As Catholics in the United States, we continue to live out the call of the U.S. bishops for a revival of our Eucharistic faith. As we have noted previously in this column, the revival program is a three-year undertaking that began in June of this year, on Corpus Christi Sunday.

 

This initiative seeks to address the weakness that many are experiencing in their faith in the reality and the wide implications of what the Eucharist is. That is why the Eucharistic Revival is based upon three fundamental aspects.

 

First is the reality that after the priest, during the Mass, has acted in the person of Jesus by repeating the Lord’s words from the Last Supper, “This is my body,” and “This is the chalice of my blood,” the bread truly becomes Jesus’s body and the wine His blood. The physical elements of bread and wine remain but by God’s will they have become Jesus’s very self, shared with us from His time among the human race.

 

Second, because Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist, our encounter with the Eucharist is a personal encounter with Jesus Himself. We are not dealing with mere symbolism or with our human effort simply to remember Jesus. Rather, in the Eucharist we are called and able to meet Him as we would any friend that we encounter in love and joy time and again. We should speak to Jesus in that manner, sharing our joys, our worries, and even the recounting of the trivia of our days.

 

Third, the Eucharist joins us to all that Jesus was and is as He lived among us. We are to become like Him. Most especially, that means that our Eucharistic faith must move us to live Christ’s own charity toward others in this world. 

 

This charity flows from the love of Christ that we are meant to experience when we receive holy Communion. In so doing, in a deep and personal way, we the creature receive the love that is poured out on us by God, our Creator. Of course, God loves everything He has made because He has made everything good. But in the Eucharist we participate in an intense and personal union with Himself that Jesus offers us.

 

“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me” (Jn 6: 56-57). So Jesus said to us and all of His followers.

 

From this we believe that Jesus’s love in the Eucharist is not given to us privately or individually. Rather, it joins us together as believers to Christ. But even more, even those who have not come to faith in the Eucharist are still loved by Jesus. He died for their sins as well as our own.

 

We must, then, join our Eucharistic love to Christ’s own love for others. And just as Jesus had special care for the poor, the sick and those in need, we must explicitly draw from the Eucharist that same desire to fulfill charity in others.

 

There are so many ways and opportunities to fulfill that charity. Everyone can begin with the needs of their family members, both immediate and extended. God has placed each of us in those family circles and we assume responsibilities for each other.

 

Similarly, what about our neighbors? Are there any with particular needs for help, support or encouragement? So too can we contribute personally or financially to the St. Vincent de Paul Society or to Catholic Charities working in the Diocese of Rockford?

 

What is important is that we consciously make a connection between the Eucharist and charity. In that way we love Jesus more. We imitate Him. And we take His Eucharistic presence deeply into our hearts. That is part of His Real Presence in the Eucharist.