With the Eucharistic Congress 2012 on the horizon, it seems important to draw attention to a neglected dimension of the Eucharist. I am referring to its cosmic/creation underpinnings, which often receive little notice.
At this time of heightened awareness of multiple threats to earth-life – the irreversible loss of species, pollution and climate change, with its attendant impact especially on the poor – the celebration of Eucharist must have something to say. Indeed, one could argue that keeping the revered memory of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection commits us to care for the Earth.
The profound insight of ‘Incarnation’ means that we come to understand our relationship to creation as a mutually life-giving one, a relationship that is essential to a Christian way of life. We cannot praise the Creator and rubbish the Earth! Global concerns take their place in our worship often as lament.My fear is that our understanding of Eucharist is too narrow. We can easily forget that Eucharist is always a cosmic event. It embraces all time and space. As source and summit of who we are and what we might be together it is sustenance for deeper living.
To think of it as words on a page and a few formal gestures is akin to reading the ingredients on a packaged food product in place of dinner! Eucharist is bread for the hungry, wine for those on the edge, hope in hard times.
Our Eucharist is too narrow. To open up to the cosmic dimension is to be silenced by the awesomeness of the moment-by-moment revelation – ‘wherever life pours ordinary plenty’ (Patrick Kavanagh, ‘Advent’).