I write this post on the Eucharist from Poland, where I have just attended Mass in the majestic chapel of the Divine Mercy, by the tomb of Sister Faustina Kowalska. In the 1930s Saint Faustina received visions of Christ pouring the mercy of God from his blessed heart, showing the wounds of crucifixion, whilst giving a blessing with one hand and pointing to his heart with the other. Two rays of light radiate from his heart, in red and white, representing blood and water as at the crucifixion.
I think this image reflects strongly what the Eucharist is for Catholics. We believe that Jesus Christ is truly in the Eucharist, in the form of bread and wine through transubstantiation. The Eucharist makes present here and now, Christ’s gift and sacrifice on the cross, as the priest echoes the words of Christ, “This is my Body which will be given up for you…This is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins….”. Immediately after the consecration of the bread and wine, the priest says “Let us proclaim the mystery of faith”, in which the congregation responds, “When we eat this bread, and drink this cup, we proclaim Your death, until You come again”.
St Thomas Aquinas gave praise to the Eucharist, writing in Latin, “Down in adoration falling, Lo! The sacred host we hail”. As an ex-prefect for spiritual life at my former secondary school, I would explain “I genuflect, that is, get down on one knee out of respect for Jesus in the tabernacle.” On recognising and seeing the presence of Christ the Lord in the Eucharist, how can the Catholic Christian not fall down in adoration?
Reflecting on this now makes me laugh, having studied at Europe’s only ecumenical University, Liverpool Hope University, where I now work. On entering the Chapel, my friends from other Christian traditions would joke, predicting the moment when I would genuflect towards the tabernacle. On some occasions people have actually tripped over me as I genuflect!
I remember once at a talk on ‘How not to be bored at Mass’, a priest said, “When we eat food, that food becomes a bit more of me. When I eat the Eucharist, I become a bit more like Jesus.” For Catholics the Eucharist strengthens and helps sustain the mission and life of the person. If the Eucharist is the sustenance of the Christian life, then the mode of celebration of the Eucharist in the liturgy and worship of the Church must be done appropriately and reverently as is fitting to the Eucharist.
Its purpose is also to draw the Christian heavenward since the liturgy “is a sublime expression of God’s glory and, in a certain sense a glimpse of Heaven on Earth” (Pope Benedict XVI). This is what the Eucharist and the celebration of Mass is for me, the real presence of Christ here on Earth. This might be where my friends from other Christian traditions find Catholic churches arguably extravagant. From the Catholic perspective, the ‘bells and smells’ of the liturgy draws the participant in the celebration of the Eucharist heavenward.
Another powerful aspect to the Eucharist is seeing it, the ‘Elevation of the Host’, which is the point of the Mass when the priest lifts the Eucharist for all to see. According to Margaret Miles, “vision was…the strongest possible access to an object of devotion.” A medieval image shows this moment, the elevation of the consecrated bread by Pope Gregory, depicting a Eucharistic miracle where he recieves a vision of Jesus.
As this medieval image shows, when a Catholic looks at the altar, they don’t see the priest. Neither should they see the ‘bread’. The Eucharist is an encounter between the love of God in the sacrifice of the Mass and the people.
The theology of the true presence – which requires paying due reverence to the Eucharist – is a treasure and truth from the early church that needs to be preserved. As John Paul II said: “Inspired by love, the Church is anxious to hand onto future generations of Christians, without loss, her faith and teaching with regard to the mystery of the Eucharist. There can be no danger of excess in our care for this mystery, for ‘in this sacrament is recapitualted the whole mystery of our salvation’”.
Written by Daniel Leung, a graduate student of B.A. (Hons) Christian Theology and Media & Communication at Liverpool Hope University, where he now works.