YEAR OF THE EUCHARIST Food for the journey

by Father Jerome M. Vereb, C.P.

As I began to compose this piece I received word of the death of my aunt, Margaret Vereb. She had been in a nursing home for several weeks. A few days before she died, she suffered a stroke. The priest was called to administer the Sacrament of the Sick.

Not only did he anoint Margaret but he also gave her Holy Communion. Within a short time she passed into a coma and never regained consciousness. She was blessed.

Holy Communion given to the dying is referred to as Holy Viaticum. This special reception of the Sacrament of the Eucharist, together with prayers, readings and words of comfort, constitutes the last rites of the Church for the dying. It derives from the Greek and Latin cultures of old.

Among the ancient Greeks there existed the custom of serving a supper for those about to undertake a long journey. During that meal relatives and friends provided food, clothing and money. The Romans adopted the same custom and gave it the title “Viaticus,” which means of or pertaining to a journey. As Latin funerary customs developed, there emerged from classical literature and mythology the idea of paying a fare for the after-life. This was a reference to the widely held belief that the deceased had to cross the mythical river Styx through the services of the legendary boat-man, Charon, for whom the fare was intended.

As Christianity arose in the Roman Empire, the last things and the care of the dying were a principal pastoral concern. With direct reference to the symbolism of pre-Christian times, the custom of administering Holy Viaticum became one of the earliest Christian practices, not only of Eucharistic devotion but of pastoral comfort and sustenance.

It is for this reason that the practice of preserving the Eucharist in a house-church or later in a basilica arose. The custom of reserving the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle of a church is primarily for the care of the sick. Evidence of this is found from earliest times in the writings of St. Basil, St. Gregory Nazianzen and St. Cyprian of Carthage.

The reservation of the Blessed Sacrament in house churches had particular importance in the age of martyrs. Over the centuries the Church has venerated the memory of St. Tarcisius, the teen-age martyr who was killed by his pagan peers when he would not surrender the Eucharist which he was carrying to a dying Christian. He is considered the patron saint of Holy Viaticum.

Since the term Viaticum was actually coined by pagan writers of pre-Christian times it maintained some of its pagan allusions, but by the fifth century, it referred specifically to the Eucharist, not only as the memorial of the Passion and Death of the Lord but also to it as a pledge of everlasting life. This definition arose as part of the deliberations of the Council of Orange in the year 441. The practice of administering Viaticum to the dying continued practically without comment until St. Thomas Aquinas wrote of it in the 13th century. He declared that insofar as the sacrament prefigures the enjoyment of God, it is necessarily called Viaticum because it offers the grace of attaining Heaven.

In the post-Tridentine formulation of the Roman Ritual of Pope Paul V, in the 16th century the formula for the administration of the Sacrament of Holy Viaticum differed from that of the distribution of Holy Communion under ordinary circumstances insofar as it reads: “Receive, dearest brother or sister, the Viaticum of the Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ who keeps you from evil powers and leads you into Eternal Life.”

Lent is a good time for all to reflect upon the meaning of the death of the Christian in this Eucharistic context. The institution of the Eucharist occurred on the night before Jesus’ own death, or, if you will, the Lord’s own Passover. To receive the Sacrament is to identify oneself completely with the act of passing over to the Father with and in Christ. In this regard, the Catholic Catechism recalls the efficacy of Holy Viaticum by citing Jesus’ own words: “He who eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up in the Last Day” (Jn 6:54).

In recent times the Sacrament of Viaticum is normally administered along with the Anointing of the Sick whereby the dying Christian is given a particular gift of the Holy Spirit who strengthens the Christian against anguish, discouragement and despair which come directly from the devil. The Sacrament of the Sick too, constitutes a union with the Passion of Jesus and provides a configuration with the Lord’s Suffering and its redemptive fruit for all the People of God. Finally, the two sacraments together manifest an ecclesial grace whereby the Christian comes to rest at the heart of the holiness of the Church. It is through the Church that each Christian is brought home to the Father. The Catholic Catechism reminds us that Holy Viaticum is received at the moment of the passing over to the Father’s house in, with and through Christ.

On Holy Thursday, when the Eucharist is venerated after the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, it is important to realize that the sacramental presence of God in Church is not only a saving presence but it bespeaks the work and the destiny of Jesus for him and for ourselves.

Passionist Father Jerome Vereb serves as an adjunct professor of theology on the faculty of Immaculate Conception Seminary, Huntington.