Ecumenical Conference: Eucharist in Pluralism and Unity

Side 1

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The Reverend Dr. Robert Marshall, President of the Lutheran Church in America.
 
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It was a privilege to be here att edge you in in having g
 
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and all of your amazing gift s.
 
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I pray that you for years to come
 
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The question that has been addressed to us from the balcony is one which we must all
 
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take seriously, for there is a price to pay. And we shall be assessing some of
 
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that this very morning, and whether the price is too high, or whether there is a
 
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way in which the price can make the results all the more precious. But I want
 
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to start by saying that this is a high moment of privilege and promise. It is a
 
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privilege to be introduced by William Cardinal Baum. Both of us were in
 
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different positions when we first met, but it has been a privilege that again
 
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and again we have been together in meetings, in various ecumenical
 
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capacities, where I have learned from him and I have hoped that in a reciprocal
 
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way he may have learned a little bit from me. For it is that learning from
 
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each other which is part of the benefit of ecumenical relations that makes the
 
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price worth it. It is a time of privilege for me to have been invited to this
 
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place by His Eminence John Cardinal Crowell, and to have a part in this Eucharistic Congress.
 
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I pray God's blessing upon Cardinal Crowell and upon the Congress.
 
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It is a privilege to share the program with Archbishop Sheen, a great teacher, preacher,
 
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prelate whom I have admired for many, many years.
 
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It is a privilege to share this platform and program with other bishops and churchmen who
 
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have been part of the Committee on the Participation of Christians from Other Churches in the Eucharistic
 
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Congress.
 
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It is a privilege today to be here not only as a member of the Lutheran Church in America,
 
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But as a representative of the World Council of Churches, both the General Secretary, Philip
 
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Potter, and the moderator of the Central Committee, Archbishop Scott, Anglican Primate of Canada,
 
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had hoped to be here.
 
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But at this very time there are meetings of the World Council of Churches in session in
 
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Geneva which demanded their attention in this period immediately following the assembly
 
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of the World Council of Churches in Nairobi last December.
 
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And so it has fallen to my lot as a member of the Executive Committee to be present and
 
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bring you greetings and assurance of the prayers of those of us who are in the
 
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council for your Eucharistic Congress. That your prayers...
 
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On Friday evening I shall be leaving for Geneva for the meeting of the Executive
 
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Committee of the World Council, and I shall be able to report directly to
 
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those who are very interested there in the proceedings here. But it is a
 
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privilege above all to be in a gathering of Christians to enjoy the beauty of
 
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of music, the gracefulness of dance, the meditation upon our Lord Jesus Christ and His Church
 
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and His sacrament, that is the highest privilege of all.
 
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As the Lutheran bishop of Slovakia said to me in Bratislava just before I was to mount
 
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into the pulpit to preach, he said,
 
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remember, the greatest honor God does us
 
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is to call us to worship him.
 
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It is with that high sense of privilege
 
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at worshiping together, at meditating together,
 
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at discussing together the essential aspects
 
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of our Christian faith that we may also recognize a great promise.
 
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If it were left to us alone as frail human beings, we would flub our Christianity.
 
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But it is the presence of Christ among us fulfilling his promise that whether it be
 
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two or three or many times that number, his presence among us that turns this moment,
 
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like other moments, into a moment of promise.
 
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Our topic today is a big one.
 
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It is many-faceted, or more specifically, fourfold.
 
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The Eucharist, in pluralism and unity, heritage and hope, the first of those words, pluralism,
 
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thrusts us into the world of daily life.
 
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Is that what we should be contemplating when we contemplate the Eucharist?
 
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Ah, yes, indeed.
 
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The Eucharist begins with bread and wine, substances of daily life.
 
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Pluralism is a sociological term and coined rather recently, and so it makes us realize
 
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in a contemporary moment of a complex society,
 
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that our contemplation of the Eucharist
 
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must take into account the situation of humanity today
 
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and our daily lives together.
 
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It is not always a pretty picture,
 
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the theme of your Congress pointing us
 
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to the hungers of mankind remind us how many people are dissatisfied, unsatisfied, hungering
 
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futilely, starving in one way or another.
 
