We continue today our series on the seven Sacraments of the
Church. Last night, we discussed the
Sacrament of Baptism. We have now
discussed two of the three what are called “Sacraments of Initiation”; Baptism,
and Confirmation. This morning, we will begin
our discussion of the third, the Sacrament of the Eucharist. After today, we will have discussed four of
the seven Sacraments overall.
The “Sacraments on Initiation” are called that because they
lay the foundation of the Catholic Christian life. The life begins at our “rebirth” in our Baptism,
it is then fortified and strengthened in Confirmation, and in the Eucharist, we
receive the food that sustains this life.
The Eucharist, however, goes beyond just being the third Sacrament of
Initiation. It is also not just one of the
seven. It is more. It is the “source and summit of Christian
life”, all the other Sacraments are oriented towards it, and finally, it
contains all the spiritual good of the Church.
Let’s take each of those remarkable statements one by one. How is it the source and summit of Christian life? It is the source because it makes present the
Paschal Mystery. Holy Thursday, Good
Friday, and Easter Sunday are all re-presented at Mass. Nowhere
else in the world, or even in the Church, is this done. Other
Sacraments give grace (and so does this one) but no other Sacrament makes
present the Paschal Mystery. This
Paschal Mystery is what gives life to all the other Sacraments, and to all the
other graces of the Christian life. So that is how we can say it is the source. It is
the summit because our lives are
geared towards the end that it presents: the banquet of the Lord, heaven, which
will never end, where we will feast on all good things for all eternity.
How can we say all the
other Sacraments are oriented towards it?
Well, the divine life begun at Baptism, and strengthened at Confirmation,
lead us to desire to participate in the Paschal Mystery, eat and drink of the Body and Blood of
Christ, and to sit down at the banquet of heaven. We do all at Mass. When we sin, we cannot receive the Eucharist,
and so Penance, which forgives sin, allows us to receive this great gift. Holy Orders (which we will discuss in an
upcoming post in this series) is conferred upon men who will confect the
Eucharist. In Matrimony, the husband
and wife reflect the nuptial love of Christ and His Church, which is
demonstrated by the Body and Blood he shed for her, the Eucharist. Finally, Communion as Viaticum is often
given after the Anointing of the Sick as “food for the journey” to the next life. One prepares
for the journey by receiving the Anointing of the Sick; the Eucharist serves as
the food for that journey.
Finally, how does the Eucharist
contain all the spiritual good of the Church?
This is the most simple. It
alone contains the fullest presence of Christ Himself; the Body, Blood, Soul,
and Divinity of Our Lord.
So the Eucharist is not just another Sacrament. It is not just a beginning, like
Baptism. It is not just a strengthening,
like Confirmation. It is not just a
healing, like Penance and Anointing of the Sick. It is not just something that can inspire us
to service, like Matrimony and Holy Orders.
It can do all these things, and
more. In it, we find not just
strength for the journey, not just something which leads us to serve others,
not just healing for venial sins, but we find the end of all things we strive for.
We find the person of Jesus Christ.
We participate in his Paschal Mystery.
We find heaven! And because we
find all these things, we come back over and over again to this Sacrament more
than any other, and rightly so.
Our Lord, at the Last Supper, said “Do
this in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19) This goes beyond just remembering
him. We are commanded to do something in his memory, and that is,
make his sacrifice present. It is
not simply remembering him; it is doing
something in his memory, a very important distinction. How do we carry out this command? The Catechism explains in paragraphs 1357 and
1358, and in doing so, tells us three ways we need to say the Eucharist is.
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.
We must therefore consider the Eucharist as:
- thanksgiving and praise to the Father;
- the sacrificial memorial of Christ and his Body;
- the presence of Christ by the power of his word and of his Spirit.
The Eucharist is thanksgiving
and praise to the Father because it is the offering of the perfect sacrifice
to the Father on behalf of all humanity, his own Son. The word “Eucharist” actually means “thanksgiving”.
It is the sacrificial memorial of Christ and his Body
because it not just remembers, but it makes
present the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, and applies the fruits of it
to today. The Catechism has some
beautiful quotes on this aspect of the Eucharist. Paragraphs 1365-1367 are worth quoting in
their entirety:
Because it is the
memorial of Christ's Passover, the Eucharist is also a sacrifice. The
sacrificial character of the Eucharist is manifested in the very words of
institution: "This is my body which is given for you" and "This
cup which is poured out for you is the New Covenant in my blood." In the
Eucharist Christ gives us the very body which he gave up for us on the cross,
the very blood which he "poured out for many for the forgiveness of
sins."
