THE EUCHARIST
4. Prophetic Energizer for Socio-Political
Commitment to Integral Liberation
- Dr. George Therukattil, MCBS

By its very nature the Eucharist is social. In it we opt for being brothers and sisters in Jesus. And the central act of Eucharistic worship is the celebration of God's political act of liberation so that every Eucharistic celebration should signify a new commitment to integral freedom. Whom do we worship in the Eucharist? Jesus the integral Liberator. To worship him means to offer unreserved loyalty to him by commitment to liberation and social justice. In the Eucharist true worship means bringing about a more just society that adumbrates the Kingdom of God in history. Eating His body is to pick up his new life, to have his heart transplanted and beating in us, his heart, his mind, his love and life. It means having the attitude of Jesus who stooped down into the mire and dust, who ate with the outcasts, shared the lot of the poor and their sufferings, was involved in the risks of fighting for social justice and was killed because he took up their cause against the powerful. 'To sit at table with Christ, is to sit at table with the poor, with the wretched of the earth, just as Jesus sat at table with the sinners, the publicans and the despised - with everyone.' The Eucharist means communion with the One who was excommunicated; true participation would demand, therefore, communion with the outcasts, the excommunicated of society. It would demand taking sides with the poor and the oppressed as Jesus himself did. Thus true eucharistic worship means continuing the Exodus story in the struggle and liberation of the downtrodden.

Socio-political commitment to justice is an integral part of the fulfillment of our eucharistic celebration. 'True celebration of the Eucharist is an act of revolutionary politics. If this is so, a revolutionary is closer to the eucharistic Jesus than a religious who spends hours sitting before the Tabernacle, but living in comfort and wealth and therefore involved in oppression. 'The Eucharist is a radical political statement about man. Far from being a Sabbath day escape from the world, it is a fundamental political stance within it.' Prayer and praxis, liturgy and lobbying, adoration of the Sacrament and appreciation of persons, eucharistic visits and visits to the sick and imprisoned, Holy Mass and mass political action are two sides of the one and the same eucharistic worship of Jesus. A eucharistic worship that basks in solemn rites and liturgical pageantry forgetting human rights is hollow and displeasing to God. Its words, prayers, hymns and songs are worthless if not accompanied by social commitments to liberate the poor. Every eucharistic celebration is a prophetic call to live the Passover - passing through death to life - by transforming ourselves and our society in view of the Kingdom of God which is God's dream for humanity. Participation in the Eucharist is a pledge to commit ourselves for the cause of integral human liberation and to work for the freedom of millions of our brothers and sisters. It is thus a celebration of the hope of final liberation.

A community celebration of the Eucharist solemnly commits all Christians to struggle actively against everything that discriminates against and disintegrates humanity. It is a sacrilege, according to St. Paul, when a Christian community, after having received the same bread and the same wine, continues to maintain social, economic and cultural differences under the pretext that a mystical unity has been established.

Participating meaningfully in the Eucharist brings to the Christian community a special responsibility to take concrete action to alleviate world hunger. The bread and wine tell a story of men and women who sweat, work and wear themselves to death with scarcely enough to subsist. The connection between the Eucharist and the effort to satisfy hunger is essential if the symbolic reality of the Eucharist is to remain alive and authentic. As food the Eucharist calls on one's responsibility to foster life and to fight against conditions which perpetuate starvation. In a county where millions live like skeletons clinging to life or die of starvation, we squander much money for pomp and vainglory. Christ's presence in the hungry world (Mt. 25:35) and his presence in the Eucharist (1 Cor. 12:23-36) must be seen as complementary.

In the Eucharist, we receive Christ hungering in the world. He comes to us not alone, but with the poor, the oppressed, the starving of the earth. Through him they are looking at us for help, for justice, for love expressed in action. Therefore, we cannot properly receive the Bread of Life, unless at the same time we give bread for life to those in need wherever and whoever they may be.

[Pedro Arupe: The Bread for Hunger and Evangelization]

St. Chrysostom cautions us of our duty to 'the other Eucharistic Jesus' who is present in the broken bodies of the poor and the oppressed:

Do you really wish to pay homage to Christ's body? Then do not neglect him when he is naked. At the same time that you honour him here (in Church) with hangings made of silk, do not ignore him outside when he perishes from cold and nakedness. For the one who said, 'This is my body' … also said, 'When I was hungry you gave me nothing to eat.' … For is there any point in his table being laden with golden cups while he himself is perishing from hunger? First fill him when he is hungry and then set his table with lavished ornaments. Are you making a golden cup for him at the very moment when you refuse to give him a cup of cold water? [John Chrysostom: on Matthew, Hom.501]

The prophetic imagination of the sacrament of Eucharist must make Christians affirm that all human persons have a right to food, and call for specific action such as national nutrition programmes, increase in food assistance, etc. The hunger and thirst of the poor cannot be stilled by a hand full of rice, pet "charities" or mere almsgiving. What is required is the liberative praxis of a radical restructuring of the national economic system and arrangement of food distribution. The Eucharist is a shared meal. If some grab all the food, how would it be meaningful? (1 Cor.11:33). If the fact of so many dying of hunger was linked to the Eucharistic food, it would have quite a different social impact.

