The Eucharist - A Symbol?

I think one of the crisis's we meet in the Church today is that we view the Eucharist as a symbol, rather than the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ. When I was young, I thought the Eucharist was a symbol; just a pointless act of remembrance. I like the story from George Weigals book about Flannery O'Connor were she said 'well if it's a symbol, then to hell with it'. I completely agree.

Many leave the Church simply because they don't know the faith; modern forms of Catechises have taken the shape of wild liturgies. Recently I was at a School with Pax Christi who's idea of a liturgy was to have some Scottish plainchant (not one of the things that makes me proud to be a Scot), long winded prayers about peace (which have no meaning unless you first recognise that peace is a fruit of something i.e. Justice) and which talk about issues such as poverty (which is important, but far removed from issues which matter to the students such as day-to-day life relationships, chastity, morals, life and faith). No wonder the kids were laughing all the way through.

When faith becomes something removed from our lives and transferred onto more Amnesty International terms we loose something of the meaning. I'm not saying we shouldn't care about human rights, of course we should, but bearing witness to the divine meaning of life applies at all levels of life and not just to dictatorships. Applying that principle in some circumstances rather than in all waters down our faith which has it's summit in the Eucharist - the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ. There has to be a renewal of Catechises in this country which doesn't treat kids as morons and which doesn't adapt the C-Beebies approach to communication.