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It reminds us that the world of bread and wine is a place where people fight and struggle
 
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for what they can get to eat. And we ask as we look at that kind of pluralism in
 
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the world whether there can be any unity. Let us be honest that there is built in
 
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even to natural life forces that develop unities among our human brothers and
 
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sisters. There is such a thing as natural affection that can develop friendships as
 
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beautiful, even to the point of heroism, that are as great as anything that ever
 
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developed in the church. I know a story about two Texas towns on opposite sides
 
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of the river, one settled by Norwegians, another settled by Germans, and the
 
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elders forbade their children and young people to cross the river. They did not
 
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want any intermarriage. But today the towns are completely intermarried. No
 
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No rules could prevent the natural affections from bringing those two towns closer and closer
 
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together.
 
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There is such a force in natural life.
 
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The social process moves from conflict to competition, to cooperation, to concord.
 
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are natural forces for unity, or the very struggle for survival forces people together.
 
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And yet, there is always the evidence that what humanity is doing is building a tower
 
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of Babel over and over again, where things are falling apart, verging on the edge of
 
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chaos.
 
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And so what we really see in the natural world are conflicting forces toward unity and disruption
 
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and brokenness.
 
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The incompleteness of earthly life is something all of us feel.
 
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So we would gladly take the leap from the pluralism of daily life to the unity of the
 
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Christian Church, but it can't happen that quickly.
 
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It cannot happen that quickly because there is a real price.
 
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And so before we contemplate unity, we had best make a short stop at heritage.
 
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For there is in the heritage of the Christian Church today also a pluralism.
 
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When we think of the Eucharist, we have to admit that we are still divided, that we still
 
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practice separate and distinct administrations of the Eucharist. Let us
 
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not lament this entirely. God has his way of using human failures, human divisions,
 
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so that there has clustered around each separate heritage great values. You
 
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could name them for your particular communion as I could for mine. The point
 
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is that we must look beyond those values to new possibilities. In one ecumenical
 
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meeting a person from Poland stood up and said, in Poland we say that the unity
 
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of the church will not be realized until the last day. And in Poland it will be a
 
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few days later.
 
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When we are most honest we would have to admit there are times when we feel that
 
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way about our own communions. But we may not stop there. We have to move on, as the
 
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Roman Catholic Church has in planning this Eucharistic Congress. For 95 years a
 
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Eucharistic Congress has been a distinctive Roman Catholic event, but
 
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But more recently, there has been a stretching out of arms of welcome to the Orthodox and
 
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to Protestants.
 
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That kind of development shows that we will not rest content with keeping our heritages
 
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separate.
 
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I recall the first time that I saw a pious Orthodox woman kissing an icon.
 
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It was in Jerusalem, in the darkness of those great churches, with little more than candlelight.
 
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And as I looked, I was at first curious, and then I was disdainful.
 
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My whole upbringing was opposed to what I was seeing.
 
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I had been taught to ridicule that form of piety.
 
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And I recall one of the first archaeological explorers
 
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back in the 1850s going through Palestine
 
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and coming back, Protestant that he was,
 
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and telling the horrors of the religious life of that land,
 
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a religion of monkery.
 
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And I agreed with him.
 
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But as I lived on in Jerusalem over 10 months,
 
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something began to happen with me.
 
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I began to know those Christians with their strange piety
 
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as devout people of faith.
 
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And I began to realize that my way of worshiping
 
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was not the only valid way.
 
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I realized that theirs was a piety that
 
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was more sensuous than mine.
 
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I had been brought up to think that the sense of hearing
 
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was the primary sense for religion
 
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and that going down the list, maybe seeing came second.
 
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and there was little room for tasting in the Eucharist specifically, but touching, no room
 
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at all for that sense.
 
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And I began to realize that maybe I was the one who was deprived.
 
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There was room to learn something from the piety of others, and I began to see those
 
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great churches as the deposit of nearly 1,700 years of Christian devotion.
 
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I say that was a slight improvement in my attitude.
 
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I was growing in the way I believe Jesus wants us all to grow when he speaks about the oneness
 
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of his church.
 
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To mention Jesus is to note that part of our heritage that draws us together.
 
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It is not our differences that deserve to be exalted.
 
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They need to be worked at and studied and discussed, but we must always see the Lord
 
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Jesus Christ as the focus of the heritage, for that we have together.
 
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we do worship the same Lord. We even celebrate the same Eucharist. The fact that we have
 
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different liturgies, the fact that we have different doctrines, the fact that we order
 
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our ministries differently does not determine the real nature of the
 
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sacrament. Only God can do that, only the Lord Jesus Christ. And so where there is
 
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bread and wine and the words of our Lord, take eat this is my body, take drink this
 
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is my blood. There is the sacrament.
 
