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The Holy Eucharist

 

By: Werner Lottering

 

This then leads to a further exploration of this most glorious gift from God – Himself. The word "Eucharist" comes from the Greek word (eucharistia), which means "thanksgiving". It is used in the context of Jesus giving thanks at the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper.

 

“And he took bread, and when he had given thanks (eucharistēsas), he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.””
(Luke22:19).

This reflects the Eucharist as an act of thanksgiving to God for the gift of Christ’s Body and Blood, making it the source and summit of the Christian life. All the other sacraments and Church activities are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. In the Most Blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ Himself, our Passover Lamb (1 Cor. 5:7) [7]. The night of Holy Thursday is also where the Lord Jesus instituted
the New Covenant priesthood. He gave His Apostles and their subsequent successors the instruction to celebrate this most glorious mystery. In Acts 2:42, for example, it was the Apostles who were “breaking the bread” enabling all the faithful to partake in His most precious Body and Blood. The priests of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches form part of this essential succession from the Apostles themselves. This is ordained by Jesus in order to enable the Church to continue in her pastoral mission, uninterrupted, up to the day of Jesus’ return [8].

It is only the ordained priest, who follows in this succession, who is able to consecrate, through the calling down of the Holy Spirit, the bread and wine to become the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. “The faithful join in the offering of the Eucharist by virtue of their royal priesthood” [9] cf. 1 Pet. 2:9, yet it is the ordained priest who, “acting in the person of Christ, brings about the Eucharistic Sacrifice and offers it to God in the name of all the people” [10]. For this reason, the Church prescribes that only the priest should recite the Eucharistic Prayer while the people
participate in faith and in silence. This In persona means not just ‘in person’ of Christ but a specific sacramental identification with the Eternal High Priest, our Lord Jesus, who is the author and main subject of this sacrifice of His, a sacrifice in which, in truth, nobody can take His place [11]. Pius XII sums it up quite well when he says, “The minister of the altar [on which the sacrifice of the Eucharist is represented] acts in the person of Christ inasmuch as he is head, making an offering in the name of the members [of the Church]” [12]

In the holy Mass (derived from the Latin word, missa, which refers to the gathering of the faithful for the Liturgy of the Word and Eucharistic Sacrifice on Sunday and every day of the week cf. Mal 1:11 and the going out into the world to live the Gospel), the priest, in obedience to his bishop, presents to the faithful the Body and Blood of their Lord Jesus. In the Eucharist, the priest is representing the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, proclaiming His death and
resurrection until He comes again (1 Cor 11:26). In other words, the priesthood is essential for the Eucharist to be valid and for the faithful to fully experience its benefits and blessings from the Lord. As St. John Paul II said so aptly,
 

“Truly, in the Eucharist, He shows a love which goes “to the end” (cf. Joh. 13:1), a love which knows no measure” [13]

May we recognise our Lord Jesus in the Eucharist just as the Emmaus disciples did when the Lord
appeared to them after His resurrection and broke bread in front of them, and they recognising
Him in it (Luke 24:30-31).

Pages and pages can be written on the Holy Eucharist but I am just going to stop here for now and
continue to another important topic I want to touch on: celibacy.

 

 

Read part 4 here