The Holy Eucharist is the greatest gift that God has given to us, and one of the deepest mysteries that Jesus has revealed to us. Yet the giving of the Eucharist at the Last Supper and the revealing of the Eucharist in the Sermon on the Bread of Life (Jn 6) are very simple. The night before He was crucified, Jesus ate the Paschal meal with His disciples, and toward the end of the meal He took a matzo, or flat cake of the unleavened bread that was left over, blessed it, broke it and gave it to His disciples, saying, "Take this and eat it. This is My Body." Then He picked up a cup of wine, the traditional "thanksgiving cup," and giving thanks, He gave it to them and said, "Take this, all of you, and drink it. For this is My Blood of the new covenant...Do this in remembrance of Me."

Many months before, Jesus had promised the disciples that He would give them His Flesh and Blood for their spiritual food. On the day following the miraculous multiplication of the loaves and fishes when the crowds gathered around Him seeking still more bread, Jesus promised them He would give them the bread from heaven. And then in direct and simple language He explained this deep and holy mystery: "I am the Bread of life.... I am the living Bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this Bread, he shall live forever, and the Bread that I give is My Flesh for the life of the world...Truly I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of man and drink His Blood, you shall not have life in you. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has everlasting life and I will raise him up on the last day" (Jn 6:54-55).

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THE MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT

In order better to understand these simple words and more fully appreciate the greatness of this gift, we say that this Bread of Life is the Most Blessed Sacrament. Sacraments are visible signs instituted by Christ to indicate and cause the presence of grace. They are the artistic handiwork of the Son of God which not only delight us and stir our hearts to love and praise, but they also fill us with grace and give us a new kind of life, a sharing in the life of God Himself. And just as food is necessary to sustain and develop the life of the body, so too the supernatural life of the soul needs a kind of food to sustain it and cause it to grow. Since Jesus Himself has the fullness of grace and divine life, He is the only food which can confer and develop the supernatural life of grace in the soul. Hence, He gave Himself to us under the visible sign of bread and wine and called Himself the Bread of Life. The Eucharist then is the Sacrament, the holiest of them all, because it not only gives grace, as do the other sacraments, but is itself the very Giver of grace Himself. The Body and Blood, the soul and divinity of Jesus are really present under the forms of bread and wine in the Eucharist. And as long as the forms of bread and wine remain, Jesus is really present in person.
 
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THE CONSECRATION OF THE EUCHARIST

When Christ said, "This is My Body...This is My Blood " over the bread and wine, they were changed into His Body and Blood by the power of the Holy Spirit. And when He said, ''Do this in memory of Me," He passed on the power to make that change to the Church, which, in turn, ordains and empowers priests for this holy office. Since the risen Lord is now living gloriously in heaven, the consecrated bread and wine each contain the living Christ, whole and entire, body and soul, humanity and divinity. By a tremendous miracle, each particle of consecrated bread and each drop of consecrated wine the world over contain the same risen and living Lord. This presence of Christ in the Eucharist is a mystery that can be accepted only by the faith, by believing the Word of God. It is the sign, guarantee and cause of the new and everlasting Covenant between God and His People, the children of faith. All that the eye can see or the tongue can taste is bread and wine. But faith penetrates to the sacred depths of the Reality and assures us of our holy communion with the Son of God and with one another.

The kind of change which occurs when the Holy Spirit descends upon the altar to consecrate the bread and wine into our Lord's Body and Blood is total and profound. It is the kind of change that can take place in our hearts when we eat the Lord's Body and drink His Blood in Holy Communion.

This consecration of the Eucharist takes place only in the Sacrifice of the Mass. And it is in fact the separate consecration of the Body and Blood which signifies the separation of the Body and Blood on the cross and thus makes the Mass a sacrifice, the same sacrifice as that of Christ on Calvary. In this way, the very consecration of the Eucharist indicates the best way for us to prepare for its reception, i.e. by uniting ourselves to Christ in the Sacrifice of the Mass.
 
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THE EFFECT OF THE EUCHARIST

Jesus described the effect of the Eucharist by saying, "Anyone who eats this Bread will live forever...Anyone who does eat My Flesh and drink My Blood has eternal life and I shall raise him up on the last day...He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood lives in Me and I live in him" (Jn 6).

