The Eucharist has been the center of our Catholic mass for centuries, but it is still misunderstood by many Catholics. The word Eucharist means thanksgiving. The title is explained in one of two ways. It may have come from the Last Supper when Christ gave thanks to His father with his disciples, or else it arose from the fact that the Eucharist is the supreme act of Christian gratitude to God, and thus when we celebrate it we are thanking Christ for his sacrifice. It is important for us as Catholics to understand the sacrament of the Eucharist to the best of our ability, for it is more than a host that we receive at weekly mass.
The word Eucharist is multidimensional. The first, and most familiar type of Eucharist is what we worship and receive at church every Sunday. The Catholic Mass revolves around the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Christ instituted this practice at the Last Supper, and it continues to act as a symbol and reminder of His unconditional love for us. When we receive the Eucharist we are remembering His Passion, Death and Resurrection. However, the celebration of the Eucharist is more than a symbol. One of the most fundamental doctrines of the Catholic Church is that of transubstantiation, which means that we believe Christ is present in the Eucharist during Mass. This belief was confirmed at the Council of Trent, and ever since has been an essential aspect of our faith. The idea of transubstantiation is often taken for granted, or even overlooked by many Catholics. However, it is the most important and amazing part of Mass. The miracle that we witness when Christ makes Himself present to us in the bread and wine is something that we should be in awe over. We have the opportunity to become one with Christ when we eat His body and drink His blood, yet many people don’t even acknowledge His holy presence. Christ says in the Gospels:
I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world…unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood you do not have life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me (John 6: 51, 53-58).
This scripture quote from John accurately depicts the meaning of Eucharist in the Mass, for we receive the body of Christ in order to have life in Him. We attend Church every Sunday in order to revitalize our spiritual life and reconnect with Christ. When we receive the Eucharist, Christ enters our body and we become unified with Him.
It is a sacred and holy sacrament, but it remains one that not all Catholics firmly believe. For some reason, people continue to call themselves Catholic when they doubt or reject the doctrine that separates us from many of our other Christian brothers and sisters. Christ’s presence in the Eucharist is not something that can be taken lightly, and should be given the full amount of respect that it deserves. Even for those who do believe in this mystery, few people actually focus on the presence of Christ as they consume the host. To simply eat the host as though it were a piece of food is very disrespectful, yet that is just what many of us do. John Chrysostom offers a very valuable insight in his respect for the Eucharist, saying:
When you see it exposed, say to yourself: Thanks to this body I am no longer dust and ashes, I am no more captive, but a free man. Hence I hope to obtain heaven and the good things that are there in store for me, eternal life, the heritage of the angels, and companionship with Christ. Death has not destroyed this body, which was pierced by nails and scourged. Indeed, this is that body that was once covered with blood, pierced by a lance from which issued saving fountains upon the world, one of blood and the other of water.
These words enable us to get a better understanding of the reverence we should give to the Eucharist.
The Eucharist is Christ being present in our lives. It is our opportunity every week to experience Him. While there are other times we are able to experience Him, this is the most tangible and sacred of all. To define the extent of Christ’s presence in our lives, namely in the Eucharist, Pope Paul VI wrote an encyclical in which he distinguished eight instances where we experience Christ’s presence. First, he said Christ is present in the Church when it prays and when it performs its acts of mercy. He is present in the Church on its pilgrimage of struggle to reach the harbor of eternal life, as well as when it preaches His Gospel. His presence can be seen in the Church as it governs his people and in the pastors who exercise the power conferred on them as successors of the apostles. Most importantly, though, Christ is present in the sacrifice of the Mass and in the Church when it administers the Sacraments. These words from Pope Paul provide an insight into the fact that we do not have to look hard to find Christ in the world. Anytime we experience Christ we have received Eucharist, even if it is not in the form of a host in Mass. If we are in the presence of Christ’s love, we experience Eucharist.
This leads into the next dimension to the Eucharist, which is the way we incorporate it into our life. We receive the body of Christ in church, and it is our responsibility to take that out into the world and spread God’s love. We are called to be God’s disciples and to give Eucharist to others. To give Eucharist to someone does not necessarily mean to give them communion. By being a living example of Christ’s love we give Eucharist to other people. By listening to a friend’s problems, feeding the poor, helping a friend with homework or making a child laugh we give Eucharist. This is an element of the faith that many people disregard, yet it is equally as important as attending Mass on Sunday, for if we do not live the Gospel that we hear in church we might as well not be there. To love Christ means to love His people, and when we show this love we give Eucharist.
This is where we as teens in Christ make our most significant contribution to the Church. While we may not fully understand the many dimensions of the Church and the complexities of our faith, we have the ability to love. Christ provided the greatest example of love that we could possibly have, He gave His life for us and for our sins. It is written in the Scriptures that there is no greater sign of love than to give one’s life for one’s friends. Jesus did this for us and thus taught us how to love, and we remember that in the Eucharist.
Many teens complain about not having a place in the Church and not being taken seriously. If this is true, then it is up to us to make a place for ourselves, and we will do this through love. The future is fast approaching, and the issues, both global and domestic, that we will face will be different from those of our predecessors. While the world is changing around us, the one constant in our lives is love. We are called to spread God’s love throughout the world, and to give Eucharist to all we meet. Let us learn from the past and from the teachings of the Church and change the world through the Eucharist.