As summer comes to a close, we begin our new academic year; and with that we are also ending our National Preaching Series on the Eucharist as we have walked through John 6: the Bread of Life Discourse. Over the past month we have journeyed through elements of the Eucharist: Presence, Sacrifice, Communion, and Mission. In case you missed a weekend here or there, I figured that it would be good for us to recap each of these with our final weekend.
Presence is the great reality that Jesus has chosen to dwell with us in the Eucharist. Just as God was present to the Jewish people in the meeting tent, He continues to dwell with us today. He is substantially present among us as he desires to dwell in intimacy with us in the great love he possesses for each of us individually.
This great love that he has for us was made manifest for us in the Sacrifice of the Crucifixion on Mt. Calvary. Just as he gave himself for us on the cross 2,000 years ago, we are taken back and made physically present at the foot of the Cross at every Mass. Every Mass is a partaking of the one sacrifice Christ made on the cross. He loves us so much that he continues to give himself to us on the cross at the altar each and every day. This is the reason that we refer to the Mass as the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
At the Eucharistic Congress, the great Scott Hahn gave a presentation to all of the priests. He said that “if the Last Supper was just a meal, then Good Friday is just an execution.” We cannot separate the Last Supper from the Crucifixion. At the Last Supper Jesus said to his disciples: “Take this all of you and eat of it for this is my body given up for you.” Yes we are to eat, but there is a sacrifice as well. Jesus gives himself to us on the cross and in that gives us his true flesh and true blood that we might eat of it and enter into Communion with him. Jesus desires that we might be one with him. When we receive the Eucharist, it is the closest we can be with Jesus. We enter into union with him and dwell in deep and utter intimacy with him.
From this place of communion and union, we should be driven towards Mission: to make known to the world the love our Lord has for them, the relationship that he desires to have with him, and that he wants us with him in heaven forever. When we receive the Eucharist, it is a foretaste of heaven. The Mass is a heavenly reality in which we enter into the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. We are called to make this known, not to keep it to ourselves, but rather to set the whole world on fire with the love of our Lord that we experience in the Eucharist.
One final note, going forward I would love to write bulletin articles on topics that you may have questions about. A kind of “Ask Father” forum. If you have a suggestion for a topic feel free to send me an email at frandrew@popolathe.org!
In Christ,
Fr. Andrew