Eucharistic Presence in the Modern World with
Insights from Syriac Theology
Mary Hansbury
Recently an article by P. Steinfels was published in Commonweal concerning contemporary understanding of the Eucharist: “Swift to Spurn: Liberal Catholics and the Real Presence.” He cites Pew Research that only 31% of Catholics believe that bread and wine actually become body and blood of Christ, rather that bread and wine are only symbols.
We do become body of Christ even without understanding the scholastic language, such as transubstantiation. The Second Vatican Council sought new language for the Eucharist which was weighed down by philosophical explanations, such as transubstantiation. Theologians Yves Congar and Jean Daniélou turned to Syriac Christianity for a different approach, deeply theological , without philosophy.
The Real Presence is a perfect example of what needs to be reinterpreted with the expression transubstantiation. And in the Syriac tradition, the Syriac fathers, especially St. Ephrem, used paradox and metaphor or poetry instead of philosophy. Ephrem speaks of God “putting on” human language to be known in Scripture; “putting on” human flesh in the Incarnation to be known in our nature; and “putting on” bread and wine to be known as our food. It’s the Holy Spirit who mediates these acts of God’s presence in creation. Ephrem says: Christ has come not to fill our minds with thoughts but to bewilder our thinking.
In our contemporary society compassion is required for the survival of the universe. Those dealing with issues of peace and justice, i.e. prisoners, immigrants, Palestinians, are incentivized to understand the Eucharist since through the Eucharist we carry on the work of the Incarnation – Ephrem would say we are the Incarnation. Through the body and blood of Christ we become the body of Christ. Perhaps we may never fully understand this mystery of the Eucharist but at least not to walk away from it for our own sake and those whom we serve, that they might become beneficiaries of our faith in the mystery of the Eucharist, a mystery lived not poetry.
To conclude with the Syriac tradition: Ephrem sees the movement of God’s love operating in three ways: “incarnation into human language” in the Old Testament; God goes on to clothe himself in the human body at the birth of Christ; finally God makes himself available to humanity in the mysteries of Baptism and the Eucharist.
Hymn of St. Ephrem (4th century)
See, Fire and Spirit are in the womb of her who bore You. See, Fire and Spirit are in the river in which You were baptized. Fire and Spirit are in our baptismal font,
in the Bread and the Cup are Fire and the Holy Spirit.
In Your Bread is hidden the Spirit which is not consumed. In Your Wine dwells the fire which is not drunk:
the Spirit is in Your Bread, the fire in Your Wine, a manifest wonder that our lips have received.
Your Bread slays the Greedy One who had made us his bread,
Your Cup destroys death which had swallowed us up; we have eaten you, Lord,
we have drunken you—
not so that we might consume You but so that we might
might live through You.
Our Lord baptized human kind with the Holy Spirit, He nourished it with the Medicine of Life.
Jacob of Serug (5th century)
The Son God has made a new thing in the world, which no one –
except for him had ever done!
He has set at the wedding feast His body and blood Before the reclining ones,
that they may eat of Him and live with Him without end. Our Lord is in His banquet food and drink.
Blessed be the One who gave us His body and blood That we may take delight in Him.
Perhaps the reading of Scripture, where according to St. Ephrem God “puts on human language,” is the path to an understanding of how in the Eucharist God makes himself available to humanity. Scripture inspired the Syriac fathers more than the Greek or Latin fathers. Our reading of St. Ephrem might best be accompanied with daily reading of Scripture which would also help to understand the Eucharistic Presence.
M. Hansbury, PhD, a member of CPF, is a Syriac Scholar, and has translated several book &
numerous articles
