21
VOCATIONS FOR TEENS / TIM O’MALLEY
Last Supper, 1150
Chartres Cathedral
THE EUCHARISTIC
FOUNDATIONS OF
CATHOLIC SOCIAL
TEACHING
BY TIMOTHY P. O’MALLEY, PH.D.
THE INSTITUTE FOR CHURCH LIFE
In the early summer of 2006, I attended the nuptial liturgy of two friends
at a parish in Evanston, Illinois. Outside of the palpable delight of being
present at a wedding in which the bride and groom were high school
sweethearts, those in attendance also witnessed a number of Filipino
wedding rituals; in particular, the giving of coins to one another as a sign
of the couple’s willingness to welcome the poor. For most couples, the
obligation enacted by this tradition is forgotten as the Eucharistic liturgy
gives way to the festal joy of the reception.
During the singing of the Agnus Dei, a shabbily dressed woman walked in and
proceeded toward the altar. The priest, becoming aware of the unplanned
interruption of the Eucharistic rites, greeted the woman, introducing her to the
bride and groom whose faces indicated genuine delight at this unexpected encounter.
Placing a chair next to his own, the priest spoke to the woman during the remainder
of the liturgy, inviting the couple to serve as Eucharistic ministers of so noble a feast.
At the conclusion of the liturgy, the woman joined the rather large wedding party in
its recessional from the church. Indeed, Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins
of the world.
22
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THE EUCHARISTIC FOUNDATIONS OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING / TIMOTHY P. O’MALLEY
Timothy P. O’Malley, Ph.D. is director
of the Notre Dame Center for Liturg y, a
Concurrent Professor in the Department of
Theolog y at the University of Notre Dame,
and editor of the journal Church Life.
My career as a liturgical and
sacramental theologian, as brief
as it may be thus far, has been
dedicated to an understanding
of the sacramental event that
took place this day. If theology
is “faith seeking understanding”,
savoring the mystery through
an intellectual and loving
contemplation of the signs
of faith, then the liturgical
theologian seeks this mystery
through the sacramental life of
the Church. The couple’s love for
one another visibly manifested
that day became Eucharistic
through a plenitude of divine
gifts—the pattern of divinehuman love imaged through
the Scriptures, the sacramental
union effected through the Rite
of Marriage, the Eucharistic
presence of Christ, and the
unknown woman who became an
icon of the sweet responsibilities
of Eucharistic love. And those
attentive to the grammar of
divine love employed that day in
the Church’s rites left committed
to an imitation of that love of
God and neighbor defining of
all Christian vocation. They
tasted the fruits of the sacrament,
becoming what was received in
the sacramental celebration.
Yet, one may rightly wonder, what
would it take for all Catholics, not
only those privy to attend this
unique nuptial event, to make
such an explicit connection
between Eucharistic worship
and the love of neighbor in each
liturgical celebration, in every act
of service? One possible means
is through an appropriation of
Catholic social doctrine vis-à-vis
an understanding of its Eucharistic
foundations. To unfold this thesis,
I first present the assumptions at
the heart of this claim, including
the relationship between the
Church’s social doctrine and
theology, as well as the mission of
evangelization intrinsic to ecclesial
identity. Second, I articulate the
Eucharistic foundations of Catholic
social doctrine in two sections.
The first attends to the Eucharistic
identity of the Church. The second
explores the sacramental mysticism,
which flows from this ecclesiology.
In the final part of the essay, I
apply the Eucharistic pedagogy of
Catholic Social Teaching to three
aspects of formation in Catholic
social life: marriage, ecological
consciousness, and service learning.
THE INSTITUTE FOR CHURCH LIFE
ND students serve hot
meals at the Catholic
Worker House in Detroit,
MI during their Urban
Plunge Seminar. Photo
courtesy of the Center
for Social Concerns
Catholic Social Teaching and the Eucharist
A cursory reading of Catholic Social Teaching, from Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum
in 1891 to Benedict XVI’s Caritas in veritate in 2009, may lead the reader to the
following conclusion: the Eucharist, though mentioned occasionally in the
monuments1 of Catholic Social Teaching, is certainly not foundational to the corpus
as a whole. Neither Rerum Novarum (1891) nor Pius XI’s Quadragesimo Anno (1931)
has any Eucharistic references, though the latter does address the Mystical Body of
Christ—an ecclesiological term with Eucharistic implications2. John XXIII’s Mater et
Magistra (1961) employs a single mention of the Eucharist in the context of a broader
discussion of rest and the Sabbath, declaring the wisdom of the Church’s teaching
that Christians be present on Sunday for the “…[E]ucharistic sacrifice because it
renews the memory of divine redemption and at the same time imparts its fruits to
the souls of men.”3 Paul VI, though by no means devoting extensive attention to
the Eucharist, does include an implicit Eucharistic reference in Populorum Progressio
(1967),4 a Eucharistic trope in Humanae Vitae (1968),5 a passage emphasizing the
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THE EUCHARISTIC FOUNDATIONS OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING / TIMOTHY P. O’MALLEY
importance of Eucharistic participation in educating
for justice in Iusticia in Mundo (1971),7 and an account
of the Eucharist as part of the Church’s mission of
evangelization in Evangelium Nuntiandi (1975). John
Paul II’s first explicit reference to the Eucharist in his
development of the social doctrine of the Church is
in Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1987). Toward the conclusion
of the document, he writes:
The kingdom of God becomes present above all
in the celebration of the sacrament of the Eucharist,
which is the Lord’s sacrifice. In that celebration
the fruits of the earth and the work of human
hands—the bread and wine—are transformed
mysteriously, but really and substantially,
through the power of the Holy Spirit and the
words of the minister, into the Body and Blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Son
of Mary, through whom the Kingdom of the Father
has been made present in our midst.8
Eucharistic participation, a union of the human person
with the Lord through the sacramental sacrifice of
the Eucharist, is the source of the Church’s martyria
or witness within the world.9 John Paul II likewise
mentions the sacraments, though not the Eucharist
specifically, as essential to the evangelical mission of
contributing to human dignity in Centesimus Annus
(1991).10 Though widely ignored as a part of the
Church’s social doctrine among commentators of
Catholic Social Teaching, both Veritatis Splendor (1993)11
and Evangelium Vitae (1995)12 also address the Eucharist.