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And so the heritage which we have together has finally brought us to
 
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acknowledge the nature of our unity as a Christian church, even though we are many
 
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churches, we need to recognize that we have baptism together. As one old saint
 
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in an ecumenical meeting said, there are only two kinds of people in the world,
 
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those who know that God loves them and those who don't.
 
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And by our baptism, by the churches conveying the word of God to us, we are among the people
 
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who know that God loves us.
 
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We have that in common.
 
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To speak about that unity, however, we must quickly say there is another point of unity
 
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that is in repentance and in the confession of sin.
 
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We do not know how to confess our sins explicitly.
 
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We still feel a little more comfortable thinking that the people of another church have the
 
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greater sin, the greater error, the greatest lack of understanding and truth.
 
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But we know we could be wrong. We know that enough that we've come to the time
 
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where we will try to speak about those very differences together so that we
 
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repent in the presence of each other as well as in the presence of God and not
 
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in private. Then by God's grace, something begins to happen to our distinctive heritages.
 
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Our very differences begin to be, as it were, the gifts of the Spirit. When St. Paul spoke
 
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in 1 Corinthians 12 about the differences in the Christian congregation of ancient Corinth.
 
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He was talking about the individuals in that congregation.
 
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Yet I believe there is a similarity for the differences among the many churches of our
 
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time.
 
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God, as I have said, in his grace has turned our very differences into channels of great
 
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value and purpose.
 
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That is the way that he makes it possible for us to enrich each other, to fulfill even
 
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in our division a great part of the mission of the Church.
 
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therein unity becomes a challenge. Up to this point I have spoken about how unity
 
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exists in spite of us. I have spoken about how unity of the Church is the
 
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gift and work of God. But with that kind of grounding you and I are now
 
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strengthened to work for making the unity of the church more visible. You see
 
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there's a way in which that unity is not visible today, and the fact that unity is
 
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the gift and work of God has made some people act as though the more invisible
 
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the unity was the better. But that is not where Jesus would let us rest. He has
 
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made it clear that we have a responsibility to love each other. He has
 
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made it clear that that love should not be a Pyramus and Thisbe kind of romance,
 
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enjoyed in separation as though that's the way it had to be. Quite to the
 
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contrary, he has wanted us to stand forth with each other among those who are not
 
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Christian and make it clear what Christian love means between us and
 
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among us. And yet, even he has not made the expression of Christian love easy.
 
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because he has also commanded us to pursue truth.
 
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And therefore it is that it is right today that we should have in our minds the hunger for truth.
 
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Love without truth becomes an abstraction.
 
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It becomes a meaningless sentimentality,
 
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unstable in all its ways. But how in our devotion to truth shall we also be
 
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clear about our love? Some specific means have developed. Representatives from one
 
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church at meetings of another church, as now here this day at the Eucharistic
 
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Congress is one way. Then there are the interconfessional dialogues to which
 
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Cardinal Baum referred, going on between Lutherans and Roman Catholics for ten
 
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years now, but involving Episcopalians, Orthodox, and we could go through the
 
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whole roster of churches showing how we are talking about the command to search
 
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for truth but doing it together, not enjoying our isolated selves and
 
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building up our self-satisfaction, when what God wants is an honest pursuit
 
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together for the unity of the Church.
 
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Then there are the councils of churches, with an increasing number of Roman Catholic bishops
 
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and their dioceses participating across the United States and in other lands.
 
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And even where there is not membership, a great degree of cooperation exists.
 
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Especially in the World Council of Churches, we have been grateful and enriched by the
 
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participation of Roman Catholics in the Commission on Faith and Order.
 
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There we study truth together.
 
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Likewise, we have benefited mutually, I think, from the joint working group, where we lay
 
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the plans for further study and work, and there are other units of cooperation.
 
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But we know that we have only begun our walk together.
 
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eyes must be to the future. And so having talked about pluralism and heritage and
 
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unity, we must also speak of hope. However, as we do so, let us not think that our
 
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hope is for a unity out there entirely. Rather, it is because of the unity God
 
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has given us in spite of ourselves that we are able to hope. We have an anchor
 
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for our hope. We already have some evidence of our hope. We begin to see the
 
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glimmer of the new day. And so in the Eucharist we can take seriously what he
 
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00:28:37,620 --> 00:28:47,380
says, that we should receive his body and blood in sacramental form until he comes.
 
