ABSTRACT
Chauvet’s work illustrates the importance of ethical responsibility in relation to Eucharist in a variety of ways. From the perspective of the social sciences, his appeal to Levi-Strauss’s scheme of cognition-recognition-praxis and Mauss’s analysis of gift exchange supports his commitment to upholding the interconnectedness of scripture, sacrament, and ethics in the Christian tradition. The third term in all these triadic structures emphasizes action as the expression and verification of one’s identity and beliefs. One truly believes (cognition) when praxis is in conformity with belief. One is truly generous (return-gift) when an attitude of gratitude (reception) fills the heart. One has truly heard the scriptures and received the sacrament when the living God is given body in this world through our actions. This call to action and congruence between word and deed is consistent with a fundamental liturgical principle: lex orandi, lex credendi. But lex orandi, the church’s liturgy and spirituality, must be understood as extending beyond the Sunday liturgy and its Eucharistic celebration to the liturgy of the neighbor. The practical and political consequences of liturgy could be referred to as the “lex agendi.”1 Without this extension, a sharp divide between the sacred and secular can lead the church to close in on itself. If this occurs lex credendi, the articulation of the beliefs of the church, can increasingly become removed from, if not irrelevant to, the actual ongoing work of Christ’s mission in the world.
