By George E Pfautsch
God is not dead, but too often we treat Him that way.
One must wait until Page 334 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church before one finds coverage of The Sacrament of the Eucharist. But once found, we see it covered as the “Source and Summit of Ecclesial Life.” Later, on that same page in CC 1327 we are told that “In brief, the Eucharist is the sum and summary of our faith”
The Vatican II Council made a number of references to the importance of the Eucharist to evangelization. Among the more important ones are the following: “The most blessed Eucharist contains the Church’s entire spiritual wealth” and “The Eucharist shows itself to be the source and apex of the whole proclamation of the Gospel”.
On the night before our Lord endured the Passion and suffered Crucifixion on the Cross, He instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper and concluded with the words, “Do This in Memory of Me”. His suffering, death and resurrection formed his part of the new covenant He gave us. Our part of the covenant is to keep his commandments and to remember his suffering and passion through the Eucharist. In the Eucharist, we commemorate the death on the cross endured by Him and through which He redeemed our sins and earned for us the opportunity to spend eternal life in the Kingdom He opened for us. It is indeed the sum and summary of our faith.
If the Eucharist “contains the Church’s entire spiritual wealth” it is fair to ask why it is not given earlier coverage in the Catechism and why it still gets too little attention. The answer is somewhat reflective of the unintended consequences of Vatican II. As noted earlier, Vatican II did not diminish the role of the Eucharist in the “proclamation of the Gospel”. However, Vatican II did focus on other matters, and in the greater attention given to those matters which were important, the “apex of the whole proclamation of the Gospel” too frequently lost top billing.
In the period of time since Vatican II, Mass attendance among Catholics has declined from approximately fifty percent to about twenty percent. If we wish to reverse that trend we must again firmly establish the Eucharist as the cornerstone of evangelization and make that better known to those who do not find relevancy in attending Mass. If all of us do a better job of conveying the message of the miracle of the Eucharist, Mass attendance will increase.
God is not dead but too often we treat him that way. It is unfortunate that the Eucharist, which our Catechism states is “the sum and summary of our faith” too often is being treated as less than that.
Vatican II did not diminish the importance of the Eucharist to the Catholic faith, but since the time of that Council, Mass attendance among Catholics has declined from approximately fifty percent to about twenty percent. If we wish to reverse that trend we must do a better job of conveying the message of the miracle of the Eucharist to those who do not find any relevancy in attending Mass.
In order to restore the relevancy of the Eucharist to its rightful place as “the Church’s entire spiritual wealth” its importance must be communicated as such. It must be the cornerstone of our evangelization efforts. Vatican II focused on many other important matters, and in the greater attention to those matters, the Eucharist too frequently lost top billing.
If the hierarchy of the Church, along with the clergy and faithful, can again raise the Eucharist to the importance it deserves, Mass attendance will increase.
George E Pfautsch
1802 Castleberry Lane
Walnut Creek, California, 94595
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