The Eucharist

Dear Parishioners of Our Lady of Divine Providence Family of Parishes,

May the joy of the Risen Lord continue to fill your hearts and lives! Joy is a discipline that we can practice and nurture. Ultimately, our joy should be in Jesus, who has conquered death, our greatest threat. Now we need not fear our own extinction, but instead, we can enjoy eternal life.

In the Gospel passage this weekend, we hear of Jesus meeting his disciples on the road to Emmaus. Interestingly, these disciples express that they have lost their faith; they say they had hoped, but no more. More interesting is the historical fact that these particular disciples were close biological relatives of Jesus, who would have grown up with Him, and should have been able to recognize Him. Instead, they only recognize Him in “the breaking of the bread,” which is the Eucharist. This means that after the Resurrection, Jesus cannot be recognized by natural means. We can only see Him truly by faith. And our faith must be primarily in His Presence in the Eucharist, which is how He abides with us always, even if we cannot see His physical body.

Faith in the Eucharist enables us to face all of life’s difficulties with joy. Jesus lives in us and we in Him, if we eat His flesh and drink His blood. After receiving the Eucharist, the Emmaus disciples were invigorated and ran the whole way back to Jerusalem. We too can accomplish our journey to the Heavenly Jerusalem, if we are nourished by the Eucharist.

The Eucharist combines Sacrifice, Presence, and Communion. His body was given over, and His blood poured out, as a sacrifice to reconcile us with the Father. In the tabernacle and the monstrance, He remains present, silent, waiting, inviting, available and attentive to us, listening to our concerns and hopes and fears, just as He listened to the disciples on the way to Emmaus. In Communion, Jesus unites us to Himself, to one another in the Church, and to the angels and saints in Heaven.

The Catechism tells us that the Eucharist is the source and summit of our life, and our thinking must be attuned to the Eucharist, and the Eucharist confirms our thinking. The Catechism and the Second Vatican Council emphasize that everything the Christian does, whether in ordinary life, the apostolate, charitable works, etc., must always flow from the Eucharist and lead back to it.

As a symbol of our reverence for the Eucharist, the Church requires that the Blessed Sacrament be handled with the utmost care and reverence. This is an expression of our faith in the Resurrection. Christ remains with us in the breaking of the Bread. Canon Law states:

Let the Parish Priest strive so that the Most Holy Eucharist will be the center of the parish congregation of the faithful; let him work to ensure that Christ’s faithful are nourished through the devout celebration of the Sacraments, and in particular, that they frequently approach the Most Holy Eucharist and the Sacrament of Penance; let him strive, furthermore, to ensure that the faithful are encouraged to offer prayers in their families as well, and to participate consciously and actively in the Sacred Liturgy, which the Parish Priest, under the authority of the diocesan Bishop, is bound to regulate and supervise in his parish lest abuses occur.

Let us stir up in our hearts this Easter season a deeper devotion to the Eucharist. Jesus remains with us so that we can be transformed in Him, and possessing his unbounded life, we can feel His abundant joy.

In joy with Mary,
Fr. Henry Hoffmann