“He is here, he himself, the whole of himself, and he remains here.” … When a man experiences this with every fiber of his heart and mind and senses, the consequence is inescapable: “We must make a proper place for this Presence.” And so little by little the tabernacle takes shape, and more and more, always in a spontaneous way, it takes the place previously occupied by the now disappeared Ark of the Covenant. In fact, the tabernacle is the complete fulfillment of what the Ark of the Covenant represented. It is the place of the Holy of Holies. It is the tent of God, his throne. Here he is among us. His presence (Shekinah) really does now dwell among us—in the humblest parish church no less than in the grandest cathedral. Even though the definitive Temple will only come to be when the world has become the New Jerusalem, still what the Temple in Jerusalem pointed to is here present in a supreme way. The New Jerusalem is anticipated in the humble species of bread.
So let no one say, “The Eucharist is for eating, not looking at.” It is not ordinary bread, as the most ancient traditions constantly emphasize. Eating it—as we have just said—is a spiritual process, involving the whole man. Eating it means worshipping it. Eating it means letting it come into me, so that my I is transformed and opens up into the great we, so that we become one in him (cf. Gal 3:16). Thus adoration is not opposed to Communion, nor is it merely added to it. No, Communion only reaches its true depths when it is supported and surrounded by adoration. The Eucharistic Presence in the tabernacle does not set another view of the Eucharist alongside or against the Eucharistic celebration, but simply signifies its complete fulfillment. For this Presence has the effect, of course, of keeping the Eucharist forever in church. The church never becomes a lifeless space but is always filled with the presence of the Lord, which comes out of the celebration, leads us into it, and always makes us participants in the cosmic Eucharist. What man of faith has not experienced this? A church without the Eucharistic Presence is somehow dead, even when it invites people to pray. But a church in which the eternal light is burning before the tabernacle is always alive, is always something more than a building made of stones. In this place the Lord is always waiting for me, calling me, wanting to make me eucharistic. In this way, he prepares me for the Eucharist, sets me in motion toward his return.
From The Spirit of the Liturgy by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (pages 89-90).
Class: Introduction to the Sacraments and Worship
So let no one say, “The Eucharist is for eating, not looking at.” It is not ordinary bread, as the most ancient traditions constantly emphasize. Eating it—as we have just said—is a spiritual process, involving the whole man. Eating it means worshipping it. Eating it means letting it come into me, so that my I is transformed and opens up into the great we, so that we become one in him (cf. Gal 3:16). Thus adoration is not opposed to Communion, nor is it merely added to it. No, Communion only reaches its true depths when it is supported and surrounded by adoration. The Eucharistic Presence in the tabernacle does not set another view of the Eucharist alongside or against the Eucharistic celebration, but simply signifies its complete fulfillment. For this Presence has the effect, of course, of keeping the Eucharist forever in church. The church never becomes a lifeless space but is always filled with the presence of the Lord, which comes out of the celebration, leads us into it, and always makes us participants in the cosmic Eucharist. What man of faith has not experienced this? A church without the Eucharistic Presence is somehow dead, even when it invites people to pray. But a church in which the eternal light is burning before the tabernacle is always alive, is always something more than a building made of stones. In this place the Lord is always waiting for me, calling me, wanting to make me eucharistic. In this way, he prepares me for the Eucharist, sets me in motion toward his return.
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From The Spirit of the Liturgy by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (pages 89-90).
Class: Introduction to the Sacraments and Worship
