Eucharistic Presence is part of the rich theology of the Mass

Many of the critiques leveled against the Eucharistic Revival in the United States have focused on the prominence of eucharistic adoration to the renewal effort. To the average Catholic in 2023, these critiques seem strange. Why would anyone object to spending quiet time in the presence of the Lord? 

To answer this question, one must understand the Church’s teaching around the Mass. In The Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Eucharist is defined as a sacramental sacrifice inclusive of “thanksgiving and praise to the Father; the sacrificial memorial of Christ and his Body; the presence of Christ by the power of his word and of his Spirit” (no. 1358). 

Notice that eucharistic presence is but a single facet of the Church’s rich theology and spirituality of the Mass. The Eucharist, after all, means thanksgiving. And therefore, at every Mass, the people of God give thanks to the Father for the gift of creation, redemption, and our beatific vocation. At the same time, we celebrate the sacrifice of Christ and His body, the whole Church. We enter the self-giving love of Christ upon the cross, and the Church returns this sacrifice of love in each of her members who lift up their hearts to the Lord. And lastly, at every eucharistic liturgy, Christ is present in the Scriptures, in the singing of the assembly, in the person of the priest, and most especially in the eucharistic elements. The bread and wine, through the gift of the Spirit, become the Body and Blood of Christ. We eat and drink our Lord, who in fact, takes us up into Himself. 

One way of looking at eucharistic adoration — and I suspect many critics of the Revival think this way — is to see it as focusing exclusively on eucharistic presence. While the Mass consists of activity of all the faithful, such persons might argue, eucharistic adoration is passive. It forgets about the sacrifice of praise and the memorial of Christ’s Passion celebrated by Christ and the Church’s members. 

But one need not understand the three dimensions of the Church’s eucharistic theology at odds with one another. After all, when we pause before the Blessed Sacrament, adoring the hidden presence of our Lord, are we not giving thanks to the Father for all that He has given us? As we sit before our Lord’s eucharistic presence, should we not respond to Christ’s gift with the return gift of ourselves? Does not our adoration of the Blessed Sacrament lead us to appreciate the act of Communion more deeply, receiving the Lord of heaven and earth into our flesh-and-blood bodies? 

The answer to all these questions is obviously yes. In a frenetic, work-a-day world, pausing before our Lord is an interruption of festivity into the mundane. As we appreciate that our Lord has given Himself to us under the signs of bread and wine, coming to feed us with His very self, we should want to give our very bodies in return. To everyone who is hungry and thirsty, to all those in need, we owe our flesh-and-blood service. 

Lastly, those of us who go to Mass who also adore our Lord outside of Mass come to appreciate even more the stunning gift of the Eucharistic Prayer. How can we not give thanks, to offer every more fervently our part in the sacrifice of Christ for the life of the world? 

Of course, adoration of the Eucharist isn’t everything. He came to feed us with His Body and Blood, to share His full life with us. But to those who adore, we come more deeply to appreciate the whole eucharistic mystery. God is love, and God loves us.