Lucas Briola provides a critical perspective often missed when teaching Catholic social thought in general, and Laudato Si’ in particular, that is, to be in communion with our common home is to be in communion as a eucharistic people. In this text Briola presents the integral ecology that is central to Laudato Si’ as a eucharistic theology, thus shifting our focus to the healing and reconciling nature of the relationship between the earth and humanity called for by Francis in this encyclical. He accomplishes this by engaging in a unique theological conversation between Laudato Si’ and the work of Bernard Lonergan, specifically Lonergan’s theology of history and its scale of values. By so doing Briola draws out the implications of a eucharistic vision of Laudato Si’ for ecclesiological mission, for the poor, and for the care of our common home.
Briola begins with a thoughtful analysis of the work on environmental theology and the human person found in the writings of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. He then proceeds to provide a detailed roadmap of Pope Francis’s integral ecology as presented in Laudato Si’ and, with it, the reality that the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth are inseparable from the communion of a eucharistic church. It is clear from the encyclical that this is more than an ecological document. As Briola notes, this is a social work, centered on an integrated understanding of creation, creator, and the dual cries of the poor and the earth. At its core, he argues, Francis’s vision is eucharistic and imbued with a sacramentality that turns on the doxological. Our very nature calls us to praise and thanksgiving most profoundly expressed in the eucharistic liturgy from which flows the mission of the church. It is precisely here where Briola applies Lonergan’s theology of history to Laudato Si’ that he provides a new entry point into the theological conversation surrounding integral ecology and the Eucharist. This approach is fruitful precisely because, though never directed to this particular endeavor, Lonergan’s theology is a systematically integrative one and thus it complements the integral ecology of Francis. Briola employs Lonergan’s theology, especially his scale of values, under new circumstances, expanding the conversation into new societal relationships. He applies Lonergan’s theology to the preferential option for the poor, the challenges of contemporary cultural norms, and the use of the scale of values to the ultimate act of conversion (turning toward God) in praise and thanksgiving that occurs in the eucharistic liturgy.
What Briola presents here is a comprehensive argument for Laudato Si’ as fundamentally eucharistic at its theological heart. All of creation is summed and offered as a sacrifice of praise. This argument, supported through ample use of eucharistic prayer texts, demonstrates that the eucharistic movement of the encyclical is doxological and our participation grafts us onto the cosmic Christ. The actions of the eucharistic liturgy are the actions of Christ, not ours. Our transformation is a result of Christ’s actions throughout the liturgy. This culminates in the becoming that occurs in the eating and drinking of the Body and Blood, an event that leads us forward in mission for the service of God’s creation. In this eucharistic conjunction, Briola ties together insights from Lonergan to reveal the deep sacramentality of Laudato Si’ through eucharistic symbol. Our participation in the rhythm of the eucharistic liturgy and its repetition inculcates us into the reality of the relationship between loving creator and sacred creation, opening our being to the interconnectedness of all things with God.
In The Eucharistic Vision of Laudato Si, Briola has provided a new entry point into the theology of the Eucharist critical to the conversation around the theology that Pope Francis develops in Laudato Si’. In the eucharistic liturgy, we are transformed in light of our communion with the triune God, a God who is a communion of perichoretic love. This transformation results in our outward movement in mission with creation, a mission that is enabled by our ongoing process of conversion. This eucharistic dynamic is a central part of Francis’s integral ecology, itself, per Briola, an integral eucharistic event.
This is a book that will add immeasurable depth to an upper-level undergraduate or graduate-level course on the Eucharist, Catholic Social Teaching, or specifically Laudato Si’. It will be an excellent addition to any such curriculum though some background in Lonergan will be helpful to students who use the text. Instructors ought not to choose it as a text for an introductory theology course.
