16. THE LIFE OF JESUS: FIFTH LUMINOUS MYSTERY - THE INSTITUTION OF THE EUCHARIST

APPETIZER: "At the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, our Savior instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood. This he did in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until he should come again, and so to entrust to his beloved Spouse, the Church, a memorial of his death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a Paschal banquet 'in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us.'"  The inexhaustible richness of this sacrament is expressed in the different names we give it. Each name evokes certain aspects of it."(CCC #1333, 1338)  The Sacred or Divine Liturgy means the participation of the People of God in the work of God...Through the liturgy Christ, our redeemer and high priest, continues the work of our redemption in, with, and through his Church. In it full public worship is performed by the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, that is, by the Head and his members. From this it follows that every liturgical celebration, because it is an action of Christ the priest and of his Body which is the Church, is a sacred action surpassing all others." (CCC #1669-1670) 

MAIN COURSE:  Let's delve into our main course by taking a quick look at some of these names that are given to the Eucharist. First of all it is called Eucharist because it is an action of thanksgiving to God and comes from the Greek word for "giving thanks, eucharistein. It is The Lord’s Supper, because of its origin at the last supper of Jesus with his disciples on the eve of his Passion.  The New Testament name that the first Christians used for celebrating the Eucharist was The Breaking of Bread, because Jesus blessed, broke and distributed the bread at the Last Supper. 

The titles of Eucharistic Assembly and Liturgy are both very ancient and very interesting. "Assembly" conveys the truth that the Eucharist is a corporate worship offered to God by all the baptized faithful as a visible expression of the Church,as the Mystical Body of Christ. "Liturgy" (as we read in the Appetizer above) means that while the priest leads the worship - as the ordained presider with the spiritual authority to consecrate the Eucharist - each and every one of the faithful present worship and offer  Christ with him. This is why both the Church's canon law and liturgical directives state that a priest  may only celebrate Mass by himself for a very serious reason.  This is also how non-ordained members of the Church express and exercise their priestly baptismal mission.

Calling the Eucharist the Holy Sacrifice, reminds us that it makes present to us, in a supernatural way, the one sacrifice of Christ the Savior on the cross.  This is why the Church directs that a crucifix must always be on or near the altar.  However, we do not receive a dead Savior but the Living Lord, whose Resurrection is also made present to us at the Mass.

This does not mean, as many fundamentalist Protestants assert, that we believe the crucifixion was deficient or that we somehow symbolically "crucify" Jesus again at Mass!  The best way I've heard it explained is that the Mass is kind of like a supernatural time machine by which we are brought into a real but mystical contact with the Cross and Resurrection of Christ. Through the Mass his Paschal Mystery is made present to Christians of every time and place. Awesome!

We call this sacrament Holy Communion, (which means "with unity") because though it we are united with Christ, who makes us sharers in his Body and Blood. Furthermore, we are also united in Christ with all who receive the Eucharist and all together we form a single body, the Mystical Body of Christ.  The term Blessed Sacrament is also used because it reminds us that this sacrament is the crown of all the sacraments since it is truly Christ himself.

Finally we most commonly refer to the Eucharist as the Mass, from the Latin Missa, which means "sent out on a mission". When the liturgy concludes we are told to go out on a mission ("ite missa est") by the deacon.  He sends us forth to be witnesses to the Risen Lord among those with whom we live, work and socialize. We are to "be the Eucharist that we have received" (St. Augustine) by giving of ourselves out in service to others.

As you can tell even just from the various names give to it, there is so much that can and should be said about the Holy Eucharist.  However, we cannot hope to cover it all in our Bite-size Catechism. Countless books - from the devotional and popular to the extremely academic and scholarly - have been written and are easily available. See a few suggestions I give below if you want to pursue further reading and study on this Blessed Sacrament. 

What I will focus in this week's serving of the Catechism is of the fundamental Eucharistic realities: the Abiding Presence of the Risen Lord Jesus in this Holy Sacrament. Recent polls of Catholics show that this needs to be firmly understood in our time and place in Church history as Catholics living in 21st century America. Some polls have shown that a majority of Catholics do not know or understand the ancient and still held truth that the Eucharist is indeed the flesh and blood of Christ given to us for our spiritual nourishment.

Real Presence is our traditional vocabulary by which we try to express and fathom the inexpressible and unfathomable: that somehow, someway, supernaturally and beyond our comprehension, the Risen Lord Jesus Christ is personally, truly, and uniquely present to and among us in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. This firm belief that the Eucharist is indeed the actual body and blood of the Risen Lord has been the faith of Christians since the days of the Apostles. Ancient Christian writings in first few centuries immediately after the Apostles all attest to this belief as do such writings that condemn those who denied the reality of the Eucharistic Real Presence.

The Eucharist, Holy Communion is not simply blessed bread and wine. It is not just a sign of Jesus.  It is not just a symbol of Jesus.  It IS the body and blood of the Risen Lord Jesus Christ. How so? Well now…that’s something we cannot really answer.  The best (and really only answer) is because Jesus said so.   St Paul preserved for us the earliest account of the institution of the Eucharist in his First Letter to the Corinthians (written about 20 years after the Last Supper), Chapter 11, verses 23-27 below:

“For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 

"In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 

For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.” 

