The Catholic Church’s teaching on the real presence of Christ in the liturgy is much broader than most people realise, according to the Archbishop of Liverpool.
The Most Rev Malcolm McMahon was taking part in an ecumenical conversation about the place of the Eucharist in the life of the Church and in living the Christian faith, at Our Lady and St Nicholas in Liverpool, as part of the parallel Adoremus programme.
He said: “In a way that is completely unique, the whole and entire Christ, God and man, is substantially and permanently present in the sacrament.”
The church has never taught that reserved eucharist should be honoured in isolation of the liturgical life of the church. “When the faithful honour Christ present in the sacrament they should remember that this presence is derived from and directed towards sacramental and spiritual communion,” said Archbishop McMahon.
Referring to Eucharistic processions, he said some Christian traditions see these as a kind of idolatry, but their purpose is to give a public witness of faith and devotion to the sacrament
He also explored some of the issues around intercommunion. “The controversy centres on what we believe about the eucharist both personally and as a community. Because the different communities have different beliefs about the eucharist it is not possible for them to receive.”
In a keynote address on the Friday, Sr Margaret Atkins OSA, a Canoness of St Augustine in the community at Boarbank Hall in Cumbria and a research fellow at Blackfriars Oxford, spoke on “teaching the Eucharist”.
She said: “Christ chose a meal to represent his work as a whole. He instituted the Eucharist in the form of a meal.”
She said that the way society is experienced shapes learning and understanding.
If society limitations, that limits the capacity to teach and to learn the Eucharist authentically.
She said Jesus gave us the Eucharist as food: “Take this and eat.”
Currently, in the “fast food society”, many are eating in a fast food kind of way, she said.
“Very often, maybe even normally, we eat that fast food alone and the act of eating it doesn’t in any way engage us with other people. So it’s eaten alone and it’s un-engaging,” said Sister Margaret.
“I want to suggest that good eating, above all, replaces the attitude of consumption with an attitude of reverence and the attitude of thoughtlessness with an attitude of gratitude.”
Archbishop McMahon's address and homily can be found in full here