Last week, this column reflected on the parish phase of the Eucharistic Revival that has now begun. As noted in those comments, this revival has a broad set of implications and goals, all of which flow from the very reality of the Eucharist. That is, we believe the words of Jesus Himself to the apostles at the Last Supper when He said “This is my body” and “This is my blood.” 

 

That moment was the first Mass. At the Last Supper and today at every Mass, the bread retains its physical appearance and expression of earthly bread. So too does the wine maintain its liquid expression, its color and its taste. But by the will of God and the intervention of the Holy Spirit, the essence, the reality of those earthly matters, has now become respectively the Body and the Blood of Jesus Christ.

 

In the mystery of God’s greatness and His love, God makes Himself truly present in the midst of our earthly reality in the Eucharist. This presence is not simply symbolic. For us to hold that belief would be to diminish the very reality of God’s gift and His closeness to us.

 

Even more, on Good Friday the body and blood of Jesus, hung on the cross, were offered as a loving sacrifice to His Father for the forgiveness of our sins. Because Jesus said to the apostles that this is His body “which will be given for you” (Lk 22:19), and His blood “which will be shed for many” (Mk 14:24), in the Eucharist the Body and Blood of Jesus is once more joined to the sacrifice of Calvary on Good Friday. In essence, we are in the presence of Jesus’s one offering of Himself to the Father that continues in our own day.

 

The Eucharistic Revival seeks to renew in us the personal faith and conviction in the reality of this gift. Jesus is truly present in our midst in the Mass and in the tabernacle. So too, in Eucharistic adoration is Jesus present in the monstrance as we pray to and adore Him in the host.

 

This knowledge helps us to understand some of the Catholic practices that seek to bring about a coherence between the faith of our minds and our hearts and our external expression of that belief. For example, it is the Catholic practice to genuflect before entering our pew on arriving in church, and similarly as we leave. The genuflection makes use of one of the most widespread and historical gestures of acknowledgement of the presence of a person and reality greater than the one who touches knee to the floor.

 

In genuflecting, our attention should be on the tabernacle in the church. We offer our first greeting to Jesus upon our arrival and a believing and respectful farewell as we depart. Our internal attitude seeks a worthy expression externally. In this way our whole human nature becomes involved in belief and worship.

 

For the same reason, in the traditional Catholic practice of the centuries, the reception of holy Communion is reserved to Catholics who believe, are rightly prepared and are not knowingly in the state of mortal sin. Because this means that as Catholics we do not generally participate in shared communion with other churches, and that some Catholics need the sacramental forgiveness of confession before receiving, it is sometimes said that the Catholic Church is unwelcoming. But this is a tragic misunderstanding.

 

Entrusted with the gift of the Eucharist, the faithful have, from the earliest centuries, recognized the need for unity with the faith and practice of the Church as a necessary element for worthy reception of the Body and Blood of Jesus.

 

The sad fracturing of Christian unity has left divisions. Further, many denominations hold that the Eucharist is merely a symbolic presentation of the Last Supper. In that case it would be a counter sign both for those Christians and for the Catholic faithful to participate in inter-communion when there is not a fundamental union, a common belief in the meaning of the Eucharist.

 

Likewise, as Catholics we recognize that mortal sin that has not been forgiven leaves one outside of the state of grace. In that case one has separated oneself from the Church and from God’s will. That counter sign also must be addressed before returning to the reception of the Eucharist.

 

Christ loves us and has given us His enduring presence in the Eucharist. Our faith and the joy 

of our hearts is the response to that gift. Let the revival begin!