The central sacrament

The feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, which the Church is celebrating universally today, bring to the fore how the Eucharist is the Central Sacrament.

“And know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time” (Mt 28:20). These last comforting words, which came out from the resurrected Jesus’ lips as recorded in Matthew’s Gospel, find their exceptional fulfilment in the Eucharist. The permanent Eucharistic presence of Christ, a presence adorned by the fullness of his body, blood, soul and divinity is, in its reality, intensity, substance and fullness, sublime. On it, in fact, centres God’s salvific presence among us. Thus, it can be said that the Eucharist is, in reality, the central sacrament. But in what sense is it central?

With the great Saint Augustine, as happened with practically all the Fathers of the Church, Christ’s centrality in the Eu- charist rests within the faith domain. For them faith is that hidden reality which controls the visible one. In sermon 272, the Doctor of Grace makes this interesting comment on the Eucharist: “What you see is the bread and the chalice; that is what your own eyes report to you. But what your faith obliges you to accept is that the bread is the body of Christ and the chalice [wine] the blood of Christ.” How faithful was Saint Augustine to the Scriptural doctrine, scrupulously abiding by what the Letter to the Hebrew tells us about faith, namely that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb 11:1)!

It is faith which illumines our minds to believe that in the Eucharist, the accidents of bread and wine while remaining as they are, their substance is completely changed into the second person of the Holy Trinity. Faith impels the Church to call such supernatural process Transubstantiation. From the outside the Eucharistic gifts remain the same but their substance is totally transformed into the substance of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. It is amazing that this great mystery occurs at the centre of the Liturgy of the Eucharist, particularly as the priest prays the prayer of consecration and immediately after the Epiclesis, in other words when the Holy Spirit is invoked by the priest upon the Eucharistic bread and wine.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of the Eucharistic presence of Christ as being the central or pre-eminent way of how the Son of God still lives amongst us. Christ’s central presence occurs sacramentally because all the other sacraments direct and fulfil themselves in it.

“The mode of Christ’s presence under the Eucharistic species is unique. It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as ‘the perfection of the spiritual life, and the end to which all sacraments tend.’ In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist, ‘the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ, is truly, really, and substantially contained.’ This presence is called ‘real’ –which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence, as if they could not be ‘real’ too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present” (CCC §1374).

Furthermore, Christ’s pre-eminent presence in the Eucharist totally realizes our earthly existence in and through Him. Hence, the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that “the principle fruit of receiving the Eucharist in Holy Communion is an intimate union with Christ Jesus.” Additionally, the Catechism explains that Holy Communion “preserves, increases and renews the life of grace received at Baptism” (CCC §1391). This Living Bread of the Eucharist really nourishes the divine life which inhabits our souls. Because, as the body cannot live, be reinforced and restored without material food, likewise our soul cannot live, be reinforced and restored without the divine life that is the very essence of our soul.

If Christ’s Eucharistic presence encourages us to put Him at the centre of our earthly life why not “keep watch with [him]” (Mt 26:40) daily by adoring Him in the Eucharist? Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap San Gwann