We must make it clear in no uncertain terms that it is impossible to receive the Eucharist and lead a genuinely Christian life without making sure, as the early Christian communities made sure, that nobody among us is left in want and that no classes and divisions exist in our midst. The fellowship with one another which the Eucharist symbolizes is in and with Christ: All of us, in union with Christ, form one body and as part of it we belong to each other (Rom. 12:5). How can we dare to celebrate the Eucharist when in fact our lives are far from the unity of the body of the Lord. It is not possible to celebrate the Eucharist without a living communion, which means becoming one with others, especially with those who have nothing (1 Cor.11:22). Communion means being a companion of the poor, the sick, the prisoners and those without rights. "This is my body, this is my blood", is a symbol of concord and unity. Our Eucharist should have a bitter taste indeed if we are divided from one another as in fact we are. The scandal of division eats at the very heart of our Eucharist and vitiates its sacramental power.

The Eucharist does away with all divisive categories in the community of faith - no rich, no poor, no Tamil, no Malayalee. The celebration is the radical breaking down of all barriers and inequalities between people. The Eucharistic community is a community of friendship in which there is no rank and status and where action is governed by the ideal of God's rule: the Kingdom of God. 'The Eucharist is the only historical context of human existence where the term father, brother etc. lose heir biological exclusiveness and reveal … relationships of free and universal love.' Though we may be different in outward ways, in the sight of Christ we are one. Our communion or fellowship derives from oneness with Christ. All kinds of injustice, racism, separation and division are radically challenged when we share in the body and blood of Christ. The breaking of bread is a powerful sign of unity. When we break bread, is it not a means of sharing (koinonia) in the body of Christ? 'Because there is one bread … we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.' (1 Cor. 10:16-17). The unity given here is not just human conviviality: it is a gift given in the breaking of bread, a sharing in the body of Christ. The Eucharist makes the members of the body celebrate their oneness, a oneness experienced at three levels: 'one with Christ, one with each other and one in service to all the world.'

In the Eucharistic celebration we are joined to the body in the state of eternal sacrifice, the body of Jesus during his lifetime was ever at the service of anyone in need. His hands caressed the sick and the children, his legs went in search of the lost sheep, his eyes looked at sinners with compassion and mercy, his heart melted at the sight of the widow of Nain. In a word, his body was in a constant sacrificial attitude for the liberation of the poor and the oppressed. We cannot associate ourselves with that body, unless we too are ready to break our bodies, pour out our blood in the cause of working for social justice. In and through our body we are open to the 'outside' and our presence to our fellowmen becomes effective. We have to be 'eucharist' to each other. Only then we will the Eucharist become an effective sign of a loving presence to one another.

Are our hands able to caress, to console, to hold, to protect? Do our legs go out to visit the hungry, to bring shelter for the homeless, to care for the lonely, the sick and the imprisoned? Do our tongues speak words of denunciation against the structural injustices of our society? Our minds think of ways and means to bring a dignified and worthier life to those crawling in the mire of the slums around us? Are our hearts touched by the hungry child? Do our ears listen to the cries of those who stretch out their hands and have to search for some food fighting with dogs in the foul-smelling garbage pit? Do we hear the cries of the shriveled babies on the shoulders of undernourished mothers? In short, both as individuals and as community, do we use our bodies for others? Are our bodies ground by sacrificial love and transformed into the pure Host, over which Jesus can bend and pronounce, "This is my Body in perpetual state of sacrifice, given up for you?'

Celebrating the Eucharist meaningfully calls for an attentive hearing and doing of the words of Jesus: 'This is my body broken up to be shared, this is my blood shared.' Eating this body and blood of Christ should transfuse and energize our consciences to give our bodies and our blood, if need be, for the poor and the oppressed. If we flesh out the eucharistic words in our lives, we shall certainly possess Christ-consciousness, a dynamism of love, justice and mercy. Listening to the voice of Christ in the Eucharist, we become brothers and sisters of one another, especially of those who are most victimized by exploitation, and oppression and together with them enter into a fully human life.'

The Eucharist should become the life-giving celebration of an existence-for-others. It should thus be a true celebration of victory in the day-to-day struggle and work for integral liberation of each and all human beings. 'The Eucharist must become an education in celebration of the new egalitarian social order, the world of justice, love and of the primacy and centrality of human beings. In the context of extreme poverty and criminal economic injustice, this prophetic dimension gives substance and content to the eucharistic celebration and serves as a powerful energizer for integral liberation, for building a communion of brothers and sisters, for fellowship among ourselves. Eucharistic celebrations today need to become prophetic and challenging. It is only in responding to evil by resisting it and by participation in the struggle for justice in the pattern of Jesus, that the intrinsic efficacy and meaning of the Eucharist become real. Reconciliation, brotherhood unity and peace must be realized among us in the 'remembrance' of the act of Christ in the Eucharist.'

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