Finally, Benedict XVI’s Caritas in Veritate (2009) is
without an explicit Eucharistic reference, though his
Deus Caritas Est (2006) and Sacramentum Caritatis (2007)
offer a Eucharistic theology intrinsically connected
to love of neighbor—a sacramental mysticism that
implicitly informs his more recent social encyclical.
Thus, with Charles E. Curran, one may conclude that
“an essential connection exists between liturgy and
life, but the documents of Catholic Social Teaching
pay no attention to it,” because of the need to speak
to dual audiences, those within the Church as well as
men and women of good will.13 That is, Catholic Social
Teaching does not address the relationship between
liturgical worship and love of neighbor because one
part of its audience (the non-believer) would not be
persuaded by ad intra theological arguments. Of course,
Curran’s claim operates out of its own assumption,
worthy of some critical examination; namely, Catholic
social doctrine may be analyzed apart from other
monuments of the Catholic Tradition. Thus, in his
introduction to Catholic Social Teaching, he engages
only in a limited way with Lumen Gentium,14 Vatican II’s
dogmatic constitution on the Church, while extensively
treating Gaudium et Spes, the same Council’s pastoral
constitution on the Church in the modern world. But
to do so is to ignore the very Eucharistic foundation of
Gaudium et Spes when viewed through the lens of Lumen
Gentium, as well as the implicit social nature of Lumen
Gentium in the first place.
Thus, if I am to argue that an essential quality of
Catholic social doctrine is its Eucharistic structure, I
will need to operate out of a set of assumptions distinct
from Curran. First, Catholic Social Teaching is fundamentally
theological in its vision, and thus cannot be fully explained
apart from wider theological reflection on divine revelation.
The theological depth of Catholic social doctrine is
particularly evident beginning with John Paul II and
continuing under the pontificate of Benedict XVI.
John Paul II’s second encyclical Dives in misericordia
(1980) treats the nature of divine mercy as incarnate in
Jesus Christ, one that becomes sacramentally present
in the life of the Church. Divine mercy is made
manifest in the self-gift of Christ upon the Cross, such
that “Believing in the crucified Son means ‘seeing
the Father,’ means believing that love is present in
THE INSTITUTE FOR CHURCH LIFE
the world and that this love is more powerful than
any kind of evil in which individuals, humanity, or
the world are involved. Believing in this love means
believing in mercy.”15 At the conclusion of the
encyclical, as John Paul II turns toward an account of
how the Church is called to merciful love, he describes
how the divine mercy mediated through the Church
might form Christians capable of merciful love in both
marriage and social relations through the practice
of forgiveness.16 Thus, John Paul II’s theological and
philosophical reflection upon divine mercy becomes
integral to the person’s social relationships in the
family, the polis, and society as a whole. Theological
teaching is social teaching.17
And, to the attentive reader of ecclesial social doctrine,
the converse is also true: the Church’s social teaching is
theological. This claim is correct not because every social
analysis is a matter of divine revelation, but as the
Church turns to reflect upon “the joys and the hopes,
the grief and anguish of the people of our time,”18 she
does so as “endowed with light from God.”19 When
the Church states that the human person has dignity,
being made in the image and likeness of God, she is
making a claim based not upon empirical evidence
or philosophical reflection but upon divine revelation.
That is, left to our own resources, either through
the disciplines of natural theology or the biological
sciences, humanity could not have known the fullness
of love that God has for the human person and the
dignity, and thus responsibility, that comes with this
gift. The function of Catholic Social Teaching, even
when it engages in philosophical teaching or scientificempirical analysis, is at the service of this revelation:
The Church sees in men and women, in every person, the
living image of God himself. This image finds, and must
always find anew, an ever deeper and fuller unfolding of
itself in the mystery of Christ, the Perfect Image of God,
the One who reveals God to man and man to himself. It
is to these men and women, who have received
an incomparable and inalienable dignity from
God himself, that the Church speaks, rendering
to them the highest and most singular service,
constantly reminding them of their lofty
vocation so that they may always be mindful of
it and worthy of it.20
Hence, when Catholic social doctrine claims that the
Church is an “expert in humanity,”21 it does so not
because of any intrinsic proficiency the Church has
apart from her knowledge of the Word made flesh,
Jesus Christ, who manifests the fullness of truth
regarding human nature: we are made for the gift of
love.22 As the Church proclaims the importance of
subsidiarity as a principle of Catholic Social Teaching,
she does so because subsidiarity enables a true
community of persons capable of free self-gift, not out
of concerns of efficiency or a libertarian philosophy
of limited government.23 The believer, gazing upon
such truth with the eyes of faith, will recognize the
theological anthropology at the heart of this claim.