220
00:28:47,380 --> 00:28:56,420
Yes, there will always be something future about the unity of the Church, but our hope
 
221
00:28:56,420 --> 00:29:10,540
for greater visibility for the unity is, according to his world, that the world may know.
 
222
00:29:10,540 --> 00:29:18,380
we have tended to be satisfied with ourselves in our several communions.
 
223
00:29:18,380 --> 00:29:26,820
It will not do for us to blow the trumpets for our unity, our comprehensive unity, and
 
224
00:29:26,820 --> 00:29:31,260
then think we can be satisfied with ourselves as Christians.
 
225
00:29:31,260 --> 00:29:38,380
Our view must be ever outward, as indeed God's view is, thinking about all humanity.
 
226
00:29:38,380 --> 00:29:43,680
For he would place us before the world as his witnesses.
 
227
00:29:43,680 --> 00:29:52,240
It is with that vision that we are motivated to show our love for each other, to pursue
 
228
00:29:52,240 --> 00:30:00,440
truth together rather than separately, and to find the ways we can work together in common
 
229
00:30:00,440 --> 00:30:03,860
service in the world.
 
230
00:30:03,860 --> 00:30:06,740
It is that the world may know.
 
231
00:30:06,740 --> 00:30:16,320
It is that we may fulfill the mission of the Church given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ.
 
232
00:30:16,320 --> 00:30:25,000
Our real hope is the one Christ gave us, not just for the unity of the Church, but for
 
233
00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:30,240
the unity of all humanity.
 
234
00:30:30,240 --> 00:30:37,720
remote as that may seem. I would leave with you a lesson I learned in my youth
 
235
00:30:37,720 --> 00:30:44,540
from a sister, Sophie Muller, working in the Appalachians even before that was
 
236
00:30:44,540 --> 00:30:56,680
very popular. And she took me on one of her trips. She was a nurse. We went up to
 
237
00:30:56,680 --> 00:31:05,500
the end of the road in the hills. We climbed over plank fence after plank fence. And as
 
238
00:31:05,500 --> 00:31:13,260
we did, even though we were trying to catch our breath, she told me how she had made this
 
239
00:31:13,260 --> 00:31:21,660
trip on a winter night through the snow to deliver a baby that she was now going to visit
 
240
00:31:21,660 --> 00:31:25,380
because the baby was sick.
 
241
00:31:25,380 --> 00:31:28,180
And the father was in prison.
 
242
00:31:28,180 --> 00:31:32,820
And we finally arrived at the humble cottage.
 
243
00:31:32,820 --> 00:31:36,340
And there was a mother out hoeing in the garden,
 
244
00:31:36,340 --> 00:31:43,540
pregnant again, three children about her feet as she worked.
 
245
00:31:43,540 --> 00:31:48,500
And as we left, I said to Sister Sophie, this is hopeless.
 
246
00:31:48,500 --> 00:32:03,460
There are times when I have sighed that same word about any material realization of the
 
247
00:32:03,460 --> 00:32:07,300
unity of the church.
 
248
00:32:07,300 --> 00:32:14,940
But Sister Sophie gave me the only Christian answer.
 
249
00:32:14,940 --> 00:32:21,940
We don't know that word down here.
 
250
00:33:14,940 --> 00:33:40,060
I reminisce Cardinal Baum and my spiritual confreres and associates in the Lord, and
 
251
00:33:40,060 --> 00:33:42,780
all friends in Christ.
 
252
00:33:42,780 --> 00:33:59,300
Well, you have to admit that I'm the only show here, holy show here.
 
253
00:33:59,300 --> 00:34:03,460
I will tell you how this happened.
 
254
00:34:03,460 --> 00:34:10,160
Last night I had dinner with his eminence, Cardinal Crowell, and he said,
 
255
00:34:10,160 --> 00:34:12,160
wear your robes.
 
256
00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:18,200
Well, if one of the Cincinnati Reds had told me, I wouldn't have.
 
257
00:34:18,200 --> 00:34:25,880
You got it, thank you.
 
258
00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:40,280
But when the captain of the Phillies tells me, I do it.
 
259
00:34:40,280 --> 00:34:49,820
Remnants of Cardinal Willerbrand, that's a baseball joke.
 
260
00:34:49,820 --> 00:35:10,820
Apropos of robes, I must tell you, years ago I was giving a lecture in Cleveland, in Hotel Cleveland, and I had just arrived in time for the lecture.
 
