Eucharist

“…the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.”  (1 Corinthians 11:23-24)

All four gospels include the account of Jesus feeding the multitude, multiplying the loaves and fishes to satisfy the physical hunger of his followers.   In the sixth chapter of John, Jesus offers to feed their spiritual hunger as well.   “I am the bread of life,” he says, “whoever comes to me will never hunger, whoever believes in me will never thirst.”   At the Last Supper on the first Holy Thursday, Jesus institutes the Eucharist, his method of doing both at the same time.

St. Paul, in today’s second reading from First Corinthians, recounts the institution story, also included in the gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke, but not in John. While seated at table with his disciples on the night before he dies, Jesus takes bread, gives thanks, breaks it and says, in words familiar to every mass-attending Catholic, “This is my body that is for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.”  Then he takes the cup, and says, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.  Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”  Soon thereafter, Jesus rises from the table to wash the disciples’ feet as described in today’s gospel from John.

The word Eucharist originates from the Greek and means “thanksgiving.”  It describes the Hebrew practice of giving thanks during a meal for God’s creation, redemption and sanctification.  Bread and wine are ancient symbols from the Hebrew bible, representing the first fruits of the earth used in sacrificial offerings.  Unleavened bread commemorates the bread eaten by the Israelites on the evening of their flight Egypt during the first Passover, and the manna that fell from heaven to feed them while they wandered in the desert.  Wine is reminiscent of the Cup of Blessing at the end of a Passover meal.  That first Passover meal is described in the reading from Exodus, which includes the requirement of its re-enactment from that day on.  “This day shall be a memorial feast for you,” says the author of Exodus, “which all your generations shall celebrate with pilgrimage to the Lord, as a perpetual institution.”

It’s during his last commemoration of Passover that Jesus, an observant Jew, institutes the sacrament of Eucharist as a way to remain present and accessible to believers until his return in glory at the end of time.  Sending the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, fifty plus days later, completes the process.  

Celebration of Mass, the ritual enactment of the Last Supper, began in the earliest Christian communities soon after the resurrection and has continued down the ages to the present day.  The Mass, center of the Church’s liturgical and community life, is our way of remembering Jesus as he requested.    When we eat the bread and drink the cup, given to us as food for body and soul, we participate in the eternal life of the Risen One.

Paleontologists tell us that primitive peoples worshiped the forces of nature.  From prehistoric to modern times people have yearned for connectedness to God. This yearning is a deep-seeded human need, a primordial craving of our souls that nothing on earth can satisfy.  St. Augustine described it this way:  “You have made us for yourself, Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”   All of us, therefore, are genetically programmed in such a way that we can never be really happy if we fail to be in relationship with God. 

Most religions teach that humans are made up of body and soul.  Created in the image of God, the soul is the core of our spiritual being, the umbilical cord to our Creator.  To be wholesome and healthy, body and soul must work in harmony.   Body and soul working in harmony enables us to fulfill the reason for our creation – to lead meaningful, productive, and virtuous lives.  When we do, we stay connected with God and become participants in His on-going plan of creation.   

            When we lose our connectedness to God, however, life lacks meaning; we experience what the mystic St. John of the Cross described as “the dark night of the soul.” Grief, disappointment, illness, anxiety, overwork, malaise, a sense of betrayal, failure, or purposelessness, can make it seem that just going on living is an effort scarcely worth making.  We feel depressed, apathetic, bitter, with no sense of anything better, and perhaps even suicidal.

Many people today spend lots of time, effort, and money tending to their physical needs, but precious little time and effort attending to their spiritual needs, to their relationship with God.  That’s truly unfortunate because the consequence of neglecting our souls is just as stark, perhaps even more so, as the consequence of neglecting our bodies. 

Besides receiving Eucharist, how do we nourish our souls?  First and foremost, by loving and serving others, especially the weakest and most vulnerable among us.  Jesus washes the disciples’ feet after instituting the Eucharist to impress on them and us that service is the primary requirement of discipleship.   That’s why the Mass ends with; “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord, (and each other).”  In other words, once we’ve been nourished by the Eucharist; once we’ve received the grace to do God’s work; it’s up to us to go forth and live like believers. 

Eucharist is a symbol of God’s nurturing care, the divine way of feeding body and soul.  In short, it’s the heavenly food that provides us with the energy and will to be God’s kingdom builders on earth.

 Anthony J. Sciolino
Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14
Corinthians 11:23-26
John13:1-15.
Holy Thursday.  March 20, 2008 (Cycle A)