The Eucharist

The Eucharist is the sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, instituted by Jesus at the Last Supper. Under the appearances of bread and wine, Christ makes himself really present in it, offers his sacrifice, and gives himself as food. It is the centre of the life of the Church.

The prefigurations

Before being given at the Last Supper, the Eucharist was prepared from afar, through figures of the Old Testament that already carried its secret. Three above all announce it.

Melchizedek comes first. He is a mysterious figure in the book of Genesis: king of Salem, the ancient Jerusalem, and priest of God Most High, he goes to meet Abraham returning from battle: “But Melchisedech, the king of Salem, bringing forth bread and wine, for he was the priest of the most high God.” Genesis 14:18 This priest whose origin and end Genesis does not tell, who offers bread and wine and blesses Abraham, announces Christ, priest for ever, who will in turn offer the bread and wine become his Body and Blood: “Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech.” Psalm 110:4

The manna comes next. After their departure from Egypt, the Hebrews walk forty years in the desert, with nothing to feed them; each morning, God makes an unknown bread fall from heaven, the manna, which keeps them alive all along the way: “Behold I will rain bread from heaven for you.” Exodus 16:4 This bread sustained the body for the time of the desert, and those who ate it died one day; it announced a greater bread, which Christ would give, and which gives eternal life: “If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world.” John 6:51

The paschal lamb comes last. On the night when God delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt, each family had to slay a lamb, mark its door with its blood to be spared from the scourge, then eat its flesh: this is the Passover, which the Jews have celebrated ever since in memory of their liberation. “the blood shall be unto you for a sign in the houses where you shall be; and I shall see the blood, and shall pass over you.” Exodus 12:13 This slain lamb, whose blood saves and whose flesh is eaten, prefigures Christ, the Lamb given up for our salvation: “Christ our pasch is sacrificed.” 1 Corinthians 5:7

These three figures awaited their fulfilment, and it comes at the Last Supper, when Christ takes the bread and the wine and gives them as his Body and Blood.

The institution at the Last Supper

On the eve of his Passion, during the paschal meal, Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to his disciples: “This is my body.” Then he gave them the cup: “This is my body… For this is my blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins.” Matthew 26:26-28 And he commanded that this be renewed: “Do this for a commemoration of me.” Luke 22:19 Since then, the Church does what the Lord did, and the bread and wine become his Body and Blood.

The name of the sacrament comes from this meal: before breaking the bread, Jesus gave thanks, and the Greek word eucharistia (εὐχαριστία), “thanksgiving,” named what he instituted. Paul reports it as he himself received it from the Lord. “After giving thanks, he broke it and said: This is my body, which is for you. Do this in memory of me.” 1 Corinthians 11:24

The priest and the consecration

The matter of this sacrament is wheaten bread and wine of the vine; the form is the word of consecration, said again after the Lord over the bread and the cup. The minister is the priest or the bishop, who acts in the person of Christ.

The real presence

The words of Christ effect what they say: the bread becomes his Body, the wine becomes his Blood. He himself had announced it: “For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed.” John 6:55 This change bears on the substance itself: what was bread and wine is now the Body and Blood of Christ, while the appearances remain, the taste and the look, which are called the species. The Church calls this passage transubstantiation. Under these species, Christ is wholly present, living and glorious.

And he is wholly present under each species, as in each particle. By the force of the words, the bread becomes the Body and the wine the Blood; but because the risen Christ is living and no longer divided, where his Body is, there too are his Blood, his soul, and his divinity, and likewise under the species of wine. This is what is called concomitance: Christ entire present under the one species and under the other, and even in the smallest part of the broken host. And so whoever receives the host alone receives the whole Christ, and the host once broken divides the bread without dividing the Lord.

The sacrifice

The Eucharist is a sacrifice, and the very sacrifice of the Cross. Israel already knew sacrifice: an animal was offered to God, slain, its blood poured out; life is in the blood, and to pour it out was to give God life itself. “The life of the flesh is in the blood... it is the blood that makes atonement for a life.” Leviticus 17:11 At the foot of Sinai, Moses thus sealed by the blood of victims the covenant between God and the people. “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you.” Exodus 24:8 Yet this worship had to begin again without end, the high priest entering the sanctuary each year with the blood of an animal for the sin of the people, for the blood of a beast could not offer God a reparation equal to sin. These sacrifices were the figure and the awaiting of the one who alone could. “For it is impossible that with the blood of oxen and goats sin should be taken away.” Hebrews 10:4

What these sacrifices announced, Christ accomplished once for all. On the Cross he offers himself to the Father: at once the priest who offers and the victim offered, he seals in his blood the new covenant that the old prepared. “Christ entered once for all into the sanctuary, not with the blood of goats and bulls, but with his own blood, having obtained an eternal deliverance.” Hebrews 9:11-12 This single offering suffices for ever; the ancient sacrifices cease, their figure passed into reality.

On the evening of the Last Supper, Christ entrusted this one sacrifice to his Church; the Mass makes it present. The Christ who offered himself on Calvary offers himself again, by the hands of the priest; the offering is the same, only its manner changes: then in blood and death, now under the species of bread and wine, where the Risen One dies no more. “Knowing that Christ, rising again from the dead, dieth now no more. Death shall no more have dominion over him.” Romans 6:9 Thus the one sacrifice of Calvary reaches every time and every place, and the Church offers it for the living as for the dead whom God is still purifying. The Council of Trent affirmed it in 1562.

At the first Passover, the blood of the lamb turned away from Israel the scourge of death, and its flesh was eaten. Christ is the true Lamb, and his blood saves from a greater evil. “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” John 1:29 And as the lamb was eaten, Christ gives himself as food: to receive the Eucharist is to eat the victim of our deliverance and to share in his one sacrifice.

The adoration of the Blessed Sacrament

Since Christ is really present under the species, the Eucharist receives the adoration due to God alone. It is Christ himself whom one adores, present wholly under the appearances of bread. The Church keeps the Eucharist in the tabernacle, the place where it is kept at the heart of the church, exposes it to the adoration of the faithful, and kneels before the Blessed Sacrament as before the Lord. Eucharistic adoration is the homage rendered to this presence.

Communion

To receive the Eucharist is to commune with the Body of Christ. The Lord promised it: “He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me: and I in him.” John 6:56 Communion unites intimately to Christ, and through him unites the faithful among themselves: “For we, being many, are one bread, one body: all that partake of one bread.” 1 Corinthians 10:17 The Church is thus built up by the Eucharist, which makes of it the Body of Christ.

Receiving worthily

The Eucharist asks to be received worthily. Since it is Christ himself whom one receives, to communicate in a state of mortal sin, without first having received pardon, profanes the gift instead of welcoming it. Scripture warns of this gravely. “Therefore, whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 11:27 It asks each one to examine himself. “But let a man prove himself: and so let him eat of that bread and drink of the chalice.” 1 Corinthians 11:28 Whoever is conscious of a grave sin first receives pardon through confession, then approaches communion; and all prepare for it by recollection and by the fast that precedes it. Received thus, in a heart in a state of grace, the Eucharist bears all its fruit.

The fruits of communion

Received worthily, the Eucharist bears fruit in the soul. It nourishes the life of grace and makes it grow, as food sustains and increases the life of the body. It wipes away venial sins and strengthens against mortal sin, rekindling the charity that sin cools. It is, finally, the pledge of eternal life: whoever receives Christ carries in himself the seed of the resurrection. “He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day.” John 6:54 This bread given on earth is already the foretaste of the banquet of heaven.