The men and women of good will can recognize
the truthfulness of the same teaching through the
depths of their own religious experience or knowledge
of humanity achieved via reflection, without fully
acknowledging the theological reality expressed
through the sign. This is why the communication of
the Church’s social doctrine, though always theological,
is not limited to theological inquiry alone but benefits
from both philosophy and the social sciences.24
The second assumption is that formation in Catholic
Social Teaching is most effective when understood as integral
to the Church’s mission of evangelization. For the most
part, Catholic social doctrine is as well known to
members of the Church as the doctrine of the Trinity,
a theological approach to creation, or a Eucharistic
theology of transubstantiation; that is, it is at best
misunderstood and at worst unknown. Further, too
26
27
THE EUCHARISTIC FOUNDATIONS OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING / TIMOTHY P. O’MALLEY
often there is disharmony between a commitment to
high Eucharistic theology and practice and love of
neighbor. This disconnect is the precise gap between
faith and practice that Gaudium et Spes addressed
with such clarity: “Therefore, let there be no false
opposition between professional and social activities
on the one part, and religious life on the other. The
Christian who neglects his temporal duties neglects
his duties toward his neighbor and even God, and
jeopardizes his eternal salvation.”25 Of course, though
the document does not address it, the same problem
exists not simply for those who neglect love of
neighbor but also for those who fail to receive the
divine gift of love in the Eucharistic life of the Church,
taking part in action without contemplation.26
This intrinsic connection between acts of neighborly
charity and the Eucharistic life of the Church is
best expressed through the Church’s mission of
evangelization. Evangelization, according to Paul VI,
consists of two aspects that are interconnected with
one another: the richness of an interior life united
with God and the transformation of a society in light
of this interior renewal. In Evangelium Nuntiandi (1975),
he writes:
For the Church, evangelizing means bringing
the Good News into all strata of humanity, and
through its influence transforming humanity
from within and making it new … The purpose
of evangelization is therefore precisely this
interior change, and if it had to be expressed in
one sentence the best way of stating it would
be to say that the Church evangelizes when
she seeks to convert, solely through the divine
power of the Message she proclaims, both the
personal and collective consciences of people,
the activities in which they engage, and the lives
and concrete milieux which are theirs.27
This “gospelization” of human existence and culture
is not merely a matter of geography or quantity
of converts, but of attending to authentic human
development—an integral humanism that defends the
transcendent dignity of the human person, as well as
our capacity for freedom and for love.28 Proclamation
of the Church’s social doctrine is the Church
manifesting her evangelical identity, offering herself to
the world as a witness to Christ.29 In a recent account
of evangelization, the Church notes regarding the
difficulty of this task, “perhaps in this way the problem
of unfruitfulness in evangelization and catechesis
today can be seen as an ecclesiological problem which
concerns the Church’s capacity, more or less, of
becoming a real community, a true fraternity and a
living body, and not a mechanical thing or enterprise.”30
Hence, Catholic Social Teaching is part and parcel
of how the Church expresses her identity within the
world as an evangelical agent. Yet, this means that the
social doctrine of the Church requires an appropriation
of a robust ecclesiology, one that properly accounts
for the Church’s relationship with the world. And this
ecclesiology, as the second section of this essay will
show, is profoundly Eucharistic.
THE INSTITUTE FOR CHURCH LIFE
The Eucharistic Identity of the Church
and Sacramental Mysticism
Thus far, I have argued for the relationship between the social doctrine of the
Church and theology, in addition to acknowledging the profound connection
between Catholic Social Teaching and evangelization. In the second section of this
essay, I begin to construct the Eucharistic foundations of Catholic social doctrine
from two related perspectives: the Eucharistic identity of the Church and the
sacramental mysticism of Christian faith. Operating out of the first assumption
of the previous section, I assemble this Eucharistic account of Catholic social
doctrine beginning with theology and then moving toward anthropology and social
implications. The point of such an approach is not to place an insurmountable
obstacle between the two, as if one could engage in theological inquiry without
saying something about human nature and relationship in the process. But
rather, the two-fold approach shows how the Eucharistic theology, and thus the
anthropology, of Catholic social doctrine are evident to those who study and
appropriate it with the eyes of faith.
The Eucharistic nature of the Church is presented in the first chapter of Lumen
Gentium. Beginning with the mystery of the Church, the document defines her
identity as “a sacrament—a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with
God and of the unity of the entire human race….”31 Commenting upon this selfdefinition in Lumen Gentium, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “The Church’s
first purpose is to be the sacrament of the inner union of men with God. Because men’s
communion with one another is rooted in that union with God, the Church is also
the sacrament of the unity of the human race.”32 This is not a minor ecclesiological
claim. Through participation in the life of the Church, the human person enters
into the divine life of the Triune God and thus becomes a sign of human unity for
all men and women. Such participation is particularly manifested in the Eucharistic
communion of the Church:
Really sharing in the body of the Lord in the breaking of the Eucharistic
bread, we are taken up into communion with him and with one another.
“Because the bread is one, we, though many, are one body, all of us who
partake of the one bread” (1 Cor 10:17). In this way all of us are made
members of his body (see 1 Cor 12:27), “individually members one of
another” (Rom 12:5).33
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THE EUCHARISTIC FOUNDATIONS OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING / TIMOTHY P. O’MALLEY
Eucharistic participation is, therefore, intrinsically
connected to the identity of the Church, as one can see
through attending to two prominent ecclesial images
employed by Lumen Gentium: the Mystical Body of
Christ and the People of God.
