‘Whosoever eats My Flesh ... will live in Me’

Msgr. Pedro Lopez-Gallo

I am starting a series of articles on the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist with great enthusiasm and devotion, but also with trepidation, because I fear I have neither the love for the Eucharist which our blessed Mother Mary possessed, nor the poetry of St. Thomas Aquinas, nor the ardent devotion of St. Alphonsus Ligouri.

Canon Law teaches us that this is the most sublime sacrament, in which Christ the Lord Himself is contained, offered, and received, and by which the Church constantly lives and grows.

The Eucharistic Sacrifice, the memorial of the death and resurrection of the Lord, perpetuates the sacrifice of the cross over the centuries. The summit and source of Christian life and worship, it signifies the unity of the people of God and achieves the building up of the Body of Christ. The other sacraments and ecclesiastical works of the apostolate are closely related to the Holy Eucharist and are directed to it (Canon 897).

Canon Law also says, “The faithful are to hold the Eucharist in highest honour, taking part in the celebration of the holy Sacrifice, receiving the sacrament devoutly and frequently, and worshiping it with supreme adoration; pastors, clarifying the doctrine on this sacrament, are to instruct the faithful thoroughly about this obligation” (Canon 898).

The Eucharist merits hours of meditation. On the day of our First Communion we were totally absorbed in the mystery of Christ’s love, an experience that will remain in our memory for ever. Now, years later, sometimes our daily routine makes us unconscious of the divine Gift, unconscious that this source of sanctification makes us a living tabernacle of Jesus, Who gives Himself to us as a pledge of everlasting life.

We might even deserve the reproach in the Book of Revelation when the angel addressed the first Christians of the early Church in Ephesus, after praising them for their works: “But I have against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember how profoundly you have fallen. Repent and do the works you did at first” (Rev. 2:3-5).

And to the Church of Sardis: “You have a name of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death. I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you” (Rev. 3:1-3).

The celebration of the Eucharist is the action of Christ and the Church. In it, Christ the Lord, by the ministry of a priest, offers Himself, substantially present under the forms of bread and wine, to God the Father, and gives Himself as spiritual food to the faithful who are associated with His offering.

In other words, the blessed Eucharist completes Christian initiation. Those who have been raised to the dignity of the royal priesthood by baptism, and configured more deeply in Christ by the sacrament of confirmation, participate with the whole community in the Lord’s own sacrifice by means of the Eucharist.

At the Last Supper, on the night He was betrayed, our Saviour instituted the Eucharistic Sacrifice of His Body and Blood. He did this in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout the centuries 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 eaten, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us (Cf. St. Augustine, Tractatus in Ioannem, VI, n.13).

Lumen Gentium (The Light of the People), the Second Vatican Council’s document on the role of the laity in the work of the Church, says, “The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life.” The other sacraments are bound up with the blessed Eucharist and oriented toward it, because in it is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ Himself.

Finally, by the Eucharistic Celebration we unite ourselves with the heavenly liturgy and anticipate eternal life, when God will be “all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28). In brief, the Eucharist is the sum of our faith, as St. Irenaeus, who is considered the first great theologian, wrote: “Our way of thinking is attuned to the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn confirms our way of thinking” (Ad Heres. 4,18).

In the Eucharistic Banquet the people of God are called together, with the bishop or, under his authority, a presbyter (priest) presiding and acting in the person of Christ, and all the faithful present, whether clergy or laity, participating together, in their own way, according to the diversity of orders and liturgical roles.

Remember, “Whosoever eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood will live in Me and I in him,” says the Lord (Jn. 6:57).

Msgr. Lopez-Gallo’s columns are available in two volumes for $20 each from St. Andrew’s Church Supply, 275 E. 8 Ave., Vancouver, V5T 1R9, or toll-free at 1-800-663-7161. Proceeds will go to Hogar de Nazareth Orphanage in Mexico, which he sponsors.