240 PART TWO: AN EMPIRICAL ACCOUNT aspect that we are made present to the Last Supper. So, in a sort, it’s, the Eucharist is outside the time. Uh… is already projected towards the return of Christ, and linked to the Last Supper, who was the first supper, I mean {laughs} it was the first Last Supper {laughs}. And this, when I, I… I realize this, it gives me hope that it could be possible. That uh…Christ gives us this power that doing this in memory of him, means that also that we can, we can uh, anticipate this day, uh, and this uh, of course is true for any Eucharist, even if there are not nonCatholics at a Catholic Mass. This truth is the same, I mean. But when you can celebrate with concrete uh… Christian that are not of your own confession, this becomes more clear, more evident, more uh, challenging.532 BF mentions the three dimensions of time present in the celebration of the Eucharist (past, present, and future) with their respective modes: commemoration, representation, and anticipation. Brother BF argues that the unity of the Church, too, can be experienced in the present thanks to both commemoration and anticipation. Full unity may not be today’s reality, but it has been in the beginning and will be so in the end. Therefore, any Eucharistic celebration bears this reality in it. This, in his view, legitimates Eucharistic sharing in the ecumenical context of Bose: the Eucharist is a means, source, and resource for recovering the unity that was lost over time but, at the same time, it celebrates and demonstrates the unity that is an inalienable characteristic of the church. 8.4 SYNTHESIS Both communities position the Eucharist in a similar fashion theologically. In this chapter, we have encountered several essential characteristics that enrich the traditional scheme of source versus summit. I have encountered three ways to position the Eucharist in this chapter. Firstly, section 8.1 depicted the Eucharist as the focal point of the liturgy. This resonates with the Catholic understanding of the Eucharist as the summit of the Christian life.533 Coming from different backgrounds, the monastics have (re)discovered this aspect in different ways. Some point at an emancipation of non-Eucharistic liturgical actions and rituals, while others have learned to appreciate the Eucharist is the focal point and culmination of other liturgical 532 BG1-22a. 533 Cf. LG, sec. 11.
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