The following is the text of Cardinal Roger Mahony's talk, "Communion for Mission," presented March 20 at Eucharistic Congress 2004, sponsored by the Diocese of El Paso. The day's Scripture Readings: Hosea 6: 1-6; Psalm 51: 3-4; 18-19; 20-21ab; Luke 18: 9-14.

It is a delight for me to be with you. I would like to thank Bishop Armando Ochoa for his kind invitation to address this gathering today. My sincere thanks goes to all those who have been involved in the planning and coordination of this Eucharistic Congress.

Today's Scripture readings, especially the Responsorial Psalm, highlight the strong link between liturgy and living: "It is mercy I desire, and not sacrifice." Taking my lead from the Scripture readings, in my reflections today I will focus on the connection between our celebration of the Eucharist, especially on Sunday, the Lord's Day, and our call to be and build the Body of Christ in the world-in our homes, in our neighborhoods, in our communities, workplaces, in our civic and political responsibilities. In other words, my concern, indeed I believe it is the concern of everyone here, is to make connections between liturgy and the rest of life, between the sacraments and how we live our lives.

In speaking of this crucial connection between the Eucharist and the whole of life, Saint Augustine put it so well in the Seventh Book of his Confessions: "All other food is transformed by our bodies into ourselves; but this food, the Eucharistic bread and wine, transform us into the very thing we receive." Further, in one of his homilies, Saint Augustine also says, when speaking of the Eucharist: "It is your own mystery that you are receiving... When you hear 'the Body of Christ' . . . you are saying Amen to what you are... Be a member of Christ's Body, then, so that your Amen may ring true." This is the heart of what it means to celebrate the Eucharist fruitfully, to worship God in Spirit and in Truth.

It is fitting that this Eucharistic Congress takes place just as we have concluded celebrating the 40th anniversary of the promulgation of Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. There we are reminded that all our prayer springs from our celebration of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, the Eucharist, and draws us back to the fullness of the celebration of Christ's Mysteries in the Eucharist. This is reflected in the Second Vatican Council's affirmation that the Liturgy, especially the Eucharist, is the "source and summit" of Catholic life (Sacrosanctum Concilium 10).

I. Communion and Mission; Communion for Mission

The theme of this Congress, "Eucharist: Communion and Mission" has given me occasion for considerable reflection. In thinking and praying about communion and mission in relation to the Eucharist, I have come to see that rather than juxtaposing communion and mission it may be more helpful to consider that communion is for mission. Whether it be the communion of faith, hope, and love in the Church, or the Eucharistic Communion we share in the Mass, communion is for mission.

My reflections in recent months have been shaped by our Synod in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, just concluded in September 2003. All sectors of God's People were involved in a two year process, resulting in six Pastoral Initiatives which will shape the life of the Church in Los Angeles for the next five to ten years and more. Our first Pastoral Initiative is "Evangelization and the 'New Evangelization;'" the centerpiece of the Initiatives is "Eucharist and Sacramental Living: Living at the Service of God's Reign."

In my capacity as president of the Synod, I observed one quite remarkable development. There was a gradual movement, which I believe was a movement of the Holy Spirit, from concerns about the internal life of the Church [e.g., concerns about altar servers; dress in Church; lack of collaboration between ordained and lay ministers; gripes about the pastor and, yes, even about the Archbishop] to a much clearer sense of the Church's overall mission. So strong was this awareness of mission in our Synod process, that our final Synod Documents convey this conviction: It is not so much that the Church has a mission; it is rather more that the Mission has a Church. What is this mission? It is none other than that of Jesus Christ the Word, and of the Holy Spirit, the gift of God's love dwelling in our hearts.

Jesus' mission is to announce the time of God's favor, the coming of the Reign of God. Jesus proclaimed the Reign of God as the fulfillment of God's hope, desire, and intention for the world now and to come. In God's Reign, truth, holiness, justice, love and peace will hold sway forever. Jesus established the Church to continue and further this mission. He entrusted this mission to the Church: to proclaim in word and deed the Good News of God's coming among us in Jesus Christ through the gift of the Spirit. This mission is so central to the word and work of Jesus that the Second Vatican Council affirmed and emphasized that "mission" defines the Church. The Church in every dimension of its life and practice exists for mission: to proclaim in word and deed the Reign of God to people in every culture, time and place.