The Mystical Body of Christ, and its Eucharistic
overtones, is featured in the latter half of chapter one
of Lumen Gentium, as well as the opening chapter of
Sacrosanctum Concilium (1963), the constitution on the
sacred liturgy. The latter, promulgated a year earlier
than Lumen Gentium, states:
The liturgy, then, is rightly seen as an exercise
of the priestly office of Jesus Christ. In the
liturgy the sanctification of women and men is
given expression in symbols perceptible by the
senses and is carried out in ways appropriate
to each of them. In it, complete and definitive
public worship is performed by the mystical
body of Jesus Christ, that is, by the Head and
his members.34
The Church is capable of performing worship that is
truly sacramental, in which Christ’s redeeming works
are made present and effective, because of her own
sacramental identity as “human and divine, visible but
endowed with invisible realities, zealous in action and
dedicated to contemplation, present in the world, yet
a migrant, so constituted that in it in the human is
directed toward and subordinated to the divine, the
visible to the invisible, action to contemplation, and
this present world to that city yet to come…”.35 The
Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, for Christ is
the Head of each member, similar to the way that
the soul provides life to the human body.36 Yet, these
two facets of the Church, “the visible society and
the spiritual community, the earthly church and the
church endowed with heavenly riches, are not to be
thought of as two realities.”37 When the Church acts
in the world through historical means, including in her
alleviation of poverty and her contribution to human
development, she presents efficacious signs to the
world of her own redemption in Jesus Christ.38 She acts
as the Body of Christ, a confession of faith akin to the
Christological claim that Jesus is both fully God and
fully human.
But, since the Church is a mystery of faith, a single
image is not sufficient to describe this remarkable
union between Christ and believers. The Church is
also the People of God, “established by Christ as a
communion of life, love, and truth.”39 This image
of People of God is related to the theme of covenant
among both the People of Israel and the new covenant
established through Christ’s gift upon the Cross. Such
covenantal language is profoundly Eucharistic. The
covenant, which gathers the People of God into a holy
nation, a royal priesthood (1 Pet 2:9-10), is nothing
less than Christ’s self-gift to the world upon the
Cross, one that establishes a new pattern of human
relationship based in graciousness and mercy.40 As a
member of the People of God, each person shares in
Christ’s three-fold office of priesthood, prophecy, and
kingship—offices that are not about Christ’s power
within the world but His capacity to give Himself
fully out of love. Through baptism, the faithful “are
consecrated as a spiritual house and a holy priesthood,
that through all their Christian activities they may offer
spiritual sacrifices and proclaim the marvels of him who
has called them out of darkness into his wonderful light
(see 1 Pet 2:4-10).”41 The body of the faithful, by sharing
in Christ’s priesthood, becomes a spiritual sacrifice. And
this sacrificial transformation is particularly evident in
the Eucharistic sacrifice of the Church:
Taking part in the Eucharistic sacrifice, the
source and summit of the Christian life, they
offer the divine victim to God and themselves
along with him. And so it is that, both in
THE INSTITUTE FOR CHURCH LIFE
the offering and in holy Communion, in
their separate ways, though not of course
indiscriminately, all have their own part to play in
the liturgical action. Then, strengthened by the
body of Christ in the Eucharistic communion,
they manifest in a concrete way that unity of the
people of God which this most holy sacrifice
aptly signifies and admirably realizes.42
Of course, the People of God is also prophetic,
becoming a living and persuasive sign of the truth
and beauty of the Kingdom of God.43 The Church is
royal when she exercises her faith within the world: “to
make the church present and fruitful in those places
and circumstances where it is only through them that it
can become the salt of the earth.”44
Gaudium et Spes presumes both of these images of
the Church,45 further developing their Eucharistic
implications for Church-world relations. In its
discussion of the role of the Church in the modern
world, the document refers to the mission of the
Church to serve “as a leaven and a kind of soul for
human society as it is to be renewed in Christ and
transformed into God’s family.”46 This, indeed, is the
Eucharistic vocation of the Church. For example, by
recognizing what is worthy in the social movements of
the world:
[S]he shows the world that an authentic union,
social and external, results from a union of
minds and hearts, namely from that faith and
charity by which her unity is unbreakably rooted
in the Holy Spirit. For the force which the
Church can inject into the modern society of
man consists in that faith and charity put into
vital practice, not in any external domination
exercised by merely human means.47
The Church acts within the modern world as a
leaven through manifesting her Eucharistic, and thus
evangelical, identity in her proclamation and witness
of self-gift and love.48 Of course, such a transformation
of the world through preaching and witness is not
merely spiritual, “but in the context of the history and
of the world in which man lives. Here mankind is met
by God’s love and by the vocation to cooperate in the
divine plan.”49
For this reason, the Eucharistic nature of Catholic
social doctrine is linked, profoundly, to the secular
nature of the lay vocation. This secular quality does
not mean that the layperson assumes no responsibility
for the evangelical mission of the Church. Rather,
the lay Christian has a particular responsibility to
overcome the distinction between faith and life, one
that is a scandal to the proclamation of the Kingdom
of God. As Paul VI notes in Populorum Progressio when
addressing human development:
[I]f the role of the hierarchy is to teach and to
interpret authentically the norms of morality
to be followed in this matter, it belongs to the
laymen, without waiting passively for orders
and directives, to take the initiative freely and
to infuse a Christian spirit into the mentality,
customs, laws, and structures of the community
in which they live.50
Working specifically within the world, the lay Christian
offers God’s love for the transformation of society, of
culture, of human relationships.51 It is this spiritual
worship, fostered by the Eucharistic life of the Church,
that the lay Christian offers in his or her vocational gift
to the world, a mystery to be lived that “commits us, in
our daily lives, to doing everything for God’s glory.”52
30
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THE EUCHARISTIC FOUNDATIONS OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING / TIMOTHY P. O’MALLEY
Such a teaching is particularly evident in the dignity
of the worker, a theme addressed throughout the
corpus of Catholic social doctrine. In Rerum Novarum,
this dignity of the worker is first taught in the proper
relationship between labor and capital, one inspired not
by class warfare but the bonds of love.53 In a society
which was profoundly Christian at least in culture
if not in deed, such a reminder was based upon the
bonds of baptism, confirmation, and Eucharist that
knit together worker and laborer in a single divine
family. Pius XI’s Quadresimo Anno further expands the
nature of human work as a creative, gratuitous act in
which the worker uses soul and body in developing the
created order.54 Yet it is John Paul II who makes the
most explicit contribution to the Eucharistic vocation
of the human person through the act of work in
Laborem Excercens (1981).
