Month: April 2024

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Is Jesus Christ really present in the consecrated host and wine?

In order to understand why as Catholics, we believe that Jesus Christ is truly present in the consecrated host and wine, we must go to Jesus’ own words in the institution of the Mass, “While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying: «Take and eat; this is my body». Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying: «Drink from it, all of you, this is my blood…” (Matthew 26:26-28), and then instructs us to repeat this formula in his memory (Luke 22:19).

It is when the priest pronounces these words that we usually hear the ringing of the bells fixing our attention on our Lord Jesus Christ, present truly, really and substantially in the Blessed Sacrament; and it is the time when some people out of devotion repeat the words of St. Thomas, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). It is worth mentioning that these words should be said instead, in the interior of our hearts; the consecration, being part of the actions of the one who presides at the Mass, must be pronounced in a clear and loud voice. Therefore, while the priest consecrates the offerings, there should be no singing, prayers, or music whatsoever (GIRM 32). The act of elevating the body and blood of Christ is part of consecration.

Now, why is it important to recognize the real presence of Jesus Christ in the consecrated host, because it is the means by which we will have eternal life! Only by eating His flesh and drinking His blood, through consecrated bread and wine, can we attain the grace of eternal life (John 6:22-59).

That is why it is very important not only to attend Holy Mass but also to participate in the supper that our Lord has prepared for us. Our Lord has prepared a banquet where the main course He offers us is eternal life through His body and blood.

Let us then throw off the rags that are our sins (Matthew 22:1-14), let us get ready and share with Christ the great banquet that He offers us in the Holy Communion

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What does Jesus Christ give us at the Eucharistic banquet?

If the Eucharistic Prayer is the heart of the Mass, the words of consecration are the heart of the Eucharistic Prayer. The rest of the Mass is the sacred setting for this sacred moment.

Since the celebration of the Last Supper, the Church has faithfully maintained Jesus’ command: “Do this in memory of me” (Luke 22:19). Through the Eucharistic celebration, the Church makes present that moment, those gestures and words that Jesus made and pronounced. In that Supper, Christ instituted the Paschal sacrifice and banquet, by means of which the sacrifice of the cross is continually made present in the Church when the priest, representing Christ, pronounces the words of Jesus. At that moment, those same words that Jesus spoke, somehow, resonate again because of the priest’s sacramental representation of Christ.

“For Christ took the bread and the chalice and gave thanks; he broke the bread and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take, eat, and drink: this is my Body; this is the cup of my Blood. Do this in memory of me.” Accordingly, the Church has arranged the entire celebration of the Liturgy of the Eucharist in parts corresponding to precisely these words and actions of Christ” (GIRM 72).

But we must ask ourselves: What did Jesus mean by those words of the Last Supper: “This is my body” (Luke 22:19)? The word body does not indicate in the Bible a part of man, which together with the other parts form the whole man. In biblical language, and therefore in the language of Jesus, “body” designates the whole man, man in his totality and unity. It designates man insofar as he lives his life in a body, in a corporeal and mortal condition. In the Gospel of John, instead of the word “body,” he uses the word “flesh” (John 6:54), and it is clear that this word found in chapter 6 has the same meaning as in chapter 1, where it says “the Word became flesh” (John 1:14), that is, man. “Body” thus indicates the whole of life. Jesus, in instituting the Eucharist, has left us as a gift his whole life, from the first moment of his Incarnation to his last breath.

Then he adds, “This is my blood” (Matthew 26:28). What does he add with his “blood”, if with his body he has already given us his whole life? He adds His death!

After giving us his life, he gives us the most precious part of it, his death. The term “blood” in the Bible does not indicate a part of the body. Rather, this term indicates an event: death. If blood is the seat of life, its shedding is the symbol of death. “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1). The Eucharist is the mystery of the Lord’s body and blood, that is, it is the mystery of the Lord’s life and death. It is in this way that each one of us is called to give our body with Jesus at Mass: be it time, health, energy, capacities, affections; and our blood: humiliations, failures, illnesses, everything that mortifies us. In this way we offer our bodies as a living, holy host, pleasing to God. (Romans 12:1)

López, Félix “Explanation of the Mass: The Consecration”, Home of the Mother, Accessed 15 April 2024, https://www.homeofthemother.org/en/resources/eucharist/549-explanation-of-the-mass/2418-consecration

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How does the Eucharistic prayer unite us with the Universal Church?

