Eucharist is Berith, a Covenantal Prayer
Covenant means a concentrated relationship at a deeper level. Whatever our relationship with God may be, he on his part will never fail to honour it. In the history salvation we see God making covenant with Noah; a covenant with Abraham; the covenantal f iery pot passing through the sacrifice; his covenant with Moses on Mount Sinai (Ex 19.16-22); and new covenant with Jeremiah (31.31-33) and his renewal of that new covenant with Ezekiel (36.26ff).
Jesus opening a way to the new covenant says “The time is coming neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship God, but in spirit and in truth” (John 4.23-24); he affirms that the experience of the new covenantal kingdom of God is within you (Lk 17.21); and this reality is clearly spelled out by St. Paul who says that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit of God (I Cor 6.19; II Cor 6.16). The fruits of the Spirit of God Gal 5.22-23 are an indication of this covenant. Covenantal relationship always culminating in “LOVE” because in Jewish tradition there were three ways a covenant was made By Blood = to shed blood, to drink blood, to give blood = Blood was important; By Meal = sharing, speaking and then acting; By Marriage = sharing life; It’s a meal, its with the body and blood, and it’s a marriage with the participant; and all these pointed to a definite growth in love relationship.
To look at the celebration of the Eucharist in a realistic and beneficial way, for instance, if it begins with a few moments of silence and ended with silence, or if the readings were preceded and followed by silent pauses, the experience of the sacred words emerging out of silence would be much more powerful and effective. It would make the hymns of praise and the prayers of petition much more meaningful to the congregation. There is anessential relationship between silence and speech, because everything comes out of silence indicative of a real covenanttaking place in faith. When our life emerges from periods of silence, it is a more genuine life; and when we return to silence, our life receives its truest meaning. In the beginning, both cannot be done at the same time, but in time they will tend to merge. Then, interior silence does not have to be prolonged in order to produce its good effects.
One of the things that prayer, as it deepens, will affect is our intuition of the oneness of the human race, and, indeed, the oneness of all creation through Eucharistic covenantal mystery. As one moves into his own inmost being, he comes into contact with what is the inmost being of everyone else. Although each of us retains his own unique personhood, we are necessarily associated with the God-man, who has taken the whole human family to himself in such a way as to be the inmost reality of each individual member of it. And so, when one is praying in the spirit, in his inmost being, one is praying, so to speak, in everybody else’s spirit. This is the essence of the whole covenant God made with man.
In the Eucharist, we are not only joined to Christ, whom we believe is present with his whole being under the symbols of bread and wine, but we believe that we are joined with all other Christians, with every member of the human race, and with the whole of creation. Christ is in the hearts of all men and women and in the heart of all creation, sustaining everything in being. This mystery of oneness enables us to emerge from the Eucharist with a refined inward eye, and invites us to perceive the mystery of Christ everywhere and in everything. He who is hidden from our senses and intellect becomes more and more transparent to the eyes of faith–to the consciousness that is being transformed. The Spirit in us perceives the Spirit in others. The Eucharist is the celebration of life, the dance of the divine in human form. We are part of that dance. Each of us is a continuation of Christ’sincarnation; insofar as we are living Christ’s life in our own lives or rather, instead of our own lives. The Eucharist is the summary of all creation coming together in a single hymn of praise, surrender, and thanksgiving. In the Eucharist all creation is transformed into the body of Christ, transformed again into his divine person, and thrust into the depths of the Father forever and ever. Even material creation has become divine in him. “For the creation,” says Paul, “waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God” (Rom. 8:19).
Prayer and interior silence deepen our appreciation of and receptivity to the Eucharist. The Eucharist also helps to develop and nourish prayer and interior silence. They are mutually reinforcing. Through deep prayer, one appreciates the meaning of the sacraments and increases their effectiveness.
It is not so much the length of time that one spends in interior silence, but the quality of it that is transforming, and that nourishes and refreshes at the deepest level. The most effective silence takes place when one is not even aware of being silent, when one has merged his own identity in the mystery of Christ. This union is the ultimate goal of the Eucharist. Interior union with Christ comes by assimilating the Eucharistic food into our own body and spirit. The bodily eating is the symbol of what is happening spiritually. It points to the interpenetration that is taking place between Christ and us. This interpenetration is designed to further our evolution into vertical time and our assimilation of the eternal values that Christ has brought into the world through his incarnation and communicated to us by his passion, death, resurrection, and ascension. The purpose of our historical lifetime is to provide us with space to complete this inward journey. The whole of the Old and New Testament covenant becomes a reality through the Eucharistic celebration and assimilation.
Dr. Rudolf V. D’Souza OCD
