TMA 4 Module 3 – THE HOLY EUCHARIST

Introduction

In our three-year education program for TMA we reflected on the following sacraments: 1997 – Baptism, 1998 – Confirmation, 1999 – Penance. This Jubilee Year 2000 we focus on the Holy Eucharist.

According to the Holy Father there is continuity between the Eucharist and Incarnation. The Eucharist prolongs Incarnation. The Eucharist is a continuation of Incarnation.

The Holy Eucharist, according to Vat. II is “the source and summit of Christian life” (LG 11). Source – because the Eucharist gives grace (divine life) which we need in our life, and Summit – because the Eucharist is the highest form of worship we can offer to God.

But what is the Eucharist? And what is its importance to the Church and to our Christian life?

The Eucharist is the central sacrament of the Church. Since the early centuries and up to our own time, the Church has always celebrated the Eucharist. At first, it was called “breaking of the bread” (Lk 24:35; Lk 2:42-45), or “Lord’s Supper.” Today most people call it “Mass,”  “Holy Mass,” or “Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.” In the liturgy we call it “Eucharist” of “Holy Eucharist” (Thanksgiving).

The celebration of the Eucharist goes back to the time of our Lord Jesus himself, who at the Last Supper: took bread, gave thanks, broke the bread and gave it to his disciples saying, “Take this, all of you, and eat it. This is my body which will be given up to you.” Then he took the cup, gave thanks and praise, gave the cup to his disciples and said, “Take this, all of you, and drink from it. This is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant, which will be shed for you and for all, so that sins will be forgiven.” Then he said: “Do this in memory of me.” (Cf. 1 Cor 11:23-25; Mk 14:22-25; Mt 26:26-29, Lk 22:19-20).

The Eucharist is a mystery whose various aspects we know only slowly, little by little. The Eucharist can be viewed in its various aspects as Sacrament, Real Presence, Communion, Sacrifice, Thanksgiving, Worship, and Meal. However in this presentation we shall take up only three: Eucharist as Worship; Eucharist as Meal; and Eucharist as Sacrifice

A.      THE EUCHARIST AS WORSHIP

The Eucharist is the highest form of worship that can be rendered to God. Reasons: 1) the Eucharist is a thanksgiving (eucharistein) and praise to the Father; 2) the Eucharist is the memorial (anamnesis) of the Son’s sacrifice; and 3) the Eucharist is an invocation of the Holy Spirit (epiclesis).

The word “Eucharist” itself means “Thanksgiving.” Thanksgiving and praise (blessing) were part of Christ’s action. Thus, it is now an integral part of the Mass addressed to the Father for his work of creation, redemption and sanctification through Christ in the Spirit (CCC 1359-1360; CFC 1682-1683).

The Eucharist is a memorial which Jesus himself willed when he said: ”Do this in memory of me” (Lk 22:19, 20). The Eucharist is a sacrament celebrated “in memory” of Jesus’ sacrifice. This memory is not simply a mere mental recollection of a past event (such as the Jewish Passover, or Christ’s Passion and Death), but a transposition into the present (making present) God’ saving acts in history and Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary.

3.       Eucharist as an Invocation of the Holy Spirit

In the Eucharistic Prayer II, the celebrant says: “ Lord, … let your Spirit come upon these gifts to make them holy, so that they may become for us the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This invocation to the Holy Spirit (epiclesis) not only underlines his power to transform bread and wine into Christ’s body and blood, but also points to that power’s effect on the community of disciples themselves as Body of Christ. “Grant that we who are nourished by his Body and Blood may be filled with his Holy Spirit and become one Body, one Spirit in Christ.”

In the Eucharist people come together to offer food (bread and wine) which are placed on a table (altar) and which later they partake of (communion). This meal character of the celebration also discloses some Trinitarian aspects of the Eucharist: 1) It is the Father who gives the True Bread, 2) It is Jesus who is this Bread of Life, and 3) This Bread is given by the Power of the Holy Spirit.

1.       “It is my Father who Gives the True Bread From Heaven”

The “manna” that fed Israel in the desert was only a figure of the real heavenly bread (which is fulfilled in the Eucharist). The real origin and giver of the Eucharist is the Father in heaven. He is the Father-Provider who feeds his children. By virtue of our baptism, we partake of this Bread in the Eucharist. We are no longer invited guests. We are family members entitled to sit at our Father’s table.

2.       “I Myself am the Bread of Life”

Jesus said: “I myself am the Bread of Life. No one who comes to me shall ever be hungry; no one who believes in me shall ever thirst” (Jn 6:35). “The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (Jn 35:51).  He who feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has life eternal and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood real drink” (Jn 6:54-55). Here we are dealing with the “flesh” and “blood” of the Son of Man in the Eucharist.

