Synod members seek balance: Eucharist as sacrifice, communal meal

Published: 2005-10-10

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- When people think of the Eucharist mainly as Christ's sacrifice for their sins, they take seriously their obligation to go to Mass and they are reverent, said some members of the Synod of Bishops. When they see the Eucharist mainly as a communal celebration of the Lord's Supper, they take seriously the sacrament's unifying power and its call to transform the world, other members said. Traditional Catholic theology emphasizes both aspects of the Eucharist, although some people felt the Second Vatican Council tipped the balance toward the "communal meal" and opened the way for an irreverent, undisciplined and superficial understanding of the Mass. Forty years after the council, members of the Oct. 2-23 synod on the Eucharist said there is a need to find balance in understanding the liturgy as sharing in Christ's banquet and as making present his sacrifice for the sins of the world. During the synod's Oct. 6 "free-discussion" period, Pope Benedict XVI took the microphone and offered a theological reflection on the Eucharist as the Lord's Supper and as Christ's sacrifice, said Legionaries of Christ Father John Bartunek, the English-language briefing officer.

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