How so? John Paul II provides a distinction between
the objective and subjective nature of human work.
The former constitutes the human vocation to
subdue the earth, to use the material world in order
to foster human development.55 The latter, on the
other hand, is the identity of the human person as
image of God, “a subjective being capable of acting
in a planned and rational way, capable of deciding
about himself and with a tendency to self-realization
… these actions must all serve to realize his humanity,
to fulfill the calling to be a person.”56 Work is both a
development of the material world and an authentic
fulfillment of the human vocation to create, to
sustain, to transform.57 The dignity of the worker,
whether threatened by the development of new
technology or systems of capital that treat the worker
as an expendable resource, is meant to protect the
Eucharistic vocation of the human person to receive
the gift of creation and transform it through the gift of
free, creative activity. As the Compendium makes clear:
By his work and industriousness, man—who has a
share in the divine art and wisdom—makes creation,
the cosmos already ordered by the Father, more beautiful.
He summons the social and community energies that
increase the common good above all to the benefit of
those who are neediest. Human work, directed to
charity as its final goal, becomes an occasion
for contemplation, it becomes devout prayer,
vigilantly rising towards and in anxious hope of
the day that will not end.58
In this way, work becomes an expression of the
divine covenant between humanity and God, of the
redemption of Christ in his self-gift upon the Cross,
of the manifestation of the Kingdom of God. This
is the offering that the worker is to make both in
the Eucharistic celebration of the Mass, as well as the
Eucharistic offering of one’s creativity, imagination—
one’s very gift of self to the world. Unions and worker
associations are meant to protect these rights of the
worker, and to provide a place where the worker may
exercise this Eucharistic capacity of promoting justice
and solidarity among all workers through relationship. 59
Related to the Eucharistic identity of the Church
and the secular vocation of the lay person is the
development of a sacramental mysticism necessary
for appropriating Catholic doctrine in an evangelical
manner. Defining the term ‘sacramental mysticism’,
Benedict XVI, in his encylical Deus Caritas Est, writes:
Jesus gave this act of oblation an enduring
presence through his institution of the Eucharist
at the Last Supper. He anticipated his death and
resurrection by giving his disciples, in the bread
and wine, his very self, his body and blood as
the new man (cf. Jn 6:31-33). The ancient world
had dimly perceived that man’s true food—what
truly nourishes him as man—is ultimately the
Logos, eternal wisdom: this same Logos now truly
THE INSTITUTE FOR CHURCH LIFE
becomes food for us—as love. The Eucharist
draws us into Jesus’ act of self-oblation. More
than just statically receiving the incarnate Logos,
we enter into the very dynamic of his self-giving.
The imagery of marriage between God and Israel
is now realized in a way previously inconceivable:
it had meant standing in God’s presence, but now
it becomes union with God through sharing in
Jesus’ self-gift, sharing in his body and blood. The
sacramental “mysticism,” grounded in God’s selfcondescension towards us, operates at a radically
different level and lifts us to far greater heights
than anything that any human mystical elevation
could ever accomplish.60
Sacramental mysticism is thus the union of wisdom
and love embodied in the gift of Christ upon the
cross, made present in the sacramental remembering
of that act, and then assimilated into the human
body itself through eating and drinking in faith. To
consume the Body of Christ in this manner is a social
reality, for “I can belong to him only in union with
all those who have become, or who will become, his
own. Communion draws me out of myself towards
him, and thus also towards unity with all Christians.”61
Eucharistic worship, as the practice expressive of this
sacramental mysticism, is inconceivable without a
union of faith, of adoration, and of love of neighbor:
“A Eucharist which does not pass over into the
concrete practice of love is intrinsically fragmented.”62
One receives the Eucharistic gift of love, a sacramental
sign of God’s condescension toward us in creation,
in redemption, and in a hoped-for eschatological
transformation, and thus we are to become what we
have received in the Eucharistic sign. This sacramental
mysticism, one that perfectly unites praise and
thanksgiving of God and service to neighbor requires
a Eucharistic theology of sacrifice and communion.
This total transformation of human existence through
the sacrament of the Eucharist is the spiritual sacrifice
of Christians. It is an ethics of delight, but not of ease.
