In the last newsletter we looked at the natural or physical mysteries of the Eucharist. In this newsletter we will look at the supernatural mysteries of the Eucharist. The supernatural mysteries are related to the sacramental and sacrificial aspects of the Eucharist.
      Many mysteries are rooted in an infinity of some kind. The supernatural mysteries of the Eucharist are rooted in the infinite love that Jesus has for each and every one of us. The Eucharist is called the Sacrament of Love because it is Jesus’ greatest expression of His love for us; it is the gift of Himself.
      Jesus expresses His love for us in the Eucharist in three ways:

Sacrifice

      The first way Jesus expresses His love for us in the Eucharist is by sacrifice. Sacrifice is a sign of authentic love. It is willingness to give up something precious for the sake of the beloved. There is a motion picture, released in 1951, entitled Pandora and the Flying Dutchman. The theme of the motion picture is: The measure of love is what one is willing to give up for it. The heroine of the story, Pandora, tested the love of a suitor by asking him to roll his treasured racecar off a high cliff, and he quickly complied with her request. She, in turn, was asked to give up her life to free the man she loved from a curse. (The reader will have to view the film to see how the story ends.) The story should remind us that Jesus loves us so much that He was willing to sacrifice His life on the Cross to free us from the curse of original sin. Jesus renews that sacrifice and distributes its fruits every time the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated.

Communion

      The second way Jesus expresses His love for in the Eucharist is by uniting His life with ours. In John’s Gospel our Lord says: He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. When we receive Holy Communion, we are united in a special way with Christ, and in Him we are united with each other. During Mass the priest prays that “we who are nourished by His Body and Blood may become one Body, one Spirit in Christ.” That is why the Eucharist is also called the Sacrament of Unity. The fruit of this union with Christ is an actual sharing in His divine life. This is brought to mind when the priest says at Mass while adding water to the wine: “By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled Himself to share in our humanity.” By sharing in His divine life we grow in love for Him and each other.

Presence

      The third way Jesus expresses His love for us in the Eucharist is by giving us the gift of His continual presence. After the priest says over the bread and wine at Mass the words “This is my body, This is the cup of my Blood,” bread and wine are no longer present on the altar. Rather, Jesus Himself is there, under the appearances of bread and wine. And after Mass Jesus stays with us in the Blessed Sacrament reserved in the tabernacle or exposed in a monstrance. There He is fully Immanuel, God with us. There He literally fulfills His promise: “Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world”. There He says to us: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.”
      These then are the three ways that Jesus expresses His love for us in the Eucharist: sacrifice, communion and presence. And He wants us to express our love for Him in the same three ways. When St. Therese of Lisieux entered the Carmelites she took for her motto the words of St. John of the Cross, the great Carmelite mystic: “Love is repaid by love alone.” We repay Christ’s love for us in the Eucharist with love by offering our own sacrifices and prayers in union with His in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, by uniting our life with His by receiving Him worthily in Holy Communion, and by giving Him the gift of our presence by spending time with Him in the Blessed Sacrament.

In 2006 the priests of the Apostolate for Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration visited the following parishes to help start or maintain perpetual Eucharistic adoration (or as close to it as possible):

Our Lady of Lourdes, Little Falls, MN; St. Patrick, Inver Grove Heights, MN; Ss. Simon and Jude, West Chester, PA; St. Helena, Amite, LA; St. Mary, Kingman, AZ; Our Lady of Victory, Washington, DC; St. John the Baptist, Cooks Valley, WI; St. Catherine of Siena, Preston, CT; St. Mary, Little Falls, MN; Holy Family, Little Falls, MN; St. Lawrence, Killingworth, CT; Holy Ghost, Olyphant, PA; St. Michael, Olyphant, PA; Sacred Heart, Mahanoy City, PA; St. Canticus, Mahanoy City, PA; St. Fidelis, Mahanoy City, PA; St. Richard, Barnesville, PA; St. Peter Claver, Macon, GA; St. Jude, Greensburg, LA; St. Elizabeth, Kentwood, LA; Sacred Heart of Jesus, Jim Falls, WI; St. Paul, Bloomer, WI; Ss. Peter and Paul, Palmyra, VA; Immaculate Heart of Mary, Wilmington, DE; St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Anchorage, AK; St. John Bosco, Woodstock, VA; Our Lady of Good Counsel, Sault Ste. Marie, ON; St. Albert, Albertsville, MN; St. Patrick, Olyphant, PA; St. Joseph, Mahanoy City, PA; St. Mark, Westbrook, CT; Our Lady of Fatima, Bensalem, PA; St. Joseph, Macon, GA; Notre Dame, Chippewa Falls, WI; St. Martha, Enfield, CT; St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Harrisburg, PA; St. Hilary, Raceland, LA; Immaculate Conception BVM, Fairfield, PA; St. Peter, New Iberia, LA; St. George, Cooperstown, ND; St. Joseph, Langdons, ND; Sacred Heart, Minto, ND; St. Cecilia, Harvey, ND; St. Boniface, Walhalla, ND; Sacred Heart, Cando, ND; St. Charles Borromeo, Oakes, ND; Annunciation BVM, Shelbyville, KY; Immaculate Conception, LaGrange, KY; St. Benilde, Metairie, LA; Cathedral of St. John, Savannah, GA; Nativity of Our Lady, New Iberia, LA; St. Rita, Blue Ridge Summit, PA; Sacred Heart, Aneta, ND; St. Lawrence, Jessie, ND; St. Olaf, Finley, ND; Ss. Nereus and Archilleus, Neche, ND; St. Anthony, Bathgate, ND; St. Anthony, Selz, ND; St. Vincent De Paul, Leeds, ND; St. John Chrysostom Mission, Eminence, KY; St. Agatha, Canstota, NY; Cathedral of St. Mary, Fargo, ND; St. Joseph, Alliance, OH; St. Therese of Lisieux, Cleveland, TN; St. Joseph and St. Patrick, Utica, NY; St George, Utica, NY; St. Joseph, Oneida, NY; St. Martin of Tours, Louisville, KY; St. Vincent De Paul, Onaga, KS; Immaculate Conception, St. Mary’s, KS

