CHAPTER 5: DYNAMICS OF COMMON LIFE AND COMMON EUCHARIST 161 TC observes that many of the youthful guests do not realize that the ritual and the lived reality are interconnected.385 A recent addition to the preparation of the altar during the Sunday Eucharist tries to overcome this difficulty. TC explains that he suggested that youth from different parts of the world should prepare the altar by covering it with the altar cloth. Such a symbolic act helps them realize that it is a table with a feast, something that resonates in their daily lives.386 TC also tells a story about a man he once met, who realized that he celebrated the Eucharist without any inclination to restore Christian unity: If in Christianity we do use rituals... we have to see that the rituals make sense... ... because they're not just rituals, they are the symbolic expression of something... that is real in daily life, and... ... ... ... .... And of course, if you're not looking for unity, and you celebrate the Eucharist, it's a problem {laughs}... If you're not searching for unity, and uh... ... That happened to me in the United States, with uh... five years ago when I was in Chicago, there was a man, from an evangelical background, who contacted us, and... ... he wrote about his experience, he said he was... was praying the creed, the credo... and, I believe in the church, the one church, one church, and... and he said, I realized I was doing nothing for unity. And that kind of, was a moment where he felt the call very strongly to work towards unity and... so he started, he started to be interested in the gifts of other churches, the Orthodox Church, the Catholic, and uh....387 TC stresses this indissoluble connection between celebrating the Eucharist (in any tradition) and commitment to Christian unity. The above story is immediately followed by another narrative, about a pastor provoking a Catholic bishop to deny him Communion. With this story, TC indicates that unity and Communion are not linked in a mechanical way: the bishop challenges the pastor to contemplate the possibility rather than simply express disapproval: This, this of course applies to the whole idea of intercommunion, or, receiving Communion, because... if you have this will to seek unity... no?... to seek reconciliation, you're doing something that the Eucharist is about. No? {laughs}. If you receive the Eucharist without any wish for unity, {laughs} it would be a kind of contradiction almost, no?... Of course, I want to continue to be separate, uh? not in 385 TC-2,16. 386 TC-2,16. 387 TC-1,28b.
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