With great joy, the Church celebrates this weekend the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ or the Holy Eucharist. One might ask, why set aside a feast for something we always celebrate every Sunday or for others every day? The Catechism of the Catholic Church provides us with a very clear answer: “The Eucharist or the Holy Mass is the source and summit of Christian life. For the most holy Eucharist contains the Church's entire spiritual wealth: Christ himself, our Passover and living bread. Through his own flesh, now made living and life-giving by the Holy Spirit, he offers life to men. Consequently, the gaze of the Church is constantly turned to her Lord, present in the Sacrament of the Altar, in which she discovers the full manifestation of his boundless love.” This short description cannot emphasize more dramatically and importantly the significance of the Eucharist in our own lives. Without the Eucharist, our own Christian life is empty and meaningless. And why is that? It is because the Eucharist signifies the total self-gift of God to the whole humanity in order for us to be restored into right relationship with him. Every time we celebrate the Mass, we do not just commemorate what Jesus did more than 2,000 years ago at Calvary but, rather, we enter into the exact moment when Jesus was being nailed and crucified on the cross. Just imagine finding oneself at the very foot of the cross every time we celebrate Mass. This is the fundamental difference between celebrating Mass as compared to celebrating a wedding anniversary or a birthday, for example. When one celebrates a wedding anniversary or a birthday, one recalls a special moment that happened in the past but, with the celebration of the Eucharist, what happened in the past is not just being recalled, but is actually happening again — the same saving grace of Christ’s redemption on the cross is effected again and again in every Eucharistic celebration. This is the only single event that escapes our human understanding of time and space. Another difficult thing to understand in the aspect of our faith is how the piece of bread and the wine that the priest consecrates at Mass becomes the real body and blood of Christ. It is particularly challenging because we cannot see the actual change through our naked eyes, though there are countless miracle stories approved by the Church where there was actual physical transformation. God humbly reduces himself to wine and piece of bread so that he will be more accessible to us. If God has the power to create the world, why can’t he make himself present in a piece of bread? The difficulty of accepting the real transformation that happens in the consecration lies on the fact that some people cannot accept that God can be that humble — to the point that he can transform himself into wine and a piece of bread so that it will not be so difficult for us to have access to Him.
I have emphasized this so many times already — that the bread and wine are not just bread and wine to be offered and transformed into the body and blood of Christ but, rather, they signify everything that contains the cosmos — (since for bread to be bread – it needs to be wheat first, which in turn necessitates all the earthly elements of air, water and soil; same process for the wine – before it becomes wine, the grapes first need other earthly elements) – so when those gifts are brought to the altar, we are practically telling God: ”Lord, we are giving back to you a portion of what you have given us, and we are profoundly grateful for these gifts; transform them again and again so that we can be
sustained by your grace.” The thing is, they are not just transformed into another thing - they are transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ; they are not just symbols for Christ or of Christ, but Christ himself! It’s like God saying to us: “Okay, you are giving me back the cosmos that I have given you as your thanksgiving which includes your offering through the collection – but wait, I am giving you something more; you cannot outdo me in generosity – I will transform these things to become ME so that you do not have to look for anything else! “ This is the reason why the Eucharist is so important to us—the reason why we have to have the right disposition to receive Jesus— because it is the greatest treasure of our faith. If that is the case, then we always have to look for ways to improve our participation at Mass as allowed by the liturgical norms of the Church. We have to find ways for us to make our celebrations more solemn. Enunciating clearly is not just one of the things that we do but, rather, THE celebration that makes us who we are and defines who we are and what we would be. This doesn’t mean, though, embracing rigor, but always finding the balance on how our worship can express in its profundity the content of our faith and our love for God. One of the things that I highly encourage us to do is to pray silently after you receive Communion and don’t get distracted by the purification of the vessels or the cups. When the priest or the deacon purifies the vessels, it is not simply “putting away the dishes.” If the Eucharist is indeed the greatest treasure of faith, then great care and reverence belongs to it as we collect the crumbs and leftovers because they are the same bread that we have received. The prayer that the priest utters silently as he purifies says it all— it goes this way, “what has passed our lips as food, O Lord, may we possess in purity of heart, that what has been given to us in time may be our healing for eternity.” The priest prays these words silently, not just for himself, but for the entire community – so you see it is not simply putting away dishes! It is a time for us to thank the Lord for letting himself be so accessible to us!
The words of Jesus “eat my body, drink my blood” are also a call for justice, love and service. That is why every liturgy, especially the Eucharist, culminates on the sending “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord in your life” and we affirm it with a loud yes “Thanks be to God.” May we always remember that the Eucharistic experience is not just limited on how faithful we are in our Sunday attendance, but also on how we ourselves become “Eucharistic” nourishment for others through our love and compassion. For indeed, Eucharist is who we are for we become what we eat. – Fr. Cary