261
00:35:10,820 --> 00:35:19,620
I went to my room and put on these robes and I said to the four members of the reception
 
262
00:35:19,620 --> 00:35:25,860
committee that I would be grateful if they would go down to the dining room with me while
 
263
00:35:25,860 --> 00:35:31,740
I ordered a glass of milk and some graham crackers.
 
264
00:35:31,740 --> 00:35:37,940
There was a waitress in the early flirties taking the orders.
 
265
00:35:37,940 --> 00:35:45,440
She took the orders of the four men, and then she looked at me, and she said,
 
266
00:35:45,440 --> 00:35:48,440
Well, Cock Robin, what will you have?
 
267
00:35:48,440 --> 00:35:58,440
Laughter and applause
 
268
00:35:58,440 --> 00:36:14,160
Well, we are here to meditate and talk about the Holy Eucharist.
 
269
00:36:14,160 --> 00:36:22,800
Now we have different points of view on this stage.
 
270
00:36:22,800 --> 00:36:29,720
And what are our differences like?
 
271
00:36:29,720 --> 00:36:33,360
They're only lovers' quarrels.
 
272
00:36:33,360 --> 00:36:43,320
A husband and wife who love one another never fight about their love for one another.
 
273
00:36:43,320 --> 00:36:46,220
It's a broken fender.
 
274
00:36:46,220 --> 00:36:53,660
It's a meat bill, groceries, but never their love.
 
275
00:36:53,660 --> 00:37:02,860
And we are agreed on one thing, the deep and profound love of Christ and his church.
 
276
00:37:02,860 --> 00:37:17,900
That's why I say it's just a lover's quarrel.
 
277
00:37:17,900 --> 00:37:27,720
The subject assigned was pluralism and unity.
 
278
00:37:27,720 --> 00:37:38,040
The very day that our Lord announced the Eucharist, there was great pluralism.
 
279
00:37:38,040 --> 00:37:42,240
Four different theological schools came into being.
 
280
00:37:42,240 --> 00:37:46,440
They were all mentioned in the sixth chapter of John.
 
281
00:37:46,440 --> 00:37:53,240
The crowd, the Jews, the disciples, Peter.
 
282
00:37:53,240 --> 00:37:57,400
Four pluralistic views.
 
283
00:37:57,400 --> 00:38:01,600
Here is the view of the crowd.
 
284
00:38:01,600 --> 00:38:08,280
When our Lord spoke about the Eucharist, they said, it means nothing.
 
285
00:38:08,280 --> 00:38:15,000
They were interested only in the loaf, not in the love.
 
286
00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:20,040
They saw no sign whatever in the Eucharist that God was giving them.
 
287
00:38:20,040 --> 00:38:26,600
They, as our blessed Lord said, you followed me because you were hungry.
 
288
00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:31,260
That was one school that sees no significance in the Eucharist.
 
289
00:38:31,260 --> 00:38:38,580
The second, the Jews in the synagogue at Capernaum.
 
290
00:38:38,580 --> 00:38:49,940
They recognized a sign, but they said Christ can't be the sign.
 
291
00:38:49,940 --> 00:38:56,580
Moses had given them a sign, they said, but our Lord had not given them a sufficient sign.
 
292
00:38:56,580 --> 00:39:01,580
even though he multiplied bread for 5,000.
 
293
00:39:01,580 --> 00:39:05,580
And in addition, they said,
 
294
00:39:05,580 --> 00:39:08,580
we know his father and mother.
 
295
00:39:08,580 --> 00:39:14,580
So how can he be a sign of anything we know as earthly origin?
 
296
00:39:15,580 --> 00:39:19,580
Third school, the disciples.
 
297
00:39:19,580 --> 00:39:22,580
They knew what our Lord meant.
 
298
00:39:22,580 --> 00:39:29,100
He understood him.
 
299
00:39:29,100 --> 00:39:35,860
He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life.
 
300
00:39:35,860 --> 00:39:44,780
But they were trained under the Bultmanns and the Heideggers of those days, and they
 
301
00:39:44,780 --> 00:39:50,540
said in the beautiful translation of the NEB, the New English Bible,
 
302
00:39:50,540 --> 00:39:59,740
how can we stomach talk like that? And they left and walked with him no more.
 
303
00:39:59,740 --> 00:40:08,820
They knew what he meant, but they would not receive it. And that is why our
 
304
00:40:08,820 --> 00:40:11,300
Our blessed Lord did not call them back.
 
305
00:40:13,620 --> 00:40:15,080
He didn't say, I'll change it.
 
