In one of the encyclicals of St. John Paul II, he wrote that the “Eucharist makes the Church.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church also speaks of the Eucharist as “the source and summit of Christian life.” With these two statements, one can’t miss the centrality of the Eucharist in the faith life of every Catholic. It’s not just one of the things that we do, but it is THE only thing that makes us who we are; without it, everything else that we do would have no meaning. Without the Eucharist, there’s really no point for me to even consider the priesthood or even be a Catholic. Why is the Eucharist so important? Because the Eucharist is Christ himself! What happens at Mass is what Christ did on the cross for us. Every time we are at Mass, we find ourselves once again at the foot of the cross at Calvary, not to commemorate something that took place in the past, but the “past event” IS HAPPENING ONCE AGAIN. Yes, the same actual sacrifice of Jesus two thousand years ago continues to happen every time a Mass is celebrated. The same grace that was given on the cross is given to us at every Mass. Nothing less, nothing more, except that it is now an un-bloody sacrifice. The Eucharist then is God’s continuous unparalleled and unmerited offering of himself in the person of Jesus. The Eucharist that we partake in the celebration of the Mass is NOT a representation or a symbol of Jesus — it is Jesus himself! There’s no other “event” that this could ever happen except at Mass. That’s why our inner disposition and attitude towards the Mass should not be formed by our own personal opinions and perspectives on the Mass ,but by the mind of the Church as revealed by Christ himself. If the Eucharist is our “life,” then one should not risk misunderstanding or misinterpreting it by celebrating it based on one’s whims and personal preferences. If the Eucharist is our lifeblood, then we have to maximize the way we celebrate it and not simply reduce it as one of the “chores” to be done or keep its celebration to a minimum. To do so is not just to shortchange God, but to shortchange
ourselves of the sublime mystery of the celebration. God did not shortchange us by sending “middle people” to redeem us; he sent his very Son to give us eternal life. Is the Eucharist central to my life? Is it truly a lifeblood of my spiritual life? Is my understanding of the Mass formed by the official teaching of the Church or, for the most part, formed by my own personal opinions and preferences? If I see something different in the liturgy that I am not used to, do I take time to find out what the Church teaches about it and not simply dismiss it as irrelevant? If the Eucharist makes the Church, then the way we understand the Eucharist also forms the way we live our call to discipleship. May we truly become what we eat. And may our understanding of the Eucharist bring forth in us the kind of Church that God envisions it to be. – Fr. Cary