The Holy Eucharist

In the bodily order, a person must first be born, and thereafter he requires steady nourishment as long as life lasts. Inthe spiritual order, a person is born by baptism, matured by confirmation, and steadily nourished by Holy Eucharist. Every sacrament is a special aid to man in his spiritual life. The Holy Eucharist is the special spiritual nourishment required by the child of God.

The Holy Eucharist is one sacrament, though it is both the flesh and the blood of our Lord.

The Holy Eucharist is the most excellent of sacraments,for it is our Lord and God himself. But, notwithstanding its surpassing excellence, it is not required for a man’s salvation in the way in which baptism is required. For baptism is the beginning of the life of the soul; Holy Eucharist is theconsummation of that life. Yet baptism looks on to Holy Eucharist,as beginning looks to consummation. Indeed, all the sacraments are directed to the Holy Eucharist.

The faithful children of the Church give to the Holy Eucharist various and reverently significant names: (a) Eucharist,which means “good grace”; (b) Communion or Synaxis, to indicate the union and unity of the faithful with Christ in this sacrament; (c) Viaticum, a special title,meaning “companion on the way,” given to this sacrament when it is received in serious illness to be the soul’scompanion and support on the way to judgment; (d) Sacrifice,inasmuch as the Holy Eucharist is confected and offered in Holy Mass, which is the identical sacrifice offered by Christ on the cross, except in the manner of offering: for Christ died on the cross, but does not die in the Mass; the Mass represents his death,but does not reproduce it.

Our Lord instituted this great sacrament when he was about to depart from visible communication with his apostles. He would remain with them in reality, but as wrapped in the mystery ofthis sacrament. Again, Christ celebrated the Pasch, bringing to an end the ceremony of the Old Law, and instituting a new sacrament,which is the true Pasch. Our Lord chose the solemn moment of this Last Supper to fix this great Eucharistic mystery deep in the minds and hearts of his apostles.

The paschal lamb was the chief Old Testament figure ofthe Sacrament of Holy Eucharist. St. Paul (I Cor. 5:7) says:“Christ our pasch is sacrificed.”