2008 Woodie Awards
Rediscovering Eucharistic Adoration
Charles Rice
Issue date: 3/6/07 Section: Viewpoint
- Page 1 of 2 next >
Let's look at a new phenomenon you may know very little about. It is the remarkable rise of Eucharistic Adoration in Catholic parishes and institutions in every part of the world. Why is it happening? And what is it?
"The Catholic Church," says the Catechism, "offers to the … Eucharist … adoration, not only during Mass, but also outside of it, reserving the consecrated hosts … exposing them to the solemn veneration of the faithful, and carrying them in procession" (No. 1378).
But why do we do this? "In the … Eucharist, the body and blood, … soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really and substantially contained. This presence is called real, by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence … but because it is presence in the fullest sense … it is substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present" (Catechism, no. 1374).
This conversion of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, promised in the sixth chapter of John's gospel and fulfilled at the Last Supper, is called transubstantiation.
"Substance," as Cardinal Avery Dulles put it, "denotes the basic reality of the thing, i.e., what it is in itself." A change in appearance does not affect the substance of the thing. When the angel Raphael stood before Tobiah, his appearance was that of a "young man," but his substance was that of an angel (Tobit, 5:5, 12:15).
"Christ is present," wrote Cardinal Dulles, "by his dynamic power and action in all the sacraments, but in the Eucharist, His presence is, in addition, substantial. For this reason, the Eucharist may be adored. It is the greatest of all sacraments" (Feb. 15, 2005).
You are in the real presence of Christ every time you step into a Catholic church with the lighted lamp or candle indicating that the Blessed Sacrament is in the tabernacle. At any such time one can be with Christ in adoration. The term Eucharistic Adoration, however, is usually applied to the Exposition of the Sacrament to view. Christ is as fully present in the closed tabernacle as he is in the monstrance during Exposition. It is conducive to devotion for us to be able also to look upon him in the host in which "the whole Christ is truly, really and substantially contained."
"The Catholic Church," says the Catechism, "offers to the … Eucharist … adoration, not only during Mass, but also outside of it, reserving the consecrated hosts … exposing them to the solemn veneration of the faithful, and carrying them in procession" (No. 1378).
But why do we do this? "In the … Eucharist, the body and blood, … soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really and substantially contained. This presence is called real, by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence … but because it is presence in the fullest sense … it is substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present" (Catechism, no. 1374).
This conversion of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, promised in the sixth chapter of John's gospel and fulfilled at the Last Supper, is called transubstantiation.
"Substance," as Cardinal Avery Dulles put it, "denotes the basic reality of the thing, i.e., what it is in itself." A change in appearance does not affect the substance of the thing. When the angel Raphael stood before Tobiah, his appearance was that of a "young man," but his substance was that of an angel (Tobit, 5:5, 12:15).
"Christ is present," wrote Cardinal Dulles, "by his dynamic power and action in all the sacraments, but in the Eucharist, His presence is, in addition, substantial. For this reason, the Eucharist may be adored. It is the greatest of all sacraments" (Feb. 15, 2005).
You are in the real presence of Christ every time you step into a Catholic church with the lighted lamp or candle indicating that the Blessed Sacrament is in the tabernacle. At any such time one can be with Christ in adoration. The term Eucharistic Adoration, however, is usually applied to the Exposition of the Sacrament to view. Christ is as fully present in the closed tabernacle as he is in the monstrance during Exposition. It is conducive to devotion for us to be able also to look upon him in the host in which "the whole Christ is truly, really and substantially contained."