Day 194: Summary of the Sacrament of the Eucharist (1406-1419)

• It’s Day 194!!

• IT’S MCNUGGET DAY!!

• This is the WHOLE KITCHEN

• We get to summarize where the Church has expounded and expanded on what it is we believe about the Eucharist

• Not just what we believe about the Eucharist

• But who it is that we come into contact with every time the Mass is celebrated and the sacrifice is offered

• Every time Holy Communion is given, we have intimacy with Jesus

• Every time we are strengthened by the Lord and how that prepares us for eternal and future glory 

• So let’s pray!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we thank you. We thank you for the gift of your Son and the Eucharist. We thank you for all the gifts, all the sacraments you have given to us. All the sacraments of initiation, Baptism, and Confirmation, and Holy Communion. We ask you to please, on this last day of our reflection upon Holy Communion, the sacrament of sacraments, you open our hearts and open our minds so that the nuggets can stay with us. So that they’re not merely pieces of data or articles of information, but that they really truly are seeds that are planted in our hearts and our minds that continue to grow, that don’t leave us ever. But that we carry them with us, and they continue to bear fruit in our lives. Lord God, help this day not to be merely a day of information transfer, but a day truly of transformation. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen”

• So there we have it!!

• What can we truly say?

• They are nuts and bolts points but they are highly important

• The reason why we believe that Jesus Christ is TRULY REALLY AND SUBSTANTIALLY PRESENT IN THE EUCHARIST and why that is JESUS’ BODY BLOOD SOUL AND DIVINITY is because HE HIMSELF SAID SO

• Paragraph 1406 says, “Jesus said: ‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever;...he who eats my flesh and  drinks my blood has eternal life and…abides in me, and I in him.’”

• MAN!! (OH MAN!! 😉)

• THERE IT IS!!

• The Synoptic Gospels say this- Matthew, Mark, and Luke

• So does St. Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians

• At the Last Supper Jesus said, “This IS my Body. This IS my Blood.”

• This is the baseline

• We might not recognize that this is NOT THE FIRST TIME that God wants to feed us

• IN FACT…

• In Genesis Chs 2 and 3 what happens?

• God makes Adam and Eve and He places them in the Garden of Eden

• He basically says, “I want to feed you.”

• He gives them a garden with all the food they could possibly ever desire, ever want, or ever need

• He basically says, “Ok, let me feed you. THere’s this one tree over here, though. Don’t eat from that. Because I want to feed you. I want to be the one who feeds you.”

• And thanks to the Serpent, Adam and Eve basically say, “Well, you know, we are going to feed ourselves.”

• AND YET…

• GOD STILL WANTS TO FEED US!!

• God leads Israel from slavery into the wilderness

• What does He do?

• He feeds them with bread from heaven

• THey want meat, so He feeds them with quail

• GOD CONTINUALLY FEEDS THEM!!

• IN FACT…

• In order to set them free from slavery in Egypt, what do they have to do?

• They have to take a year-old-lamb without blemish and bring that lamb into their homes for a week

• And in the evening twilight, they slaughtered and sacrificed that lamb

• They have to eat its roasted flesh and mark their homes with the blood of the lamb

• It’s through eating the FLESH of the lamb and being marked with the BLOOD of the lamb that gives them FREEDOM AND LIFE

• And now we find ourselves in this place

• John the Baptist sees Jesus and says, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

• BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD!!

• Sometimes we may think John the Baptist said that because Jesus is gentle like a lamb

• NO!!

• John the Baptist said that because JESUS IS THE SACRIFICE

• Every Jew, once a year, participated in sacrifice 

• The Passover sacrifice once a year where they brought that unblemished lamb to Jerusalem

• They sacrificed that lamb and presented that lamb to the priest who then offered that lamb’s blood on the altar

• Then they hear this prophet John the Baptist point to this man, Jesus, and saying, “That’s the true lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

• AND HE DOES EXACTLY THAT!!

• He goes into Jerusalem on the same day that the lambs are being brought into the city, Palm Sunday

• He abides in that city for a week and gets examined

• Yes, He is without blemish

• Pontius Pilate said, “I find no fault in him.”

