A reader writes:

Please help me.  I live in a parish where members are pushing for the emphasis on community during the Mass.  They are citing an article in St. Anthony’s Messenger by a Fr. Lawrence E. Mick entitled Finding Jesus in the Eucharist:  Four Ways He is Present.  Even the title does not make sense to me.  It seems as though he is only present one way in the Eucharist—and that’s by being in the Eucharist.  Hey, maybe I’m too concrete a thinker.

I respect you.  You are a lucid thinker and you have the integrity to back up your arguments with primary (vs. secondary) sources.  In short, I know that Jesus is present in the the Blessed Sacrament, the Priest, the Word, and the people—but isn’t He most ‘substantially’ present in the Eucharist—and doesn’t that mean something?  If it didn’t mean something, why mention it in Sacrosanctum Consilium, ect.

What is the best way to argue against an overemphasis on Jesus’ presence in the community during Mass; what is the best way to argue against the notion that Jesus is equally present all four ways?

Am I wrong in my thinking?  Even the head of our Archdiocesan Worship office told me "we need to get the emphasis on the community, make the mystery accessible to the people, ect."

Regarding the nonsensicalness of the title, I think that they’re using the term "Eucharist" as an overall term for the celebration of Mass, at which the Sacrament, the priest, the word, and the people are all present. (Admittedly, it’s a dumb title.)

This kind of effort to flatten the uniqueness of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist has been around since during the Second Vatican Council, when some theologians were going nuts and proposing a number of false ideas such as the idea that Christ is equally present in things besides the Eucharist. As a result, Paul VI rushed out an encyclical during the Council called Mysterium Fidei ("The Mystery of Faith") to set matters straight. It’s worth a rather lengthy quotation from the encyclical to show what authentic Catholic teaching on this matter is. The money quote is at the end. Here goes:

Various Ways in Which Christ is Present

35. All of us realize that there is more than one way in which Christ is present in His Church. We want to go into this very joyful subject, which the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy presented briefly, (30) at somewhat greater length. Christ is present in His Church when she prays, since He is the one who "prays for us and prays in us and to whom we pray: He prays for us as our priest, He prays in us as our head, He is prayed to by us as our God" (31); and He is the one who has promised, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them." (32) He is present in the Church as she performs her works of mercy, not just because whatever good we do to one of His least brethren we do to Christ Himself, (33)but also because Christ is the one who performs these works through the Church and who continually helps men with His divine love. He is present in the Church as she moves along on her pilgrimage with a longing to reach the portals of eternal life, for He is the one who dwells in our hearts through faith, (34) and who instills charity in them through the Holy Spirit whom He gives to us. (35)

36. In still another very genuine way, He is present in the Church as she preaches, since the Gospel which she proclaims is the word of God, and it is only in the name of Christ, the Incarnate Word of God, and by His authority and with His help that it is preached, so that there might be "one flock resting secure in one shepherd." (36)

37. He is present in His Church as she rules and governs the People of God, since her sacred power comes from Christ and since Christ, the "Shepherd of Shepherds," (37) is present in the bishops who exercise that power, in keeping with the promise He made to the Apostles.

38. Moreover, Christ is present in His Church in a still more sublime manner as she offers the Sacrifice of the Mass in His name; He is present in her as she administers the sacraments. On the matter of Christ’s presence in the offering of the Sacrifice of the Mass, We would like very much to call what St. John Chrysostom, overcome with awe, had to say in such accurate and eloquent words: "I wish to add something that is clearly awe-inspiring, but do not be surprised or upset. What is this? It is the same offering, no matter who offers it, be it Peter or Paul. It is the same one that Christ gave to His disciples and the same one that priests now perform: the latter is in no way inferior to the former, for it is not men who sanctify the latter, but He who sanctified the former. For just as the words which God spoke are the same as those that the priest now pronounces, so too the offering is the same." (38) No one is unaware that the sacraments are the actions of Christ who administers them through men. And so the sacraments are holy in themselves and they pour grace into the soul by the power of Christ, when they touch the body.

The Highest Kind of Presence.

These various ways in which Christ is present fill the mind with astonishment and offer the Church a mystery for her contemplation. But there is another way in which Christ is present in His Church, a way that surpasses all the others. It is His presence in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, which is, for this reason, "a more consoling source of devotion, a lovelier object of contemplation and holier in what it contains" (39) than all the other sacraments; for it contains Christ Himself and it is "a kind of consummation of the spiritual life, and in a sense the goal of all the sacraments." (40)

39. This presence is called "real" not to exclude the idea that the others are "real" too, but rather to indicate presence par excellence, because it is substantial and through it Christ becomes present whole and entire, God and man. (41) And so it would be wrong for anyone to try to explain this manner of presence by dreaming up a so-called "pneumatic" nature of the glorious body of Christ that would be present everywhere; or for anyone to limit it to symbolism, as if this most sacred Sacrament were to consist in nothing more than an efficacious sign "of the spiritual presence of Christ and of His intimate union with the faithful, the members of His Mystical Body." (42) [SOURCE.]

Thus, the Catechism of the Catholic Church also notes:

1373 "Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us," is present in many ways to his Church:195 in his word, in his Church’s prayer, "where two or three are gathered in my name,"196 in the poor, the sick, and the imprisoned,197 in the sacraments of which he is the author, in the sacrifice of the Mass, and in the person of the minister. But "he is present . . . most especially in the Eucharistic species."198

1374 The mode of Christ’s presence under the Eucharistic species is unique. It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as "the perfection of the spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments tend."199 In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist "the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained."200 "This presence is called ‘real’ – by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they could not be ‘real’ too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present."201 [SOURCE.]

Hope this helps!