In Sacramentum Caritatis, Benedict notes:
Thus, our formation in communal life, in virtue,
in deeds of justice and love is nothing else but
a Eucharistic formation in divine charity. It
is carrying out the love of God and neighbor,
no longer as a duty, but as a gift we desire to
give, “a freely-bestowed experience of love from
within, a love which by its very nature must
then be shared with others. Love grows through
love.”63 Even in an ideal society, one where
justice is always performed, charity remains a
necessary virtue. For, caritas is not simply about
bestowing material needs but a giving of our
very selves, our “loving personal concern.”64
One can then see the implicit Eucharistic context of
Caritas in Veritate. For it is not enough for the Church
to foster human development, understood only as an
acquisition of material goods, creating an adequate
political structure, or reforming economic systems.65
This economy of exchange is not the essence of human
personhood or community. Rather, “economic, social
and political development, if it is to be authentically
human, needs to make room for the principle of
gratuitousness as an expression of fraternity.”66 In fact,
Benedict XVI’s argument is both anthropological and
theological in this regard—taking up the theme of
solidarity best expressed by John Paul II in Sollicitudo
Rei Sociallis.67 Solidarity, according to Benedict, is that
sense of responsibility on the part of everyone to
engage in just action, to contribute to the common
good.68 Such solidarity arises not because of social
institutions but because of love:
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THE EUCHARISTIC FOUNDATIONS OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING / TIMOTHY P. O’MALLEY
In reality, institutions by themselves are not
enough, because integral human development
is primarily a vocation, and therefore it involves
a free assumption of responsibility in solidarity
on the part of everyone. Moreover, such
development requires a transcendent vision
of the person, it needs God: without him,
development is either denied, or entrusted
exclusively to man, who falls into the trap of
thinking he can bring about his own salvation,
and ends up promoting a dehumanized form of
development. Only through an encounter with
God are we able to see in the other something
more than just another creature, to recognize
the divine image in the other, thus truly coming
to discover him or her and to mature in a love
that “becomes concern and care for the other.”69
Thus, a just social life is only possible if we ourselves
have become just, loving, capable of giving ourselves
to another because we perceive God in them, because
we love them. Solidarity is a Eucharistic virtue, and
the key to Catholic social doctrine as a whole.70 As the
Church in history promotes the virtue of solidarity,
she is manifesting her Eucharistic identity to the
world. Hence, the Eucharistic nature of social doctrine
operates at both a micro and macro level. As the
Church embodies solidarity with the world, she is
being Eucharistic; as the particular Christian carries
out his or her mission of solidarity through love of
neighbor, that person is taking up the Eucharistic
vocation of the human person. The Church’s social doctrine
is necessarily Eucharistic. What the Church receives in the
Eucharist, she gives to the world.
Teaching the Eucharistic Foundations
of Catholic Social Doctrine
Of course, it is one thing to articulate the Eucharistic foundations of Catholic Social
Teaching, including the Eucharistic identity of the Church’s mission to the world
and a sacramental mysticism; it is another to teach these foundations in parishes,
in schools, to couples preparing for marriage. In the final section of this essay, I
propose several implications for formation in Catholic Social Teaching through
the Eucharistic pedagogy of the Church unfolded above. I focus on three areas:
marriage preparation, ecology, and service learning.
THE INSTITUTE FOR CHURCH LIFE
Perugino, Marriage of
the Virgin Mary, detail,
c. 1503-4, Musée des
Beaux-Arts, Caen
Eucharistic Marriage Preparation
An unfortunate aspect of neglecting the social responsibilities of married life is an
inadequate attention to teaching Catholic social doctrine in marriage preparation.
If the family is the vital cell of society,71 the privileged locale for humanization,
then developing a civilization of love begins with relationships cultivated within
the family. Accordingly, it seems essential to provide adequate formation in the
theological and anthropological roots of Catholic social doctrine for engaged couples.
Presently, marriage preparation programs on a diocesan and parish level generally
treat sexuality, communication, religious practice, and domestic economy as a series
of topics to be covered either over an extended weekend or through a six-week
period of classes. For the most part, these topics lack an integrating narrative of what
constitutes Christian marriage in the first place.
Yet, such an approach need not be the only one. Another possible entrée into
marriage preparation is a weekend retreat or a series of classes forming the engaged
couple in Catholic social doctrine through attending to the Eucharistic identity of
the Church and cultivating a domestic sacramental mysticism. An initial session of
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THE EUCHARISTIC FOUNDATIONS OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING / TIMOTHY P. O’MALLEY
such a retreat/course would consider the nature of
Christian love in the first place, inviting the couple to
measure their own relationship vis-à-vis Christ’s selfgift intrinsic to the Eucharistic life of the Church. This
session would provide an introduction to Eucharistic
theology and a conception of marriage emerging
out of this Eucharistic doctrine. Then, the program
would deliberate upon the Eucharistic vocation of the
laity, that transformation of all of human existence
through the couple’s priestly, prophetic, and royal
nature in Christ. Issues pertaining to domestic
economy, sexuality, and communication would be
discussed but under the purview of the Eucharistic
and evangelical nature of the Church. The final
aspect of the formation program would touch upon
how to develop a sacramental mysticism within one’s
marriage. Indeed, exhortations for frequent Eucharistic
participation are important. However, equally essential
is for the couple to discern not how they might be
prepared for marriage, but rather how their marriage
might become a sacrament of divine love for the
world: how they could offer divine sacrifice, exercising
the virtue of solidarity through the married vocation.
Welcoming the poor, considering adoption or foster
care, abiding within a spirituality of gratitude. This last
session would treat the primary virtue necessary for all
social life, solidarity—reminding the couple that their
married love is ultimately not about themselves (despite
what a variety of romantic comedies portray) but about
the poor, the homeless, the sick, the weak, and anyone
in need of the divine gift of love fruitfully cultivated
through the joys and sorrows, the griefs and anxieties
of married life. Eucharistic participation for the
married couple then becomes the sustaining sacrament
of the spiritual worship offered in the union of divine
and human love, defining of the sacramental nature of
Christian marriage.
Eucharistic Ecological Consciousness
One important feature of Benedict XVI’s Caritas in Veritate is its discussion of
ecology and the human person. In this document, he notes, “Our duties towards
the environment are linked to our duties towards the human person, considered in
himself and in relation to others. It would be wrong to uphold one set of duties while
trampling on the other.”72 That is, for Benedict, the salve for the ecological crisis is
not the seeking of sources for green energy but rather the development of virtues
of gratitude whereby each person in the world perceives all as divine gift, part of
a created order given to us by God.73 Such a virtue of gratitude extends into all of
human social relationship—not only our interaction with the environment.
Yet, most formation into an ecological consciousness approaches the environment
differently. Beginning from a sense of fear that we are destroying our planet at the
expense of future generations, it suggests a series of “duties” that one may carry
out in order to stop the crisis at hand. Buy a Prius, use energy efficient light bulbs,
THE INSTITUTE FOR CHURCH LIFE
start a compost pile, take shorter showers, etc. But,
this approach quickly becomes a mindless fulfilling
of commandments or a utopian sense that humanity
can affect a type of ecological “salvation” through its
own efforts in developing technology. Further, such
an approach to developing an ecological consciousness
risks becoming misanthropic, perceiving human
interaction with the created order as a necessary evil
not as a divine gift.
