Sacrifice As Gift

Preface

ix • Scholarship that seeks publication aims at making a serious contribution to the field of research addressed by that work. This book is no different. I desire not only to retrieve the thought of a forgotten voice in the Catholic theological tradition, but also to address what I take to be a diminished understanding of eucharistic sacrifice in much contemporary liturgical theology. Should this exposition of Maurice de la Taille’s eucharistic theology call into question prevailing presumptions against a theology of the Mass as sacrifice, then it will have made its humble contribution to the church’s knowledge of faith and sacramental practice. I confess, however, to a second, “secret” objective, equal in significance to the goal of advancing scholarship. That is to say, I deeply hope that this book, mirroring my own experience of reading de la Taille, excites a hunger for the Eucharist, a longing for intimate union with the sacrificial Lamb from whom all grace and life flow. If the reader senses but a small movement of desire toward the ritual offering of sacrifice and the reception of eucharistic grace, then the book shall be a worthy tribute to the faith and devotio of the master theologian who wrote Mysterium Fidei. The time I spent reading, translating, and thinking and writing about the work of Maurice de la Taille, S.J.—at my desk, in coffee shops, cycling along the Charles River, battling through New England winters, in the classroom with students—has been fruitfully and memorably enhanced by the intersection of several mentors and friends. I want to acknowledge and thank those who have buoyed my labors, who have been Barnabases—“sons (and daughters) of encouragement.” x • Preface I first thank the gifted Frances Millican (now Sister Sofia, a Cistercian nun at Mount St. Mary’s in Wrentham, Massachusetts), who graciously suffered all my virginal excitement over the discovery of de la Taille’s thought, and who lent her linguistic expertise over those Latin passages that resisted being known in English. I am deeply grateful to Sarah Coakley, who liberally expended time and energy with this project, ever prodding me to go more deeply into the central questions and to be more lucid in my writing. More, her commitment to the integration of rigorous theological thought and contemplative prayer and her modeling of this remain a permanent icon on my mental terrain. I likewise thank John Baldovin, S.J., who also deftly shepherded this study in its doctoral stage. I wish to recognize a trinity of men who shaped and sustained this manuscript in quiet and faithful ways. David Burrell, C.S.C., longtime friend and mentor, is likely a chief secondary cause in my taking on this project: long ago he planted the seed of my affection for St. Thomas, and he continues to hone my capacity for reading and comprehending a Thomist of de la Taille’s philosophical and theological acumen. My deep gratitude to the constant Peter Hawkins (Yale Divinity School), whose expert and theologically attuned teaching of the Commedia reminded me that the telos of theology is a transformative journey of desire, and who insisted that theology can be—indeed ought to be—a bella lingua. When lost mid-course in woods of writing and editing, he turned me again and again toward the light through the potency of words and images (often from scripture). A Vergil—but so much more. I count it proof of beneficent providence that I fell under the liturgical formation of Fr. James Savage, parochial vicar at St Paul’s Parish in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His love of the liturgy, Eastern and Western , and of the Word, or rather, his saturation in these realities, made him a most splendid mystagogue, an instantiation of the liturgical spirituality that surfaces repeatedly in de la Taille’s work. I am (impossibly) indebted to him for the food of inspiration and insight that I regularly took away from his preaching and prayer while writing this work. I also wish to thank my third-year Eucharistic Theology students at Saint Patrick’s Seminary (Menlo Park, California) for their enthusi- xi • Preface astic and challenging response to my lectures on Maurice de la Taille. Their genuine interest, along with that of my colleague Frederick Cwiekowski, S.S., prompted me to persevere in finding a publisher for this manuscript. I express thanks as well to Monsignor Warren Holleran , not only for his...