The Second Vatican Council reminded us that in order to understand what the Church is, the concept we have to put at the center is communion. The Church is the People of God united in the same faith, with a communion that is a gift of God and a sign for the world.

The Eucharistic prayer is no stranger to this reality, and by celebrating what is most important to the Church, which is the Eucharist, it expresses that communion, and it does so on three levels.

First of all, it reminds us that we are in communion with all the Christian communities scattered throughout the world that are part of the Church, with whom we share the same faith when we celebrate the Eucharist. Our local community is not isolated from the rest of the Church. That is why we name the whole Church and the Pope in our prayers. We are also aware that our local Church is not only the assembly that has gathered to celebrate the Eucharist, and that is why we pray for the diocesan bishop, all the pastors who help him in his task, and all our brothers and sisters who share in the pilgrimage of faith on this earth. Thus, by celebrating the Eucharist, we are in communion with the Universal Church, which goes on pilgrimage to the Father’s house.

But we are also in communion with the deceased, who continue to belong to the ecclesial community, and that is why we remember them in the Eucharist, interceding for them. Communion is not broken by death, and in this way those who have already departed and may need the help of our prayer, by virtue of the communion of saints, are also recipients of our prayer. It is an expression of our communion with the deceased who are purifying their lack of love in the hope of enjoying the fullness of eternal life.

And we lack the third dimension of that communion: that which refers to the Church triumphant, to the saints. If what we do with the deceased is to intercede and ask the saints, who already enjoy the fullness of heaven, we ask them to intercede for us: the Virgin Mary in the first place, the apostles, the martyrs, all the saints… We are in communion with the blessed, we who walk in the hope of eternal beatitude.

And so, every day, in each of the celebrations of the Eucharist, we make communion with the Church. Not only enclosed in the small reality of our parish or our group, but open to the great richness of the mystery of communion that Christ wanted his Church to be, to bring his Word of life to the ends of the earth, until he returns.

Navarro, Ramón, “La Plegaria Eucarística, en el corazón de la celebración”, Diocese of Cartagena, Accessed 1 April 2024, https://diocesisdecartagena.org/formacion/la-plegaria-eucaristica-corazon-la-celebracion/

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Why is the Eucharistic Prayer at the heart of the celebration of the Mass?

The Eucharistic Prayer is first and foremost that: a prayer, a prayer. It is located at the very center of the celebration, not because of chronology, but because of importance. It is a prayer that the celebrant proclaims, but in doing so he does so in the name of the whole assembly: it is not a personal or individual prayer of his own.

It is a prayer of thanksgiving, but it is also a prayer of consecration. In it the Holy Spirit is asked to transform the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of the Lord, and also to transform those who are to receive it, so that they may obtain a precious gift from God: unity, communion, being one body and one spirit.

In the Eucharist we find a moment of solemn petition of the Holy Spirit. In fact, there are two moments, and both are related to each other. Both are present in the Eucharistic Prayer.

Just before the consecration, the priest, by laying on his hands, invokes the gift of the Spirit upon the bread and wine. It is not a human action that transforms the gifts into the Body and Blood of Christ, but the action of the Spirit, which is solemnly invoked. It is God who saves, He is the one who transforms the bread and wine.

The Church wanted to highlight this double moment of epiclesis and consecration by asking us for a gesture of prayer and adoration, which is to kneel: from the moment the priest lays his hands on the offerings until the consecration of the chalice is over.

After the account of the institution, the priest again asks for the Spirit. This time he does not invoke it over the gifts, but on the assembly, on those who are going to receive those consecrated gifts. The Spirit transforms the bread and wine, and he also transforms the Christian community, “those of us who are going to partake of the Body and Blood of Christ.”

In the Eucharist we celebrate the memorial of Christ’s death and resurrection, and we do so with the signs He left us for this purpose at the Last Supper.

To celebrate this memorial is first and foremost to celebrate a presence in the “now” in which we live: the presence of Christ, of his salvation. Without repeating the events of our salvation, the grace that is poured out from them comes to us, because Christ is present in the liturgy of the Church. It is not a mere memory. It’s a presence; and an effective presence, which calls us to an encounter that changes our lives.

Navarro, Ramón, “La Plegaria Eucarística, en el corazón de la celebración”, Diócesis de Cartagena, Accessed 1 April 2024, https://diocesisdecartagena.org/formacion/la-plegaria-eucaristica-corazon-la-celebracion/