Eucharist: The source and summit of a Christian life

We celebrate as Catholics this weekend the Feast of Corpus Christi or the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. In the Gospel of St. Mark, the Gospel of this Sunday, the new covenant of the Last Supper is the First Eucharist.

Jesus shares his own Body and Blood, the Blood of the New Covenant that continues today as a Thanksgiving to the Father. From Psalm 116, we pray, “I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian Life. Like a spring that feeds a river, or reaching the summit of a mountain peak, the Eucharist is the object that all need to live and act on Gospel Values. The Eucharist is the efficacious sign of unity between man and man and God and Man.

The Body and Blood of Jesus not only symbolizes this unity but in fact bring it about as we share the Sign of Peace and each one says, “AMEN,” or I believe when offered the Body of Christ at Communion. This is the very union of God and Man, and since all receive the same Christ, the unity of all who receive Communion.

The Catechism states that “all other historical events happen once, and then they pass away, swallowed up in the past but all the Christ is and did and suffered participates in the divine eternity, and so transcends all times while being made present in them all.”

Attending Mass and listening to the Word of God, growing in knowledge of Scripture and then sharing in the Eucharist is the great mystery of Christian Life — that in the Eucharist, each person might enter into communion with God. This is the great act of God so loving us that He wants to be ONE with US. Just as the bread and wine are transformed by the Holy Spirit to become the Body and Blood of Jesus, we too are transformed as the Body of Christ to be Church in the Eucharist.

The Church is one now with the offering that Jesus made with His Last Supper, Passion, Death and Resurrection, as it unites with Jesus at the Mass here and now and throughout the whole world and throughout all of history.

Jesus became man that He might offer us as a pleasing sacrifice to the Father. Our challenge at Mass is to know and live with the realization that more than Bread and Wine are transformed, but we are also transformed as we offer ourselves to the Father in the Holy Spirit. This is the great mystery of Christian, Catholic life.

It truly is the fulfillment of the old saying, “You are what you eat!” When we eat on the Body and Blood of Christ we are being fed on the Risen life of Christ, Himself. Thus, we are the living Body of Christ in our world today — when at the dismissal at Mass, we are told to go in peace and live Gospel Values or to glorify the Lord by your life. We are challenged to allow others to see and encounter Christ in and through us.

Perhaps the source and summit of Christian life is not seen and appreciated in the Eucharist, because we who dare to receive Him do not go forth and live Him. This week, as you walk out of church, think about whether what you did inside church actually made any difference, and will it make a difference in how you live your life outside this week?