Evangelical Is Not Enough: Table and Altar
Posted By Fr. Christian Mathis on March 10, 2010
The seventh chapter of Thomas Howard’s book, Evangelical Is Not Enough, turns its attention to the subject of the Eucharist as a sacrament. Just recently in our diocese our bishop made national headlines for his response to an attack on the Catholic Church by a local Baptist minister that centered around an improper understanding the Catholic belief with regard to the Eucharist. A link describing the incident can be found here. Growing up in the Bible Belt can make it difficult even for Catholics to gain a proper understanding of the sacraments. The culture is saturated with ideas that are either in direct conflict with sacramental theology or ones that betray a deep lack of understanding at best.
Howard points out that the Eucharist is meant to be a physical presence that serves both as a memory of what Christ has done for us in his Incarnation as well as anticipating His return in glory. One of the first things I learned in my seminary training is the deep connection to the Jewish faith at the time of the apostles that the Eucharist contains. To remember in this sacramental sense is much more than simply what we today would describe through the word remembrance. Anamnesis is the proper term to describe this type of remembering. Howard defines it by stating, “the word suggests a remembering that is also a making present.” Here is where I have many times been accused as a Catholic of believing that we believe that each time we celebrate the mass we believe we are repeating the crucifixion. We do as Catholics believe Christ is made present in the Eucharist each time we celebrate it, but not in the sense that his death and resurrection are happening again and again, but in the sense that we are connected here and now to that one life saving event that took place 2,000 years ago.
Next Howard takes a look at the reality of scandal present in many modern day Christians by the claims made of Christ’s Body and Blood being made present on the altar. This has no doubt been a scandal since Christ Himself was here walking the earth. One need look no further than the sixth chapter of John’s gospel to see this. But Howard also points out that this belief has been consistently held by Christians since the time of the Apostles. It is only recently that Christians themselves have become scandalized by their own tradition. He points out that even the great reformers such as Luther and Calvin believed in the real presence of Christ in the Eucahrist.
The Reformers also used language that acknowledges great mystery here. Luther wrote in his “Small Catechism”, ‘What is the Sacrament of the Altar? It is the true Body and Blood of Christ, under bread and wine.’
Howard ends this chapter by once again directing our attention back to the Incarnation of Christ by reminding his readers that the world’s natural state is in fact sacramental. He writes,
Sacrament, recalling and presenting the Incarnation itself, is not so much supernatural as quintessentially natural, because it restores to nature its true function of being full of God…..Christians, like Saint Paul, see nature groaning and struggling under its unnatural burden of mortality, waiting to be set free once more into its native liberty.
How easily we are fooled into believing that God created us with intention of being pure spirits, detached from our bodies. So often we fall into the trap of thinking sin is natural to humanity and the divine is only attainable in the next life, where we will leave the natural behind. Christianity is ultimately about God restoring creation to its natural state of being in perfect harmony with its creator. I appreciate the reminder Howard has given us in this chapter.