If "mission" defines the Church in every dimension of its life, how might mission define the Eucharist? We can say this much, at least: The Eucharist, too, exists for mission, and it is through the effective realization of its mission that the Church best glorifies God. Further, if, we follow the insight of one of the great theologians of the twentieth century, Cardinal Henri de Lubac, S.J., that the Church makes the Eucharist and the Eucharist makes the Church, then the Church that is made in the celebration of the Eucharist is a Church-in-the-making for mission.

In his recent Encyclical Letter on the Eucharist, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II reminds us:

"The Church's mission stands in continuity with the mission of Christ: 'As the Father has sent me, even so I send you' (John 20:21). From the perpetuation of the sacrifice of the Cross and her communion with the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist, the Church draws the spiritual power needed to carry out her mission. The Eucharist thus appears as both the source and summit of all evangelization, since the goal is the communion of all people with Christ and in him with the Father and the Holy Spirit" (Ecclesia de Eucharistia 22).

I have a confession to make. I fear that many of the discussions, indeed arguments, over the Liturgy, important though they may be, distract us from this understanding of the Eucharist. In much of our discussion of the revised General Instruction on the Roman Missal [GIRM], and now the Ratio Translationis of the Order of the Mass, we are getting derailed from this understanding of the Eucharist making the Church for mission. I do not mean to minimize the importance of recent events regarding translation, interpretation and application. But these must always be seen in view, not simply of Liturgy and Eucharist, but of a wider sense of purpose: Mission.

II. Re-reading Sacrosanctum Concilium

How might we recover this understanding of the Eucharist as Communion for Mission? Here is my proposal: We are to see and understand Sacrosanctum Concilium through the lens of Gaudium et Spes, The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, especially paragraph 22. Strange as this may sound to those gathered for a Eucharistic Congress, I am not at all convinced that Sacrosanctum Concilium is the Second Vatican Council's defining document. It is, rather, Gaudium et Spes, promulgated at the end of the Council, on December 7, 1965, which is, as it were, the Council's last will and testament.

I suggest that we read again Gaudium et Spes, together with the Closing Messages of the Council given on December 8, 1965. At the closing of the Council, these Messages were read by Pope Paul VI and several Cardinals to various groups of people: World Leaders; People of Thought and Science; Artists; Women; the Poor, Sick, and Suffering; Workers; and Youth. Here we find the final testament of the Council, turning its energy outward in an embrace of all that is worthy and noble in the human enterprise, in a clear recognition and affirmation of the common vocation of all humanity. In Gaudium et Spes, paragraph 22, and in the Closing Messages of the Council, all are recognized as partners in the Paschal Mystery, an insight that comes to even clearer articulation in Pope Paul VI's Evangelii Nuntiandi.

What I am suggesting is that Gaudium et Spes and the Closing Messages provide the ingredients of a pastoral plan to work out and apply the core insights of Lumen Gentium on the nature of the Church. What might such an approach lend to an understanding of the Eucharist? Quite simply: The Church does not exist for itself. Nor does it exist for sacramental celebration. The Church exists for mission, and this mission is evangelization. These days, perhaps more than ever, we recognize that the Church must itself be evangelized.

What is more, the Church does not celebrate the Liturgy for itself, but for the world. God is not best glorified by good Liturgy, but by a world redeemed and transformed by the grandeur of self-giving love.

Reading Sacrosanctum Concilium through the lens of Gaudium et Spes does not in any way render less important the crucial affirmation that the Eucharist is central, the centerpiece, the source and summit of Catholic faith and practice. The Sacraments, especially the Eucharist, embody what the Church intends to be and become. But this is not a community of like-minded believers. Rather, from the perspective of Communion for Mission, the Eucharist enacts the Church as mission.

Just as this view does not de-center the Eucharist as source and summit, neither does it in any way compromise belief in the Real Presence. As I see it, the higher the view of sacramental presence, the higher must be our view of the poor, the weak, and the wounded, and the deeper our commitment to justice. Why? Because God does not want to be present in the world as self-absorbed and turned inward. What we know from the Scriptures and from the riches of our tradition, especially the Church's teaching on the Trinity, is that God is turned toward us, is for us, with us, and yes, in us through the gift of the Spirit. God is not self-preoccupied but turned outward in self-giving, outpouring, outgoing love in the world, precisely through the mission of the Word and of the Spirit.

III. Living what is Said and Done in Liturgy: For the Life of the World

This understanding of the Eucharist might be better expressed in our liturgical celebration if we could find ways to emphasis not only gathering faithfully together, but also sending for mission. People of all walks and ways of life come from their week of work, family responsibilities, civic duties, their studies in school, and, strengthened by Word and Sacrament, return to them. Or, rather, we are sent back to them to be a transforming presence by word and deed. This emphasis on sending as well as gathering might help us highlight the relationship between liturgy and life, worship and the rest of the week.

