The Great Gift of the Eucharist
The last thing Jesus does before his Passion is to give Himself totally to us. He sits with His friends at the last Passover Supper and taking the bread He says “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” Then taking the wine after the supper he says, “This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Then He shows us just how much He does love us by giving Himself willingly to the chief priests and scribes. He endures His passion and death.
“When we carry out this command of the Lord by celebrating the memorial of his sacrifice. In so doing, we offer to the Father what he has himself given us: the gifts of his creation, bread and wine which by the power of the Holy Spirit and by the words of Christ, have become the body and blood of Christ. Christ is thus really and mysteriously made present.” (CCC1357).
Jesus wanted to stay close to us forever but he could not stay physically present as a human being so he gave us himself sacramentally. How much closer could He come to us than by giving us His very self! We eat and drink Him – He becomes a part of us. Our job is to become “what we eat” i.e. Him. We are called to be Christ for one another. We forget sometimes that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit through our Baptism. We find it hard to see beyond the outer appearance whereas God sees the heart of a person. We need to be strengthened and nourished to see as He sees.
We are given the Eucharist as food to nourish us. To nourish our minds through the Word we hear and our hearts by receiving the body and blood of Jesus. We are called to be more like Jesus and by going to Mass we have the very thing we need to help us to become “Jesus” for each other. To see Jesus present in each people in the benches around us. We are fed so we can go out and bring Jesus to all those people we meet during the week. “Jesus is Love and he has made himself food and drink for us in the Eucharist. The more we nourish ourselves on the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ, the more we will be able to love...” Carlos Acutis
Our bodies need food just as our soul needs food. Let me put it another way. I enjoy cycling but in order to be able to cycle I have to eat. My body needs food to give it energy to push the pedals around. If I do not eat enough I end up in a state called “the bonk.” Your body does not slowly stop, it just stops! My legs turn to jelly and I start to shake. I cannot go on until I eat something – my body has nothing left to give. After stopping and eating something (a Mars Bars!) I can carry on to the next café.
This can be likened to our spiritual journey, if we do not feed it, it will stop. We need to nourish ourselves spiritually as well as physically. The Eucharist is the best thing for our spiritual life as the Catechism says, “The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian Life.” (CCC1324). Did you know it is the only Sacrament in which we receive Jesus Himself, in all the others we are given His power. We are given Jesus’ body and blood, his flesh and blood – WOW. It may still look like bread and wine but through the Holy Spirit it changes it into the body and blood of Jesus Himself.
St Thomas Aquinas tells us “What the soul is hungry for, finally, is the person of Jesus, the body and blood of Christ. Without feeding regularly on that food, the soul will atrophy.”
Jesus tells us, Do this is remembrance of me.” I think He knows what is good for us!
Ursula Walker
Spirituality Rep
07312129900
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A Note on Why we don’t Have Women Priests
Tradition, in the Church, is the way of life based on the Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Apostles, who received the Holy Spirit adopted a way of life that was true to the teaching and person on Jesus. He chose 12 men to represent him as his priests. The fact that Jesus only chose men to represent Him is a historical tradition, an apostolic tradition. We cannot break that tradition.
Vocation – the call to priesthood is a vocation just like marriage or religious/consecrated life. We are all called by our Baptism and “the particular way in which the Spirit is given to each person is for a good purpose.” (1 Cor. 12:4-7)
The priest – a sign and symbol of Christ. A priest is a man is who ordained and in that ordination, he receives a grace, he becomes an extraordinary “representation” of Christs priestly presence to His people. During Mass he re-enacts in a sacramental form the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. When we celebrate the Eucharist we are making present in a sacramental way the death of Jesus on the cross. Jesus took on the physical form of a man (not a women) when he came to earth. When he died on the cross he chose the maleness of priests, to be the sign and cause of His sacrifice on the cross in the sacrament of priestly Holy Orders.
The Catechism tell us “That the priest, by virtue of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, acts in persona Christi Capitis: It is the same priest, Christ Jesus, whose sacred person his minister truly represents. … “(CCC1548).
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Eucharist
I have always found it striking how quickly everything happens after we receive Holy Communion. We are given the very Body of Christ and then, almost immediately, the priest offers a brief prayer, a final blessing, and we are sent out the doors. There is hardly any pause between the gift of the sacred host we receive and the mission we are given. The Church wastes no time because Christ does not want to remain only on our tongues... he wants to be carried into the streets, workplaces, hospitals, schools, into every corner of the world. Mass ends, and we are sent on mission to proclaim. We leave the altar like living tabernacles, Christ burning inside us, called to set hearts alight with the love we have just consumed. Communion is not just for us, it is fuel for the world.
Father Patrick van der Vorst