By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- When people think of the Eucharist mainly as Christ's sacrifice for their sins, they take seriously their obligation to go to Mass and they are reverent, said some members of the Synod of Bishops.

When they see the Eucharist mainly as a communal celebration of the Lord's Supper, they take seriously the sacrament's unifying power and its call to transform the world, other members said.

Traditional Catholic theology emphasizes both aspects of the Eucharist, although some people felt the Second Vatican Council tipped the balance toward the "communal meal" and opened the way for an irreverent, undisciplined and superficial understanding of the Mass.

Forty years after the council, members of the Oct. 2-23 synod on the Eucharist said there is a need to find balance in understanding the liturgy as sharing in Christ's banquet and as making present his sacrifice for the sins of the world.

During the synod's Oct. 6 "free-discussion" period, Pope Benedict XVI took the microphone and offered a theological reflection on the Eucharist as the Lord's Supper and as Christ's sacrifice, said Legionaries of Christ Father John Bartunek, the English-language briefing officer.

Father Bartunek declined to provide a summary of the pope's spontaneous remarks to the synod, but said the Vatican was planning to publish a transcript. It was the first time the pope had taken part in the debate.

"A theology of the Eucharist viewed predominantly through the lens of the meal is deficiently devoid of the Eucharist's necessary and intrinsic link with Calvary and Christ's sacrifice," Bishop Arthur Roche of Leeds, England, told the synod Oct. 6.

The summary of his speech published by the Vatican said focusing on the meal rather than the sacrifice makes it difficult for people to understand "the superiority of the celebration of the Mass" over a prayer service during which pre-consecrated hosts are distributed.

Dutch Cardinal Adrianus J. Simonis of Utrecht told the synod that a lack of understanding about the sacrificial nature of the Mass probably results as much from cultural changes as from changes in religious education since the Second Vatican Council.

Many modern men and women in developed countries, he said, do not understand "what is gift and what is sacrifice."

"A person who receives and gives thanks knows what it means to give and has a sensitivity about sacrifices, including Christ's sacrificial self-giving," the cardinal said.

Polish Auxiliary Bishop Edward Ozorowski of Bialystok agreed with the cardinal, saying that to understand the human person, one must understand what love is, and to understand what love is, one must understand what sacrifice is.

"The globalized economy and the free market provide less and less space in the world for the spirit of sacrifice," he said.

Modern men and women "look for an easy religion, without precepts and without the cross," he said.

Focusing on the Eucharist only as a banquet and as Communion, he said, leads to a "Protestantization" of the theology of the Eucharist.

"Christ's sacrifice on the cross, which people approach through the Eucharist, is that which is most important in this mystery. Christ's sacrifice on the cross brought men and women salvation," Bishop Ozorowski said. "The Eucharist allows people truly to take part in it."

Salvadoran Bishop Miguel Moran Aquino of San Miguel asked the bishops to maintain a balance between seeing the Eucharist as a banquet and as a sacrifice.

"The banquet or supper of the Lord is not synonymous with a meal as opposed to sacrifice because it is the supper of the Lamb who was slain and, in addition, it is synonymous with communion, which is the aim and the culmination of Eucharist," he said.

Jesus' desire to share his body and blood with his disciples and with his followers of all time "shows his ardent desire for communion with us," the bishop said.

While Christ's sacrifice is an essential part of the Mass, he said, "obscuring the banquet dimension weakens the forces for unity and communion among those who eat and drink the body and blood of Christ."

Brazilian Archbishop Luciano Mendes de Almeida of Mariana told the synod, "The sacrificial dimension of the Eucharist is at the center of the eucharistic mystery."

However, his explanation focused not on how emphasizing sacrifice leads to reverence at Mass, but on how it leads to an understanding of human suffering and compassion for those who suffer.

"The sacrifice of our Lord casts a great light on the meaning of human suffering and on all of Christian life, and it helps us understand why Christians, pardoned by the grace of God, continue to suffer in this world," he said.

Archbishop Michael L. Fitzgerald, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, offered another reflection on Christ's sacrifice.

"In the Eucharist, the sacrifice of the Lord is offered for the whole world," not only for Catholics, he said. "It is good to make this explicit from time to time, by means of the homily, through special prayers or even through a special Mass which could be added to the Roman Missal."

Archbishop Fitzgerald suggested that when a person is praying during eucharistic adoration it would be an appropriate time to pray for members of other religions.