Eucharistic politics

Catholic dogmas are not about pie in the sky.

Catholic dogmas have direct, immediate and practical importance for the lives of each one of us. Besides, Catholic dogmas have a political dimension. They have to do with the polis, its management, the distribution of power, and its social development.

He who receives the Lord’s body cannot fail to be attentive to situations unworthy of man- Fr Joe Borg

Catholic politicians should take their inspiration from Catholic dogmas.

Take the Eucharist as an example. The Last Supper was a political act of the highest degree. During that event, Christ taught us that the exercise of power is an exercise in serving others. In the exercise of this service we have to go beyond giving something that we have; like Him, we are expected to also give ourselves.

He himself became the gift. He showed us that, independently of our position in society, we have the same dignity, so much so that we share the same food and share it together as equals. Christ ritually celebrated the type of society we have to start building on Earth.

The Pope recently took up this argument and spoke about the political dimension of the Eucharist while addressing ’s 25th National Eucharistic Congress, which was held in Ancona earlier this month.

Pope Benedict presented the Eucharist as the key to a person-centred social development. He said the Eucharist helps us build a society where we really realise ourselves by fulfilling a most basic dimension of our humanity: being for others:

“To be nourished by Christ is the way not to remain foreign and indifferent to the fortunes of our brothers, but to enter into the very logic of love and of gift… He who is able to kneel before the Eucharist, who receives the Lord’s body cannot fail to be attentive, in the ordinary course of the days, to situations unworthy of man, and is able to bend down personally to attend to these need, is able to break his bread with the hungry, share water with the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned.”

During his visit to Ancona, the Pope talked about the problem of unemployment, which is perhaps one of the situations which most threatens to dehumanise those affected.

The Pope affirmed that a Eucharistic spirituality is “a way to restore dignity to man’s days and, hence, to his work… A new positive social development is born, which is centred on the person, especially the person who is poor, sick or in need.” The Italian media, quite naturally, gave prominence to the emphasis made by the Pope about unemployment.

However, as L’Osservatore Romano editor Gian Maria Vian noted, the Pope wanted to do more than just show concern. Because of his formation, Vian picked up the political overtones and implications of what the Pope said.

In line with Pope Benedict he emphasised that from the sacrament which is at the heart of the Christian faith, a new assumption of community res­ponsibility comes into being.

Today, when you celebrate Mass, please remember these words of Pope Benedict: “There is nothing that is genuinely human that does not find in the Eucharist the right way to live it in fullness: Hence, daily life becomes the place of spiritual worship, to live the primacy of God in all circumstances, within a relationship with Christ and as an offering to the Father.”

The Eucharist is indeed not just an act of individual piety or devotion.

Perhaps someday I will write on the political implications of our most basic beliefs – the Trinity and the Incarnation.

joseph.borg@um.edu.mt