Variations on a theme. First it was Deus Caritas Est (God is Love). Now it is Sacramentum Caritatis (The Sacrament of Love), the post-synodal apostolic exhortation on the Eucharist. I’m talking of Pope Benedict XVI’s “gifts of love” to the church and to the world. The first was the encyclical published on Christmas 2005 and the second is the exhortation written on the Feast of the Chair of Peter, 22nd February this year and published 3 days ago. The Pope, being a musician, aims for harmony and what power in this life (and beyond) could bring such harmony than “Caritas!” I guess Burt Bacharach would agree wholeheartedly: “What the world needs now is love sweet love…”
An interesting word in the first part of the encyclical on the Eucharist caught my attention: nuclear fission. In number 11 of Sacramentum Caritatis the Pope speaks of the substantial conversion of bread and wine into Jesus’ Body and Blood, introducing within creation the principle of a radical change in the likeness of “nuclear fission.” What is nuclear fission? An encyclopaedia I consulted says “nuclear fission—also known as atomic fission—is a process in nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry in which the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei as fission products, and usually some by-product particles. Hence, fission is a form of elemental transmutation.” What comes out of nuclear fission? Again, my source says, “fission is useful as a power source because some materials, called nuclear fuels, generate neutrons as part of the fission process and undergo triggered fission when impacted by a free neutron.” In short, nuclear fission produces energy, which could be multiplied a million times, through some sort of chain reaction.
I love the image of the Eucharist as an energy source -- introduced into our world by Someone who went deep into the heart of God, his intention, his design for all creation and creatures: a “concentrated moment,” (the Last Supper), simple species of daily life (bread, wine) all pointing to the sole moment that counts – death. No simple death, though, but death united to Life and Love. What indeed is the one motive worth dying for? LOVE!
An interesting word in the first part of the encyclical on the Eucharist caught my attention: nuclear fission. In number 11 of Sacramentum Caritatis the Pope speaks of the substantial conversion of bread and wine into Jesus’ Body and Blood, introducing within creation the principle of a radical change in the likeness of “nuclear fission.” What is nuclear fission? An encyclopaedia I consulted says “nuclear fission—also known as atomic fission—is a process in nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry in which the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei as fission products, and usually some by-product particles. Hence, fission is a form of elemental transmutation.” What comes out of nuclear fission? Again, my source says, “fission is useful as a power source because some materials, called nuclear fuels, generate neutrons as part of the fission process and undergo triggered fission when impacted by a free neutron.” In short, nuclear fission produces energy, which could be multiplied a million times, through some sort of chain reaction.
I love the image of the Eucharist as an energy source -- introduced into our world by Someone who went deep into the heart of God, his intention, his design for all creation and creatures: a “concentrated moment,” (the Last Supper), simple species of daily life (bread, wine) all pointing to the sole moment that counts – death. No simple death, though, but death united to Life and Love. What indeed is the one motive worth dying for? LOVE!