Since the Eucharist contains the very Giver of grace, Christ, and by visibly coming into this world Christ brought grace into the world, so too, by sacramentally coming into the heart of man, Christ brings the life of grace. The everlasting life which Jesus said these would have who ate of His Flesh is nothing else than the life of grace.

And since the Eucharist in its consecration represents the Passion and Death of Christ on the cross, it follows that whatever the Passion of Christ did for the world, this Sacrament does for the heart of man. Hence, in consecrating the chalice Jesus said, "This is My Blood which shall be shed for you unto the remission of sins." Thus if one has completely forgotten to confess a mortal sin, Holy Communion will take that sin away and if one receives Holy Communion very fervently with venial sins on his soul, those venial sins are taken away.

Jesus said, "My Flesh is food, indeed, My Blood is drink, indeed." Hence, it follows that whatever food does for the body, the Body and Blood of Christ does for the soul. For this reason, the doctors of the Church teach that the Eucharist sustains supernatural life, causes it to grow more abundantly, repairs slight damages brought about by venial sin and imperfections, and gives delight to the soul. Now, supernatural delight, the sustaining of spiritual life, and the growth and repair of grace are accomplished only by charity, by the love of God. In a way, this increase in charity is the special effect of the Eucharist. Above all other sacraments, this is the Sacrament of Love. This food gives to the human heart the ability to return God's love, the power to burn with the same love that Christ has for His Heavenly Father. This union of the heart with God in Holy Communion can be compared only to the union of the mind with God in heaven. For when man eats Christ's Flesh and drinks His Blood, he is at that moment as close to God as he ever will be in heaven. Communion, however, is a union of will in the darkness of faith; man cannot see Him face to face. The union of glory in heaven will be no closer but it will be different, a union not only of love but of vision. Thus, Communion is in very truth the beginning of glory, of eternal life the seed of which heaven is the flower.

Finally, just as bread is made out of many grains of wheat and wine is pressed out of many grapes in preparing the matter for the Eucharist, so too, when many hearts partake of this Bread from heaven they are united in one Mystical Body. In this way the Eucharist is the sign of unity in the Church and a bond of charity which unites the members of the Church.
 
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THE RECEPTION OF THE EUCHARIST

Before consecrating the Eucharist at the Last Supper, Jesus said, "Take this and eat it...Drink this." And in the sermon on the Bread of Life by the shore of the Lake of Galilee, He said to the multitude, ''Unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you shall not have life in you." From this it is clear that all followers of Christ are to take and eat of the Bread of Life and that unless they do, they shall not share in the life of Christ. His words are addressed to all. Yet, since the receiving of the Eucharist should be an act of faith and love, the Church teaches that this command of the Lord does not bind until baptized children have reached the age of the use of reason when they are capable of acts of faith and love. And since Jesus did not say how often one should eat of His Flesh, the Church has further decided that the minimum should be once a year - during the Easter season.

The Eucharist both represents and contains the real Body of Christ. It represents but does not contain the Mystical Body of Christ, but rather brings about or causes the unity of the Mystical Body. Hence, whoever eats of this Sacrament, regardless of whether he has reached the age of reason or not and regardless of whether he is in the state of mortal sin or not, receives the Body and Blood of Christ. But sinners do not receive the effect of that eating, i.e. a share in the life of Christ, for eating of this Bread signifies that the one eating is united to Christ and incorporated into the Mystical Body. But a mortal sinner is not united to Christ by a loving faith and hence his eating of this Sacrament is in a way a lie. And this falsity is an impediment which keeps this heavenly Food from having its proper effect in the soul. As long as the human heart is fixed upon loving some created thing contrary to the will of God, there is no room in that heart for the love of God and the life of grace. Thus, St. Paul says, "Let a man prove himself and so let him eat of that Bread," lest otherwise approaching the Holy of Holies in the state of mortal sin you become "guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord and receive judgment to yourself, not discerning the Body of the Lord."
 
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DEVOTION TO THE EUCHARIST

Our devotion to Christ in the Blessed Sacrament is not based upon His need but upon His excellence. We approach Him not to give but to receive mercy, never forgetting that for God, we are superfluous.

