A Closer Look at Sacramentum Caritatis

I have to admit that when I read Sacramentum Caritatis, I did it as more of a "duty" than anything else. Consequently, I zipped through it, marked it off my list and moved on.

Shame on me.

Our church began something new this week ... the first of a series of weekly excerpts that made me read slowly, think carefully, and realize the beauty and truth-packed goodness of this document. I'm not sure if anyone else read it but I certainly was glad that I was forced to take another look. I am going to put the excerpt up here and share with y'all as well. (And yes I typed this ... that is how much I love y'all!).

Loving Us to “The end”

The sacrament of charity (1), the Holy Eucharist is the gift that Jesus Christ makes of himself, thus revealing to us God’s infinite love for every man and woman. This wondrous sacrament makes manifest that “greater” love which led him to “lay down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:13). Jesus did indeed love them “to the end” (Jn 13:1). In those words the Evangelist introduces Christ’s act of immense humility: before dying for us on the Cross, he tied a towel around himself and washed the feet of his disciples. In the same way, Jesus continues, in the sacrament of the Eucharist, to love us “to the end,” even to offering us his body and his blood. What amazement must the Apostles have felt in witnessing what the Lord did and said during that Supper! What wonder must the eucharistic mystery also awaken in our own hearts!

-------------------------------------------------------

The reverent and tender words above call us to reflect on the Eucharist as Jesus’ eternal love for us in this offering of his body and his blood.

We might expect to find this sort of inspirational commentary in a devotional. What a surprise, then, to find that this is the introductory paragraph of Pope Benedict’s recently released report on the bishops’ synod on the Eucharist held in 2005. Or as it is more formally titled:

POST-SYNODAL
APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION
SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS*
[Sacrament of Charity]
OF THE HOLY FATHER
BENEDICT XVI
TO THE BISHOPS, CLERGY,
CONSECRATED PERSONS
AND THE LAY FAITHFUL
ON THE EUCHARIST
AS THE SOURCE AND SUMMIT
OF THE CHURCH’S LIFE AND MISSION

As formidable as that title sounds, this introductory paragraph shows us that we are being given an intimate look into how Pope Benedict and the bishops reflect upon the Eucharist itself. As the Holy Father says, further into the exhortation:

... I wish here to endorse the wishes expressed by the Synod Fathers (11) by encouraging the Christian people to deepen their understanding of the relationship between the eucharistic mystery, the liturgical action, and the new spiritual worship which derives from the Eucharist as the sacrament of charity. Consequently, I wish to set the present Exhortation alongside my first Encyclical Letter, Deus Caritas Est,** in which I frequently mentioned the sacrament of the Eucharist and stressed its relationship to Christian love, both of God and of neighbour: “God incarnate draws us all to himself. We can thus understand how agape*** also became a term for the Eucharist: there God’s own agape comes to us bodily, in order to continue his work in us and through us” (12).

That is much more what could be expected as an introduction and yet it comes five paragraphs into the exhortation. Clearly Pope Benedict wishes to first plunge us into the heart of the matter which is the complete and self-sacrificing love of Jesus for each of us through the Eucharist. Which is exactly as we should wish also.

(1) Cf. Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae III, q. 73, a. 3.
(11) Cf. Propositio 1.
(12) No. 14: AAS 98 (2006), 229.

* Sacrament of Charity. (Caritatis, meaning “charity,” is from Latin and translates in this case as “Christian love..”)
** God Is Love.
*** Agape is from the Greek and was used by the early Christians to refer to the self-sacrificing love of God for humanity, which they were committed to reciprocating and practicing towards God and among one another. One example of this is found in Matthew 22:37-41, when Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment and answered “’Love (agape) the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love (agape) your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

This is the first of a series of weekly excerpts from Pope Benedict XVI’s Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis. You are encouraged to read the entire document. The Vatican link to that document as well as to Pope Benedict’s first encyclical can be found on the website, www.stthomasaquinas.org.