EVERYTHING IS "GRACE MADE VISIBLE" Christ's visible and efficacious presence (Priesthood Discussion)

by PeterR , Sunday, March 22, 2009, 12:09 (1522 days ago) @ Brian Coyne

Brian,

What you wrote called to my mind a passage from Schillebeeckx in "Christ The Sacrament":

EVERYTHING IS "GRACE MADE VISIBLE"

"Christ's visible and efficacious presence in the Church calls to mind the image of a stone thrown into a pond, making ripples spread out in continuous con­centric circles. The ripples flow in all directions from this one central point. This point is the Church, the visible presence of Christ's grace on earth, and from it all movement can be seen to flow. The sacrament of the Eucharist is situated at the heart of this central point-the Eucharist is the focal point of Christ's real presence among us. Around this focal point can be seen the first radiant lights-the other six sacraments. This central mystery is, however, revealed to us only through the medium of the Church's preaching. In­structed and enlightened by this sacrament of the word, our vision is extended, and we can see the whole wide, continuous sphere of the Church's sacramental life. Grace is made visible for us in the Christian life itself of the faithful members of the Church and comes forward to meet us, within this life, offering itself to us. These sacramental ripples, however, continue to spread still further, though they gradually become less and less clearly defined-at this stage they are the sacramentals. Still further away from the centre they merge into the reality of the material and historical world of man, but this too is still under the influence of the triumphant Kyrios. In Christ, God ensures that everything will ultimately be for the good of those who love him. The sacraments, the word, all human conduct which proceeds from grace, the entire world of man -all these are, in their various ways, visible realities in this world of which the Lord avails himself, using his rich fund of inspiration in the most diverse means, to orientate man existentially towards God in Jesus Christ. The result of this, then, is that the grace of Christ does not make itself felt in us only in an inward manner; it comes to us also in a visible form. This is the abiding consequence of the incarnation of the Son of God, the mystery of God made man. The veil which conceals this mystery is drawn aside in the Martyrology at Christmas-time - voluit consecrare mundum. The Son's incarnation admits the world into a personal re­lationship between God and man and man and God. A close unity exists between "inward" and "outward" grace, but the whole created world becomes, through Christ's incarnation and the God-man relationship which is consequent upon it, an outward grace, an offer of grace in sacramental form. As a result of Christ's visible manifestation of himself in the world - a manifestation which embraces the whole world - the preaching and the sacraments of the Church can be regarded simply as the burning focal points within the entire concentration of this visible presence of grace which is the Church, for thanks to the Eucharist Christ is really somatikos-physically- present in her, and because of this physical presence also personally present."

I just wish the spelling of his name were more easily remembered and that he wrote shorter paragraphs.

I hope others enjoy the passage as much as I do.

Peter