SECONDLY: ITS THEOLOGICAL AND SPIRITUAL CONTENTS
The Mystery of the Eucharist, or the Blessed Sacrament is, to begin with, an act of thanksgiving and praise offered by Christ Jesus to his heavenly Father. And it is, as explained in the Catechism Of The Catholic Church, “the sacrament of our salvation accomplished on the cross. It is also a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for the work of creation. In the Eucharistic sacrifice the whole of creation, loved by God, is presented to the Father through the death and resurrection of Christ. Through Christ the Church can offer the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for all that God has made good, beautiful, and just in creation and in humanity.
The Eucharist is a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Father, a blessing by which the Church expresses her gratitude to God for all his benefits, for all that he has accomplished through creation, redemption and sanctification. Eucharist means first of all ‘thanksgiving’. The Eucharist is also a sacrifice of praise by which the Church sings the glory of God in the name of all creation. This sacrifice of praise is possible only through Christ: he unites the faithful to his person, to his praise, and to his intercession, so that the sacrifice of praise to the Father is offered through Christ and with him, to be accepted in him”.
When the Church celebrates the Eucharist, the memorial of her Lord’s death and resurrection, this central event of salvation becomes truly present and “the work of our redemption is carried out”. This sacrifice is so decisive for the salvation of the human race that Jesus Christ offered it and returned to the Father only after he had left us a means of sharing in it as if we had been present there. Each member of the faithful can thus take part in it and inexhaustibly gain its fruits. This is the faith from which generations of Christians down the ages have lived. The Church’s Magisterium has constantly reaffirmed this faith with joyful gratitude for its inestimable gift. What more could Jesus have done for us? Truly, in the Eucharist, he shows us a love which goes “to the end” (John 13:1), a love which knows no measure”.
As Christ our Lord explained there is a redemptive value to this sacrifice which, upon its execution on the cross within the following few hours, for the sake of the redemption of all, makes it present in a mysterious way. The Mass is at the same time and inseparably the sacrificial memorial in which the sacrifice of the cross is perpetuated and the sacred banquet of communion is shared with the Lord’s body and blood. But the celebration of the Eucharistic sacrifice is wholly directed toward the intimate union of the faithful with Christ through communion. To receive communion is to receive Christ Himself who has offered Himself for us.
The Church constantly draws her life from the redeeming sacrifice; she approaches it not only through faith-filled remembrance, but also through a real contact, since this sacrifice is made present ever anew, sacramentally perpetuated, in every community, which offers it at the hands of the consecrated minister. The Eucharist thus applies to men and women today the reconciliation once gained for all by Christ for all people in every age. Saint John Chrysostom defined it well: “We always offer the same Lamb, not one today and another tomorrow, but always the same one. For this reason the sacrifice is always only one... Even now we offer that victim who was once offered and who will never be consumed”.
The Mass makes present the sacrifice of the Cross; it does not add to that sacrifice nor does it multiply it. “It is the one and only sacrifice and he himself is the one who offers it at the hands of the priests, and he is the same one who gave himself up that day on the cross. Only the method of its presentation changes.
By virtue of its close relationship to the sacrifice of Golgotha, the Eucharist is a sacrifice in the strict sense, and not only in a general way, as if it were simply a matter of Christ’s offering himself to the faithful as their spiritual food. In fact, the gift of his love and obedience to the point of giving his life (John 10:17-18) is in the first place a gift to his Father. Certainly it is a gift given for our sake, and indeed for all humanity, yet it is first and foremost a gift to the Father, a sacrifice that the Father accepted, giving in return for this total self-giving by his Son, who ‘became obedient unto death’, his own paternal gift, that is the gift of new and eternal life in the resurrection.
With the faithful participating in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, which is the source and summit of the whole Christian life, they offer the Divine Sacrifice to God, and offer themselves along with it. The Eucharistic Sacrifice makes present not only the mystery of the Savior’s passion and death, but also the mystery of the Resurrection, which crowned his sacrifice. It is as the Living and Risen One that Christ can become in the Eucharist the “bread of life” (John 6:35,48), the “living bread” (John 6:51). Saint Ambrose reminded the newly initiated that “Today Christ is yours, yet each day he rises again for you”. Saint Cyril of Alexandria also makes clear that “sharing in the Sacred Mysteries is a true confession and a remembrance that the Lord died and returned to life for us and on our behalf”.
Receiving the body of Christ is nothing other than the participation in the Eucharistic Sacrifice and renewal of the unity with Christ that was brought about by baptism. We can say not only that each of us receives Christ, but also that Christ receives each of us. He enters into friendship with us: “You are my friends” (John 15:14). Indeed, it is because of him that we have life: “He who eats me will live because of me” (John 6:57). Eucharistic communion brings about in a sublime way the mutual “abiding” of Christ and each of his followers: “Abide in me, and I in you” (John 15:4).
