THE MASS AND THE EUCHARIST

Father Anthony Barratt

Part 5: The Eucharist as a sacrifice and call to be disciples and disciple-makers

The Gospel this Sunday (John 6: 60-69) gives us the fifth and final section of our Lord’s “Bread of Life Discourse.” We also have reached the final part of our reflections on the Mass and the Eucharist. Perhaps we can explore two important beliefs we have about the Eucharist: the Eucharist as a real and true sacrifice, as well as the Eucharist as a call and challenge to be disciples and disciple-makers. Hopefully, this brief summer series has been of some help in deepening our understanding and appreciation of the incredible gift that the Eucharist is. May our reflections also assist in enhancing our celebration of the Mass and of seeing new ways that we can live the Mass during each and every day.

In exploring Jesus’ Bread of Life Discourse, we have seen how Jesus’ teaching is the foundation of our understanding of the Eucharist as a sacred meal and as true food and drink; as well as the Eucharist as real presence and what we have called, “real memory.” What follows from this understanding is that the Eucharist is also a real or true sacrifice, in the sense that it is a living memory, or a re-presentation (that is, making present again) of the once and for all sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for us. As Jesus tells us “this is my body which will be given up for you … this is my blood which will be poured out for you … do this in memory of me.”

In the Eucharist, the once and for all act of love, Jesus’ sacrifice and all that it gives to us, is made real, living and present each time we celebrate Mass together. We might say then that Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday come together as one in the celebration of the Mass. This is why we can offer the Mass for particular people or intentions. We are sharing in the fruits of what Jesus did for us once and for all and that is now made real and truly present each time we celebrate the Eucharist. Returning once again to St. Thomas Aquinas’ hymn, “Adoro te devote,” we can grasp the meaning of the words: “Blood that but one drop of has the power to win, all the world’s forgiveness of its world of sin.”

As we come to the end of our reflections, perhaps we also can explore a few, final questions and make some resolutions too. First, we can remember that we are what we celebrate; that is a Eucharistic people, the body of Christ. We are disciples of the Lord. It is he who feeds us and then sends us out to feed others. The “holy communion” that we celebrate at the Mass, is, of course, a communion with the Lord (a vertical communion if you like), but it is also a communion with each other (the horizontal element). The Eucharist is indeed the Body of Christ or of our Lord: that is why the minister says “the Body of Christ” when we come up to receive Holy Communion. But it is also about us becoming the body of Christ (through a communion with Christ and with each other).

The word Eucharist means “thanksgiving” and so being what we might call a “Eucharistic people” is essentially about our lifestyle, values and attitudes. These are to be constantly giving thanks to God and of becoming like the one we have just received. So many spiritual writers tell us again and again that this “attitude of gratitude” is at the very root of a healthy human and spiritual life. After all, as Jesus says in the Gospel this Sunday, “the words I have spoken to you are Spirit and Life.”

The Eucharist is also about keeping the memory of our Lord alive here and now, not just during the Mass itself; but rather living that Eucharist when we leave the church at the end of the Mass. We are to be Christ to others and to “re-present” him as his ambassadors. St. Paul tells us this very clearly (cf. 2 Corinthians 5: 20).

The Eucharist is an ongoing sacrifice as well as an ongoing memory. The word sacrifice is usually associated with giving up things, or even a destruction of something and this can certainly be true. However, the root of the word sacrifice actually means “making holy” (sacrum facere in Latin). So, we are to be made holy in the Eucharist; but we are also to be instruments of that holiness to others. We can do this especially when we have been fed and strengthened by the Eucharist.

Finally, as the ritual of the washing of feet on Holy Thursday so powerfully reminds us, the Eucharist is also a mandate: a commission or order (the ritual is actually called “the Mandatum”). It is a commissioning and a sending forth to bring the love of Christ that we have received to others. This is absolutely central and it is something stressed again and again by Pope Francis as he speaks of us being a church sent forth. We can recall our Lord’s words in the passage about the Last Judgment (Matthew 25:31-46). There we have that poignant question: “Lord when did we see you …?” Jesus’ reply is powerful: “in so much as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me.” Not for nothing then is the Eucharist often called “the sacrament of love;” that is of God’s love for us, but also of our sharing that love received with others. So, as the dismissal at the end of Mass commands us: let us go forth glorifying the Lord by our life.

In this sense, we have come to realize that the Eucharist is at the very heart of evangelization. The Eucharist feeds us and gives us the strength to be true disciples of the Lord; but also the courage and even the motivation to share the gift that we have received with others. As Robert Rivers, in his book “From Maintenance to Mission: Evangelization and the Revitalization of the Parish,” wrote: “Evangelization is not an add-on dimension to the Eucharist, rather it is in and of itself an evangelizing experience … we eat and drink the body and blood of Christ in order to become the body of Christ to the world.”

The Eucharist is also a “pledge of the life to come” (from the ancient Prayer, “O Sacrum Convivium”). In the Eucharist, the past is really present in the here and now, as we have seen. However, in the Eucharist, the future is also realized and truly anticipated in the present (cf. Catechism n. 1402). This is why, in a true sense, the Eucharist is very much part of the “Last Rites” of the Church. The Eucharist is indeed food for the final journey from this life to the next or, as one prayer in the Rites puts it “this pledge of our resurrection.” Once again, St. Thomas Aquinas’ Eucharist hymn, “Adoro te devote,” expresses this truth well:

Jesus, whom I look at shrouded here below,

I beseech thee, send me what I thirst for so,

Some day to gaze on thee,

face to face in light

And be sure forever with thy ­glory’s sight.

Sadly, we hear in the Gospel for this Sunday, how many left Jesus and went back to their former ways after hearing his words. It was all too much for them. Of course, we hope and pray that we will never do that. Let us echo and imitate the words of St. Peter in the Gospel: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Perhaps we can conclude our reflections by hoping and praying that we will bring others to Christ, or back to Christ. As we have encountered and received the Lord in the Eucharist and been transformed by him, may many more share in such a great gift.

Father Barratt, STL, PhD, EV, ChM, is the director of the Office of Prayer and Worship, episcopal vicar for the Hudson Valley Vicariate, a member of the Presbyteral Council & College of Consultors and pastor at Holy Trinity Parish in Hudson-Germantown — all in the Diocese of Albany — and adjunct professor at Siena College and St. Bernard’s Postgraduate School of Theology and Ministry in ­Albany.