Posted by John Derrig
In the spirit of the Eucharistic Revival initiated by the USCCB and Bishop Mueggenborg, I have decided to proceed with a bit of independent study. I wanted to focus on the overall meaning of the Eucharist and its ultimate effect. All of my reading and prayer resulted in two topics I find provocative: (1) the Eucharist as a continuation of the Incarnation and (2) the community as a Eucharistic people.
A Continuation of the Incarnation
Obviously, the first, original Incarnation occurred at the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Lk 1: 26-38). Jesus was physically conceived in Mary’s womb the moment she said yes.
The continuation of the Incarnation through time and history by means of the Eucharist is a new idea for me. I first stumbled across this idea in Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical on the Eucharist1. Pope St. John Paul II elaborates on this notion as follows:
The Eucharist, while commemorating the passion and resurrection, is also in continuity with the incarnation. At the Annunciation Mary conceived the Son of God in the physical reality of his body and blood, thus anticipating within herself what happens sacramentally in every believer who receives, under the signs of bread and wine, the Lord's body and blood.2
So, when Mary said yes, the Incarnation occurred in physical form in her womb. Similarly, when we say yes at each Eucharist, the Incarnation occurs in us in sacramental form. But, as an ordinary Catholic layperson, I’m left wondering what it might mean for ‘the Incarnation to occur in me in sacramental form’.
Ronald Rolheiser is the theologian I often turn to for puzzling questions like this.
At the Eucharist, it is not just the bread and wine that are transubstantiated; so too is the congregation. When the priest pronounces the words of consecration, he is not just asking God to turn the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ; he is also asking that the congregation be turned into the Body of Christ. Thus, when St. Augustine gave communion to newly baptized Christians, he would present the consecrated Host to them and say: “Receive what you are.”3
The Community as a Eucharistic people
It is true that the Eucharist we all love consists of sacraments within the Sacrament. A couple of these sacraments (small s) which are consistently impactful for me are when the priest raises the host and breaks it while we sing the Lamb of God. The priest or deacon then breaks the host into small pieces and pours the wine into cups for distribution (or at least he did when reception from the cup was more common). I like these sacraments because they indicate how I am to be broken and poured out for others as a Eucharistic person.
I think Pope St. John Paul II describes this well:
Proclaiming the death of the Lord “until he comes” (1 Cor 11:26) entails that all who take part in the Eucharist be committed to changing their lives and making them in a certain way completely “Eucharistic”. It is this fruit of a transfigured existence and a commitment to transforming the world in accordance with the Gospel which splendidly illustrates the eschatological tension inherent in the celebration of the Eucharist and in the Christian life as a whole.4
Fr. Rolheiser elaborates on this idea of Eucharistic people better than I can:
Being nourished by the Eucharist means more than receiving communion at Mass. We are called to be a Eucharistic people. The Body of Christ comprises three realities: the person of Jesus, the Eucharist, and the body of believers. And this latter component, the body of believers, which is us, is just as real and just as physical as is the person of Jesus and the Eucharistic species. St. Paul affirms clearly that we “are” Christ’s body, as real and as physical as is the historical Body of Jesus. So we too, the Christian community, are the Bread of Life.5
And so, how does all of this work for me as an ordinary St. Gall parishioner? After being dismissed and commissioned at the end of Mass, I often think to myself, ‘I feel pretty much the same after Mass as I did before’. My spiritual advisors suggest that I be patient and that this transformation is gradual and often feels imperceptible. Nevertheless, I very much want to be more completely a ‘Eucharistic person’.
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1 Mirae Caritatis, On the Holy Eucharist, Pope Leo XIII, 28 May 1902, paragraph 7 (toward the end).
2 Ecclesia de Eucharistia, On the Eucharist in its Relationship with the Church, Pope St. John Paul II, 7 April 2003, paragraph 55.
3 From the feature article in the August 2021 issue of the Give Us This Day publication. This article, titled “Holy Communion”, is written by Ronald Rolheiser. Fr. Rolheiser OMI, teaches at the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas, where he served as president for fifteen years. (Notice that Fr. Bill Nadeau belongs to the same order of priests: the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI)).
4 Ecclesia de Eucharistia, paragraph 20.
5 Feature article in the August 2021 Give Us This Day periodical.
