We can describe the Eucharist in many ways.
It is the center of our Christian life. We are the Body of Christ, as St Paul tells us, and we experience that reality most directly in the sacrament which links us to Christ’s body.
The Eucharist provides us with the means to share in the life of Christ, as experienced ever since the Resurrection. The Eucharist is the continuing presence of Christ in the word.
The Eucharist is a community meal, sharing bread and wine as Christ did with his disciples just before he died.
As with all sacraments, there is a sense in which the Eucharist is a sign. In this case the sign is a meal. And the meal on which it is modeled, the Passover meal, is itself a sign from the history of the people of Israel. The Israelites were commanded by God to have this meal and to put the blood of the lamb on the doorposts to mark out where they lived. This was the starting point for the Exodus, the escape of the Israelites from captivity in Egypt.
As with all sacraments there is also an underlying reality which the sign points us at. This is referred to as ‘the Real Presence’ (of Jesus). The Catholic Church teaches that the Eucharist is not a just a memorial, something that helps us remember the past. When Jesus said “this is my body and this is my blood, do this in memory of me” he meant that we share in his action. The reality of his presence is as true now when the priest repeats those words as it was when He said them at the Last Supper.
This common understanding was lost at the Reformation. Both Protestant and Catholic Churches diverged from the early understanding of the Eucharist. In the Catholic case there came to be an exclusive focus on the presence of Christ in the bread and wine, and the understanding of the Eucharist as a shared action was diminished. In Medieval times the Eucharist was shut off behind large screens and the people engaged in their own prayer while the action of the Mass went on in parallel.
The rediscovery of a more authentic understanding of the Eucharist started in the 20th Century and was formalized by the Second Vatican Council. The Council restated that the reality of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist was fourfold:
- Christ is present in the assembly (“when two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in their midst”)
- In the priest, who repeats the sacrifice of the Last Supper
- In the Word of God declared from the Bible
- In the Eucharist elements (the bread and wine)
The Council also emphasized that the Eucharist was an action in which the whole assembly participated, not an action of the priest which the congregation observed.
The link of the Eucharist to the Last Supper is made explicit in the “act of consecration” – the central moment in the Mass when the priest repeats the words of Jesus from the Last Supper (as recorded by Saint Paul, who repeats them as having been passed to him). All the other prayers in the Mass may vary but that one is always there.
Just as at the last supper, Jesus identified himself with the bread and wine, and then gave it to the disciples too eat and drink. So the Eucharist includes the people eating and drinking. As we refer to it ‘taking communion’ is a normal and expected part of participating in the Eucharist. It is certainly possible to attend Mass without receiving communion but it is in a way missing the most significant element – rather like visiting for Thanksgiving and not eating anything! There might of course be a good reason if you are ill or something like that, but it would not be ‘normal’.
We also note that communion is normally received “under both kinds” i.e. the bread and the wine. Again, this not required – we can participate by only having one or the other, but the link to Jesus action is most obvious when we take both. It is required that the wine be true wine, i.e. fermented, so we don’t use grape juice or something non-alcoholic for our meal. We do acknowledge that some people are gluten intolerant, so the use of gluten free bread is accepted. The communion bread is typically made unleavened, as it is in the Passover meal, but this is not required. Sometimes it may better help to show the character of a meal to modern people if regular bread is used. This would be more typically done in a small group setting on a special occasion, not in a regular parish Mass.
Ideally all the bread and wine used for a Eucharist will be consumed at the time. Because we believe in the real presence of Christ in the bread and wine, we treat those with reverence and don’t discard any leftovers. In medieval times, as the action of the mass was less related to a meal, keeping consecrated bread became more common. This led to what is called “Reserving the Blessed Sacrament” and the construction of elaborate containers (tabernacles) which you will see in a central page in any of the great medieval cathedrals.
In time the separation between the consecrated bread and the meal became so complete that the service of Benediction evolved. This service is infrequent these days. Benediction can be a helpful reminder of the power of Jesus presence with us, but we must avoid seeing the consecrated bread as some sort of magic item – that would completely miss the point.