Permanentna eklezjogeneza eucharystyczna w świetle encykliki Jana Pawła II „Ecclesia de Eucharistia”

Abstract

The present article aims at showing the permanent eucharistic ecclesiogenesis in the light of the encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia published by John Paul II on Maundy Thursday 2003. The author presents the mutual relations between the Church and the Eucharist. The following issues are presented: the Eucharist and the Church in the Paschal events, the Eucharist in the center of the Church’s life and mission, and the Church’s Eucharistic credibility. The Eucharist is the Church’s most ecclesio-formative activity. The Paschal events, the Last Supper being among them, are the source from which Christianity issued and in which it is permanently born, reborn and Consolidated. By celebrating the Eucharist, which is the reminiscence of Christ’s death and Resurrection, the Paschal events are made present as salutary events and owing to them the Church is built. In this way the process of permanent ecclesiogenesis goes on, as the Paschal events become a reality in every Holy Mass. In the Pope’s understanding of the Eucharist presented in the encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia, the Christological and ecclesial perspective dominate, with at the same time emphasizing the soteriological, pneumatological, eschatological and universal dimensions. The Pope's theology shows the personalist character of the Eucharist as a thoroughly personal reality. Undertaking a discussion of the basic motifs of the Eucharist ecclesiology John Paul II emphasizes the close relation between the mystery of the Church and the Eucharist. The Church is an Eucharistic community as it celebrates the Eucharist, but the Eucharist also has an ecclesial character, since it is celebrated by the Church; it is owing to the Eucharist that Ecclesia is born, collected, actualized, becomes mature, is sanctified and made present in the world. The holy and sanctifying Church by celebrating the Eucharist forms the community of saints and those who become sanctified.