During my eighth year of seminary, we devoted an entire semester simply to study the Sacrament which is at the heart of today’s feast: the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, the Eucharist. We studied how the scriptures, like St. Luke's feeding of the multitude, as we heard today, influenced the early Christians. We studied some of the ancient Eucharistic Prayers. We studied the medieval Theologians, especially Thomas Aquinas, who composed the prayers and hymns for today’s feast.
And at the end of the term, after hours and hours and hours of reading ancient texts and obscure theologians and the church’s most recent documents, our professor, Fr. Michael Woost—now Bishop-Elect Michael Woost tells us that the best way to prepare for the exam is to “study everything”, as the exam would be comprehensive of all the material we’ve covered since class one.
So I studied the 9th century Eucharistic Controversies, Thomas Aquinas, Pope John Paul II, and what cutting-edge theologians were writing about. Exam-day arrived and I was ready! So we get to the classroom and Fr. Woost passed out the blank exam booklets which we’d use to answer the exam questions. But, he then explained that the exam only had one question. He then handed us a small piece of paper with the exam’s only question, which consisted of two words and a question mark. The big exam question was “Why Eucharist?”
Fr. Woost said, “you have two hours, I suggest you use it wisely.” I see my classmates open their exam book and start writing. And I just sort of sat there stunned for a moment. What do you mean, “Why Eucharist?” I’ve studied Hugh of St. Victor, St. Fulgentius of Ruspe, Blessed Sacrament Priest Eugene LaVerdie, Cardinal Ratzinger, I memorized the third Eucharistic Prayer, and most of the first and second ones. And this simple question just stunned me.
My first thought was to write, “Why Eucharist? Why Not!” and hand that in. But if I did that, I probably would not have been ordained. So, as my classmates were writing and writing and writing, I’m just sort of sitting there. I had no idea where to start. How can you answer that question? “Why Eucharist” is like asking, “Why did God give us the Eucharist?” and it seemed pretty arrogant to presume we can even come close to answering that. We don’t call it the “Mystery of Faith” for nothing.
So, I sat there for what seemed like 15-20 minutes before writing a word. I felt stupid. And it probably took me a little too long to pray for inspiration. But when I did, I got an image. The image of kneeling in the chapel, in front of the monstrance, just prior to benediction. This is something that I had experienced hundreds of times. And I thought of the words of the priest, right after the Tantum Ergo. “Lord Jesus Christ, you gave us the Eucharist as the memorial of your suffering and death. May our worship of this sacrament of your body and blood, help us to experience the salvation you won for us and the peace of the kingdom, where you live with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.” That is the prayer, prior to benediction, written by St. Thomas Aquinas…for today’s feast.
So when those words popped into my head, I thought, Thanks be to God, thank you St. Thomas. Because that prayer answers the question, “Why Eucharist?” So, you can tell I didn’t fail the exam, because…well, here I am.
So hoes does today’s feast answer the question “Why Eucharist?” The Collect says it all. “Lord Jesus, you gave us the Eucharist as a memorial of your suffering and death” The Eucharist is given to us as a “memorial”. We are not angels, we have imperfect memories, we forget things, we need reminders. And the Eucharist is to help us remember that Jesus gave his Body and Blood for us on the cross. Without that great labor of love, there would be no hope of heaven for any of us.
When we celebrate Mass, we are transported to the Mount of Calvary; we kneel on the Mount of the cross, that we may be sprinkled with his cleansing blood. The Eucharist is the memorial of the Cross that Church has celebrated every week for 2000 years. For without this weekly reminder, Christians begin to drift away from the Church, we drift away from the power of the Cross; the power of His blood begins to dry up in our lives. “Do this in memory of me” the Lord says. And faithful to his command at the last supper, we come to mass every week for the Eucharist.
“Why Eucharist” The second part of that beautiful prayer, continues to answer that question “May our worship of this sacrament of your body and blood, help us to experience the salvation you won for us and the peace of the kingdom.”
The Eucharist is not an empty exercise. This act of worship has more power than anything else on earth to bring us grace and peace if we are open to it. When we come to Mass, and are open to it, we can experience deliverance from our sinful ways, help to face temptations, and the peace of the kingdom. We come to mass with the anxieties of uncertain futures and past sins, we bring our strained relationships, new loves, old hatreds and resentments, we bring our successes or distressing failures, our promotions at work and job losses, happy marriages, broken marriages, good health and impending deaths, our feelings of closeness with God, our feelings of His absence.
Whatever is going on in our lives, we come here to the altar to worship, to experience grace and Christ’s closeness, that the power of the cross may flow into all those relationships, all those successes, failures, challenges, and temptations, that they might be transformed like the bread and wine.
Why Eucharist? The Body and Blood of Jesus is the food of truth and spiritual life that sustains us on our earthly journey and mission. Without the Eucharist we will never overcome our sins, we will never love each other as we should, we will never spread the Gospel as we are tasked. “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you do not have my life within you.”
Thanks be to God for this great gift, left to us that we may never, never forget, and always, always know the fruits of his saving sacrifice for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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