[attach id=258971 size="medium"]The Christ the King monument in Floriana commemorating the International Eucharistic Congress held in Malta in 1913.[/attach]
A hundred years ago, a Eucharistic Congress – an annual event in the Universal Church – was held in Malta. These days we have been regaled with some photos and write-ups of the event in newspapers and other means of social communication.
Non-believers may question why Catholics make so much fuss about the Eucharist. A reflection about the Holy Eucharist has as its starting point, the mission of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our Lord revealed God to us as deeply in love with humanity. We may say also that, in Jesus Christ, human beings are at the centre of the relation between God and man. In other religions, it is man who has to be in search of the Divinity. In Christianity, it is God, who seeks man so as to establish this relationship.
This gives a great dignity and worth to human beings. Perhaps this is the reason why in the New Testament, love of God and love of others are one, so that we may continue to show His Love towards human beings.
Whoever receives the Blessed Eucharist receives the grace of salvation that was given to us in the Death and Resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ came to earth and entered human history. Humanity now also has the Divinity as a part of its History. We call this the Incarnation: the Son of God becoming man like us.
Jesus Christ, on the Cross, took upon himself the sins of all and through his forgiveness for those who were crucifying him, marked his humanity also with an offering of intercession and forgiveness. No other sin could be as heinous as the killing of the Son of God!
However, these mysteries of Our Lord’s life have a three-fold dimension. Since they were lived by Christ in his humanity, they happened in a definite time and space, otherwise they would not be human. But since they were lived by the Son of God who became man, in his Divinity, their effect touched all of humanity: not only those who came after him, but also all those who came before Him. Their effects were above history, but have the power to change history.
However, the effects of his mysteries had to be conveyed individually, to each human being, in a definite time and space. This is the saving mission of the Church, which, being in time and space, conveys to its members, individually, the graces that the intervention of Jesus Christ in our humanity, brought to us.
In this perspective, we can understand the creative plan of God in the Holy Eucharist.
The Blessed Eucharist was instituted in the context of the Last Supper. Our Lord gave them bread to eat and wine to drink. He explained his actions by these words: “And as they were eating, he took bread and when he had said the blessing, he broke it and gave it to them ‘Take it’ he said: ‘this is my Body’. Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he handed it to them and all drank from it and he said to them: ‘This is my Blood, the Blood of the Covenant, poured out for many’”.
We can explain the Eucharist by considering it as a prolongation of the graces which our Lord bestowed upon us.
In the Blessed Eucharist there is a prolongation of the grace of the Incarnation. This time, however, it is received as a personal gift from Our Lord. That is why we call the Eucharist a ‘real presence since the humanity which our Lord adopted was real, it follows that even the presence of the Eucharist in those who ask for it, and receive it, is real.
Whoever receives the Blessed Eucharist receives the grace of salvation that was given to us in the Death and Resurrection of the Lord. In the Eucharist this is also given to the receiver as a personal gift, re-enacting the sacrifice on the Cross, in response to those who ask for it.
This is what the Catholic Church, and each believer lives in the Holy Eucharist. No other act of devotion can bring about these effects in the believer. The Eucharist cannot be substituted by any other action.
At the end of this Eucharistic Week, I invite you to start this journey to discover the beauty of the Lord’s risen Body.
Mgr Paul Cremona is Archbishop of Malta.