomas and from the traditional Latin liturgy that he himself would have known. I pray that he continue to intercede for all of us who embark on the fearful and wonderful adventure of fides quaerens intellectum, faith seeking understanding; I pray that we will imitate him in his unwavering devotion to the prayer and sacraments of the Church.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Ironically, not a single verse from Scripture to communicate the “glories” of Eucharistic theology... PLACEMARKER

[knarf]

I got hung up on the first sentence;

"Saint Thomas has sometimes been portrayed, especially in the theological anarchy of the postconciliar period, as a hidebound medieval scholastic trapped in a rationalistic methodology, whose works lack a palpable spirituality that resonates in the hearts of modern people."

Thank God for right click, search google for ... because I went to a half a dozen differnt places learning about "postconciliar" f'rinstance .... a word made up especially by Catholics FOR Catholics to describe post Vatican 2 .. and .. "hidebound" .. a very interesting word that draws an interesting picture ...

As well as some of the contributors to Rorate Caeli which have following their names, more designations of Catholicism than America has political parties .... I bet THEIR confabs are fun

I marvel at the wordiness Catholics like to be

Festus thought he was talking to a Catholic, apparently

[wheat_grinder]

Can’t be introducing those pesky “scriptures” into a time honored tradition!

[NKP_Vet]

Thanks for the great article. I attend Eucharist adoration every Thursday. Thanks again, wonderful article.

[piusv]

Yes, this was written for Catholics who already know the Scriptural basis for the Eucharist (which of course has been debated ad nauseum here). I’m guessing this OP was not posted to go down that route again.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

"Yes, this was written for Catholics who already know the Scriptural basis for the Eucharist (which of course has been debated ad nauseum here)."

First, we can agree it has been discussed ad nauseum! Second, I guess it is simply a "High Five" thread that may as well have been a caucus thread, but was unmarked as such.

[Rashputin]

Jesus Christ Himself being present isn't glorious?

People who believe what Christ Himself said think His presence is glorious.

Apparently the Self and Self Alone folks are perfect examples of those who "professing themselves to be wise, they became fools."

[piusv]

And if you truly feel that way, then why did you even bother to post?

[Salvation]

And yet we use the words of St. Thomas, “My Lord and My God” during Mass. Some say it softly at the elevations of the host and the wine, others say it audibly.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

"Jesus Christ Himself being present isn't glorious?"

I realize catholics have been taught this. Fine. People can choose to believe whatever they wish.

Objectively though, based on the specific examples of people faced with the glory of God... If the wafer were really the very presence of Christ, His glory would be so overwhelming people would fall down before him and a fake sunbeam (monstronce) would not be necessary to make it appear glorious.

"People who believe what Christ Himself said think His presence is glorious."

Believers who love Him believe His actual presence is glorious.

"Apparently the Self and Self Alone folks are perfect examples of those who "professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." "

I'm not familiar with that denomination, but I can assure you that the reference to Romans is out of context. If you are going to take it out of context and make it not about physical lust, you should also pay attention to God's specific words: "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever."

As I started with, certainly Catholics have been taught this. Fine. I don't try to change their minds. This is an open thread though, set aside for discussion.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

“And if you truly feel that way, then why did you even bother to post?”

It is an open discussion thread on the Religion forum. That is enough reason.

[rwa265]

I have often pondered the meaning of the phrase “give us this day, our daily bread” in the Lord’s Prayer. What is this bread that we ask to be given to us daily? The answer came to me several years ago when I was preparing to be the lector on the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B.

The first reading is from Exodus 16. In verse 4, the LORD said to Moses, “I will now rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion.” In verse 16, Moses tells the Israelites, “This is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat.”

The Gospel reading ends with the following from John 6:30-35. So they (the crowd) said to him, “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” So Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” So they said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.

Further on in John:6, Jesus refers to himself several more times as bread. In verse 51 he says: “I myself am the living bread come down from heaven. I anyone eats this bread he shall live forever; the bread I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world.” To this the Jews said, “How can this man give us (his) flesh to eat?”

Jesus gives His answer at the Last Supper. From Matthew 26:26 - While they were eating, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, “Take this and eat it; this is my body.”

So this daily bread that Jesus taught us to ask for from the Father is His body. And it is through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that we are able to receive our daily bread.

[knarf]

You're a democrat ... right ?

I mean ... THEY like to ignore context and make statements for no other reason than to interject THEIR particular thought processes ..... THEY call it, speaking truth to wisdom (or something like that)

MY comment about wordiness is how Catholics use so much language and words to 'explain' something that was always meant to be so easy (WE call it, easy believism .... )

[knarf]

God is love

Love is blind

Ray Charles is blind

Ray Charles is God

[Salvation]

You need to read my home page.

[piusv]

uh-huh.

[Salvation]

So do you understand what this sentence says?

**

With St. Thomas, we learn that the essential purpose of investigating a divinely revealed truth that is inaccessible to natural reason is to raise our minds to a more intense appreciation of the very mysteriousness of the mystery.**

[rwa265]

?

[knarf]

NO ONE can read your home page ... not in an entire week end

Having said that ... I commented about wordiness

YOU retorted with a few one syllable words ... which had nothing to do with wordiness

I countered with an admitted sarcastic response and now you want me to involve myself in Catholic apologetics ..

ie

"With St. Thomas, we learn that the essential purpose of investigating a divinely revealed truth that is inaccessible to natural reason is to raise our minds to a more intense appreciation of the very mysteriousness of the mystery.**"

Of course I know what he said ... If you open your mind, your mind will be opened (the very mysteriousness of the mystery.)

Tagging it or preluding it in a religious context doesn't do much for or to the intellectual excersize