The Eucharist
A Few Reflections
Father
Ed. Wood, SSS.
Reprinted
February 2015
Father E. Wood, SSS, St. Francis’ Church,
326 Lonsdale Street,
Melbourne, 3000, Australia.
Tel: (03) 9663 2495 Fax: (03) 9663 2817
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CONTENTS
1. The Eucharist2. The Paschal Mystery
3. Bread of Life and Love
4. A Presence Divine and Benign
5. Presence and Communion
6. Abiding Presence
7. Presence and Prayer
8. Presence and Service / 3
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These reflections on the Eucharist were written over a period of time and are reproduced here in a single booklet. They may be used for quiet prayer before the Eucharist that remains a Mystery of Faith as the Liturgy proclaims. Prayer and re-flection will reveal a little insight into the gift of the Lord.
Edward Wood, SSS
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1. The Eucharist
Lent is over. Holy Week has come and gone. We rest in the glow and joy of Easter. We have remembered the giving of the Eucharist. The death of the Lord wherein Christ gave himself wholly as the Suffering Servant. The Resurrection followed baffling and defying all explanation, yet remaining the basis and foundation of Christian life and meaning.
Each Eucharist we celebrate both recalls and makes present the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord. This passage from life to death is generally called the Paschal Mystery yet other names are also used of this mystery of faith.
At the heart of the Eucharist is the total and unconditional giving of Christ. It remains the unconditional love of Christ reaching from two millennia ago to all ages and to simplest celebration o the Eucharist. It is both Christ’s total love offered to the Father and the unconditional love given for the life of the world. Who can fathom this love? Words fail to express its depth since the love of God cannot be measured and, indeed, as the psalmist repeats again and again: “for his love endures for ever.”
At the heart of the Eucharist is love. This love is actively present at every celebration since it is the sacrifice of Christ that is recalled and made present. True, it remains unseen, perhaps unfelt by all who participate in the celebration, but we hold dear and believe the Lord who said: “This is my body given up for you.” “This is the cup of the new covenant my blood which will be poured out for you. This is divine love without measure.
The Eucharist may be likened to a divine invasion of love welling-up from Christ’s offering on Calvary and flowing everlastingly to touch the hearts of all who gather to celebrate. No wonder we pause as we begin each celebration calling to mind our failures and weaknesses and ask for divine pardon as we open our hearts to the immensity and profundity of the Lord’s love.
The Lord is present in every Mass freeing from sin, speaking in the words of the Scriptures, gathering us as he offers himself to the Father, he endows us with the gift of himself as bread of life. Christ is our Bread of Life
This gift of Christ calls us, in turn, into his unconditional gift of self in love. Our participation in the Eucharist is to nourish and transform our lives into the likeness of Christ. Thus fed on the Bread of Life we give ourselves in unconditional love to all we meet on our pilgrimage of life.
The Eucharist enables us to love God with all our hearts and souls and minds and strength and, at the same time, moves us to open up in love to all and even, if the situation arises, to love our enemies. Did not the Lord say: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you and pray for those who persecute you.” This seemingly impossible command becomes possible by the Eucharist we receive since it is the enabling power of Christ let loose in our hearts.
The Eucharist gives the power, the strength, the grace to live as our Lord lived: “a man for others. “ It enables us to have a profound change of heart and to live as Christ taught in the Beatitudes, trusting in God, being gentle, humble, compassionate, just. Lives abounding in mercy, hearts set on Christ, true peacemakers and reconcilers and, at all times, being courageous and persevering.
The command of the Lord at the Last Supper to “do this in memory of me,” is actualised in the celebration of the Eucharist which both recalls and makes present the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord from which we receive divine life. This divine gift inspires and moves us to be truly disciples of Christ. The Eucharist opens up the vision of the wonder of the Good News of salvation. It opens for us the meaning of the Sermon on the Mount, but, above all, it makes us children of God living the same kind of life that Christ lived — this is our challenge and destiny!
CHRIST HAS DIED
CHRIST IS RISEN
CHRIST WILL COME AGAIN!
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2. THE PASCHAL MYSTERY
The forty days and forty nights of Lent are almost over and with hearts and minds renewed God’s people will enter into the ceremonies of Holy Week. This time will culminate in the celebration of the Paschal Mystery in its fulness – the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus.
In these celebrations the church not only remembers the Passover of the Lord, but also enters in and participates liturgically in the primary saving event lived out in Jerusalem some 2000 years ago. God’s love and compassion are present to us as they have been to every generation of Christians and will be so till the end of time.
Hearts that have ‘turned away from sin and been faithful to the Gospel’ will receive what may be termed a divine invasion of love. The floodgates of God’s love and kindness will flow in ever-increasing streams into hearts open to the Lord. Did not our Lord say that streams of living water would flow from him? For example, to be forgiven or to forgive is to bathe in living waters of love.
The passion, death and resurrection of Jesus – the Paschal Mystery – draws us into the total gift of Christ, the highest expression of his love for the Father and of his unconditional love for us. He gave himself that we might be drawn into union with our Triune God.
