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Dear Parishioners,
Today and for the next few weeks, we will reflect on the Eucharist.
The Sunday Eucharist from the very beginning has been the sacrament which celebrates not just special moments like illness or radical conversion, but the everyday lived experience of Christians. Both Luke and Paul suggest that the breaking of the bread took place regularly and other early documents concur. The Eucharist was adopted into the rhythm of weekly life, and it quickly became the normal way of celebrating the Lord's Day. Therefore, the Eucharist remained through the first five centuries. There are indications that the Eucharist was sometime celebrated during the week on special occasions or in small groups, but weekly celebration was the universal norm.
The practice of celebrating the Eucharist daily did not develop until after the sixth century. The practice was linked with the increasing incidence of private Masses. During the era of the church fathers, there is no trace of bishops or presbyters celebrating the Eucharist as a private devotion, apart from an assembly. But after the sixth and seventh centuries, as monks were increasingly ordained priests, it came to be the normal thing for daily Mass to be celebrated in monasteries - sometimes several Masses a day by the same priest.
There was resistance of the use of the Eucharist as a private devotion. Several local synods tried to limit the practice, and as late as the year 1100 AD. But by that time, daily Mass had become the rule rather than the exception.
The question is not whether daily Mass is theologically legitimate but rather like other sacraments, the Eucharist is supposed to be "a festive action in which Christians assemble to celebrate their lived experience and call to heart their common story." The fact is that few festive actions, however low key, can bear daily repetition and stil retain a festive character. Furthermore, while it is still celebrated daily around the world, the danger is that the Mass has become a devotion, which it is not. In fact, for some, the Mass is a private devotion and not connected to the larger community of faith.
Devotions are good, but we always have to remember the important distinctions of our faith life. Devotions should not take the place of the primacy of the Eucharist. We must always remember that they serve the central actions of the sacramental life of the church and not the other way around.
Fr. Mike Meany
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