Communion does not make the faithful, the People of the New Testament, withdraw into themselves, but rather become the sign and the instrument of the salvation accomplished by Christ, Light of the World, and salt of the earth (Mt. 5:13-16) for the sake of the redemption of all. The mission of the Church continues the mission of Christ: “as the Father has sent me, so I send You” (John 20:21). This is why the Church receives all the necessary spiritual power to fulfill her mission from the sacrifice of the Cross perpetuated in the Eucharist and the receiving of His Body and Blood. Thus, the Mystery of the Eucharist seems to be at the same time, the source of the entire preaching of the Gospel, and its summit, because it aims at having all people in communion with Christ and in Him, with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
The Church receives from the Mystery of the Eucharist all the necessary spiritual powers to fulfill her mission. At the same time the Church is confirmed in her unity as the body of Christ. Thus, Saint Paul was moved to write to the Corinthians: “The bread which we break, is it not a communion in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:16-17).
THE STATUS OF THE EUCHARIST IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
The Eucharist, or the Blessed Sacrament, is the Church’s nourishment and life. It occupies first place amongst the seven sacraments, that is, Baptism, Chrismation, Reconciliation, Marriage, Holy Orders, and Anointing of the Sick. This is what most theologians emphasized, among whom were saints such as Saint Thomas Aquinas, rightly called ‘the Angelic Teacher’, who used to resort to the Blessed Sacrament whenever he came across a situation for which he had no solution, and he would write the problem on a piece of paper and place it on the altar in front of the Eucharist, and then go on to pray asking the Eucharistic Lord in the tabernacle to open what has been closed. In most cases, he used to get what he asked for.
The Blessed Sacrament is the medicine of souls for many diseases. Pope Leo XIII in his encyclical on the Eucharist entitled “Mirae Caritatis”, issued on 28 May 1902, says: “But that decay of faith in divine things of which we have spoken is the effect not only of pride, but also of moral corruption. For if it is true that a strict morality improves the quickness of man’s intellectual powers, and if on the other hand, as the maxims of pagan philosophy and the admonitions of divine wisdom” [as it is written in the Book of Wisdom (1:4)] combine to teach us that keenness of the mind is blunted by bodily pleasures, how much more, in the matter of revealed truths, do these same pleasures obscure the light of faith, or even by the just judgment of God, entirely extinguish it. For in these pleasures of the present day an insatiable appetite rages, infecting all classes as with an infectious disease, even from tender years. Yet even for so terrible an evil there is a remedy close at hand in the divine Eucharist. For in the first place it puts a check on lust by increasing charity, according to the words of St. Augustine, who says, speaking of charity, ‘As it grows, lust diminishes; when it reaches perfection, lust is no more’. Moreover, the most-chaste flesh of Jesus keeps down the rebellion of our flesh, as St. Cyril of Alexandria taught, ‘For Christ abiding in us lulls to sleep the law of the flesh which rages in our members’. Then too the special and most pleasant fruit of the Eucharist is that which is signified in the words of the prophet: ‘What is the good thing of Him,’ that is, of Christ, ‘and what is His beautiful thing, but the wheat of the elect and the wine that engendereth virgins’.”
The Litany of the Eucharist enumerates some of the qualities that the Church attributed to Him, indicating the ability to provide spiritual and temporal graces to the Church. St. Thomas Aquinas says, “That in this sacrament the true Body of Christ and his true Blood is something that ‘cannot be apprehended by the senses, but only by faith, which relies on divine authority”. For this reason, in a commentary on Luke 22:19 (‘This is My Body which is given to you.), St. Cyril says: “Do not doubt whether this is true, but rather receive the words of the Savior in faith, for since he is the truth, he cannot lie”.
As the Latin hymn says:
“Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more,
See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art.
Seeing, touching, tasting are in thee deceived; How says trusty hearing? That shall be believed;
What God’s Son has told me, take for truth I do; Truth himself speaks truly or there’s nothing true”.
Pope John Paul II feels how much priests, in particular, need to meditate on the Blessed Sacrament, to drink from this fountainhead the strength to persevere in the daily toil against the forces of evil, and how numerous they are; against indifference, and how malicious it is. This is why he says: “Priests are engaged in a wide variety of pastoral activities. If we also consider the social and cultural conditions of the modern world it is easy to understand how priests face the very real risk of losing their focus amid such a great number of different tasks. The Second Vatican Council saw in pastoral charity the bond that gives unity to the priest’s life and work. This, the Council adds, “flows mainly from the Eucharistic Sacrifice, which is therefore the center and foundation of the entire priestly life”. We can understand, then, how important it is for the spiritual life of the priest, as well as for the good of the Church and the world, that priests follow the Council's recommendation to celebrate the Eucharist daily: “for even if the faithful are unable to be present, it is an act of Christ and the Church”. In this way priests will be able to counteract the daily tensions which lead to a lack of focus and they will find in the Eucharistic Sacrifice—the true center of their lives and ministry—the spiritual strength needed to deal with their different pastoral responsibilities. Their daily activity will thus become truly Eucharistic”.
It is highly fitting that Christ should have wanted to remain present to his Church in this unique way. Since Christ was about to take his departure from his own in his visible form, he wanted to give us his sacramental presence; since he offered himself on the cross to save us, he wanted us to have the memorial of the love with which “he loved us to the end” (John 13:1), even to the giving of his life. In his Eucharistic presence he remains mysteriously in our midst as the One who loved us and gave himself for us, and he remains under signs that express and communicate this love. The Church and the world have a great need for Eucharistic worship. Jesus awaits us in this sacrament of love. Let us not refuse the time to go and meet him in adoration, in contemplation full of faith, and open to make amends for the serious offenses and crimes of the world. Let our adoration never cease.”
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