SACRAMENTS

THE EUCHARIST

NATURE

The Holy Eucharist is the sacrament in which Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, gives Himself to the faithful under the appearances of bread and wine to be their sacrifice and their spiritual food.

The Eucharist is the centre and crown of Christian life. It is the sacrament in which the saving works of Jesus and the gifts of God are made accessible to men. The very existence of a Christian community would be unintelligible without the Eucharist: ‘No Christian community can be built up unless it has its basis and centre in the celebration of the most Holy Eucharist’ (P.O. 6).

The new life of grace begun in baptism and strengthened in confirmation is ordered towards union with the Eucharistic Christ, and sharing in His saving sacrifice. The Eucharist is the “medicine of immortality” which complements the healing effects of Reconciliation and the Anointing of the Sick. The Holy Order confers a priesthood centred around the altar of the Eucharistic Lord. Marriage is a symbol of the union of Christ with the Church which is the fruit of the Eucharist.

EUCHARIST - THE NEW SACRIFICE OF THE NEW COVENANT

Christ’s paschal mystery especially His passion, death and resurrection inaugurated God’s new covenant with His people. In this new covenant Christ has bestowed on us His Spirit. Thus he has made us children of God and sharers of his divine life. Me are chosen to be a new people of God, a holy nation and a royal priesthood (I Pet. 2 ,9 ), able to worship God in spirit and truth (Jn. 4,231) by participating in the one sacrifice of Jesus on the cross which he offered once and for all for the salvation of all mankind (Heb. 10, 10-12). These gifts and blessings of God are channeled to us chiefly through the Eucharistic sacrifice, which is the bloodless re-enactment of Christ’s sacrifice or the Cross in accordance with his command: “Do this in remembrance of me” (Lk. 22, 19; I Cr. 11, 24).

Priests are called to offer the Eucharistic sacrifice to the Father, with Christ, in the Holy Spirit, for the living and the dead, for the salvation of all, for the many needs of the people of God. This is an awesome task: to act in the person of Christ, to be his minister, to speak words that make present the living Christ and renew the paschal mysteries! This can be done only at the will of Christ, by those whom he has empowered to act as his ministers by calling them and sealing them with the sacramental character of Holy Order.

When, in the person of Christ, the priest pronounces the words of consecration, the sacrifice of the new covenant is made present the faithful in such a way that they can participate in it.

At the Eucharistic sacrifice, as upon the cross, Jesus is the Chief Priest and the Victim, giving unending and infinite praise and satisfaction to the Father. But in the Eucharistic sacrifice the Church joins him and performs the role of priest and victim making a total offering of her together with him.

EUCHARISTIC SACRIFICE IN THE HISTORY OF SALVATION

For a correct understanding of the Eucharistic Sacrifice it is necessary to study it in its proper context in the salvation history. It has its anticipations in the history of Israel, God’s chosen people, and its continuation in the history of the Church the new people of God. In the history of salvation one may distinguish four important moments leading progressively to a fuller understanding of this great mystery of faith. All these different moments are seen to be constituted of the same elements, viz., a sacrificial meal, liberation and a covenant. We will now consider these four moments in some detail.

Jewish Passover: The Jews celebrated every year the feast of pass over in remembrance of their deliverance from Egypt. It included a sacrificial meal to remember the meal which their fathers ate before they set out from Egypt.

It signified a liberation, viz., the liberation of Israel from slavery under Pharaoh.

The feast of Passover was a reminder of God’s covenant with His people made on Mount Sinai. It was a covenant of mutual love and fidelity. The passover feast was meant to renew this covenant every year.

Christ‘s Passover: By Christ’s passover we mean the paschal mystery of Christ, viz, His Passion, Death and Resurrection. It is the continuation and fulfilment in the new covenant of the Jewish passover of the old covenant. It was precisely to show this continuity of God’s plan of salvation for mankind that Christ chose to institute His own passover in the very context of the feast of the Jewish passover.

Christ’s passover also includes a sacrificial meal, viz., the Eucharistic meal which is the sacramental anticipation of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

It signifies the liberation, viz., the liberation of mankind from sin and death. It inaugurates God’s new covenant with his people which is the perfection of the old covenant.