It is true that in the Eucharist Christ is confined in the lowly appearances of bread and wine, enclosed in a ciborium no larger than a cup and locked in a tabernacle. But it is not right to think of Him as alone, shut off from friends, shut off from the world He rules, in need of companionship, in need of some generous soul to visit Him. It is not right to think that devotion to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament consists in visiting a poor, abused and lonely prisoner. Actually, Christ in the Eucharist is truly both God and man. And as man, Christ is united to God by a special intellectual, personal union. He enjoys the Beatific Vision on the one hand and has the fullest knowledge of all that happens in the world on the other. He knows even the secret thoughts and desires of all our hearts.

In The Eucharist, He loves us day in and day out without ceasing, with the same love He poured out for us upon the cross. He is not alone and shut off from the world. In the Eucharist the Body of Christ, which in His lifetime was confined to one small place in Palestine, is now spread out over the whole world. By the miracle of the Eucharist the Body and Soul of Christ have burst asunder the confines of place to imitate the all pervading presence of God. By this miracle, He not only reigns glorious and immortal in heaven, but is equally present in every corner of the earth, in every church, in every city, in every country of our world. And wherever He is in the Eucharist He is there with all the power He had during His lifetime, the power which raised the dead to life, changed water to wine, softened the hearts of sinners and made the hearts of the disciples on the road to Emmaus burn within them. He is neither alone nor confined nor helpless.

True devotion to the Eucharist consists in acts of adoration, of faith and love and hope. It consists in prayers for mercy, in hungering and thirsting for this Bread of Life. In the Eucharist Christ is not a prisoner but a prince, the King of Eternal Glory; we are the prisoners, captivated by His love.

The various devotions to the Eucharist are Holy Communion, spiritual communion, holy hours and visits to the Blessed Sacrament. Holy Communion is the way that we receive the effects of this Sacrament and it is the most important thing that we have to do with the Eucharist. Especially at the approach of death, our last Holy Communion, the reception of this Sacrament is important for us. Our last Holy Communion is called Viaticum, the food that strengthens us for the all important journey into eternity. Holy Communion can be received only twice a day; yet spiritual communion, the desire to be united to Christ in sacramental communion, is not limited by the rise and fall of the sun. For a true lover of Christ this spiritual type of communion should be the most ardent and frequent desire of the heart. Holy hours and visits to the Blessed Sacrament and attendance at Benediction are special opportunities which move us to make acts of adoration, faith and love for this most holy Sacrament which contains within itself the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ Himself.
 
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HOW TO RECEIVE HOLY COMMUNION

Since Holy Communion is a union of friendship between the heart of man and his Lord, and since Holy Communion is meant to be a foretaste of the joy that Christ has prepared for His faithful followers, the Eucharist is a sacrament for the living members of the Church - for those already living the life of grace and having faith and charity and hope. In other words, only those who have been baptized and are free from the guilt of mortal sin can receive this Sacrament as it should be received. If one has committed a mortal sin he should by all means flee to the confessional that he may be free to approach the table of Holy Communion. It is not necessary, however, to go to confession every time before Communion, but only in case one is in the state of mortal sin. Since venial sins do not break the bond of friendship between the heart of man and God, one can receive Communion worthily after committing venial sins even without going to confession, provided, of course, that sorrow for these venial sins has filled the heart.

Though one must be free from mortal sin to receive the Eucharist worthily, it is not necessary that one has reached the other extreme of holiness. In other words, the Eucharist is not meant to be a reward for great holiness. It is not a sacrament reserved for the extremely pious. Such a close and intimate union with Christ cannot be merited by man, cannot be earned by man as a reward is earned. Christ meant the Bread of Life as food for hungry souls, as medicine for weak souls, as a staff to support our faltering steps, as a foretaste of future happiness for impatient wayfarers. Hence, what is important in preparing the soul for the worthy reception of Communion is an awareness of hunger in the soul, a consciousness of weakness, and a desire for this sacramental union with Christ, Our Lord, for we are all weak in resisting the powerful allure of worldly joys and pleasures and in pursuing the glory of God with wholehearted and vehement love. If we only realized it, we are all starving for nothing else than the love of God, for St. Augustine has said that the human heart was made for God and is restless until it rests in Him. Hence, it is important for a fruitful reception of the Bread of Life that a man begin to realize that the hunger for happiness that gnaws at his heart is really a hunger for this true Bread come down from heaven. But this is a preparation of heart that cannot be made in the ten minutes before Holy Communion. Rather, it is a frame of mind, an outlook on life that is the fruit of much prayerful thought.