• And then He is sacrificed

• And His life is offered up, and His Blood is poured out

• AND YET…

• Remember, He is the Lamb of God

• What did you have to do if you were a Jew living in Egypt and you wanted your freedom and you wanted life?

• You did not just hae the lamb with you to be sacrificed

• YOU HAD TO EAT THE FLESH OF THE LAMB!!

• So what does Jesus do on the night before He died?

• “Take this, all of you and eat of it. This is my Body.”

• He’s the Lamb of God and His Body and Blood give freedom and life today NOW just as the lamb’s blood and lamb’s flesh back in Exodus gave the Jewish people freedom and life 🤯 🤯 🤯

• THIS IS THE FULFILLMENT OF THE WHOLE STORY!!

• Getting us to Mass is the WHOLE POINT OF THE BIBLE

• Ultimately, it’s getting to Heaven

• BUT…

• What is happening in Heaven?

• Heaven is the eternal liturgical banquet

• Heaven is the great sacrifice of the Son, that offering of love of the Son to the Father

• The Power of the Holy Spirit that we get to participate in

• EVERYTHING IN THE BIBLE IS MEANT TO GET US TO THE MASS

• MASS IS MEANT TO GET US TO HEAVEN!!

• IT IS INCREDIBLE!!

• God says, “I just want to feed you.”

• So it is crazy how often we are numb and deaf to that and how often WE DO NOT CARE

• We want to feed ourselves

• We want something else

• In some ways, we can hear the Father saying, “There is nothing else. THis is how I am asking you to worship me.”

• Remember, the heart of religion is WORSHIP

• And the heart of worship is SACRIFICE

• The Father has asked us to worship Him through His Son

• Paragraph 1410 says, “It is Christ himself, the eternal high priest of the New Covenant who, acting through the ministry of the priests, offers the Eucharistic sacrifice. And it is the same Christ, really present under the species of bread and wine, who is offering the Eucharistic sacrifice.”

• At the same time, JESUS IS THE SACRIFICE BEING OFFERED

• Paragraph 1411 says, “Only validly ordained priests can preside at the Eucharist and consecrate the beard and the wine so that they become the Body and Blood of the Lord.”

• We know that happens even if they are sinners

• EX OPERE OPERATO

• The sacrament works even if the minister of the sacrament is broken, is a sinner

• They even could be an evil person if they intend to do what the Church intends

• Jesus Christ is acting and that sacrament is real and active

• Paragraph 1412 says, “The essential signs of the Eucharistic sacrament are wheat bread and grape wine…”

• It has to be wheat bread

• It can’t be rice cakes

• It has to be grape wine

• It can’t be sake or date wine

• Why?

• BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT JESUS USED!!

• We believe that matter matters

• So since Jesus used unleavened wheat bread and grape wine, that is what we have to use

• That is an essential part of the sacrament of the Eucharist

• Jesus is TRULY REALLY AND SUBSTANTIALLY PRESENT in the Eucharist which is HIS BODY BLOOD SOUL AND DIVINITY

• We have to prepare ourselves to receive this

• If we are aware of any mortal sins then we need to go to Confession

• We need to get ourselves into full communion with the Church

• The Eucharist leads us to this place of adoration and worship

• The Eucharist leads us to the place where we receive the VERY HEART OF JESUS and we give Him our heart in response

• There is so much that can be said about the Eucharist

• It’s a little sad to depart from talking about this

• There’s always more with God

• The Eucharist is the sacrament of sacraments

• So we are going to talk about our Lord in the Eucharist again and again as we continue to go back to Mass again and again

• It is always new

• So keep your eyes open and do not be blind to the reality 

• Keep your ears open and do not be deaf to this reality

• Stay sensitive and do not be numb to God’s presence in the Eucharist

• HE CONTINUES TO CALL OUR NAME!!

• HE CONTINUES TO PLACE HIMSELF BEFORE US!!

• HE CONTINUES TO GIVE US HIS HEART AND INVITE US TO GIVE HIM OUR HEARTS IN RESPONSE!!

• In order to do that, we need God’s Grace

• We need prayers

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!

• I cannot WAIT to see you tomorrow!!