The Sacrament of the Eucharist completes Christian initiation.
Those who have been elevated to the dignity of the royal priesthood through Baptism and configured more deeply with Christ through Confirmation, these, through the Eucharist, participate, with the entire community, in the Lord’s own sacrifice.
Considered the sacrament of sacraments, “the Eucharist is the heart and summit of the life of the Church, for in it Christ associates his Church and all its members with his sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving offered once and for all on the cross to his Father; By his sacrifice he pours out the graces of salvation upon his body, which is the Church.” (CIC 1407)
The other sacraments, as well as all ecclesiastical mysteries and apostolic tasks, are linked to the Holy Eucharist and ordered to it (§1324). In this way, we see the importance of this sacrament for the spiritual life of every Christian. The Catechism will also say: “the Eucharist is the sum and sum of our faith: ‘Our way of thinking agrees with the Eucharist, and the Eucharist, in turn, confirms our way of thinking.'” (§1327)
But what is the Eucharist?
On Good Friday, Jesus shed his blood for the salvation of humanity. This, in effect, is the proper sign of sacrifice, the separation of the body and blood from that which is sacrificed, that is, it is death, offered in sacrifice. Jesus, to anticipate Himself sacramentally and give us the perennial memorial of the infinite love with which He would die on the cross, He left Himself present in the Eucharist, in the Eucharistic sacrifice.
On Maundy Thursday, during the Last Supper we see Jesus who:
“Then he took bread, and after he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way he also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the New Covenant in my blood, which is shed for you.'” (Lk 22, 19-20)
Jesus doesn’t just say, “This is my body,” but, “This is my body, which is given away for you”, not only: “This is the cup of my blood”, but: “it is the New Covenant in my blood, which is spilled for you.” This is sacrifice.
In this way we can affirm that the Holy Eucharist is, at the same time, sacrifice and sacrament.
Sacrifice as it is the divine action in which Jesus, through a human priest, transforms the bread and wine into his own body and blood and continues over time the offering he made to God on Calvary; the offering of Himself in favor of men.
It becomes, however, sacrament at the Consecration of the Mass. It is at the Consecration that Jesus becomes present under the appearances of bread and wine, and as long as these appearances remain, Jesus continues to be present and the sacrament continues to exist there. The act of receiving the Holy Eucharist is called Holy Communion. Leo Trese explains to us, in his book “Faith Explained” that the Mass is the creation of the Holy Eucharist and that communion is its reception. Between one and the other (between making and receiving) the sacrament continues to exist (in the tabernacle), whether we receive it or not.
The Matter and Signs of the Sacrament of the Eucharist
At the center of the celebration of the Eucharist we have the bread and wine which, through the words of Christ and the invocation of the Holy Spirit, become the body and blood of Christ himself. Faithful to the Lord’s order, the Church continues to do, in memory of Him and until His glorious coming, what He did on the eve of His passion. (CIC 1333)
The blessing of the Holy Spirit is invoked upon them and through the words spoken by the priest “This is my body given for you…, This is my blood…”the consecration takes place that turns the bread and wine into the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ.
Only priests who are validly ordained and within the Eucharistic celebration can consecrate. (CIC 1411, 1412 and 1413).
According to canon 927, “it is not possible, even in cases of urgent need, to consecrate one matter without the other, or to consecrate both outside of the Eucharistic celebration”. There is an explanation for this: even though the materials are different, the bread is the sign of the body and the wine, the sign of the blood of Jesus, the person of Christ is not divided. Where his Body is there is his Blood and vice versa, and where his body and/or blood are, there is also his soul and his divinity. This understanding leads us to understand that Jesus is whole by virtue of the unity of his person. Therefore, when we receive the Eucharistic Jesus in either species, or both, we receive Jesus all, completely and completely. Furthermore: Jesus, whole and entire, is present in every particle of bread or in every drop of consecrated wine. Even if the host is split or a drop is spilled from the chalice, there Jesus is totally present in Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.
For this reason it is not necessary to receive communion under both species and in the same way, care with the altar cloths and the purification of sacred vessels.
Why does the Church celebrate the Eucharist?
This is how the Church has done it, since the time of the Apostles, in fulfillment of the order Jesus himself gave them at the Last Supper: “do this in memory of me” (Luke 22:19).
By ordering them to repeat their gestures and words “until He comes” (1 Cor 11, 26), Jesus does not just ask people to remember Him and what He did. It aims at the liturgical celebration, by the apostles and their successors, of the memorial of Christ, his life, death, resurrection and his intercession with the Father.
From the beginning, the Church has been faithful to the Lord’s command. Of the Church of Jerusalem it is written:
“They were assiduous to the teaching of the Apostles, to fraternal union, to the breaking of bread and to prayers. Every day they attended the temple, as if they had one soul, and broke bread in their homes; they ate their food with joy and simplicity of heart” (Acts 2, 42.46).
It was above all “on the first day of the week”, that is, on Sunday, the day of Jesus’ resurrection, that Christians came together “to break bread” (Acts 20:7). From those times until today, the celebration of the Eucharist was perpetuated, so that today we find it everywhere in the Church with the same fundamental structure. She continues to be the center of the life of the Church.
Thus, from celebration to celebration, announcing the paschal mystery of Jesus “until He comes” (1Cor 11:26), the People of God on pilgrimage “advance through the narrow gate of the cross” to the heavenly banquet, in which all the elect they will sit at the table of the Kingdom.
The fruits of the Holy Eucharist
Communion increases our union with Christ. Receiving the Eucharist in communion brings as its main fruit intimate union with Christ Jesus. For the Lord says:
‘Whoever eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood remains in Me and I in him’ (John 6:56). ‘Just as the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me’ (John 6:57). (CIC 1391)
What food produces in our bodily life, communion accomplishes admirably in our spiritual life. The communion of the Flesh of the risen Christ, ‘quickened by the Holy Spirit and life-giving’ (PO 5), preserves, increases and renews the life of grace received in Baptism. This growth of Christian life needs to be fed by Eucharistic Communion, the Bread of our pilgrimage, until the moment of death, when it will be given to us as viaticum. (CIC 1392)
“For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.”
(John 6, 55-56)
Read more about the Sacraments of the Catholic Church
The Sacrament of Baptism
The Sacrament of Confirmation
Sacrament of Penance
Anointing of the Sick
Sacrament of Order
Sacrament of Marriage
References
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Catechism of the Catholic Church
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https://padrepauloricardo.org/episodios/eucaristia-sacrificio-e-comunhao
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https://santuario.cancaonova.com/artigos-religiosos/o-que-eo-sacramento-da-eucaristia-2/
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