306
00:40:17,140 --> 00:40:18,740
And the fourth school was Peter.
 
307
00:40:21,420 --> 00:40:23,180
Peter couldn't give an explanation.
 
308
00:40:26,340 --> 00:40:29,460
All Peter said was, well, Lord, to whom shall we go?
 
309
00:40:31,600 --> 00:40:33,780
Peter said, first I'll have faith in you,
 
310
00:40:33,780 --> 00:40:36,020
and then I'll get the explanation afterwards.
 
311
00:40:36,020 --> 00:40:41,900
Thou alone hast the words of eternal life.
 
312
00:40:41,900 --> 00:40:48,540
So the Eucharist at the very beginning created pluralism.
 
313
00:40:48,540 --> 00:40:55,820
Now how will we ever get to unity in it?
 
314
00:40:55,820 --> 00:41:06,540
I believe by concentrating our thought on the death and the resurrection of Christ,
 
315
00:41:06,540 --> 00:41:15,900
and particularly his death, that makes a great difference in our point of view.
 
316
00:41:15,900 --> 00:41:21,420
Take for example Simon of Cyrene and Joseph of Arimathea.
 
317
00:41:21,420 --> 00:41:24,300
These were secret disciples.
 
318
00:41:24,300 --> 00:41:28,540
They were members of the Sanhedrin.
 
319
00:41:28,540 --> 00:41:34,260
Nicodemus never appears in the daytime, only at night.
 
320
00:41:34,260 --> 00:41:38,020
And what brought them out?
 
321
00:41:38,020 --> 00:41:41,260
The crucifixion of our Lord.
 
322
00:41:41,260 --> 00:41:44,380
And they came to the cross and buried him.
 
323
00:41:44,380 --> 00:41:50,780
Otherwise the body of our Lord would have been only food for carrion birds.
 
324
00:41:50,780 --> 00:41:55,740
It was the crucifixion that united them.
 
325
00:41:55,740 --> 00:42:01,220
Now the crucifixion is closely related to the Eucharist, and I'm about to tell you
 
326
00:42:01,220 --> 00:42:04,940
in a few moments why it is the center.
 
327
00:42:04,940 --> 00:42:15,940
We concentrate for the most part on just one aspect of the Eucharist, the life-giving side.
 
328
00:42:15,940 --> 00:42:20,260
But there's a death side of the Eucharist.
 
329
00:42:20,260 --> 00:42:24,940
Now most of us have studied biology.
 
330
00:42:24,940 --> 00:42:27,360
Remember the metabolic processes of nature?
 
331
00:42:27,360 --> 00:42:34,300
The anabolic, the buildup, the catabolic, the turn down, tear down?
 
332
00:42:34,300 --> 00:42:42,540
Let's first of all treat the anabolic or the life-giving side of nature and the Eucharist.
 
333
00:42:42,540 --> 00:42:52,460
If for example, the sunshine, the moisture in the earth, the carbons and the phosphates
 
334
00:42:52,460 --> 00:43:01,940
could speak, they would say to the plants, unless you eat me, you shall not have life
 
335
00:43:01,940 --> 00:43:05,340
in you.
 
336
00:43:05,340 --> 00:43:11,980
If the plants could speak, they would say to the animals,
 
337
00:43:11,980 --> 00:43:18,420
unless you eat me, you shall not have life in you.
 
338
00:43:18,420 --> 00:43:20,860
If the chemicals and plants and animals could speak,
 
339
00:43:20,860 --> 00:43:26,100
they would say to us, unless you eat me,
 
340
00:43:26,100 --> 00:43:29,140
you shall not have life in you.
 
341
00:43:29,140 --> 00:43:32,660
And our blessed Lord said, unless you eat me,
 
342
00:43:32,660 --> 00:43:36,420
you shall not have life in you.
 
343
00:43:36,420 --> 00:43:39,620
The lower is transformed into the higher.
 
344
00:43:39,620 --> 00:43:43,540
Chemicals into plants, plants into animals,
 
345
00:43:43,540 --> 00:43:47,340
animals into man, man into Christ.
 

Side 2

00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:17,600
That is the anabolic building upside of the Eucharist.
 
2
00:00:17,600 --> 00:00:22,760
And I spoke about the importance of the death of Christ.
 
3
00:00:22,760 --> 00:00:26,760
So now we come to the catabolic.
 
4
00:00:26,760 --> 00:00:31,060
Nature teaches us that too.
 
