Fr. Michael Williams

This Year, 2005, has been designated by Pope John Paul II as the “Year of the Eucharist”. It is an opportunity for us to think a bit more about the great gift of the Eucharist to the Church.

The Eucharist or Holy Communion always needs to be thought of in the context of Our Lord’s Passion. Matthew, Mark and Luke all have the story of the Last Supper at the start of their accounts of the Passion. The reason for this is because the Last Supper and the Eucharist are intimately connected to Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross.

When Jesus offers his Body and Blood in the Last Supper, and at every Mass, he is offering the same Body and Blood that was nailed to the cross for our redemption. In Matthew’s account we are told that “Jesus took some bread…and said: Take it and eat; this is my body”. Then he took a cup filled with wine and said, “Drink all of you from this, for this is my blood”. In a mysterious way this offering of Jesus’ Body and Blood contains his offering on the cross for the salvation of the world.

In St. John’s gospel Jesus says, “the bread that that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world”. The Bread and the flesh are one and the same thing and they are offered in the Last Supper and on the cross for “the life of the world”. Jesus accepted “death on a cross” to make atonement for our sins. If we ever doubt that God loves humanity, that he loves each one of us, we need to look at the crucifix. The crucifix is a reminder of what God made man suffered for our sakes

Just as we can never separate the Last Supper from the Passion of Our Lord, so also we can never separate the Eucharist, or Holy Communion, from the Resurrection.

In John’s gospel Jesus says, “I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; (6:51). The Eucharist is not only intimately connected with the sacrifice of the cross, it is also intimately connected to the glory of the resurrection. The Eucharist contains the seeds of eternal life. St. Matthew gives a glimpse of the resurrection when he tells how a number of people after Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross, “came out of the tombs, entered the holy city and appeared to a number of people”.

In the Eucharist we have both the gift of Christ’s passion and his resurrection. Let us never treat this gift lightly or approach it in a carefree manner. The Eucharist, Holy Communion is too precious a gift to be treated with anything but the utmost humility and gratefulness. In the Eucharist is the death and resurrection of the Lord.