Most Rev. Robert Francis Vasa, Bishop of Baker, wrote the foreword for Fr. Victor’s book entitled: The Doctrines of Genesis 1–11: A Compendium and Defense of Traditional Catholic Theology on Origins. The book was described in the last newsletter. It contains everything a Catholic needs to know to uphold the literal truth of Genesis 1–11.

Following is Bishop Vasa's foreward:

The Doctrines of Genesis 1–11: A Compendium and Defense of Traditional Catholic Theology on Origins, by Reverend Victor P. Warkulwiz, M.S.S., is a wonderfully researched and thoroughly stimulating work. Father Warkulwiz, drawing on his very substantial scientific background, walks us through the early chapters of Genesis showing and giving testimony to the essential compatibility between the literal account of Genesis, the understanding of the Fathers of the Church and the modern day observations of natural science.
      He very cogently points out that many of the accepted scientific conclusions which contradict the days of creation and the great flood are based on a variety of unproven premises which are pillars set firmly on sand. Father very adeptly tackles the complex issues of cosmogony, astronomy, astrophysics, mathematics, nuclear science, evolutionary theory, geological uniformitarianism, radiocarbon dating, big bang theory, and others to show that the observed phenomena which they try to explain are just as readily, properly and easily explained by such Genesis factors as direct creation by God and the Genesis Flood. In doing so he opens a clear path for dedicated Christians to read the Book of Genesis with a renewed and, to a certain extent, unencumbered faith.
      Saint Peter writing to the dispersed people says: “No one can hurt you if you are determined to do only what is right; if you do have to suffer for being good, you will count it a blessing. There is no need to be afraid or to worry about them. Simply reverence the Lord Christ in your hearts, and always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you all have” (1 Peter 3:13-15). Father Warkulwiz provides ready answers for those who ask for the reasons which underlie a deep Biblical faith, a faith which is too readily branded as fundamental or naive.
      The work is not, necessarily, easy reading; but it is an important work which needs to be studiously read, prayerfully considered and kept on the shelf with Biblical commentaries for future reference.

Following are two other endorsements:

In this marvelous compendium of Catholic thought on the great foundational doctrines set forth in the early chapters of Genesis, Fr. Warkulwiz gives a reference work of immense value to philosophers, theologians and natural scientists, indeed to anyone seeking the truth about origins. By laying out the whole rich structure of the reasoning of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church (especially St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, and St. Bonaventure, but many others as well) and of recent Popes, he brilliantly demonstrates that the relevant results of modern science, rightly interpreted, are much more consistent with the traditional Catholic view of origins than they are with macro-evolutionary theory. The substitute, modern worldview of evolutionism (with roots traceable to the “Enlightenment”) with its alleged billions of years of cosmic history so dominates scientific, popular and even Catholic culture that it has all but erased from our consciousness what was for many centuries seen as a totally consistent and intellectually satisfying understanding of origins.
      Who could have predicted that the findings of modern physics and astrophysics, geology and paleontology, biochemistry and molecular biology would augment and extend the views of the ancient Fathers and medieval Scholastics? Yet that is exactly what happened! As Fr. Warkulwiz writes, “Catholic scientists and scholars must get it out of their minds that the Church will lose her credibility if she rejects uniformitarian geology, evolutionary biology and anthropology, and big bang cosmology. The notions that the practitioners of these pseudosciences advance have not contributed a mite to our understanding of the nature of things or to our technological progress.” Read and savor this book. You’ll return to it many times.

We have all read or known about people who are embarrassed by members of their family whom they would prefer that neighbors or colleagues never meet. These family members are simply not sophisticated enough; better that they be confined to their attic apartment when company comes! Sadly, there are also members of the Catholic family who treat Adam, Eve, Noah and the Church’s teaching on Creation and the first eleven chapters of Genesis in precisely this way. They are extremely embarrassed and avoid such topics, and when forced to discuss them, they try to “explain” them away.
      Father Victor Warkulwiz, M.S.S., author of The Doctrines of Genesis 1–11: A Compendium and Defense of Traditional Catholic Theology on Origins, has brought these “relatives” out of the Catholic family’s attic and seated them at the dinner table. In a faith-filled and scholarly fashion he presents the sixteen doctrines of the Church’s teaching on origins to the world in clear unambiguous language—and without a hint of apology. With his extensive scientific background and work experience (he has a Ph.D. in physics) and drawing extensively on the writings of some of the Church’s brightest lights such as Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure, Ephrem and many others, along with a wide array of scientific writings, he brings natural science and theology back together again as companions in the quest for mankind’s understanding of the divine origins of the universe and the human species.
      Priests, seminarians, Bible students, teachers and religious will find this work of great value in presenting the Church’s teachings on origins, without gloss, to any and all who are open enough to listen. Thanks Father Warkulwiz for letting our almost forgotten relatives out of the attic apartment ad bringing them fully back into the family circle!

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At this writing the book is about to enter production. Hopefully, it will be available by the time you receive this newsletter. At first it can be purchased directly from the publisher at www.iuniverse.com. Later it can be ordered at www.kolbecenter.org, www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com.