Joseph
Cardinal Ratzinger, Eucharist and Mission: A Preliminary Consideration, trans.
by Vincent Twomey, S.V.D., Irish
Theological Quarterly 65 (2000), 257-259.
III. Martyrdom, Christian Life, and
Apostolic Ministry as the Actual Fulfilment of the Eucharist
After considering in broad outline
the specific sacramental level of eucharistic theology in the New Testament,
specifically in the First Letter to the Corinthians, we must look, however
briefly, at the third level. This level I should like to call the ’existential’
level, so as to draw some conclusions for the theme of Eucharist and mission.
Here I will discuss three texts: Phil 2:17 (to which 2 Tim 4:6 once again
briefly alludes); in addition : Rom 12:1 and 15:16
1. Martyrdom as the Christian
becoming Eucharist ’
In the Letter to the Philippians,
Paul, in prison and awaiting trial, speaks about the possibility of martyrdom,
and he does so, astonishingly, in liturgical language: ’Even if I am to be
poured as a libation on the sacrificial offering of your faith.’ The Apostle’s
martyrdom is of a liturgical character, it is a pouring out of life as a
sacrifice, allowing oneself to be poured out for humanity, What happens here is
a becoming one with the self-gift of Jesus Christ, with his great act of love, which
itself is the true adoration of God. The martyrdom of the apostle participates
in the mystery of the Christ’s Cross and in its theological dignity. It becomes
lived liturgy, which is recognised as such in faith and is itself a service for
the faith. Because it is true liturgy, it also brings about what all liturgy
aims at: joy, that joy which can only arise from the encounter between man and
God, from the abolition of the limits of earthly existence.
What Paul hints at here in one
single, short sentence, is fully developed in the account of the martyrdom of
Saint Polycarp. The entire martyrdom is depicted as liturgy, indeed, as the
becoming Eucharist of the martyr, who enters into full communion with the Pasch
of Jesus Christ and thus becomes Eucharist with him. To begin with, it is
recounted how the great bishop is chained and his hands bound to his back. Thus
he appears ’like a noble ram (lamb!), who is led to God from the great herd, a
sacrifice pleasing to God and prepared for him.’ The martyr, who in the
meantime has been placed on the pyre and tied up there, now utters a kind of
Eucharistic Prayer: he gives thanks for the knowledge of God, which has been
granted to him though his beloved Son, Jesus Christ. He praises God, because he
has been found worthy to receive a share in the chalice of Jesus with a view to
the resurrection. Finally, he prays with words taken from the Book of Daniel,
which in all probability had at an earlier stage been taken up into the
Christian liturgy: ’to be accepted before you today as a pleasing and rich
offering ...’ The text ends in a great doxology, as liturgical Eucharistic
Prayers do. After Polycarp had spoken the Amen, the slaves light the pyre, and
now a threefold miracle is reported, in which once again the liturgical
character of the occurrence is portrayed in its diverse significance. The fire
first of all takes on the form of a sail enclosing the saint on all sides. The
burning pyre appears like a ship with billowing sails that transports the
martyr across the boundaries of the earth into the hands of God. However, his
burnt body, it is said, appears not like burnt flesh but rather like baked
bread. And finally, there is no smell of burnt flesh; what those present inhale
is a sweet scent ’like that of incense or precious aromas’. The pleasant odour
is, in the Old as in the New Testament, a constitutive ingredient of the
theology of sacrifice. In Paul, it is an expression of a life become pure, no
longer exuding the stench of the lie and corruption, the decaying smell of
death, but rather the refreshing air of life and love, the atmosphere suited to
God and healing to man. Thus the image of the pleasant aroma and that of
becoming bread belong together: the martyr has become like Christ; his life has
become an offering. Not from him the poison of the decomposition of the living
caused by the power of death; from him radiates the power of life, he nurtures
life, as good bread lets us live. Surrender into the body of Christ has
triumphed over the power of death: the martyr lives and gives life, precisely
through his death, and so he himself has entered into the eucharistic mystery. Martyrdom
is a source of faith.
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