Communion is the moment towards which the whole Eucharistic celebration converges, since, on the one hand, the table of the Word asks to be completed with the table of the Eucharistic Bread and, on the other, the consecration of the gifts aims not only to make Christ glorify and give thanks to God, but also to the faithful to be united to Christ sacramentally. eating the Body that is given and the Blood that is shed for the salvation of men. “The celebration of the Eucharistic sacrifice is wholly directed toward the intimate union of the faithful with Christ through communion. To receive communion is to receive Christ himself who has offered himself for us” (CCC 1382).
Communion is first of all the culmination of the Mass, since it is “at the same time and inseparably the sacrifice in which the sacrifice of the Cross is perpetuated and the sacred banquet, in which through the communion of the Body and Blood of the Lord, the people share in the goods of the paschal sacrifice. it renews the covenant between God and men, and in faith and hope it prefigures and anticipates the eschatological banquet in the Kingdom of the Father” (Eucaristicum Mysterium 3).
Sacramental communion with Christ increases our union with Him, separates us from sin, renews, strengthens and deepens our incorporation into the Church accomplished by Baptism.
Eucharistic communion is the most loving and profound, most certain and sanctifying spiritual encounter we can have with Christ in this world. It is an ineffable spiritual union with the glorious Jesus Christ. It is, in the order of love and grace, an ineffable mystery. Christ gives himself in communion as food, as “living bread that came down from heaven”, who transforms into him those who receive him. To these, who welcome him into communion with faith and love, he promises immortality, abundance of life and future resurrection. Indeed, he assures them of a perfect vital union with Him: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.” (John 6:56-57).
Being such an extraordinary moment of grace, we must be ready to live it with intense faith, with a sense of adoration and complete surrender to his will. Only the grace of God, who acts through prayer, can adequately prepare us.
Communion is a pledge of future glory, it is a foretaste of heaven, where our whole existence will be to love and adore Christ. Once again, let us allow gratitude and amazement to be renewed in us at the love of a God who becomes the Eucharist to allow himself to be eaten, to unite us to him and to transform us into him.
Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, grant that we may receive your Son in the Sacrament of love with an open and pure heart, simple and obedient like yours, so that we may be transformed into a living sacrifice, into a “Body that gives itself” for the life of the world.
López, Félix “Explanation of the Mass – Communion”, Home of the Mother, accessed 11 June 2024,
https://www.homeofthemother.org/en/resources/eucharist/549-explanation-of-the-mass/2416-communion