THE PSALMS AND THE EUCHARIST
(By Evelyn Onwuegbusi)
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and
stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 27 Then he said to
Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and
put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." 28 Thomas answered him,
"My Lord and my God!" 29 Jesus said to him, "Have you believed
because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come
to believe."
John 20:26-29
The Lord Jesus promised that after
he had left this world in the form that our senses could perceive, he would
still be with us always, in a form insensible to the senses. This was made
clear in his words of reassurance: “And remember, I
am with you always, to the end of the age." (Matt 28:20).
Resurrected, he could no longer be constrained by closed doors or barricaded
tombs. Indeed, there was never any human situation too difficult for him to
handle. “26 But Jesus looked at them and said, "For mortals it is
impossible, but for God all things are possible."Matt 18:26. The
only barrier to divine activity in our lives is our unwillingness to accept and
surrender to God. Total self surrender to God is not a blind or stupid assent
to some half-baked knowledge of revelation, but a conscious and humble response
to our call to faith, constantly renewed and enlightened by reason. It is not
that God cannot scale the fence or hurdle of our faithlessness. Rather, God
will not save us against our wish. We must accept and believe, trust and
surrender.
In John 20:28 cited above, Thomas
confessed Jesus as ‘Lord and God’. Without delving into the exegesis or
redaction of the Thomasine confession, it is fair to acknowledge that it
remains one of the most significant testimonials to the divinity of Jesus, and
an important scriptural reference for the doctrine of the Trinity. According to
Thomas, Jesus is both Lord and God. There is no Christianity without total
assent to this solemn proclamation. If Jesus is not God, then there is no
incarnation, no salvation, no redemption, no Christianity, and so forth. Jesus
is God, the second person of the immanent and omnipresent Most Holy Trinity.
Jesus is everywhere at all times though in forms that faith, rather than
sensory perceptions, can appreciate. However, it is his desire to remain with
us in a corporeal manner and he fulfils this desire and promise by his
Eucharistic presence. Jesus is present in the Word, in the Eucharist and in
Community.[1] At the
incarnation, the transcendent God condescended to assume human nature to be
completely one with us in all things except sin. This is clearly expressed in
the fourth chapter of the Letter to Hebrews:
For we do not have a high priest who is
unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect
has been tested as we are, yet without sin.
Heb 4:15
Can anyone attempt to explain why
the divinity had to become human; the creator became like created; why the
timeless un-originate God came in time and why the immortal God died a mortal
man? And why does the incarnate glorified Jesus abide with us inconspicuously?
Let us look at one instance of a person who came close to divinity in the
Scriptures.[2]
Moses:
2 There the angel of the LORD appeared
to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing,
yet it was not consumed. 3 Then Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at
this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up." 4 When the LORD
saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush,
"Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." 5 Then he said,
"Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which
you are standing is holy ground." 6 He said further, "I am the God of
your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."
And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Exodus 2: 2-6
Moses was eager to approach, to
look and to see, till he realised that what he sought with nature’s eyes was
extra- natural. He was warned not to come close and he even had to take off his
shoes. Moses hid his face, afraid to look. When God manifests himself to
humanity, he always assumes a medium comprehensible to humans. God himself is
spirit and is formless as such, so he reveals himself by going out of the realm
of his nature. The incarnation is the climax of these Theophanies, because God
revealed himself not in a shocking, momentary encounter, but went through
nature’s procreative process of conception and birth albeit by the Holy Spirit.[3]
Jesus lived with us, ate, drank, partied and worshipped with us; he died;
indeed, he was like us in every way except sin.[4]
At the transfiguration, he gave us a glimpse of the other nature within him.
1 Six days later, Jesus took with him
Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by
themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the
sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. 3 Suddenly there appeared to them
Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 Then Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it
is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one
for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." 5 While he was still speaking,
suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said,
"This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to
him!" 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were
overcome by fear. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Get up and
do not be afraid." 8 And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus
himself alone.
Matthew 17:1-8
Moses wanted to draw near when he
had not quite understood what was before him. Peter was already designing three
mansions in his mind so that the vision would not end. But at the instance of
the voice, Moses hid his face in fear; the disciples crouched on the ground in
fear.
Why does Jesus remain hidden in the
Eucharist? He hides so well, such that seeing, touching, tasting, smelling or
hearing cannot help us perceive him at all. This is captured in the hymn
‘Adorote Devote’ by St Thomas Aquinas:
Visus tactus gustus in te fallitur
Sed auditu solo tuto creditor
Credo quid quid dixit Dei Fillius
Nil hoc verbo veritatis Deitas[5]
Is it that the radiance of his
glorified humanity would bedazzle us, and we would be afraid like Moses who saw
the burning bush and would not draw near? Or that we would be terrified like
the disciples and crouch in fear? In the Holy Eucharist, Jesus, Emmanuel and
Saviour, does not want us to be overcome with fear. He chose to remain hidden in the Eucharist so
that we can see and approach him only in faith.
What
then does Jesus
expect of us in the Eucharist? Let us join St Paul in asking: ‘what wouldst
thou have me do?’[6] Many
answers are possible, but one alone is necessary: believe, and believing love
and loving, follow in the footsteps of Jesus who first loved us and still loves
us in the Eucharist. God is to be loved
and worshipped by humans, for this is the purpose for which he created us, so
in the Eucharist we love and worship God.
