I have been thinking about the role and function of Eucharistic celebration in Catholic schools. At least two themes strike me as worthy of reflection here. The first concerns the role of wonder. The second concerns the common good.
On the first point, I turn to the Council of Trent. In its Decree on the Eucharist, Trent taught that “after the consecration of the bread and wine, our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and man, is truly, really, and substantially contained under the species of those sensible things . . . by a manner of existing, which . . . we can scarcely express . . . in words” (Chapter I), adding that the “conversion. . . made of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord, and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of His blood; . . . is, by the holy Catholic Church, suitably and properly called Transubstantiation.” (Chapter IV).
“We can scarcely express . . . in words,” but we believe it to be true “by the understanding illuminated by faith” (Chapter I). The Eucharist is thus a mystery and a wonder. One wonders at the Eucharist, with the awe and reverence one accords to the divine. Though education necessarily involves the imparting of data about the world, how language works, and how mathematical operations operate, a Catholic education begins and ends with a sense of wonder analogous to that with which one ponders the Eucharist. It is only analogous. The presence of Christ in the eucharistic elements is unique in all of creation. Yet Pope Francis points out that “beauty, just like truth, always engenders wonder, and when these are referred to the mystery of God, they lead to adoration” (Desiderio Desideravi 25). When it imparts data and facts—truth—about the world, Catholic education should do so in a fashion that refers to the mystery of God. Francis adds in no. 26 that “wonder is an essential part of the liturgical act.” It is also an essential part of learning.
On the second point, the common good, Vatican II’s Declaration on Christian Education holds in paragraph 1 that “a true education aims at the formation of the human person in the pursuit of his ultimate end and of the good of the societies of which, as man, he is a member, and in whose obligations, as an adult, he will share . . . [Students] should be so trained to take their part in social life that properly instructed in the necessary and opportune skills they can become actively involved in various community organizations, open to discourse with others and willing to do their best to promote the common good.”
For Thomas Aquinas and the Catholic tradition generally, the res tantum of the Eucharist is the love and unity of the gathered assembly. This love and unity must show itself in deeds. This is why the Catechism of the Catholic Church asserts in 1397 that “the Eucharist commits us to the poor.”
In my own work as a Catholic educator, I try to stress the importance of wonder. I try to stress the importance of the common good and social justice. I wonder how often I do so with specific reference to the Eucharistic imperatives I have just described.