Holy Communion is part of the Mass. The Eucharist begins to exist at the Consecration of the Mass wherein the death of Christ is commemorated and the fruits of the Passion are again poured out upon the world. For this reason, when Jesus actually instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper, He said "Do this in memory of Me," meaning, "in memory of My death." And for this reason, too, the best way to prepare the soul for a worthy reception of Holy Communion is by a living participation in the Mass. This means that we must realize that the Mass is a re-enactment of the Sacrifice on Calvary, that we must try to stir our hearts to imitate the Heart of Jesus upon the cross in His desire to give honor and glory to God, and that we must offer ourselves and all our being in union with the Lamb of God upon the Altar.

Many souls, however, may find that over and above this preparation, the prayers of the Missal which the priest himself says before Communion stir them to receive the Eucharist devoutly. Others may find that other little prayers out of a prayerbook are more suited to their needs. All of these things are good and useful if they stir up a desire in the heart for union with Our Lord.

Finally, by the command and ancient practice of the Church, a person who is to receive the Eucharist must be fasting. It used to be that one had to be fasting from midnight. Now, however, we have new rules about the Eucharistic fast. The first thing to remember is that water and medicine never break the fast. The second thing to remember is that for any Mass (morning, afternoon or midnight) the faithful are bound to fast from solid food and beverages for one hour. This period of time is calculated not from when Mass begins but from the time Communion is received. The above rules apply to the reception of Communion in ordinary circumstances. In danger of death when the Eucharist is received as Viaticum, there are absolutely no rules of fasting.
 
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FREQUENT COMMUNION

Christ said that unless we eat of the Bread of Life, we shall not have life in us. In other words, the Eucharist is necessary for salvation and must be received at least by desire or implicitly in Baptism. After a man reaches the age of the use of reason he must receive Communion once a year because of the law of the Church. On the other hand, the Eucharist ordinarily should not be received more than once a day by the faithful, except when permitted by the Church. Between these two extremes arises a question every Christian must settle for himself - how often he shall receive Holy Communion. In answering this question, two ideas must be kept in mind. First, it is impossible to overfeed a soul on the Bread of Life. A body can become too large and heavy from overeating because there is a set size for the body, but the soul has an infinite capacity for God and God is infinitely lovable. Hence, no soul can ever say that he loves God enough or that he has exhausted the lovability of God. Second, spiritual starvation is not quite so obvious to self as is physical starvation. A man who misses a few meals automatically becomes hungry. But a man who underfeeds himself spiritually by seldom receiving the Bread of Life loses his hunger and desire for this Food. Hence, the feeling that one need not go to Communion is very deceptive and is not a reliable yardstick by which to measure how frequent one's Communions should be.

The man who listens to the words of Christ with a loving faith, the man who has some awareness of his weakness as a lover of God, the man who arranges his life and his mornings so that he can more frequently receive the Eucharist will gradually develop a deeper hunger for this Bread from Heaven and become a daily communicant.

"I am not holy, but I go to Communion often in order to become holy. Go often to Communion if you are weak in order that you may receive strength to overcome your temptations. "

St. Catherine of Siena

"Two sorts of persons ought to communicate frequently: The perfect because being well disposed they would be greatly to blame not to approach to the source and fountain of perfection, and the imperfect that they may be able to aspire to perfection; the strong lest they become weak, and the weak that they may become strong; the sick that they may be restored to health, and the healthy lest they fall into sickness. Being imperfect, weak and sick, you have need frequently to communicate with Him Who is your perfection, your strength and your physician. "Those who have not many worldly affairs ought to communicate often because often they have leisure; those who have much business ought also to communicate often, for he who labors much and is loaded with pains ought to eat solid food, and that frequently. "Receive the Holy Sacrament to learn to receive it well, because one hardly performs any action well which he does not often practice."

St. Francis de Sales

 
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