At the beginning of each Holy Mass the priest invites us to acknowledge our sins and so prepare ourselves to celebrate these sacred mysteries. This is a perhaps necessary reminder that the Eucharist is one of the central mysteries of our faith. And like all mysteries, our severely limited understanding of divine realities means that the Eucharist, too, is one whose depths and profundity we grasp only very partially. A failure to humbly acknowledge these limitations tends towards misunderstandings and misrepresentations of this great sacrament that we are so privileged to receive every day. This possibility of misunderstanding the mystery of the Eucharist is hardly new.
Indeed, right at the outset we learn that it was precisely their inability to grasp the mystery of the Eucharist that led to the falling away of many of Jesus’ disciples—this saying is hard who can accept it, they said. At the time of the Protestant Reformation, the Eucharist—as sacrifice and as the reality of Christ’s body, blood, soul, and divinity—was again a point of serious contention, with some opting for its symbolism, and as an act merely recalling the saving death of Christ. At the Council of Trent, the Catholic Church formally reaffirmed the doctrine of transubstantiation and upheld belief in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Accordingly, the bread and wine are no longer bread and wine, but the very body and blood of Christ.
For some, purported Eucharistic miracles serve as an important support to their faith in this real presence of Christ under the appearances of bread and wine. For others, these alleged miracles occasion only confusion and obfuscation of the essence of this sacrament. Still others wonder how one can be said to receive Christ in the Eucharist when he is already believed to dwell within our hearts through faith. Thus, how does the Christ we receive in the Eucharist differ from the Christ who already dwells within us? Others question the nature of Christ’s seemingly localized presence in our tabernacles. For, given the fact that we also believe that Christ’s presence is everywhere, sustaining the universe in being, how can he be localized within a tabernacle?
These are just some of the perplexing issues surrounding our Catholic faith in the Eucharist. And whereas responses to some of these questions offer satisfying clarifications, others seem to only add to the confusion. Thus, important as it is to prayerfully engage these serious questions, it is equally important that we guard against losing focus on what is essential in the Eucharist, along with recognizing its unique purpose. For, the Eucharist is not intended to impart Christ as if he were absent prior to receiving communion. Instead, the Eucharist is one of the primary ways in which we are repeatedly immersed into the saving death and resurrection of Christ. Furthermore, the personal act of freely eating and drinking of this sacred food engages our freedom in accepting this salvation won for us. The sacramental symbolism of eating life-sustaining food is one intended to accentuate the spiritual effects of this humble human act. Thus, just as ordinary food sustains life, and truly nutritious food can actually remedy illnesses, so this “daily bread” sustains that divine life begun in baptism, while steadily healing and transforming our sinful hearts occurring through that other great mystery we call divinization.
For this to happen, however, we need what Saint Paul referred to as discerning the Body of Christ. For as he warned, anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. This, in turn, calls for a disciplined mindfulness, and a practiced awareness, in approaching the altar, and reminding ourselves of what we are about to receive. It also demands sustaining this mindfulness and awareness in the minutes following reception of the Eucharist. Otherwise, if we are not attentive to the awesome mystery we have received, we might just as well have partaken of a piece of bread and a sip of wine.
Therefore, if we have been negligent, let us take up anew the struggle for that mindfulness that will unfailingly discern the body of our Savior as we come forward to partake of the sacred mystery of Christ’s Body and Blood. For, though we may only partially understand the profound depths of this great mystery, we can acknowledge what we do know, and thus gratefully and reverentially proclaim with Saint Thomas Aquinas: O Sacred Banquet, in which Christ is received, the memory of his Passion is recalled, the soul is filled with grace, and the pledge of future glory is given us.