To understand the great gift of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord it is important to see the Eucharist not only in relation to the rest of life but also in relation to the other Sacraments. All the other Sacraments lead to the Eucharist, or bring us back to its celebration. Baptism and Confirmation lead to the celebration of the Eucharist. Penance, Anointing, Marriage and Holy Orders take on their full meaning by bringing us back to the celebration of the Eucharist.

Each of the Sacraments expresses a crucial dimension of the Christian mystery celebrated in its fullness in the Eucharist. Each of the Sacraments is an ethical icon. In the Sacraments themselves we see and understand more clearly how we are to live our lives if we are to become the Body of Christ in and for the world.

--In Baptism, we enter into a covenant with God and God's People. We are baptized into a whole new way of life, life in Christ, by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Our lives are shaped by responsibility more than obligation-a responsibility that springs from belonging to God and God's people. Our whole way of life is to be one of covenental realtionship, rooted in the loving service of Christ the Servant.

--In Confirmation, we are gifted by the Holy Spirit who enlightens, enlivens, guides and heals. We are strengthened to live with, in, and from the gift given in our Baptism-to live lives of peace, patience, joy, long-suffering, truth, and the single-hearted love of God and neighbor (the harvest of the Spirit spelled out by Saint Paul) rather than lives of anger and hatred, lust and fear (the absence of the Spirit).

--In the Sacrament of Penance, we experience God's mercy, and commit ourselves to becoming instruments of the forgiveness and reconciliation that we ourselves have experienced. We thus become a light to the nations, a sign of healing and unity in a world so terribly broken and wounded, and in a Church that seems more and more divided.

--In the Sacrament of Anointing and Pastoral Care of the Sick and Dying, we come to know the healing of Christ and the Spirit that comes in and through life in the Body of Christ, the Church. We know firsthand the comfort and support of loving friends and families rooted in faith, hope, and love, and pledge our lives to join the Church's struggle against illness, suffering, and depersonalization.

--In the Sacrament of Marriage (or Matrimony), we pledge ourselves to live lives of personal, loving fidelity. Christian marriage is a key for understanding God's self-sacrificing love and fidelity to the divine promise. What is more, in the couple's openness to bringing children into the world, they become a sign of God's welcoming, inclusive love.

--In the Sacrament of Holy Orders, we express our commitment to service of the human and Christian communities, modeled on Christ's own service. All ministry, both the ordained priesthood and lay ministry, is rooted in Christ's own servanthood and faithfulness to God's promise unto death.

In my most recent Pastoral Letter, "As I Have Done for You," I call upon every baptized Catholic in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and I encourage all here present, to recognize the gifts given in Baptism, strengthened in Confirmation, and celebrated week by week, Sunday by Sunday in the Eucharist. Each and every member-member for member-is responsible for being and building the Body of Christ for the life and light of the world.

All Christians are configured to Christ through baptism, for that is the Sacrament by which the new People of God are incorporated into the Church, participate in Christ's death and resurrection, and assume the name "Christian." All Christians are called to a life of discipleship and have the obligation of extending his work and presence in the world today, advancing the Reign of God in our own time and place. All share in the one same vocation-to be and to build the Body of Christ, building up the Reign of God here and now. Jesus proclaimed the Reign of God as the fulfillment of God's hope, desire, and intention for the world now and to come. In God's Reign, truth, holiness, justice, love and peace will hold sway forever. We are baptized not just for this mission, but into this mission, which is the mission of the Word and of the Spirit.

The baptized share in this mission, being and building the Body of Christ, through service, through a whole life of worship, and through witness to the Gospel by holiness of life. These three are the hallmarks of Christian/Catholic living.

Most lay persons are called to transform the world by living out their baptismal vocation in the world, advancing the Reign of God, amidst the pressing demands of marriage, family, school and workplace.

The baptized also witness to the light and love of Christ through all forms of prophecy by which they challenge a culture which is indifferent if not outright hostile to the values of the Gospel. They witness through teaching, through the ministry of catechesis, through theological reflection, and through participation in the Church's evangelical mission, sometimes being sent from home and country as heralds and servants of the Good News in other lands.

The baptized worship God in Spirit and in Truth through the full, conscious and active participation in the Sunday liturgy, through the proclamation of the Word in word and in deed, through the liturgical ministries of lector, musician or minister of Communion, through the many other ministries which serve to animate the community at prayer.

