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Eucharist and Sacrifice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Michael Kirwan SJ
Michael Kirwan SJ*
Affiliation:
Heythrop College, (University of London), Kensington Square, London W8 5HQ
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

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Type
Catholic Theological Association 2006 Conference Papers
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 88 , Issue 1014 , March 2007 , pp. 213 - 227
Copyright
Copyright © The author 2007. Journal compilation © The Dominican Council/Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2007

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References

1 Cavanaugh, W.T., Torture and Eucharist (Blackwell, Oxford, 1998)Google Scholar. A central theme in Cavanaugh's argument is that the Church had allowed itself to ‘disappear’ from Chilean political life because of a mistaken understanding of how it should relate to society. Only by recovering its ability to practise Eucharist was the Church able to overcome its ‘invisibility’. As an iconic example of such ‘eucharistic practice’, Cavanaugh cites the decision by Archbishop Romero (after the assassination of Fr Rutilio Grande) to have just one Eucharistic celebration in San Salvador, in order to voice, to the entire nation, his condemnation of human rights violations.

2 The phrase is taken from Johann Baptist Metz. For an appraisal of the eucharistic dimension of Metz's political theology, see Morrill, Bruce T., Anamnesis and Dangerous Memory: Political and Liturgical Theology in Dialogue (Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Mn., 2000)Google Scholar.

3 Chauvet, Louis-Marie, (1995), Symbol and Sacrament: A Sacramental Reinterpretation of Christian Existence (Liturgical Press, Collegeville, 1995), p. 315Google Scholar.

4 Keenan, Dennis King, ‘The Sacrifice of the Eucharist’, Heythrop Journal 44.2 (2003), pp. 182-2-4CrossRefGoogle Scholar and The Question of Sacrifice (Indiana University Press, Bloomington & Indianapolis, 2005)Google Scholar; Milbank, John, (1996), ‘Stories of Sacrifice: From Wellhausen to Girard’, Modern Theology 12 (1996), pp. 27–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Jay, Nancy, Throughout Your Generations For Ever: Sacrifice, Religion and Paternity (University of Chicago Press, 1992)Google Scholar; especially chapter 9, ‘Theories of Sacrifice’, pp. 128–146.

6 Barker, Margaret, (2003), The Great High Priest: The Temple Roots of Christian Liturgy (T & T Clark, London, 2003)Google Scholar; Chilton, Bruce, The Temple of Jesus: His Sacrificial Program within a Cultural History of Sacrifice (University Park, Pennsylvania, 1992)Google Scholar.

7 D.K. Keenan (2005) p. 14.

8 J. Milbank (1996) p. 31.

9 Girard admits that in Des Choses Cachēes (1978) his impatience to stress the uniqueness of the biblical revelation over against sacrifice caused him to “scapegoat” both the concept itself, and the “sacrificial” letter to the Hebrews (for Girard's change of mind on the question of sacrifice, see Williams, James (ed), The Girard Reader (Crossroad, NY, 1996)Google Scholar.

10 McKenna, John H., ‘Eucharist and Sacrifice: An Overview’, Worship, 76.5 (2002) pp. 386–402Google Scholar. See also Franklin, William R., ‘ARC-USA: Five Affirmations on the eucharist as Sacrifice’, Worship, 69 (1995) pp. 386–390Google Scholar; Pierce, Joanne M., (1995), ‘The Eucharist as Sacrifice: Some Contemporary Roman Catholic Reflections’, Worship, 69.5 (1995) pp. 394–405Google Scholar; Power, David, The Eucharistic Mystery: Revitalising the Tradition (Crossroad, NY, 1992)Google Scholar; Power, David et al., ‘Sacramental Theology: A Review of Literature’Theological Studies, 55 (1994) pp. 657–702Google Scholar.

11 D.K. Keenan (2003) p. 189.

12 Daly, Robert, The Origins of the Christian Doctrine of Sacrifice (Fortress Press, Philadelphia, 1978) p. 7Google Scholar.

13 Ibid. p. 82f. See also ‘Sacrifice’ in Fink, P. (ed), New Dictionary of Sacramental Worship (Gill & Macmillan, Dublin, 1990) pp. 1135–7Google Scholar, and ‘Is Christianity Sacrificial or Anti-Sacrificial’, Religion, 27, (1997) pp. 225–230Google Scholar.

