6. The Eucharist fashions the community

It is the Lord himself who "instituted the Holy Sacrifice of the Eucharist to be the greatest mark of his love" (Ex 289). The daily celebration of Eucharist is not only the center of apostolic life for each of us individually. Concelebration of the Eucharist (NC 227, 2), as well, witnesses to its centrality in the life of the community – especially on those days when the community can most easily gather (NC 315). What is said about the Church – the Eucharist makes the Church and the Church makes the Eucharist – can also be said about the community. While no one would want to suggest that celebrating the Eucharist solves all our problems, one can safely say that the quality of our Eucharist reveals a lot about our desire to live the koinonia, the close sharing of life and goods in the service of the mission of Christ (cf NC 315).

Well, we have to admit humbly that a distinct tendency to liturgical minimalism deprives our community celebration of that quality of "memory of me" which a community must have to be alive in the Lord Jesus (I Cor 11, 25). St. Paul's remark remains true for today: A community that serves its own ends and follows its own tastes when it celebrates the Eucharist does not celebrate the "meal of the Lord". For the community unites itself in its daily Eucharist to Christ's sacerdotal prayer and to his beloved Church. There is a mystery to celebrate in doing the commemoration of Jesus Christ, for it is truly through him that we are friends and that we form community. Hence, our way of celebrating – our choice of place, our bodily attitudes, our prayerful respect for the liturgy that marks our lives with the rhythm of the mysteries of Christ's life – our way of celebrating ought to proclaim the mystery of the communion which we are celebrating.