In the Road to Emmaus. Benedict XVI and the Eucharist as Communion and Fraternity

Abstract

The Eucharist constitutes a principle of organic unity capable of articulating and resolving three fundamental dialectical tensions. First, the analysis demonstrates that a dynamic of progression exists between word and sacrament: Scripture illuminates the intellect, whereas the sacrament makes possible full identification with Christ. In this way, truth is transformed into love, allowing knowledge to attain its fullness. Second, the Eucharist is presented as both the source and generator of communion. The Church emerges, above all, as the effect of this sacrament; consequently, ecclesial communion constitutes the ontological result of being “nourished” by the same Christ, a process through which individuality is transfigured into the ecclesial “we.” Finally, the ethical-eschatological nexus that leads from the altar to history is developed. Liturgy is linked to ethics as a demand for existential coherence: if the bread is broken, life itself must also be shared. Thus, the sacrament operates as a mediation between the “already” of the real presence and the “not yet” of eschatological fulfillment, making mission a natural extension of worship.