5
00:00:31,060 --> 00:00:42,480
If the plants, if the plants could speak, they would say to the sunshine, to the moisture,
 
6
00:00:42,480 --> 00:00:51,160
to the chemicals in the earth, you are inert, you're lifeless.
 
7
00:00:51,160 --> 00:00:54,820
Would you like to live, not be just a thing?
 
8
00:00:57,060 --> 00:01:01,300
Well, you cannot live in me the way you are.
 
9
00:01:01,300 --> 00:01:04,440
If you chemicals want to live in my kingdom,
 
10
00:01:04,440 --> 00:01:07,180
you will have to die to yourself.
 
11
00:01:09,740 --> 00:01:12,320
And if the animals could speak,
 
12
00:01:14,580 --> 00:01:17,000
they would say to the plants,
 
13
00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:21,000
You're fixed, you're immobile.
 
14
00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:27,360
You cannot move from shade to sunshine.
 
15
00:01:27,360 --> 00:01:33,380
You cannot see or hear or taste.
 
16
00:01:33,380 --> 00:01:35,580
I live in a higher kingdom.
 
17
00:01:35,580 --> 00:01:39,680
Would you like to live in me, you plants?
 
18
00:01:39,680 --> 00:01:41,680
Not as you are.
 
19
00:01:41,680 --> 00:01:47,680
You have to be pulled up by the roots.
 
20
00:01:47,680 --> 00:01:52,680
And you have to be ground beneath the very jaws of death.
 
21
00:01:52,680 --> 00:02:00,680
And then alone you can live in my kingdom and be a sentient being.
 
22
00:02:00,680 --> 00:02:04,680
Man says to the animals,
 
23
00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:07,680
You cannot think.
 
24
00:02:07,680 --> 00:02:10,680
You cannot scan the stars.
 
25
00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:14,680
You cannot love.
 
26
00:02:14,680 --> 00:02:18,680
Would you like to live in my kingdom?
 
27
00:02:18,680 --> 00:02:21,680
Not as you are.
 
28
00:02:21,680 --> 00:02:24,680
You will have to die to yourself.
 
29
00:02:24,680 --> 00:02:27,680
You will have to submit yourself to the knife
 
30
00:02:27,680 --> 00:02:30,680
and to the shedding of blood.
 
31
00:02:30,680 --> 00:02:36,320
Then alone can you live in my kingdom and Christ says to us
 
32
00:02:36,960 --> 00:02:41,760
Unless you die to yourself. You cannot live in me
 
33
00:02:53,680 --> 00:02:55,680
In other words
 
34
00:02:56,800 --> 00:02:58,800
The Eucharist is a sacrifice
 
35
00:03:00,680 --> 00:03:02,680
and a sacrament.
 
36
00:03:05,520 --> 00:03:11,160
You have to have a sacrifice before you can have a sacrament.
 
37
00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:16,400
Now in a short time, if I do not talk too long,
 
38
00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:20,240
you'll go to dinner.
 
39
00:03:22,640 --> 00:03:27,480
The food will be your sacrament, but that food had to be sacrificed
 
40
00:03:27,480 --> 00:03:38,640
and subjected to fire and the flame, maybe the shedding of blood. So that the
 
41
00:03:38,640 --> 00:03:48,600
Eucharist therefore relates us primarily to the death of Christ, then he becomes
 
42
00:03:48,600 --> 00:03:51,340
becomes our life.
 
43
00:03:51,340 --> 00:03:55,240
The risen Christ becomes our life.
 
44
00:03:55,240 --> 00:04:00,680
We, it might be objective,
 
45
00:04:00,680 --> 00:04:03,480
but Christ has died once,
 
46
00:04:03,480 --> 00:04:07,260
says the epistle to the Hebrews.
 
47
00:04:07,260 --> 00:04:10,720
He cannot die again.
 
48
00:04:10,720 --> 00:04:13,900
How, therefore, do you say that the mass is a sacrifice
 
49
00:04:13,900 --> 00:04:17,800
and that Christ is continuing to die again?
 
50
00:04:17,800 --> 00:04:20,300
Who says he can die only once?
 
51
00:04:21,700 --> 00:04:25,540
The answer is, our Lord can die only once
 
52
00:04:25,540 --> 00:04:28,940
in the body that he took from the Blessed Mother.
 
53
00:04:28,940 --> 00:04:31,380
But Christianity means he takes your human nature,
 
54
00:04:31,380 --> 00:04:33,880
yours and yours and yours and mine.
 
