The body and blood of Christ ‘introduce within creation . . . a sort of “nuclear fission”
By Father Randy Stice
The Second Vatican Council taught that since Christ died for all and that all have the same ultimate vocation of eternal life in the Trinity, “the Holy Spirit in a manner known only to God” brings Christ’s saving work to every person and every situation.1 This finds liturgical expression in Eucharist Prayer III in a petition following the consecration: “May this sacrifice of our reconciliation, we pray, O Lord, advance the peace and salvation of all the world.” Recent popes have elaborated on the vast scope and power of the Mass.
St. John Paul II says that the Eucharist has a “universal and, so to speak, cosmic character. Yes, cosmic!” He continues, “It unites heaven and earth. It embraces and permeates all creation.” Christ came “to restore all creation, in one supreme act of praise, to the One who made it from nothing. He, the Eternal High Priest… gives back to the Creator and Father all creation redeemed.”2
Pope Benedict XVI offers a striking metaphor to explain the power of the consecration: “The substantial conversion of bread and wine into His body and blood introduces within creation the principle of a radical change, a sort of ‘nuclear fission,’ to use an image familiar to us today, which penetrates to the heart of all being, a change meant to set off a process which transforms reality, a process leading ultimately to the transfiguration of the entire world, to the point where God will be all in all.”3
Pope Francis writes that “In the Eucharist, fullness is already achieved; it is the living center of the universe, the overflowing core of love and of inexhaustible life. Joined to the incarnate Son, present in the Eucharist, the whole cosmos gives thanks to God. Indeed, the Eucharist is itself an act of cosmic love.”4
St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI also address in some detail how the Eucharist touches the issues confronting the world. St. John Paul II, writing in 2003, enumerated the problems that “darken the horizon of our time. We need but think of the urgent need to work for peace, to base relationships between peoples on solid premises of justice and solidarity, and to defend human life from conception to its natural end. And what should we say of the thousand inconsistencies of a ‘globalized’ world where the weakest, the most powerless, and the poorest appear to have so little hope!” Recalling Christ’s promise to His disciples before His ascension to be with them always, the saint wrote, “For this reason, too, the Lord wished to remain with us in the Eucharist, making His presence in meal and sacrifice the promise of a humanity renewed by His love.”5
A year later, in Stay With Us Lord, he spoke “of the many forms of poverty present in our world…the tragedy of hunger which plagues hundreds of millions of human beings, the diseases which afflict developing countries, the loneliness of the elderly, the hardships faced by the unemployed, the struggles of immigrants. These are evils which are present—albeit to a different degree—even in areas of immense wealth.”6 In addition, he said that “the specter of terrorism and the tragedy of war, demands that Christians learn to experience the Eucharist as a great school of peace, forming men and women who, at various levels of responsibility in social, cultural, and political life, can become promotors of dialogue and communion.”7
Pope Benedict XVI, in The Sacrament of Charity (2007), discusses the Eucharist as “a mystery to be offered to the world.” We must, he writes, “become ever more conscious that the sacrifice of Christ is for all, and that the Eucharist thus compels all who believe in Him to become ‘bread that is broken’ for others, and to work for the building of a more just and fraternal world.”8 He urged “all the faithful to be true promoters of peace and justice ‘in our world scarred by violence and war, and today in particular, by terrorism, economic corruption, and sexual exploitation,’” recognizing that the conditions for true peace are “the restoration of justice, reconciliation, and forgiveness.”9
The pope also explains how the liturgy itself informs and compels us. In “the presentation of the gifts, the priest raises to God a prayer of blessing and petition over the bread and wine, ‘fruit of the earth,’ ‘fruit of the vine,’ and ‘work of human hands.’ With these words, the rite not only includes in our offering to God all human efforts and activity but also leads us to see the world as God’s creation, which brings forth everything we need for our sustenance. The world is not something indifferent, raw material to be utilized simply as we see fit.”10
Similarly, Benedict says that the petition in the Our Father for “our daily bread” “obliges us to do everything possible, in cooperation with international, state, and private institutions, to end or at least reduce the scandal of hunger and malnutrition afflicting so many millions of people in our world, especially in developing countries.” This falls, says Benedict, “in a particular way” on the lay faithful who, “formed at the school of the Eucharist,” are called to be leaven in the world.11
St. John Paul II, Benedict, and Francis have given us compelling descriptions of the power of the Eucharist, a power that embraces and permeates all creation, a power that introduces a sacramental nuclear fission that penetrates and transforms reality, a power that floods the universe with love and inexhaustible life. Every celebration of the Mass does indeed advance the peace and salvation of the entire world.
1 Gaudium et Spes, no. 22.
2 Ecclesia de Eucharistia (EE), no. 8.
3 The Sacrament of Charity, no. 11.
4 On Care for Our Common Home (2015), no. 236.
5 EE, no. 20.
6 Stay With Us Lord, no. 28.
7 Stay With Us Lord, no. 27, italics added.
8 The Sacrament of Charity, no. 88.
9 The Sacrament of Charity, no. 89.
10 The Sacrament of Charity, no. 92.
11 The Sacrament of Charity, no. 91, and Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, no. 2.
Father Randy Stice is director of the diocesan Office of Worship and Liturgy. He can be reached at frrandy@dioknox.org.