The Eucharist is thus a
sacrifice because it re-presents (makes
present) the sacrifice of the cross, because it is its memorial and because it applies
its fruit:
[Christ], our Lord and God, was once and for all to offer
himself to God the Father by his death on the altar of the cross, to accomplish
there an everlasting redemption. But because his priesthood was not to end with
his death, at the Last Supper "on the night when he was betrayed,"
[he wanted] to leave to his beloved spouse the Church a visible sacrifice (as
the nature of man demands) by which the bloody sacrifice which he was to
accomplish once for all on the cross would be re-presented, its memory
perpetuated until the end of the world, and its salutary power be applied to
the forgiveness of the sins we daily commit.
The sacrifice of Christ
and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one
single sacrifice: "The victim is one and the same: the same now
offers through the ministry of priests, who then offered himself on the cross;
only the manner of offering is different." "And since in this divine
sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ who offered himself
once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and is offered
in an unbloody manner. . . this sacrifice is truly
propitiatory."
These are some truly some high, exalted words on what happens at
Mass!
Finally, we say that the Eucharist is the presence of Christ by the power of his word and of his Spirit. This refers to the true, real, and substantial presence of Christ in the Eucharist after the words of consecration. Again here, we will quote paragraphs from the Catechism in their entirety because the words are so beautiful:
The mode of Christ's presence under the Eucharistic species is unique. It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as "the perfection of the spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments tend." In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist "the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained." "This presence is called 'real' - by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they could not be 'real' too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present.”
It is by the conversion of the bread and wine into Christ's body and blood that Christ becomes present in this sacrament. The Church Fathers strongly affirmed the faith of the Church in the efficacy of the Word of Christ and of the action of the Holy Spirit to bring about this conversion. Thus St. John Chrysostom declares:
It is not man that causes the things offered to become the Body
and Blood of Christ, but he who was crucified for us, Christ himself. The
priest, in the role of Christ, pronounces these words, but their power and
grace are God's. This is my body, he says. This word transforms the things
offered.
And St. Ambrose says
about this conversion:
Be convinced that this is not what nature has formed, but what
the blessing has consecrated. The power of the blessing prevails over that of
nature, because by the blessing nature itself is changed. . . . Could
not Christ's word, which can make from nothing what did not exist, change
existing things into what they were not before? It is no less a feat to give
things their original nature than to change their nature.
The
Council of Trent summarizes the Catholic faith by declaring: "Because
Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under
the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God,
and this holy Council now declares again, that by the consecration of the bread
and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into
the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the
wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has
fittingly and properly called transubstantiation."
The
Eucharistic presence of Christ begins at the moment of the consecration and
endures as long as the Eucharistic species subsist. Christ is present whole and
entire in each of the species and whole and entire in each of their parts, in
such a way that the breaking of the bread does not divide Christ.
When
we eat this Body and Blood of the Lord, we join in the heavenly banquet. This is why we can say the Eucharist is “heaven
on Earth”.
So the Eucharist is thanksgiving, praise, sacrifice, and presence.
Now, you may think of other words besides the Eucharist when
it comes to this Sacrament. Indeed,
there are several other words that can refer to it.
The Lord’s Supper is one, because
the Paschal Mystery is made present through a remembering of the Last
Supper. The Holy Sacrifice is another, because it, as we have said, makes
present the One Sacrifice of Christ for our salvation. Holy
Communion is another, because we share in the Body and Blood of Christ, and
become one body with him. Finally, there
is the one many of us are familiar with, Mass. This
refers to the mission (which means “sending
forth”) that occurs at the end of every celebration, as those who participate in
the Sacrifice and receive His Body and Blood are equipped to go out into the
world, and proclaim and live this mystery in their own lives, and fulfill God’s
will in imitation of Christ who laid down his life for us, giving His Body and
His Blood.
Wow, there is a lot here, and there is a lot more that can
be said, but even more, I think, that remains in mystery. The fact that there are different aspects to
this, different words used to refer to this Sacrament, and the fact that this
remains something unique and above all the other Sacraments leads one to
conclude that this is the most special of them all. And, as Our Lord reminds us, it is not just “nice
to have”, but it is necessary for
salvation : “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you." (John 6:53)
I did a blog post on Holy Communion last year in which I
spoke about the specific fruits of Holy Communion, and the necessity to receive
it. The link to it is just below, and
it might be good to reread this after having read this to get a more complete
picture on this beautiful Sacrament of Sacraments.
We have now completed four of the seven Sacraments. Three remain: one, a Sacrament of Healing
(like the Anointing of the Sick is), and two Sacraments of Service. Do you know what they are? I look forward to
discussing them with you at some point.
Joseph, protector of Holy Church, pray for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment