The Eucharist as the Centre of the Cosmos
A Way to Approach the Mystery of the Easter Triduum
A Word from the Desert
“Since once again, Lord—though this time not in the forests of Aisne but in the steppes of Asia—I have neither bread, nor wine, nor altar, I will raise myself beyond these symbols, up to the pure majesty of the real itself; I, your priest, will make the whole earth my altar and on it will offer you all the labours and sufferings of the world”.
(from The Mass on the World – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin)
Imagine the deepest darkness you can think of. It is cold. There are tiny noises around you from animals that you cannot see. Are they rats, or scorpions? The night has been cold. Your body feels broken. You are getting old. You worked too hard yesterday. Your passion for science has driven you far away from any worldly comfort. It has also driven you far away from the nearest church building. If, of course, there are any churches in this part of the world, You are looking East. The sky is turning dark blue. The landscape emerges in shades of brown and grey. Suddenly, the rays of the sun pierce over the hills, and everything basks in a bright orange-yellow light. And then the sun rises from beyond the horizon. It rises almost as slowly as you once saw a priest raising the Holy Eucharist after the consecration. Witnessing the sunrise makes your heart glow, like raising the Eucharist after the consecration. You know that feeling well. You are a priest. You want to celebrate the Eucharist, but there is nothing and nobody to celebrate the Eucharist with. You have no bread, no wine. But the longing for the Eucharist overcomes the practicalities of the present moment. Your heart is ablaze and you start to pray…
This is how we imagine it must have been for Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Later, he would write down the prayers he said in that moment. They became known as the “Mass of the World.” Without bread and wine, Teilhard offered the whole of creation to God, asking for the gift of deification. Far from falling into pantheism, this mystical experience of the French Jesuit has deeply touched the hearts of all three recent pontiffs in their reflections on the value of the Eucharist.
In his encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia, John Paul II, after listing the many places where he had celebrated Mass in his long years as a priest, emphasises the cosmic character of the Eucharistic liturgy by picking up on Teilhard's thought: "This varied scenario of celebrations of the Eucharist has given me a powerful experience of its universal and, so to speak, cosmic character. Yes, cosmic! Because, even when it is celebrated on the humble altar of a country church, the Eucharist is always in some way celebrated on the altar of the world. It unites heaven and earth. It embraces and permeates all creation (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 8).
Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Ratzinger, also picks up on Teilhard's thought, emphasising how, for him, the consecrated Host is "an anticipation of the transformation of matter and its divinisation in Christological 'fullness'. The Eucharist indicates, so to speak, the direction of the cosmic movement; it anticipates its end and at the same time pushes towards it".
Lastly, Pope Francis recalled in Mongolia the 100th anniversary of the "Mass on the World", whose thought he had already taken up in his encyclical Laudato si' saying that the Eucharist is "the vital centre of the universe, the overflowing core of love and of inexhaustible life" since it "is itself an act of cosmic love" (Laudato si', 236).
The wish we want to make for you for this Holy Triduum is to live these liturgies, treasuring the thought of Teilhard de Chardin as the popes we have mentioned did. Let us try to immerse ourselves in the cosmic dimension of the Paschal Mystery that we celebrate in the liturgy, and in it, we will glimpse the New Kingdom that is already coming to transfigure our existence and that of the entire universe.
A very Happy Easter from Brother Richard and Brother Giovanni!
A Prayer for the Road Ahead
Radiant Word,
blazing Power,
you who mould the manifold
so as to breathe life into it,
I pray you,
lay on us those your hands –
powerful,
considerate,
omnipresent
Amen.
(Pierre Teilhard de Chardin)
Image by Venrike Artworks from Pixabay