The Eucharist, the sacrifice of Christ and of the Church
History comprises two periods: first, the period when the sacrifice of the cross was awaited; and second, the period when the sacrifice was made and offered by Christ and his Church.
In this second period, Christ founded the Church in the community of those Twelve who, at the Last Supper, became partakers of the body and blood of the Lord. To the Church, his beloved Spouse, Christ entrusted the Eucharist: a memorial of his death and resurrection, a sacrament of love, a sign of unity.
In the First Epistle to the Corinthians, St Paul explains what the Eucharist is and its origin. He says that he had not invented it, but that he had just “received” it. It all began with Christ’s action “on the same night he was betrayed” (1 Cor 11:23). From Christ came the command to “do this in memory of me,” and in obedience to that command, we continue “thanking God,” “breaking the bread,” distributing his body, and presenting the chalice of his blood as that of “the New and Everlasting Covenant.”
Christ bequeathed his sacrifice to the whole Church, not just to each believer. Rather, he wants to bring men together as one people. That bond is established when the Church celebrates the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, when she proclaims “the Lord’s death until he comes,” and later, when the faithful approach the sacrament of the altar.
Therefore, each Mass presupposes union among the faithful and of the faithful with their bishop, with the pope, and with the universal Church. That solid union is made stronger with the celebration of the Eucharist and is a consequence of it. “In the sacrament of the Eucharistic bread, the unity of believers, who form one body in Christ, is both expressed and brought about.”
The Eucharist is a common possession of the Church as the sacrament of her unity. Thus, the Church has the strict duty to specify everything that concerns participation in this sacrament and its celebration.
“It is the right of all of Christ’s faithful that the Liturgy, and in particular the celebration of Holy Mass, should truly be as the Church wishes, according to her stipulations as prescribed in the liturgical books and in the other laws and norms.
The Eucharist is the creative force and source of communion among the members of the Church; it unites each one of them with Christ himself: “Really sharing in the body of the Lord in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread, we are taken up into communion with him and with one another. ‘Because the bread is one, we, though many, are one body, all of us who partake of the one bread’ (1 Cor 10:17).”
By giving us his body, the Lord transforms us into one body: the Church. Hence St Paul’s expression the Church is the body of Christ means that the Church expresses herself principally in the Eucharist. While present everywhere, the Church is yet one, just as Christ is one.
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