55
00:04:33,880 --> 00:04:35,580
And he says, give me your human nature
 
56
00:04:35,580 --> 00:04:37,380
and I can die again in you
 
57
00:04:37,380 --> 00:04:39,260
and I'll give you the risen life.
 
58
00:04:39,260 --> 00:04:41,020
That is the Eucharist.
 
59
00:04:41,020 --> 00:04:54,020
That is why St. Paul says,
 
60
00:04:54,020 --> 00:05:02,220
we carry about with us the death of Christ in order that we might be a life to others.
 
61
00:05:02,220 --> 00:05:10,900
Now I began with speaking of differences and the fact that there's only a lover's quarrel.
 
62
00:05:10,900 --> 00:05:17,340
I think that many of our difficulties come from our theological language.
 
63
00:05:17,340 --> 00:05:29,220
We've got fixed expressions, Latin words particularly, and they can create prejudices and they prevent
 
64
00:05:29,220 --> 00:05:32,860
us from understanding the Eucharist.
 
65
00:05:32,860 --> 00:05:40,900
husband and wife, for example, that love one another as a husband and wife ever
 
66
00:05:40,900 --> 00:05:45,340
try to explain their love by Freud.
 
67
00:05:46,780 --> 00:05:57,660
They may not even know that he is a fraud or whatever it is, but so I think
 
68
00:05:57,660 --> 00:06:03,420
that the theological jargon to some extent has kept us apart.
 
69
00:06:03,420 --> 00:06:08,120
And here's a little instance of that.
 
70
00:06:08,120 --> 00:06:21,560
There was a poem written by Rilke in which he tells the story of a two-story house.
 
71
00:06:21,560 --> 00:06:30,060
The little boy slept on the second story, his parents on the first story.
 
72
00:06:30,060 --> 00:06:34,920
There was a floor that kept them apart.
 
73
00:06:34,920 --> 00:06:39,920
At night, the little boy was frightened.
 
74
00:06:39,920 --> 00:06:50,040
He would knock a book onto the floor, throw a pencil, cough very loudly.
 
75
00:06:50,040 --> 00:06:56,640
to awaken his mother. And finally his mother came upstairs, gave him a drink of water,
 
76
00:06:56,640 --> 00:07:06,640
and everything was clean and lovely. Now that floor, to my mind, is much of our theological
 
77
00:07:06,640 --> 00:07:18,160
talk. And I believe that we will soon, just simply by talking to one another, by dropping
 
78
00:07:18,160 --> 00:07:25,880
pencils and dropping books, that we will come to a deeper understanding of this great sacrament
 
79
00:07:25,880 --> 00:07:26,880
of love.
 
80
00:07:26,880 --> 00:07:36,520
Now, there's nothing that I can say to you, nothing, that will convince you of the Eucharist
 
81
00:07:36,520 --> 00:07:41,880
as a sacrifice and as a sacrament.
 
82
00:07:41,880 --> 00:07:47,400
There are some things you just have to experience.
 
83
00:07:47,400 --> 00:07:51,280
Then you come to know.
 
84
00:07:51,280 --> 00:07:56,240
The great mysteries of God are understood that way.
 
85
00:07:56,240 --> 00:08:09,440
Now I have in my whole life been tremendously interested in the masses of sacrifice and
 
86
00:08:09,440 --> 00:08:14,680
in the real presence of our Lord in the blessed sacrament.
 
87
00:08:14,680 --> 00:08:26,080
And I believe, and I have seen it fulfilled many times, that if you're looking for faith
 
88
00:08:26,080 --> 00:08:32,560
in the real presence of the Lord and the sacrament, go there.
 
89
00:08:32,560 --> 00:08:37,200
Kneel down.
 
90
00:08:37,200 --> 00:08:38,200
Be silent.
 
91
00:08:38,200 --> 00:08:45,200
Let him talk to you, and he will convince you, as he has convinced everyone, of his
 
92
00:08:50,960 --> 00:08:57,960
real presence. In other words, and with this I conclude, when some of the apostles first
 
93
00:09:01,120 --> 00:09:08,120
met our Lord, they said to him, where do you live?
 
94
00:09:08,200 --> 00:09:11,200
You know what he said?
 
95
00:09:11,200 --> 00:09:14,200
Come and see.
 
96
00:09:14,200 --> 00:09:16,200
That's what I say to you.
 
97
00:09:16,200 --> 00:09:19,200
Come and see.