HOLY EUCHARIST

The Church draws her life from the Eucharist. This truth does not simply express a daily experience of faith, but recapitulates the heart of the mystery of the Church. In a variety of ways she joyfully experiences the constant fulfilment of the promise: “Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20), but in the Holy Eucharist, through the changing of bread and wine into the body and blood of the Lord, she rejoices in this presence with unique intensity. (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 1)

The Eucharistic sacrifice is the “the source and summit of the Christian life." The Second Vatican Council teaches that “at the Last Supper, on the night when He was betrayed, our Saviour instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of His Body and Blood. He did this in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout the centuries until He should come again, and so to entrust to His beloved spouse, the Church, a memorial of His death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a paschal banquet in which Christ is eaten, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us.” (Sacrosanctum Concilium no. 47)

The Holy Eucharist is a mystery as profound and unfathomable as the Trinity. One does not understand how Christ can assume the form of bread and wine. One believes; if it helps to substitute the word understand, then we must understand that the bread looks like bread but is not bread, it is the Body of Christ. The wine looks like wine but is not wine, it is the Blood of Christ.

THE SACRAMENT OF EUCHARIST

In the Sacrament of the Eucharist, the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ is contained “truly, really, and substantially.” (Council of Trent, Session XIII, Can. 1)The Eucharist therefore is not a mere symbol but rather the Eucharist is God Himself. This is why Our Lord says: “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” (John 6: 53-56)

Catholics who have received First Communion are encouraged to receive Communion at Mass regularly. A person is to be in a state of grace while receiving communion, that is, a person must not be conscious of having committed any mortal sins since their last confession. Also, Catholics are required to fast from everything but medicine and water at least an hour before receiving communion.