Two weeks ago, this column reflected on the ongoing Eucharistic revival taking place in the United States. That initiative seeks to strengthen and purify our Catholic faith in the depth and truth of the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

 

That previous column reminded us of the importance of the gesture when coming and going from church, to genuflect reverently and intentionally (or to bow if you are not physically able to genuflect).  It also highlighted the moment of the elevation of the host and the chalice at the consecration of the Mass as special times for us to stir up our faith in Jesus’s sacramental presence that goes beyond a merely symbolic memorial.

 

A third moment of critical importance is that of our actual reception of the Eucharist at Mass. Our faith is especially challenged at that moment. Whether on the tongue or in the hand, our senses fulfill the task that God has given them to us for. But their power is limited to our time and place, to our world. 

 

And so by sight, by touch, and by taste, our body perceives the continuation of bread and the presence of wine. In short, each time we receive Holy Communion, we confront the temptation of the senses to accept that nothing has changed in the course of the Mass. The bread and wine are what they were before the opening hymn. 

 

The further logical conclusion, if the senses alone are the final judge of truth, is that we are participating in what is merely symbolic. The value given to the bread and wine is not given by Christ but by us. And that value is our effort to reenact a special moment of history. It becomes our human and individual efforts to find value in the words of Jesus, and to make our lives better, or at least more tolerable because we have turned our minds and hearts to that message.

 

We need to be aware of this temptation as it relates to the Eucharist. That is because that temptation is seductive. It seems to be logical and gives us a way to grasp comfortably and with a worldly understanding the Mass and the Eucharist. But this temptation leads us to undervalue God’s power, His greatness and His love.

 

The Eucharist is, by its nature, something that goes beyond what we can perceive by the senses. The Last Supper has no lasting importance if it was simply a farewell meal offered by Jesus to the apostles.  Further, the words of Jesus during that supper “This is my body” over the bread, and “This is the chalice of my blood” over the wine either must go beyond what our earthly senses can perceive, or those words have at best a merely poetic meaning for us.

 

But the love of Christ for all of us, with the infinite power of His divinity at His disposal, gives us the hope and certainty of faith that believes that God can go beyond what the senses tell us. Jesus did change the bread into His body and the wine into His blood. In that way we are joined to the apostles at the Last Supper and to the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

 

For this reason, when we come to receive communion, we are making a public act of our faith in the True Presence of Jesus. When the priest offers us the host he says, “The Body of Christ.” It is both a statement and a question to us. Do you believe this? Our response of “Amen” for the reception of the sacred host and the chalice expresses our belief, or our effort to believe, the truth of this great gift.

 

What a great gift is given to us not only to be present before Christ in the Eucharist but to receive Him. It is our task to make our every effort to receive Him in faith and to make our hearts worthy for His dwelling within us.