Uncontroversial statement: the greatest part about being Catholic is receiving the awe-inspiring gift of the Eucharist. During Mass, one of my common prayers is to thank Christ for the joy of entering into deep communion with Him in the Eucharist. Lately, I’ve started to reflect upon the communal element of this process. I’ve begun to realize the extremely important connection between the Real Body of Christ (the Eucharist) and the Mystical Body (the Church). The central text comes from St. Paul who writes, “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we partake of the one bread” (1 Cor 10:17). It’s in the reception of Christ that we most truly become part of His Body. It pays to remember that the Church considers the Eucharist to be a Sacrament of Initiation. The Eucharist perfects the entry into the Body of Christ begun in Baptism and strengthened in Confirmation.
With these thoughts on my mind, I picked up Henri de Lubac’s Catholicism: The Common Destiny of Man. In this book, I discovered a great wealth of patristic and scriptural sources for the connection between the Eucharist and the Mystical Body. Of the scores of patristic commentary de Lubac cites, one of my favorites is from St. John Damascene: “If the sacrament is a union with Christ and at the same time a union of all, one with another, it must give us real unity with those who receive it as we do.” Another is from St. Augustine’s homily for the recently baptized: “Now for the Chalice, my brethren, remember how wine is made. Many grapes hang on the bunch, but the liquid which runs out of them mingles together in unity. So has the Lord willed that we should belong to him and he has consecrated on his altar the mystery of our peace and our unity.”
I try every once in a while to remind myself of the scope and gravity of what’s being proposed here. I’m entering into union with everyone who partakes of the same Eucharist. That includes everyone with me in the physical church I’m in, as well as the whole Church spread throughout the world, the whole Church arrayed across all of Christian history, and the fullness of the Church in heaven. It’s pretty breathtaking.
Having just started my semester abroad in Scotland, these reflections have been a great source of comfort in somewhat lonely circumstances. By sharing in the Eucharist, not only am I near to my brothers and sisters in Christ far away, but I am more united than I can even imagine with the otherwise strangers with whom I attend Mass. It’s also heartening to see deep, joyful community centered around the Eucharist. The community around the Catholic Chaplaincy in my host university is just one of these.
There is a slightly sad corollary to the joy of this beautiful unity: there are those who don’t experience this joy. The thought of being out of communion with someone, especially a family member or someone else I’m close to, saddens me greatly. I just want everyone to experience this greatest of gifts, for all things to be one in Christ—and I suppose that’s the reason we should evangelize.
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