Passion (Palm) Sunday gives us the opportunity to remember Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, to hear anew the welcome of many. It gives us the possibility, as a people and as individuals, to welcome him into our hearts singing,
Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Holy Thursday invites us to recall the historical Last Supper, the Lord’s preparation of the event, his words of love, his washing of the feet of the disciples and the gift of the Eucharist. However his presence for us is the Risen Lord and while we have died with him in baptism our risen life is not yet fully achieved. On our pilgrimage we sit at table with the Risen Lord, we listen attentively to his words, we learn from the washing of the feet of the selfless service expected of disciples, and then we partake of the banquet of the Lord, the Eucharist. In all these things we are invited to walk with him, live his kind of life, knowing he has called us friends. (Read John’s Gospel, chapters 13 to 17)
Good Friday grips the hearts and souls of all Christians. The cross, the symbol of the ultimate gift of Christ for us and for our salvation, touches so many – one wonders about the attractive power of this day. Is it Christ’s awful death? Or does it remind so many of their own struggles in life – betrayal by friends, loneliness, loss of friends, torture, injustice, suffering, lack of human compassion, rejection and a feeling of Godforsakeness? Whatever the tragedy of Christ’s death and the conjoined sufferings of so many others, the cross is a symbol of HOPE. A symbol telling all that despite all trials, struggles, sufferings and even death, that all is not lost since Christ has conquered sin and death. In a word, the cross means hope springs eternal.
Easter is the fulfilment of the hope symbolized by the cross since Christ truly rose from the dead and so entered into glory. His resurrection is celebrated in the Easter Vigil – a powerful recalling and making present of our sacred history and, at the same time, drawing us into the reality and mystery of the resurrection, drawing us into new life in Christ. Indeed, if Christ be not risen from the dead our faith is in vain. Darkness yields to light and the Exsultet resounds throughout the world.
Rejoice, heavenly powers! Sing, choir of angels!
Exult all creation around God’s throne!
Jesus Christ, our King, is risen!
Sound the trumpet of salvation!
Rejoice O earth, in shining splendour,
radiant in the brightness of your King!
Christ has conquered! Glory fills you!
Darkness vanishes forever!
Rejoice O Mother Church! Exult in glory!
The risen Saviour shines upon you!
Let this place resound with joy,
echoing the mighty song of all God’s people!
3. BREAD OF LIFE AND LOVE
To share a meal is a joyful event. It is not only the food but also the company, the conversation, the friendship that are integral to the meal. To enjoy such a meal with family and friends binds all together and gives renewed energy to face the ups and downs of life.
It was no different at the Last Supper when Jesus gathered around him all his close friends and disciples. On that unique occasion the friendship and love of Jesus,- the Giver of Eternal Life, were plainly shown, as, we read in the Final Discourses of John’s Gospel. (Chaps. 13 -17) Jesus spoke of many things close to his heart and his heart was truly open to all gathered around him. Above all, he stressed the need to love one another even unto death. Love was to be the hallmark of his friends and disciples.
Every time we gather to celebrate the Mass/Eucharist we relive the Last Supper event. We meet Jesus our Risen Lord, our Brother and Saviour, and receive the shared life of God himself. John’s Gospel records eloquently that Jesus offers us his Body and Blood as a necessary food for the pilgrimage of life. This is manifest especially in John 6. The Lord also warns of the consequences of not accepting the gift he gives in the Eucharist.
“If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man
and drink his blood you will not have life in you.”
John 6 reminds us of the closeness of the union to which Christ calls us in every celebration of the Mass. It is a union that reaches its fulfilment in eternity. Jesus offers us a life that will not grow older, a life that will go on forever. In the Eucharist, our Communion, we are offered the life that Jesus shares with God our Father.
Christ is not present on our altars simply for our adoration and admiration, but ultimately he is present so: that we might become one with him. Our celebration and reception of the Eucharist move us to allow its effect to flow out into our daily lives. The union we have with Christ is one of love and it is that love that he wills us to show to others without reserve.
Communion, means setting our hearts on drawing ever closer to Jesus and, in turn, drawing ever closer to one another by love shown practically in our weekday lives. Receiving Communion becomes meaningless unless the love given by Christ has a profound effect in the way we live.
At the end of each Mass we are sent out to serve the Lord wherever we live and become Christ-bearers, living his life and making Jesus present in a world that otherwise would conceal him. To continue to show true love and give the Christ-life to others we need to return frequently and partake of the BREAD OF LIFE, the LIVING BREAD, from which we live and move and have our being.
As Jesus said,
“He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood
lives in me and I live in him.”
To receive Communion, to receive the Eucharist, is to be one with Christ and his gracious presence enables us to truly love one another, to be gentle, sensitively compassionate, fair in our dealings with others, merciful, peace-makers and ever constant in faith.
May I speak once again for ongoing prayer
so that the Lord will send
his Church and our Blessed Sacrament Congregation
disciples after his own heart
for the well-being of the Australian Church.
4. A PRESENCE DIVINE AND BENIGN
To speak of presence leads one to think of immediate proximity, nearness, a sense of a person or thing being near. It may also denote a sense of awe or wonder arising from the presence of a person, a sacred place or a special environment. In such instances a person ‘feels’ in the presence of, or being close to someone or something somehow greater than oneself. One could ponder and reflect on the meaning of presence and its many aspects and be enriched by the experience.
In our Christian lives to speak of presence will surely encompass the Divine. Indeed, the Divine Presence is ever so central to Christian life and worship. One finds a yearning, like the psalmists, to enjoy the presence of the All-Holy. The Lord is present everywhere and this may be experienced providing we stop and be still for a moment or two. Our hurrying often prevents us from savouring a oneness with the Lord who is the alpha and omega, the beginning and end of all that exists.