The
Church from the Eucharist, Chapter 6
Solemnity
of Christ the King,
Royalty is not only a form of
government, familiar to all, but one replete with images associated with
splendor and pomp. As such, it looms greater in the imagination than in our
American experience. This perhaps is all to the good for us in the attribution
of kingship to our Blessed Lord, for, even if we have been deprived of
monarchy, we have also been spared, by and large, the association of kingly
rule with some infamous historical figures undeserving of royal power.
As King, our Lord is the absolute
Sovereign of the universe. Everything and everyone is under His dominion since
He is their Creator, Redeemer and Judge. Folklore relates stories of kings
disguising themselves as common men in order to mix in with them and to test
firsthand their
loyalties. These tales may be aptly ascribed to King Jesus
Himself who was once constrained to declare his royal identity before Pontius
Pilate in the semblance of a captured criminal. Moreover, His greatest instance
of self-effacement is the form of the Eucharistic Host wherein He conceals at
once His divinity, kingship and sacred humanity. How often this humble aspect
of His has been the occasion of men’s neglect, sacrilege and scorn! Let us then
be all the more bold in the affirmation of our faith: the selfsame God who
dwells in the highest heavens and who has power to create or demolish the
universe at will resides in our tabernacle, full worthy of all honors,
allegiance, obedience and profound adoration. Such is the Person of our Beloved
King present in the most Holy Eucharist.
The final chapter of the Pope’s
document The Church from the Eucharist deals with our Blessed Mother,
Holy Mary. With the celebration of Christ the King in mind today, we may
fittingly acclaim Her–as does the whole Church–our
heavenly Queen. Her queenship, of course, is not equal to the kingship of
Christ, since she too is His subject. But, on account of her singular, unique
and total obedience to God–the likes of which has never since been found among
men,–she merited to become Mother of the King
of kings. Among the few but cherished words of hers preserved in sacred
Scripture we find the directive, “Do what ever Jesus tells you.” And, that she
bears a special relationship to us as communicants, we need only to think that
she conceived the Son of God in “the physical reality of his body and blood,
thus anticipating within herself what to some degree happens sacramentally in
every believer who receives, under the signs of bread and wine, the Lord’s body
and blood.” (55). The Pope likens Mary’s word of acquiescence “Let it be done
to me” with the word “Amen” which we say in receiving the same body and blood
of the Son of God in Holy Communion. How Marian a thing it is to receive Jesus
in Communion with faith and in God’s grace!
There are other ways that our Blessed
Mother has Eucharistic relationships. Think, for example, how like our
tabernacles she is since she contained in her own virginal body the incarnate
Christ, thus making of herself a tabernacle or ‘house’ of God. Or, imagine the
thoughts running through her mind when she heard the apostles celebrating Mass
in their day as they said these words: “This is my body, my blood,”– ‘this is
the very same body I carried within men, that I had saw bloody on the cross and
in that blest sunlight of Easter morning.’
“Behold your mother!” These words of
our Lord may be addressed to ourselves at
We ought to find every means possible
of giving the Eucharist the attention and respect it deserves. We should not
think, ‘yes, yes, I know He’s truly present’ and then act as if He were not
present. Moreover, we need to guard our treasured belief in the Blessed
Sacrament for future generations of Christians, keeping intact the faith and
the same Catholic teaching about it we have inherited. As the Pope says, “There
can be no danger of excess in our care for this mystery.” “The Church’s
greatest treasure, the heart of the world, the pledge of the fulfilment for
which each man and woman, even unconsciously, yearns” is found here in the Holy
Eucharist for this is Christ, the goal to which our hearts aspire in our thirst
for joy and for peace.
Next Sunday begins the Advent season: the time for yearning,
desiring and thirsting for Christ. We were made, we
were created for the final purpose of attaining to Him. When we receive Him
today in Communion–and even if we are not able to receive–we ought to feel
within us a longing for heaven when all the things we have been saying about
the Eucharist will finally be uncovered and there He shall stand, in full glory
and splendor, more kingly and magnificent, and more beautiful and loving than
our feeble imaginations could ever devise.