The baptized serve God through administration, feeding the hungry, caring for the needs of the sick, working for justice, washing the feet of the homeless, safeguarding and protecting the rights of the last, the littlest, and the least, giving the Body and Blood of Christ to those gathered at the Table of the Lord, and bringing this Holy Communion to those who are sick at home or in hospital.

IV. Eucharistic Mission: Building a World of Communion and Justice

This vocation to be a people of witness, worship and service is cultivated, nurtured and sustained, preeminently in the Eucharist. For it is in the Eucharist that we express and receive our identity-who and what we are-as the Body of Christ. What we are called to be and become is both expressed and impressed in what is done and said in the Eucharist. It is in the Eucharist that we embody what the Church intends to be, the Church as mission. What we say and do in the Eucharist expresses how we hope to live; it is the time and place where we express our understanding of what the world would be like if God had God's way with the world, a world of holiness, truth, justice, love and peace. In the Eucharist we are expressing what we understand the truly good life to be.

When we consider the way we ought to live our lives, or should live our lives, or must live our lives, we often go to the Bible, to Church teaching, or to the Catholic tradition. Or we may consult a spiritual guide. These are all helpful. But the Sacramental life of the Church-all of the Sacraments-but especially the Eucharist, is the guide for how we are to live week by week, day by day. It is the ethical icon of Catholic life. In what is said and done in the Eucharist, we see and understand most clearly what we are called to be and become: The Body of Christ. Recall the words of Saint Augustine: "It is your own mystery that you are receiving. . . You are saying Amen to what you are . . . Be a member of Christ's Body, then, so that your Amen may ring true."

The Eucharist is rightly thought of as an act of thanksgiving, as a sacrifice, as an act of praise and worship. But it is important to remember that at a very basic level, the Eucharist is a meal, a Sacred Meal of communion and justice.

In the Eucharist, the bread is broken and shared with all-not just with the few. All are welcome, even and especially those who are last, littlest and least, the ones whom Jesus promised would be first in the Kingdom of God. When we do this, sharing the basic, earthly reality of bread and wine become the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, we express who we are and how we want to live, not just on Sunday, but day by day, hour by hour. In sharing the Body and Blood of the Lord, we commit ourselves to a whole way of life centered on communion and justice.

Here I am referring to communion as a state of rightly?ordered relationships: with self, another, others, and God. Rightly-ordered relationships are rooted in loving service, and flourish when we respect the inherent dignity of each and every person-from conception to natural death. Justice is a virtue. In our Catholic tradition of ethics, a virtue is an act: We recognize the virtue of justice in the person who acts justly. In shorthand, in the Catholic tradition, justice is the activity of creating a world within which all may grow. But following the mandate of Christ, this requires particular attention to the needs and requirements of the poor and the vulnerable, the resident and the immigrant, the wounded and the weak in society and in the Church. Indeed there are far-reaching ethical implications in each of the seven sacraments celebrated, but the Eucharist is at the heart and soul of our Catholic way of living.

As a Sacred Meal of communion and justice, the Eucharist does not allow for discrimination among persons: divisions, separations, and distinctions based on race, class, immigration status, sex, handicap, rank are to be overcome; we express our willingness to work toward overcoming such divisions and separations, so that Christ may be all in all (Gal. 3: 27-28). For the Eucharist is a Sacrament, above all, of unity, and "this unity becomes visible when Christians gather together" (Dies Domini, 31). To break bread and share the cup, the Sacred Body and Blood of the Lord, is to live in the memory of Christ's death, to have died with him. To have died with Christ is to live for God and for the coming of God's reign wherein the power of love prevails over all evil.

Conclusion

Having celebrated the fortieth anniversary of Sacrosanctum Concilium with vigor and joy, the celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the promulgation of Gaudium et Spes is now quickly upon us. In this between time, as concerns mount regarding the accuracy of translation, and as we witness frustration in some circles about the quality of liturgy in the Church, let us be mindful that the Church in every dimension of its life is defined by mission. So central to its life is mission that we can say boldly: The Church does not have a mission; the Mission has a Church. And this Mission is none other than that of Jesus the Word who, in the gift of the Spirit, enlightens, enlivens, guides and heals each one of us to be a sign of the Reign of God in our own time and place. Our Blessed Communion in the bonds of faith, hope, and charity, and the Holy Communion we share in the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, are for this Mission-a Mission of holiness, truth, justice, love, and peace, by which the world is transformed, and by which God is glorified until the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ.