Fall 1964

Page 56

168 Chicago Studie•

cance. The love of Christ, instilled throughout space and time in the catholic and apostolic community of the Church, should precede juridical factors and written laws. At the time of Archbishop Guerry's address the Council was divided over the question whether the episcopal college existed by divine or ecclesiastical right. Bishops, Guerry continued; will fulfill their mission and the will of Christ-that all may be one--if they join in fellowship with one another and with their head. One further concrete means of bringing about the fellowship St. Paul proposed, which is still valid today among the churches, is the collection. For the present it may not execute the same purpose the Apostle to the Gentiles had assigned to it, but it will undoubtedly draw the churches together in other areas. What prevents us from contributing together to social, political, cultural, and charitable causes? As a matter of fact, the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, in its schema on Ecumenism, regards these areas open ground for fruitful encounter. 'fHE EuCHARIST, SACRAMENT OF UNITY

The highest degree of fellowship to be achieved on this earth is that which is at work in and through the Eucharist. Eucharistic fellowship, in virtue of its institution by Christ, molds and is molded by the Church--such is its reciprocal effect. Ecclesiastical, inter-confessional, collegial fellowships all have their value and are necessary, but the acme of fellowship is reached in the Eucharist, in which only the hagioi can participate. "Inasmuch as the celebration of the Eucharist is the sacramental anticipation of the heavenly marriage banquet, the final, eternal form of the community of saints shines forth even now in this solemnity just as the source of the Church" (Karl Rahner, The Episcopate and the Primacy, p. 26). "Or rather we should say that with the Supper is connected the idea of 'communion' (koinonia) which is at one and the same time charity and unity, and which was such a living feeling and realization in the teaching of Christ and the practice of the primitive community. The Supper is the sacrament of unity" (Cerfaux).


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