The Most Venerable Sacrament of the “Holy Eucharist”

Moved by the incident that befallen Nswajere Junior Seminary by the notorious thugs who invaded the seminary on 19th March, 2023 and maliciously injured the priests almost to death, stole the seminary finances and many other venerable and valuable vessel not excluding the ciboria, and worst of all they committed a very belittling act of dismantling the tabernacle (the dwell place of the most high, God and the present day, ark of the Covenant). Not knowing the mystery hidden into the divine sacrament, they went ahead to pour the Blessed Sacrament allover down the floor of the chapel in pursuit of obtaining the ciborium. This is very unfortunate! And to me, this is not only categorized as aggravated theft, but a diabolical attack on the Lord Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Following this catastrophe, below is an abbreviated look the sacrament of Holy Eucharist and the justification of the three day act of reparation that was called for by the Ordinary of Kampala archdiocese, Rt. Rev. Paul Ssemogerere.

A sacrament by definition is a visible sign representing an invisible grace ordained by Jesus Christ for the sanctification of the human race. There are seven sacraments that were instituted by the Lord to make us holy and pleasing before the heavenly Father: these are; Baptism, Holy Eucharist, Confirmation, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Order and Matrimony. These gained the number seven, following the deliberation of the Ecumenical Council of Lyon in 1274 and later on held and affirmed definitively by the Council of Trent (1545-1563) up to date.

Narrowing down to the Eucharist, this is the most August sacrament in which Christ the Lord  himself is contained, offered, and received and by which the Church continually lives and grows. The Eucharist sacrifice, the memorial of the death and resurrection of the Lord in which the cross is perpetuated through the ages is the source and summit of all worship and Christian life, which signifies and effects the unity of the people of God and bring about the building of the body of Christ. Indeed, the other sacraments and all the ecclesiastical works of the apostolate are closely connected with the most Holy Eucharist and ordered to it. This privileged position of the Eucharist bases on the fact that Jesus only acts in the other six sacraments by the merits of his redeeming death, yet in the Holy Eucharist, he himself is fully contained there; Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. Thus all Christ’s faithful upon reaching the 7th year (age of reason in the Catholic Church) are called upon to hold the most Holy Eucharist in a highest honor. Violating the Blessed Sacrament therefore is an abomination and a blasphemy of the Lord Himself, our redeemer. All sacraments being connected with the Eucharist imply that Jesus is so loving and he creates for us all possible channels to draw closer to Him (in the Eucharist) for salvation. Distancing ourselves from the Eucharist, is distancing ourselves from salvation; and also all abuses to this sacrament like the “Nswajere incident” is a great insult to the Lord, who humbled himself to stay with us in the Holy Eucharist. Being invoked to come on our altars every now and then whenever Mass is celebrated, imagine the Lord, being called by the sinful priests and He never denies; Also priests are sinners because they are chosen from among follow sinner to offer acceptable sacrifices to the Lord for themselves and on behalf of others (Heb. 5:1-10). Therefore Jesus wishes to be close to us in all ways, but we have the obligation of venerating Him with humility and all the time observe a very high degree of sacredness, which the Nswajere junior seminary intruders violated.

It is incumbent on the human race to repair the spiritual damages made on the Blessed Sacrament especially whenever a public scandal against our Lord is made eternally manifested. Why should we offend the Lord yet he chose to stay with us? During his public ministry on earth as God-man he was beaten, bruised, crowned with thorns, nailed and crucified to death. Any attack on the holy Eucharist is an act of persecuting Him again and a disrespectful attack of our God. The act of reparation has been in the Church since time immemorial because Masses have been celebrant as early as the first century by the Apostles. In case of any violations, Church traditions have it that they carried out act of mortification to repair the damages caused on the Lord. But this act became too common during the middle ages between, 500 CE to 1400-1500 (5th to 15th century) because the church was often attacked, Holy altars, vessels and the Blessed Sacrament were abused notably by the Moslem jihadists beginning with the early 7th century, the vandals (barbarians) and by notorious kings like Napoleon Bonaparte the great in France who at the very beginning of the 19th century during the papacy of Puis VII (1800-1823) abused so many catholic churches as well as imprisoning the pope. During his papacy, Puis VII greatly called for the perpetual reparation of the Blessed Sacrament on which indulgences were attached. Even up to the present day, holy mother church fully aware of the centrality of this sacrament has never ceased to repair the Lord in case of any humiliating attack on the Most Venerable Sacrament. The church repairs the Lord as an act of restoring our union with him especially for the public offenses committed against Jesus and to ensure that he is ever united with us and also acquaint us of this humiliating and sinful act against Him.

The Catholic Church has a compendium of laws known as the “Code of Canon Law”. This set of laws is meant to guide the behaviours of the all the people of God. Much as the law is administered in the spirit of the gospel, that is, in the spirit of love, but at times the church imposes corrective sanctions (cann. 1311-1399) for notorious offenders. Once it comes to the one who has abused the sacrament of Holy Eucharist, the law states that:

“A person who throws away the consecrated species or take or retain them for a sacrilegious purpose incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic see; moreover, a cleric can be punished with another penalty, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state.” (can. 1367).

In simple and clear terms, the code of the law states that, the person who for impure motives violates the sacredness of the Holy Eucharist earns himself/ herself an automatic self-expulsion/ excommunication from the church (he/ she has placed oneself outside Mother church and he/ she is no longer in communion with the church). Self-excommunication also comes with an interdiction from reception of sacraments   except when full communion is revived by the Ordinary (the diocesan Bishop). Since this person is not allowed to receive sacraments, then he cannot receive the sacrament of penance worthily except when re-admitted into the church after a thorough detailed catechesis to him/ her as may be deemed necessary by the competent authorities. Therefore, if among the thugs who dismantled the Nswajere seminary tabernacle one was a Catholic, he/ she as of present pushed himself/ herself outside the Catholic Church; he only claims to be a Catholic but in reality following the act done he/ she is not.

The same canon above also cautions priests to be too reverent with our dealings with the Blessed Sacrament because if it is found out that a priest gravely offended the Lord in the Eucharist, he is dismissed from the clerical state which implies that he can no longer carry out priestly functions as a cleric, that is, cannot administer any sacrament either under normal circumstance or even in abnormal situations like in grave danger of death. Yet a merely suspend priest can validly administer some sacraments because he is in full communion with the church, unlike the dismissed one.

Dear people of God that is who important the Eucharist is in the life of the Church: “No Eucharist, No Church!” The act of reparation was called for to restore our relationship with God as the whole human race. If any perpetuators was a Catholic he/ she is bound by the canonical implications of the law as highlighted earlier; however the mercy of God surpasses the binding force of the law, so that upon presenting oneself with a contrite heart to the competent authorities, Holy Mother Church will acquaint this person and admit him/ her in the Church, but most likely accompanied with thorough catechetical classes to deepen the understanding of this mystery.

Tue 04, Apr 2023 09:04 am