ID cards, drivers' licenses, passports all tell us something of our identity but none can get to the basic truth of our identity – that each of us is a person called by God, called into life by God and called by God through the waters of baptism to be part of the Church, the Body of Christ. Called by God – that is who I am. But I am also a person sent by God, sent by God with brothers and sisters who make up the Body of Christ to continue the work of Christ in the world.
In Stay With Us, Lord Jesus, Blessed John Paul II wrote: “Each member of the faithful must assimilate ... the values which the Eucharist expresses, the attitudes it inspires, the resolutions to which it gives birth.” Culture is a hard word to define but it seems to me that values, attitudes, practices which a group holds is a good way to understand culture.
The Eucharist is not only an expression of our identity but also forms our culture as Catholics as it forms in us certain values and attitudes. Let us look at some of these aspects of culture in which the Eucharist forms us and sustains us.
Gratitude
“The Eucharist creates a community of disciples whose fundamental characteristic is gratefulness for the gift.” (John Paul II.) The very word Eucharist comes from the Greek word for thanksgiving and during the celebration of the Eucharist we give God thanks explicitly a number of times, e.g. Let us give thanks to the Lord .... It is right and just always and everywhere...” “Blessed are you, Lord of all creation.....”
Our daily lives and our celebration of the Eucharist cannot be two separate compartments, and so as we give thanks in church, we live it out in our daily lives – a people for whom gratitude is an important value, part of our Catholic culture formed, nourished, sustained by our celebration of the Eucharist.
Sacramental Imagination/Respect For All Creation
This is another aspect of our Catholic culture, values and attitudes, which for us as a group are important. As Catholics we believe that all God created is good and that all of God's creation can be an agent through which God can work. Everything can carry the divine presence.
We are reminded of this In the Eucharist as we pray, Heaven and earth are full of your glory..... Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation. The Lord comes to us through bread and wine which earth and vine have given.
Our celebration of the Eucharist forms and sustains us in this vital aspect of our Catholic culture.
Unity
Unity is the heart of the kingdom of God – countless Scripture passages attest to this, and the Eucharist deepens our awareness of this facet of our Catholic culture. After all, the Mass for the most part is prayed in the first person plural (we, us, our) reminding us that we are doing this together, that we are a Body.
Some other examples of how the Eucharist forms our value of unity:
Eucharistic Prayer II: Humbly we pray that all of us who partake in the Body and Blood of the Lord may be gathered into one by the Holy Spirit.
The Sign of Peace, which we exchange after a prayer that calls for “peace and unity in accordance with your will”, is a sign of commitment to living in and working for a community of peace and unity.
St Paul says (1Cor 10:16-17) “We though many form one body because we share in the one loaf.” The reception of communion brings us not only into communion/unity with the Lord but also with one another. What we celebrate inside the walls of the church must be part of the culture in which we live our daily lives. In a world of divisions the culture of God's people is different.
Eschatological outlook
As Catholics we know that this world is not all there is, that there is the gift of eternal life for us, and that all will be made well when Christ comes again. This outlook, this attitude, should colour our daily lives. The celebration of the Eucharist forms us in this.
For example: The mystery of faith e.g. We proclaim your death, O Lord, and profess your resurrection until you come again.
– As we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.
– ... That we may merit to be coheirs to eternal life…
– Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb. This quote from the Book of Revelation (19:9) refers to the wedding feast of heaven, so we are reminded by these words that the communion we are about to receive is a foreshadowing of our perfect communion with the Lord and one another in heaven, a foretaste of glory divine.
Many of the Opening Prayers and Prayers after Communion speak of eternal life.
This characteristic of our celebration of the Eucharist gives us a culture that is not bound by materialism, that is not greedy and grasping, that gives us, as St Paul says, eyes for the spiritual.
Service, Self-Giving, Sacrifice
At the centre of our celebration of the Eucharist is the Paschal Mystery, the dying and rising of Christ, the self-gift of Jesus to us. “Do this in memory of me,” Jesus says – not just the gathering and the remembering but also living our daily lives in imitation of Jesus who gave himself for us. The Eucharist calls us to live a culture of self- giving and service in the midst of a worldly culture of selfishness and indifference.
Mission
“For the faithful who have understood the meaning of what they have done, the Eucharistic celebration does not end at the church door... Christians who gather every Sunday to experience and proclaim the presence of the Risen Lord are called to evangelize and bear witness in their daily lives” (Day of the Lord, John Paul II).
“The first and fundamental mission that we receive from the sacred mysteries we celebrate is that of bearing witness by our lives” (Sacrament of Charity, Benedict XVI).
A recognition that we are sent, that we are witnesses to the Lord, means we live our lives in a culture of values and attitudes formed and nourished by the Eucharist, as the dismissals from Mass remind us – “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord”; “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your lives”.