Wednesday, April 18, 2018

The Eucharist is the Church. The Church is the Eucharist.

"I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”  (John 6: 51).

Have you noticed that since Monday, April 16, 3rd Week of Easter, the Gospel has been from John 6.  The Gospel message this week is called the Bread of life discourse.  Jesus' promise to offer us His Body and Blood as food and drink is so important that in a curriculum of 52 weeks, the Church assigned one full week to this unique subject.

How does the Church understand The Eucharist?
The Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life.".. ."For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch."  (CCC 1324).
This is pretty a weighty statement.
To summarize this in words of Pope St John Paul II:
The Eucharist is the Church. The Church is the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the raison d'etre for the existence of the priesthood. The Eucharist is intimately intertwined in the mystery of the Church and the priesthood. No priest, no Eucharist, no Church.  This is a well known axiom.

Thank You Jesus for the gift of Your Body and Blood.

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