3.       By the Power of the Spirit of Truth

The Spirit has an important role in the Incarnation of the Son. It is by the Holy Spirit that the child has been conceived (Mt 2:20). It is the Holy Spirit who came upon Mary and overshadowed her; hence, her holy offspring will be called Son of God (Lk 1:35). St. John in his prologue pointed out that “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14).  This Logos (Word) is the Son, who reveals the “glory of the Father” and who is “filled with enduring love” that is the Spirit (DeV 10). And so, the Church prays and invokes the Spirit over the bread and wine during consecration: “Let your Spirit come upon these gifts to make them holy, so that they may becomes for us the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

C.      THE EUCHARIST AS SACRIFICE

We usually call the Eucharistic celebration as “the holy Sacrifice of the Mass.” What do we mean when we say “sacrifice?” (As someone said, going to Mass is really a “sacrifice” because you have to wake up early, put on your best attire and once in Church, you have to struggle to stay awake until the Mass is finished). The Mass is a sacrifice because of its deeper Trinitarian meaning: 1) God who loves the world, 2) His gift of His Son who gives himself through his cross and resurrection, and 3) who upon returning to the Father, gives up his Spirit.

1.       “God so Loved the World…”

Sacrifice is determined by ones love. In the same manner, the sacrifice that is the Eucharist cannot be rightly seen and contextualized except in love, namely, that of the Father for the world. This is the kind of God Jesus reveals to us: a Father who loves even while He faces the possibility of rejection from those He loves. Sacrifice takes its first step here, that is, in the risk of love that makes no conditions. Such is the Father’s love. Jesus reveals the Father’s love especially on the cross. It is a revelation of Love so sublime it could come down to the depths, so impregnable it could afford to be defeated, so divine it could afford to be human, so complete it could afford to suffer, so alive it could afford to die.

2.       “He Gave His Only Son Who Gave Himself to Us”

The birth of Jesus (Incarnation) was the first breakthrough of his revelation of God’s love. But it is on the cross that love especially shines forth. But it is the Son who is on the cross who manifests the Father’s love. It is the Son who submits himself to suffering, crucifixion and death. The Eucharist is precisely the “perpetuation” of his “bloody sacrifice of the Cross” through “all ages” (SC 47; CCC 1356-1372; CFC 1689). As Pope Paul VI said: through “the Eucharist, the sacrifice of the Cross which was once offered on Calvary, is remarkably reenacted and constantly recalled, and its saving power exerted for the forgiveness of sins” (Mysterium Fidei 27). Here the  Hebrew concept of memorial comes in: God’s saving act in the Crucified Christ is made present to our time, our situation in, by and through the Eucharist.

Christ’s death is the consummation of the love of Christ (Jn 13:1). It is a testament to his words: “There is no greater love than this: to lay one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn 15:13). It is his death that achieves our reconciliation with God (2 Cor 5:18) and earns for us victory over sin, death and the law (Rom 7:1-6; 8:3). The resurrection “should be seen as the perfect fulfillment of his (Christ’s) whole life of redeeming love. As such it is the first moment of his new, glorified life in the Spirit and his entry into eternal life as the Risen Lord, who sends his Spirit upon us” (CFC 1695).

3.       “He Gave up His Spirit”

In showing the depths of love on the cross, Jesus also sends forth the “Person-Love”, the “Uncreated Gift” (DeV 15). St. John describing Jesus last moments on the cross said: “Then he bowed over and delivered his spirit” (Jn 19:30). This expression does not mean only Jesus giving up his spirit willingly but is connected with what he said regarding his death and the coming of the Paraclete: “It is better for you that I go. If I fail to go the Paraclete will never come to you” (Jn 16:7). The death of Jesus, therefore, is the key that unlocked the coming of the Spirit that culminated at Pentecost (Acts 2:4f). The Spirit, fully dwelling in Jesus since his birth to the cross, through that death on the cross is precisely sent forth that the Church may be born to the life of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

By virtue of what it is as worship, meal and sacrifice the Eucharist reflects the Trinity.

According to Karl Rahner “God has revealed to man His trinitarian self-disclosure and self-communication in the grace of the crucified and risen Lord, a revelation already actual, though still only in faith” (Theological Investigations, Vol. IV, 334).

The eternal mystery is that this Jesus who reveals the Trinity is present in the Eucharist. In the Eucharist is Jesus; in Jesus, the Trinity.

Indeed, the more we celebrate this sacrament with the eyes of faith it results in our living out its core of love which is the life of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To do so means we must walk the way who is Jesus Christ by also dying to selfishness and sin and rising to the ever-new life he has won for us.

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Last Updated: Tuesday, November 20, 2001 08:42:10 PM