How the worship of God is to be
rendered efficaciously, is perhaps one of the most difficult puzzles for the
Christian pilgrim soul, a deep-seated question in our quest for God. However,
Paul attempted to reassure us in his Letter to the Romans that our worrying and
human effort count for nothing except when we are united with the Holy Spirit
in prayer:
26 Likewise
the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we
ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. 27 And
God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the
Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Romans 8:26-27
The Holy Spirit gives meaning to
the incarnation and the history of salvation. He interprets God’s revelation.
Through his inspiration the Church has the written account which preserves and
hands down the message. At the end of his earthly mission, the Lord Jesus as
handed us over to the care of the Holy Spirit.
26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom
the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of
all that I have said to you.
John 14:
26-27
So whether we pray in the Eucharist,
or in the psalms, the Holy Spirit prays with us, in us and for us. Prayer
affirms our faith, and deepens our union with God, and just as we get warmth by
going near the furnace, so also we become more Godlike when we pray.
Our faith and love lead naturally
to confidence in the Lord Jesus who loves us so much. When we follow in the
footsteps of Jesus who ‘came to show us the way to
the Father’,[7] we
follow with confidence. Jesus is the Way
that we must follow; he is the Truth that we must know and believe; the Life
that must flow in our veins.[8] Let us then be led by this Way, be taught by
this Truth, and let us live in this Life, offered so generously to us in the
Word of Life.
The Lord Jesus not only teaches us
how to worship God but constantly offers perfect worship to God on our
behalf. The Eucharist is a symbol of
Jesus Christ’s constant supplication to his Father
for the redemption of the human race.[9]
Jesus continuously offers to his Father the sacrifice of his sacred humanity
for the salvation of the souls whose ransom he already bought on the cross by
these same mysteries which the Eucharist not only symbolises but also
celebrates and re-enacts in an un-bloody manner.
The Holy Eucharist is
the sacrament of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, truly present on the
altar, in form of bread and wine.[10] He is present Body, Blood, Soul and
Divinity. It is therefore one form of
the divine presence among us.[11]
. To worship God through Sacred
scripture is to address him in his own words because Jesus also makes himself
present to us in the Word.
The Church has always
venerated the divine Scriptures just as she venerates the body of the Lord,
since, especially in the sacred liturgy, she unceasingly receives and offers to
the faithful the bread of life from the table both of God's word and of
Christ's body.[12]
The Psalms are hymns
of worship which have the unrivalled status of Word of God,[13]
because,
like the rest of sacred scripture, the psalms are divinely inspired. They are prayers uttered by God himself
through the lips of his specially chosen instruments.
For in the sacred books, the Father who is in
heaven meets His children with great love and speaks with them; and the force
and power in the word of God is so great that it stands as the support and
energy of the Church, 10 the strength of faith for her sons, the food of the
soul, the pure and everlasting source of spiritual life.[14]
The psalms are at once prophetic
and historic and the mystery of the redemption comes to light in the psalms. They point to the Salvific Act of Jesus which the
Eucharist symbolises. In the Eucharist
the Mystery of the Redemption foreshadowed and prophesied in the psalms is
re-enacted and celebrated perpetually by the eternal presence of the God-made-man.
As we celebrate and partake of the Eucharist, we participate in the act of
salvation of the souls of all who Jesus made his brothers and sisters, by his
condescending to become man.
Jesus is the Word who speaks
in the psalms;
Jesus is the Lord who lives in
the Eucharist
Jesus is the Mediator who prays
in the psalms;
Jesus is the Saviour who watches
and saves in the Eucharist.
He who speaks and prays in the
psalms and he who lives and watches in the Eucharist is the one and the same
Christ, the Second Person in the Divine Trinity, the Saviour, whose saving act still pleads for us insistently before his Eternal
Father.[15]
The psalms are beautiful and easy
to use. They are efficacious by virtue of their divine inspiration; they are
uttered in God’s own words. They are
prayers for every occasion and can and should be used by every one and for everyone. The prayer of Jesus has infinite impetration
before his father. Therefore the
Eucharist in itself is a perfect prayer just as the psalms too are perfect by
virtue of divine inspiration; however, the Eucharist is the highest possible
form of prayer, the ultimate sacrifice of our redemption, in which God is
himself both Priest and Victim.
When we pray by these means,
imperfect beings meddle with infinite perfection. Must we then despair when Jesus bids us:
“28 "Come to me, all you that are weary
and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon
you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find
rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."?
Matt 11:28-30
Or be
afraid when he has commanded: "It is I; do not
be afraid."?[16]
The Holy Spirit is our Advocate,[17]
Intercessor[18] and
Father,[19]
and is always available to help us in our weakness. Let us therefore hasten in
response to the divine Master’s invitation and recourse to the Eucharist. Let us go to him in the Divine Word singing
and praying the psalms as we are taught by the “8 one instructor, the Messiah [20] for no one can come to the Father
except through him.[21]
When we pray the psalms, and partake of the Eucharist we unite ourselves with
Jesus and union with God is the raison
d’être of our human existence.
How says trusty hearing that shall be
believed
What God’s Son hath told me take for
truth I do
Truth himself speaks truly or there’s
nothing true.
[12]
Vat 11 CHAPTER VI
SACRED SCRIPTURE IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH
21. The Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures just as she
venerates the body of the Lord, since, specially in the sacred liturgy, she
unceasingly receives and offers to the faithful the bread of life from the
table both of God's word and of Christ's body.
[20] Matt 23: 8
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