Holy Eucharist-The Christian Passover: The Eucharist recalls and renews Christ’s passover. It is a sacrificial meal in which Christ, the perfect Victim is offered to the Father for the salvation of mankind. It is also our spiritual food which sustains us on our journey to eternal life. The Jews ate their paschal lamb in commemoration of their passover from Egypt, the land of slavery, to the promised land of freedom and prosperity. Like the Jews we too have to effect a passover-the passover from the domain of sin and death to the Eternal Abode of light and life. And in this passover we are supported and strengthened by the Body and Blood of Christ-the Paschal Lamp of the new covenant.

The Eucharist brings about a liberation. The Eucharistic celebration is the sacramental renewal of Christ’s paschal mystery within the church which is His Mystical Body. It enables all the members of the Mystical Body to unite themselves with Christ, their Head, in his saving sacrifice. This participation in Christ’s salvific sacrifice helps them liberate themselves from the clutches of sin and death and pass over to the freedom of the children of God. Through the Eucharist Jesus fulfils if himself now and for ever the covenant between God and man, He gives himself to us in communion, thus he is truly “God with US”. For our part we ought to actively renew our covenant with God and achieve intimate union with Him ‘we with God’,

Heavenly Passover: The heavenly passover is the final and complete fulfilment of Christ’s passover to be realized at the end of times. Christ has given us to understand that it also includes a meal aspect. He often referred to the heavenly life as a banquet (Mt. 22, 2; Lk. 13,29;22, 15-16. 29-30). The heavenly meal will no longer be the celebration of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God; instead, it will be an eternal repast which expresses heaven’s thanksgiving-the joy and happiness of the kingdom of God at the fulfilment of God’s saving plan.

The heavenly passover means also the complete liberation of man and the whole universe from sin and death. The power of evil is vanquished utterly and for ever. Christ will have reunited all creation in Himself to the glory of God the Father through the Holy Spirit.

Further, the heavenly passover signifies the perfect fulfilment of the covenant bet0ween God and man. More than ever before, God will be with us and we with God.

THE EUCHARISTIC CELEBRATION IN THE! CHURCH

The Eucharistic celebration of the paschal mystery is the essential activity of the ecclesial community. In the early Church the Eucharistic celebration consisted of scripture readings often followed by commentary, prayers and the breaking of the bread” (Acts 2,42;20, 7; I Cor. lO,16). Gradually there arose a variety of liturgical form of the Eucharistic worship. These are called “Rites”. The various Rites reflect the traditional faith of different ecclesial communities as well as their theological insights and devotional preferences. Despite the rich variety of liturgical Rites in the Church, there is the wonderful unity of faith in the single reality that is celebrated, viz., the paschal mystery of Our Lord.

The Eucharistic sacrifice is the supreme act of worship in the Church. It can be offered only to God, for He alone is worthy of this perfect adoration and praise. The Eucharist is celebrated primarily to glorify God, to bring salvation to all mankind and to make present and accessible to all the limitless riches of Christ. When the Mass is said to be “offered” for some particular intention, it only means that part of the benefits to be derived from the Mass is offered in favour of that intention. The Mass stipend is to be understood as a sacrificial expression of a more intimate participation in the Eucharist.

SACRAMENTAL EFFECTS OF THE EUCHARIST.

Spiritual Nourishment. Under the appearance of food and drink the Eucharist symbolizes spiritual nourishment. Jesus makes the nourishment aspect of the Eucharist abundantly clear in the following words: ‘I am the bread of life ... I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread he will live for ever. The bread that I will give him is my flesh, which I give so that the world may live ...... I am telling you the truth: if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood you will not have life in yourselves ... for my flesh is the real food; my blood is the real drink’ (Jn. 6,48 ... 51 ... 53, 55). The Eucharist effects the spiritual nourishment, chiefly, by the very presence in the recipient of Jesus himself who is the source and fullness of life. In communion Jesus increases the sanctifying grace, fosters the growth and development of all the virtues and strengthens us to live a more meaningful Christian life.

