As we move through the month of June, we continue to reflect on this time as the beginning of the year of the Eucharistic Revival on the parish level. Throughout the United States, parishes in every diocese are conducting various efforts including prayer gatherings, small group meetings, homilies and especially a review of the spiritual and missionary outreach that flows from the True Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

 

In this column the last two weeks we have reflected upon the reality that in the Mass, as at the Last Supper, through the work of the Holy Spirit and the priest acting in the person of Jesus, the bread truly becomes Christ’s body and the wine becomes His blood. We have also examined the reason for some of the special gestures such as genuflection when entering and leaving church, and for the need for spiritual preparation and union with the Church and her faith as a basis for receiving Christ in holy Communion.

 

The transformation, by God’s will, of the reality of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ is a miracle that happens at every Mass. Because Jesus is now sacramentally but truly present, we truly are at that moment with God and stand before Him.

 

The natural reaction and obligation of the human person in the presence of his or her Lord and Maker, Judge and Redeemer, will be to worship the One who is greater than us. We have life not only as His gift at our birth but in every moment our continued life flows from God as the source of life.

 

The great joy and privilege of attending Mass reaches its highlight at the consecration. At that moment, the priest acting in the person of Jesus repeats the words of Christ recorded for us and handed on from the Last Supper. This is my body. This is the cup of my blood.

 

After each of those sacred words is uttered, the priest raises the host which has become Christ’s body. Similarly the chalice, now truly holding the blood of Jesus, is raised. Both, in a short space of time, are displayed to all in church. Most important at that moment is the internal movement of our hearts and minds to acknowledge the Divine Presence and to offer ourselves to be united to Jesus.

 

That sense of awe joined to worship and adoration of God continues at the moment of communion and worthy reception of Christ. The priest or minister says to each of us, “The body of Christ” and if we are also receiving from the chalice, “The blood of Christ.” In each case we respond, “Amen,” that is, “I believe.” 

 

In that moment of reception of holy Communion, we are drawn further into that same adoration and worship of God who has come so close to us that gives us Himself to eat. The adoration and worship offered when receiving holy Communion are joined to the moment of Christ’s arrival at the consecration, and both moments foreshadow our joy and adoration in heaven.

 

St. Augustine wrote, “No one eats that flesh without first adoring it; we should sin should we not adore it.” This is why the reverent reception of holy Communion is a sign of acknowledgement of the True Presence of Jesus.

 

Each of us should examine our spiritual disposition at the consecration and in the reception of holy Communion. As part of our own personal renewal, can we open our heart and minds more? Can we try to develop habits of adoration and worship, both external and especially internal, to welcome God into our hearts and lives through the Eucharist?

 

Like so many aspects of faith, we cannot simply be passive. We must do our part. We must make the effort. The recognition of Jesus’s True Presence and the offering of ourselves in adoration and worship are what we have been made for and called to in faith. But they will not happen unless we make the effort. That is part of any Eucharistic Revival.