A reconfiguration of such formation according to the
Eucharistic foundations of Catholic social doctrine
may serve as a more fruitful means of developing this
ecological consciousness within Catholic parishes
and schools. Rather than beginning with a series
of “things” to avoid, this approach to ecological
formation would form parishioners or students in
Catholic social doctrine by attending to a Eucharistic
theology of creation, characterized by a spirituality
of gratitude.74 Creation is a loving gift from God,
and human beings through the sin of pride rebelled
against this divine gift, introducing disharmony into
both interpersonal relationships and our attitude
toward non-personal creation. In this sin, we become
less capable of gratitude, of perceiving the signifying
power of the entire created order. Through Christ’s
self-gift upon the Cross made available to Christians
through the Eucharistic life of the Church, humanity
is offered the possibility of re-creation, relationships
of love, of peace, of unity. One becomes capable of
true gratitude, of receiving the world as a divine gift
and then offering this gift to one’s neighbor—the
Eucharistic vocation of the Christian. The practices
of the Eucharistic liturgy, including the act of praise,
of remembrance, of confession of sin, of sacrifice,
and of “being sent” form the Christian in a proper
relationship to the created order. Study groups of
the Scriptures and the liturgical texts could present
this Eucharistic theology of creation. In addition,
a series of talks given on the lives of the saints
may demonstrate how this Eucharistic theology of
creation is transformative of the human vocation,
leading to true holiness, a life that has become
transfigured through this pattern of gratitude.
This general narrative would then inform the parish/
school’s formation into a priestly pedagogy of creation,
one in which the parish/school would teach the
virtue of solidarity. The parish/school would organize
specific practices such as gardening, preparing organic
meals, advocating for clean water, decreasing energy
use, supporting local economies, and setting time
aside for true leisure—all exercises of our priestly
role within creation. Yet, in claiming the priestly
quality of these practices, the parish/school would
not be romanticizing them; rather they would be
seeing them in their truest light. To live in such a way
that the self-giving love of the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, manifested in the life of Christ, sacramentally
re-presented in the Eucharistic life of the Church,
overflows into one’s relationship with creation is a
painful endeavor. After all, self-giving love often is:
the husband and wife, who give to one another in
continual wonder, despite the often commonplace
nature of domestic life. The parent, who answers the
constant barrage of questions from the child, seeking
to know all things immediately. The teacher, who assists
the student in the act of learning, despite the costs.
These are freely performed sacrificial deeds performed
out of a wellspring of love. So too, as the Christians
enter increasingly into the sacrificial life of God
through the Eucharist, loving the God-person Jesus
Christ with greater fervor, then this work of caring for
creation (though hard), becomes a sacrifice of praise, a
sacramental expression of our love for the God who is
in the process of creating and redeeming this sublimely
splendid world.
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THE EUCHARISTIC FOUNDATIONS OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING / TIMOTHY P. O’MALLEY
Eucharistic Theology and
Service-Learning
At Catholic high schools and colleges, students often participate in service-learning.
Such courses within theology generally include the reading of foundational texts
in the social doctrine of the Church in conjunction with texts or other media that
allow one to understand the society to which one offers service, teaching a kind of
disposition of social analysis (see, judge, act); as well as either extended experiences
of service within the community or an immersion event. These courses are
undoubtedly effective in educating students in the foundations of the social
doctrine of the Church, as well as forming them in the desire for service and the
transformation of unjust social structures.
Yet, do such courses necessarily lead to the development of the sacramental
mysticism intrinsic to a Catholic approach to living the social doctrine of the
Church? One way of educating for this foundational disposition would be
a service-learning course that included not only a reading of social doctrine
texts but also a simultaneous introduction into Catholic Eucharistic theology.
The course would first include an overview of the Eucharistic theology of the
Church, including real presence, sacrifice, language of covenant, biblical images
of Eucharist, a Eucharistic ecclesiology, etc. Then, social doctrine itself would be
studied in light of these Eucharistic foundations, moving from the theological
claims of the Tradition to anthropological questions, especially the human capacity
for self-gift. In conjunction with this formal study, students would perform 8-12
hours of service per week at a local site and participate in a Eucharistic retreat,
being invited to develop the sacramental mysticism unfolded in the course.
THE INSTITUTE FOR CHURCH LIFE
Conclusion
At the beginning of this essay, I asked a question: how might one teach Christians
to live their faith in such a way that Eucharistic sacrifice and love of neighbor might
be perceived as connected to one another? The proposal of this essay is that such a
union between faith and life is possible through the appropriation of the Eucharistic
foundations of Catholic social doctrine, including the Eucharistic identity of the
Church and a sacramental mysticism. The task of the Catholic educator, whether
performing his or her ministry within a parish or a school, is to assist students in
this act of appropriation. Marriage, ecology, and service-learning are three areas
in which such a formation may be pursued. Yet, however one may approach this
education, its fundamental purpose is nothing less than a formation into a means
of sacramental perception. One in which the signs of bread and wine are, despite
all appearances to the contrary, the Body and Blood of Christ. One in which the
neighbor, seemingly so lowly, is in fact Christ Himself. One in which human action
is transfigured through the priestly pedagogy of the Eucharist, characterized by a
gift of self in love, the commitment to the virtue of solidarity. The Catholic educator
cannot guarantee that such perception is achieved. For indeed, this sacramental
perception is itself a divine gift. Nevertheless, the educator can provide the matter
for this transformation, including the richness of the Church’s Eucharistic theology
in conjunction with the theological and anthropological insights of Catholic social
doctrine. For the possibility of any societal transformation, of “new things” coming
in order, as Benedict XVI notes, is profoundly Eucharistic:
The substantial conversion of bread and wine into his body and blood
introduces within creation the principle of a radical change, a sort of “nuclear
fission,” to use an image familiar to us today, which penetrates to the heart
of all being, a change meant to set off a process which transforms reality, a
process leading ultimately to the transfiguration of the entire world, to the
point where God will be all in all (cf. 1 Cor 15:28).75
By taking up this Eucharistic vocation, this capacity to give ourselves to the world,
Catholic Social Teaching becomes itself an extension of the Eucharistic identity
of the Church. In some sense then, Catholic Social Teaching becomes itself
a “sacrament,” a visible and efficacious sign of the priestly, prophetic, and royal
vocation of the human person.