Now one might ask, how can we be guilty of sin against the Eucharist if it is only bread and wine? That would be an awfully strange theological position indeed! So St. Paul is also showing us the faith of the first Christians in the Real Presence of Jesus in Holy Communion.

The two separated segments of the Church Jesus started (Catholic and Orthodox) comprise about 80% of the worldwide Christian population.  And both of these apostolic Churches believe and have always believed that the Eucharist is without a doubt the Real Presence of the Risen Lord.  The sad disunity between the two Churches is over leadership and has political roots, but we are united in many - even most - of our doctrines including the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.

Roman Catholics, with our heavily Western scholastic background of putting everything “under a microscope” in an attempt to better understand, came up with a word to explain this inexplicable mystery: transubstantiation. Put simply, this means that the “substance” (the reality of what something is) has been changed while what our senses experience remains unchanged. And so quite simply put, what transubstantiation is saying is this: it looks like bread and wine, it smells like bread and wine, it tastes like bread and wine but…it’s NOT! It is the Sacred Body and Precious Blood of our Beloved Brother and Lord, Jesus.

The Orthodox Church, on the other hand, while holding just a firmly to this Eucharistic belief as we do, has not tried to coin a term to describe this change.  They are content to just let a mystery of faith simply remain a mystery of faith!  This reminds me of a famous Evangelical Christian saying: “Jesus said it. I believe it. That settles it.” Or, as Peter said to Jesus after many had left him because of their disbelief in the reality of the Bread of Life, "To whom else would we go, Lord? You alone have the words of eternal life." (John 6:68)

In both the Catholic and Orthodox Liturgies, the WAY this change comes about is through the power of the Holy Spirit. The priest has the spiritual authority from Christ via Holy Orders to call down the Spirit upon our Gifts of bread and wine. He does not have this power in and of himself as a human being. This is true of the ordained minister's role in every sacrament. This teaching has often been misunderstood resulting at times in an over-exaltation of priests who, though indeed necessary, nevertheless remain like us baptized and worshipping members of the Church. We call the part of the Mass the epiclesis.  You can tell when it is happening because the presider places his hands over the Gifts as he calls down the Holy Spirit, asking that the change takes place.  You will also see that the deacon will bow or kneel at the epiclesis, for it is a sacred earth-shaterring event for the Word to become flesh among us!  The epiclesis then leads directly into the words of consecration, "This is my body...This is the chalice of my blood...".  

Finally, the highest-point of the Mass arrives with the conclusion of the Eucharistic Prayer. This is called the Doxology and it is so important that often it will be sung even if the other parts of the Mass are simply recited. Most people think that the consecration is the most important moment of Mass, however this is not so. Jesus with us and among us at Mass worships the Father and so the focus is not Christ but on the Father. Both the gesture and prayers of presider and people demonstrate this fact. The Church directs the preside to "slightly elevate" the Body and Blood of Christ after the consecration, However, at the Doxology the priest and deacon are directed to raise the Consecrated Gifts on high and the prayers of both presider and people are usually sung aloud: "Through Him, with him, and in Him, O God almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, for ever and ever." To which the baptized give their priestly assent by a hearty "Amen!" 

DOGGIE BAG: A little something to take with you for spirituals backing throughout the day.

Catholic Custom: Visiting the Blessed Sacrament and Eucharistic Adoration. Jesus remains really and truly present among us in the consecrated hosts that are reserved in the tabernacle of our Catholic churches. A vigil lamp is kept burning 24/7 by the tabernacle as a sign and reminder that the Lord is present there. Because our our faith in this Abiding Presence of Jesus, it has become customary to make "visits to the Blessed Sacrament"which is the term we give to praying before the tabernacles in our churches.  When the Blessed Sacrament is taken out of the tabernacle and exposed for our worship, this prayer time is called "Eucharistic Exposition and Adoration". Some parishes, such as ours, have a special section of the church reserved for such prayer times.  These devotions to the Eucharist were not found in the early Church but came about in the Middle Ages when the Mass was no longer celebrated in the language of the people and Holy Communion was often reserved for just the priest-celebrant of the Mass. Because the baptized  experienced a kind of separation from the Blessed Sacrament, they developed these devotions to maintain some bond of union with Jesus truly present among us.  But even in our times when the Mass is in our language and Holy Communion can be a daily experience, it is still good and very helpful spiritually to practice these expressions of Eucharistic faith and devotion.

Ancient Christian Quote: "Do not, then, regard the Eucharistic elements as ordinary bread and wine: they are in fact the Body and Blood of The Lord, as He Himself has declared. Whatever your senses may tell you, be strong in faith. You have been taught and you are firmly convinced that what looks and tastes like bread and wine is not bread and wine but the Body and Blood of Christ." (St. Cyril of Jerusalem, d. 386AD, Doctor of the Church)

Saint Quote: "When you have received Him, stir up your heart to do Him homage; speak to Him about your spiritual life, gazing upon Him in your soul where He is present for your happiness; welcome Him as warmly as possible, and behave outwardly in such a way that your actions may give proof to all of His Presence." (St. Francis de Sales, d. 1622AD, Doctor of the Church)

Scripture Verses to Memorize: “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. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them to life on the last day. For my flesh is the real food; my blood is the real drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood live in me, and I live in them." (John 6:53-56)