Through Him, with Him and in Him…

Today I will turn once more to the Manual handed out at the National Eucharistic Congress held in Caracas last year, to explain the sacred meaning of a very significant phrase used in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.

It is important for all of us baptized Catholics to understand that our faith is full of sacred words, phrases and things that cannot be taken lightly, like some amulet, poem or slogan, adding, removing or manipulating parts of them, because then we would be committing blasphemy (irreverence toward what is sacred), which is a grave mortal sin.

I will try to explain as clearly as I can, so that it is understood that a sacred phrase cannot be taken out of its context and then used for merely human purposes. Sacred things are sacred, and it does no good to use them as we please, because instead of bringing us good they can bring us great harm.

Here, in my own words, is what the Eucharistic Manual explains, so that you can see for yourselves how sacred this phrase is.

The Manual describes the great arc that begins in the preface, when hearts are lifted up to the Father, and culminates solemnly in the final Trinitarian doxology. The priest raises the sacred Victim (the consecrated host), holds it high above all temporal realities, and he alone says: “Through him, and with him, and in him, O God, almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, for ever and ever” (p. 37).

Notice that this phrase is so sacred that only the priest may say it, because at that moment one of the most important acts of our faith is taking place.

The Manual goes on to say that this act by itself justifies the Church’s existence in the world: the priestly Christian people has been gathered in Christ precisely to offer God the greatest possible praise in the Eucharist and, through it, to draw down countless material and spiritual goods on all humanity. It is in the Eucharist, it says, that the Church expresses and reveals herself fully (p. 37).

It adds that the assembled Christian people make the Eucharistic Prayer their own and complete the great Trinitarian doxology by saying “Amen,” the most solemn Amen of the Mass (p. 37).

And the Manual points out clearly that it is the priest, not the people, who recites the doxologies that conclude the presidential prayers, both in the collect (“Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns…”) and in the Eucharistic Prayer (“Through him, and with him, and in him…”), and that it is the people who, following an unbroken tradition from the Old and New Testaments, respond with the acclamation “Amen” (p. 37).

I hope the sacred content of that phrase is now clear, and I hope that all of us who call ourselves Catholics will always respect and defend the things of God and of our Holy Catholic Church.