†
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THE EUCHARISTIC FOUNDATIONS OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING / TIMOTHY P. O’MALLEY
NOTES
19
Ibid., §12.
The term “monument” is applied by Yves Congar in describing the Scriptures, the liturgical rites, magisterial documents,
and theological texts that are witnesses to the Tradition but not
capable of fully expressing the realities signified by the Church’s
historical life. See, The Meaning of Tradition, trans. A.N. Woodrow
(San Francisco: Ignatius, 2004), 152–53.
20
Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, §105.
21
Paul VI, Populorum Progressio, §13.
22
Compendium on the Social Doctrine of the Church, §34.
23
Ibid., §185.
24
Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, §§76–78.
Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno, §90 in Catholic Social Thought:
The Documentary Heritage, rev. ed., David J. O’Brien and
Thomas A. Shannon (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2010). Unless
stated otherwise, all documents are from O’Brien and Shannon.
25
Gaudium et Spes, §43.
1
2
3
John XIII, Mater et Magister, §251.
4
Paul VI, Populorum Progressio, §79.
Paul VI, Humanae Vitae, §§25, 28. Though not acknowledged as
part of the corpus of social teaching by O’Brien and Shannon,
the document appears in the Pontifical Council for Justice and
Peace’s Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (Washington, D.C.: USCCB, 2004), §§232–33.
5
6
Synod of Bishops, Iusticia in Mundo, §58.
7
Paul VI, Evangelium Nuntiandi, §14. See also, §28.
8
John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, §48.
9
Ibid.
10
John Paul II, Centensimus Annus, §55.
John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor (Boston: Pauline Books and
Media, 1993), §21.
11
John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, §25 in The Theology of the Body:
Human Love in the Divine Plan (Boston: Pauline Books and Media,
1997).
12
Charles Curran, Catholic Social Teaching: A Historical, Theological,
and Ethical Analysis (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown, 121).
13
14
Ibid., 103–105.
John Paul II, Dives in misericordia, §7.
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/
documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_30111980_dives-in-misericordia_
en.html. Accessed July 7, 2011.
15
Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, §§12–15.
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/
documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est_en.html.
Accessed July 7, 2011.
26
27
Evangelium Nuntiandi, §18.
Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, §11.
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/
documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_
en.html. Accessed July 7, 2011.
28
29
Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, §67.
Lineamenta, XIII Synod of Bishops, The New Evangelization for
the Transmission of the Catholic Faith, §2.
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/synod/documents/rc_synod_doc_20110202_lineamenta-xiii-assembly_en.html. Accessed
July 7, 2011.
30
31
Lumen Gentium, §1.
Catechism of the Catholic Church (New York: Doubleday, 1997),
§775.
32
33
Lumen Gentium, §7.
34
Sacrosanctum Concilium, §7.
35
Ibid., §2.
36
Lumen Gentium, §7.
37
Ibid., §8.
38
Ibid.
39
Ibid., §9.
Lumen Gentium, §9; Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the
Church, §29.
40
16
Ibid., §14.
41
Ibid., §10.
17
Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, §74.
42
Ibid., §11.
43
Ibid., §12.
44
Ibid., §33.
Gaudium et Spes, §1, in Austin Flannery, O.P., ed. Vatican Council
II: Constitutions, Decrees, Declarations, (Northport, N.Y.: Costello
Publishing, 1996).
18
THE INSTITUTE FOR CHURCH LIFE
45
Gaudium et Spes, §40.
71
Ibid., §209.
46
Ibid.
72
Caritas in Veritate, §51.
47
Ibid., §42.
73
Ibid., §52.
John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, §23.
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/special_features/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_20030417_ecclesia_eucharistia_
en.html. Accessed July 7, 2011.
48
49
Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, §60.
50
Populorum Progressio, §81.
Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, §542;
John Paul II, Christifideles Laici, §14.
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_30121988_christifideles-laici_en.html.
51
Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, §79.
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_ben-xvi_exh_20070222_sacramentumcaritatis_en.html. Accessed July 7, 2011.
52
53
Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, §21.
54
Quadresimo Anno, §53.
55
John Paul II, Laborem Excercens, §5.
56
Ibid., §6.
57
Ibid., §9.
58
Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, §266.
59
Ibid., §§305–309.
Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, §13.
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/
documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est_en.html.
Accessed July 7, 2011.
60
61
Ibid., §14.
62
Ibid.
63
Benedict, XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, §18.
64
Ibid., §28b.
65
Caritas in Veritate, §9.
66
Ibid., §34.
67
John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, §38.
68
Caritas in Veritate, §38.
69
Ibid., §11.
70
Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, §580.
See Timothy P. O’Malley, “Catholic Ecology and Eucharist:
A Practice Approach,” Liturgical Ministry (Spring 2011): 68-78.
74
75
Sacramentum caritatis, §11.
40