14 R. Daly (1997) p. 238.

15 Two respondents to Robert Daly's 1997 paper, Paul Duff and Bruce Chilton, argue for a more dominant trajectory in the New Testament, suggesting that Christianity did not at first reject the Temple (see Matthew 5.23-24; Acts 2.46; 5.42; 21.17-26). Nor should we reject the historical circumstances by which Christianity became separated from sacrificial worship, namely the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE and its demolition in 135 CE. The replacement of the Temple is a matter of history, not of Christian or Rabbinic theology. Chilton stresses the dangers of “scapegoating sacrifice” and insists that “the denial of sacrifice is the last bulwark, and perhaps the strongest, of Christian exceptionalism’. See Paul Duff, ‘The Sacrificial Character of Earliest Christianity: A Response to Daly's, Robert J. “Is Christianity Sacrificial or Anti-Sacrifical”, Religion, 27 (1997) pp. 245–248CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Chilton, Bruce, ‘Sacrificial Mimesis’ in Religion, 27 (1997) pp. 225–230CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

16 L-M. Chauvet, Op. Cit., p. 299.

17 Ibid., pp. 303–6.

18 Ibid., p. 307.

19 J.H. McKenna, Op. Cit., p. 389.

20 L-M. Chauvet, Op. Cit., p. 260.

21 St Augustine, The City of God, Book X.6.

22 L-M. Chauvet, Op. Cit., p. 309.

23 We should, of course, recognise the possibility that this last declaration may not in fact be a reference to the Eucharist at all.

24 The ground is well covered: see Droge, and Tabor, , A Noble Death: Suicide and Martyrdom among Christians and Jews in Antiquity (Harper, San Francisco, 1992)Google Scholar, and Tanner, R.G., ‘Martyrdom in St Ignatius of Antioch and the Stoic View of Suicide’ in Livingstone, E.A. (ed), Studia Patristica, 16.2 (Academic Verlag, Berlin, 1985) pp. 201–205Google Scholar.

25 St Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Romans 3, in Early Christian Writings: The Apostolic Fathers, translated by Staniforth, Maxwell (Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1968) p. 104Google Scholar.

26 D. Power, The Eucharistic Mystery (1992) p. 320.

27 Ibid., p. 321.

28 D. Power, ‘Sacramental Theology: A Review of Literature’ (1994), p. 322f.

29 Ford asks: does this theology of salvation go to the heart of Christian identity, doing justice to the specificity of the Gospel narrative, the face of Jesus Christ, as well as its universal implications? Is this theology widely accessible today? Does this theology have practical fruitfulness, in what Ford describes as the three main dynamics of Christian living: worship and prayer; living and learning in community; and speech, action and suffering for justice, freedom, peace, goodness and truth? Finally is this theology defensible against diverse attacks, and can it anticipate and deal with the main criticisms and alternatives.

30 Given new life by the controversy of the Passion film of Mel Gibson: see Simon Barrow and Jonathan Bartley (eds), Consuming Passion: Why the Killing of Jesus Really Matters (DLT, London, 2005). The editors of this book express their concern that the popularity of the film and the undiscriminating use of this film as a tool for evangelisation have served to perpetuate pathological notions of penal substitution.

31 Discussion of this theme at the CTA conference 2006 drew attention to the oddness of the Eucharistic ‘meal’ as it normally occurs: food which is queued for and consumed standing is more reminiscent of a soup kitchen or a fast food outlet than a leisurely banquet, suggesting that unease with the meal symbolism is implicit in how we actually celebrate the sacrament.

32 See Girard, René, ‘The Logos of Heraclitus and the Logos of John’ in Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World (University Press, Stanford, Ca., 1987) pp. 263–280Google Scholar.

33 L-M. Chauvet, Op. Cit., p. 299.

34 Ibid., p. 301.

35 Ibid., p. 311.

36 Ibid., p. 315f.

37 I am indebted to the Catholic Theological Association and to Dr Laurence Hemming for comments on this paper. I would also like to acknowledge the book by Levering, Matthew, Sacrifice and Community: Jewish Offering and Christian Eucharist (Blackwell, Oxford, 2006)Google Scholar which, while highly pertinent to this discussion, appeared too late for me take it into account.

38 See Karl Rahner's argument for a renewed and expanded conception for martyrdom for the modern age in ‘Dimensions of Martyrdom: A Plea for the Broadening of a Classical Concept’, Concilium, 163, pp. 9–12Google Scholar. By recognising in this article the complexities of contemporary martyrdom, Rahner moves away from his earlier optimism about martyrdom being a “suprasacrament”; see On the Theology of Death (Herder, Freiburg, 1961)Google Scholar and his other writings on Christian death in Theological Investigations, volumes VII and IX.

39 L-M. Chauvet, Op. Cit., p. 316.