Sacrament of Unity. The Eucharist is the symbol of unity of the faithful in Christ. Even as many grains of wheat are brought together to make bread and many grapes are brought together to make wine, so the family of God is brought into unity around the Eucharistic table, This solidarity of the people of God is also symbollized by the sharing, in common, of the one Eucharistic bread which is Christ (I Cor. 10,17), The Eucharistic celebration then becomes the expression of shared beliefs which the Eucharistic assembly openly professes, and bears witness t o the faith that unites them to God and to one another.

The sacrament of the Eucharist does not only symbolize but also bring about in actual fact the unity of the Church. The unity thus effected is a two-fold one. In the first place, there arises a personal union with Christ. In the Eucharist Jesus offers himself to us and draws us into a vital union with himself such as there exists between the vine and its branches (Jn. 15, 5). Secondly, union with Christ leads to an ever deeper communion with the members of His Mystical Body, the Church. The Eucharist transforms the community of the faithful into a community of love.

The food of eternal life . The Eucharist, the Bread of life, is a preparation for our eternal union with Christ in heaven. In this sense it is a foretaste of heavenly life. It is also the pledge of our resurrection. “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (Jn. 6, 54).

REAL PRESENCE OF JESUS IN THE EUCHARIST

The doctrine of the Church concerning the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is founded on the words of Jesus himself. After the miraculous multiplication of bread at Capernaum (Jn. 6, 1-14 & 25-71) we find Jesus speaking of a bread which comes down from heaven and gives eternal life to those who eat it (Jn. 6, 48, 50-51).

Jesus makes it clear that the bread he refers to is his own bady. His words give rise to a mixed reaction among his hearers (Jn. 6, 60-69). Some of them found his words too hard to believe and refused to follow him any longer. Even his apostles could not make sense of what he said; yet they chose to believe because they believed Jesus to be the holy one of God (Jn. 6,67-69).

In this context we may notice one point that is crucial to a correct understanding of Jesus’ words. Jesus does not retract nor even modify his words in a bid to win back his unbelieving hearers. This means that he did in fact want his hearers to understand his words literally and not in any other way.

MEANING OE THE REAL PRESENCE

Jesus is present in the Church in many different ways. He is present in his Church when she believes, prays, administers the sacraments, preaches the word of God, or does works of charity. But the Eucharistic presence of Jesus alone is given the unique description of being ‘real presence’. This does not mean that the other modes of presence are not real, It means simply that the Eucharistic presence of Jesus is ‘presence in its fullest sense’. All other realisations of his presence cannot be identified with Jesus. There he is present only spiritually either by his knowledge or by his action or again by his power. But in the Eucharist Jesus is present in his risen glory in a unique way, whole and entire, God and man, substantially and permanently-just as he is seated a t the ‘right hand’ of the Father. Hence we can rightly say that the Eucharist is Jesus Christ’

The Church has always maintained that, when Jesus, at the last supper, said the words ‘This is my Body ... This is my Blood’ over the bread and wine, their substances did really change to become his Body and Blood. Thus Jesus instituted the sacrament of the Eucharist in unambiguous words (Mt. 26, 26-30; Mk, 14, 22-26; Lk. 22, 14-20; I Cor. 11, 23-25). Today this miraculous change of substance (transubstantiation) and the consequent sacramental presence of Jesus is realized every time. His priest, in obedience to His command, repeats the sacred words of institution over bread and wine during the Eucharistic sacrifice. In the words of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, once the bread and wine are consecrated, what appears to be bread is no more bread, though it tastes like it, but rather the Body of Christ; and what appears to be wine is no more wine, though it seems so to the taste, but the Blood of Christ. In other words, Jesus is really and fully present in the Eucharist under sacramental species of bread and wine, and His presence endures as long as the appearances of bread and wine endure.

The Eucharistic presence of Jesus is indeed a supernatural mystery of faith which can never be fully grasped by man in this life. The proper human attitude in the face of this mystery should be one of profound humility and reverence stemming not from human reasoning, but from adhering firmly to the divine revelation. St. John Chrysostom given us the lead after the example of St. Peter (Jn. 6, 68) “Let us submit to God in all things and not contradict Him, even if what He says seems to contradict our reason and intellect ... Let us act in this way with regard to the mysteries, not limiting cur attention to those things which can be perceived by the senses, but instead holding fast what He says. For His word can never deceive.”