Remodelling the Eucharist.

Montreal -- An important group of some hundred Montrealers believes that the first purpose of the Eucharist is to build personal communities among participating members. Harvey Shepherd of the Montreal Gazette reported on December 6, 2003, that because they feel the Eucharist has failed to fulfill this purpose, the time has come to remodel it into the celebration of intimate "sacred" meals, with family-like meals and hearty chunks of crusty bread, as well as wine, soup, other food, Scripture readings, singing and discussion, often in the absence of a priest. These eucharists are to be called "Repas de Fraternite."

A campaign to promote the "eucharists" was launched at the end of October. The organizers are the Relais Mont Royal, a diocesan-approved young adult group which was given charge of a parish as an "ecclesiological experiment" some eight years ago.

A manifesto signed by some 100 Catholics states that the failure of the Eucharist as presented endangers the survival of the Church in Quebec. The signatories include Auxiliary Bishop Paul Delorme, episcopal vicar of the Laval region in Montreal (with 350,000 faithful); Deacon Robert Sauvageau, head of the archdiocesan office of education; several prominent members of faculties of theology in Quebec City (Gilles Routhier) and Montreal (Odette Mainville); Father Irene Beaubien, S.J., founder of the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism; Father Guy Lapointe, O.P., director of the Centre Culturel Chretien in Montreal; and some two dozen other priests. (Montreal Gazette, The Wanderer)

Comment

The Church is indeed a community. Through Christ, we become members of one body, one spirit, in imitation of the Trinity, a community of three Persons (in one nature). However, the Eucharist is not a private meal. That's why the early Church moved it away from ordinary meals at home. It is the sacrifice of Christ, whose saving actions on the Cross extended throughout time and space ("Do this in memory of Me"). It is this other-worldly fellowship that the Eucharist builds up, and not jolly, club-like associations of hearty eating and drinking for the benefit of the members of a social club.