In the Easter season, we the baptized reflect on how we have the amazing grace at each Eucharistic celebration of being brought to the table to eat and drink the full presence of Christ. Saint Gregory of Nyssa wrote: “Faith is the womb that conceives this new life, baptism the rebirth by which it is brought forth into the light of day. The Church is its nurse; her teachings are its milk, the bread from heaven is its food” (Oratio 1 in Christi Resurrectionem),

Jesus “addressed these words to us: Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will not have life in you. Daily it is before our eyes as a representation of the passion of Christ. We hold it in our hands, we receive it in our mouths, and we accept it in our hearts” (from a sermon by Saint Gaudentiu of Brescia, Tract 2).

To break open just how amazing this is, I want to share with you an image that comes down to us from Cyril of Alexandria. In the 5^th Century he was the Patriach of Alexandria and is considered a Church Father and Doctor of the Church. This great bishop and teacher used the image of melted wax to help people understand their union with Christ through the Eucharist. Imagine that you are making homemade candles. After setting the pot over a heat source, you would add wax, sometimes different pieces of wax, and then allow the wax to melt. The resulting candle is a new piece of wax. The first piece of wax is now in the second, and the second is in the first. In the same way, when you receive holy Communion you are truly partaking of the flesh and blood of Christ. When you nourish yourself on the Eucharist you are now found in Christ and Christ is found in you, as we see in the image of the two pieces of wax that have been melted together. Saint Cyril of Alexandria said it this way: “For as if one should join wax with other wax, he will surely see (I suppose) the one in the other; in like manner (I deem) he who receives the flesh of our saviour Christ and drinks his precious blood, as he says, is found one with him…so that he is found in Christ, Christ again in him (On John 4.2).

One hundred years earlier, Saint Cyril of Jerusalem taught the faithful of his diocese about the Eucharist. What we believe about the Eucharist today is exactly what this great Saint taught the newly baptized in the 4^th Century. We know this because his teaching is recorded in a very important document called The Jerusalem Catecheses.

On the night he was betrayed our Lord Jesus Christ took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples and said: “Take, eat: this is my body.” He took the cup, gave thanks and said: “Take, drink: this is my blood.” Since Christ himself has declared the bread to be his body, who can have any further doubt? Since he himself has said quite categorically, This is my blood, who would dare to question it and say that it is not his blood? Therefore, it is with complete assurance that we receive the bread and wine as the body and blood of Christ. His body is given to us under the symbol of bread, and his blood is given to us under the symbol of wine, in order to make us by receiving them one body and blood with him. Having his body and blood in our members, we become bearers of Christ and sharers, as Saint Peter says, in the divine nature (St. Cyril of Jerusalem, From the Jerusalem Catecheses, Cat 22 Mystagogica).

Through our partaking of Jesus’ body and blood in the Eucharist, Jesus dwells in us. The theological doctrine for this ontological change of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus is transubstantiation. This word began to be used in the twelfth century and was accepted by the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) and approved by the Magisterium. The word transubstantiation indicates that “once the substance or nature of the bread and wine has been changed into the Body and Blood of Christ, nothing remains of the bread and the wine except the Species—beneath which Christ, whole and entire in his physical ‘reality,’ is even corporeally present” (Paul VI, Mysterium Fidei, no. 47).

From the very beginning of Christian history, holy men and women have reflected on Christ’s presence in the Eucharist and have taught that the sacred transformation that occurs in the eucharistic liturgy is a sign and a cause of the transformation that should occur in the lives of all those who receive this great sacrament of Christ’s love.

It is the Holy Spirit who sanctifies and changes the bread and wine during the Eucharistic Prayer at Mass into the body and blood of Jesus. It is the divine Holy Spirit who sanctifies and divinizes people through the Eucharist. Cyril of Alexandria testifies to this when he wrote: “The holy body of Christ then gives life to those in whom it is […] being commingled with our body.” And also, ultimately, the aim of partaking of the Eucharist is for believers to be made partakers of the divine nature, to be made holy (On John).

We can see, then, why St Cyril of Jerusalem taught that Christians truly receive in the Eucharist a share in Christ’s body and blood, become of one body and one blood with Christ, and thus have become Christ-bearers who share in the divine nature through the Eucharist (cf. D.R. Hawk-Reinhard, “Cyril of Jerusalem’s Sacramental Theosis,” Studia Patristica, LSVI, pg. 248). Through partaking in the Eucharist we participate in life, because Christ is Life by nature.

With the concluding hymn of Mass, our attention could get captured by figuring out how we will maneuver our way out of the Church parking lot or arrive at the next event for the day on time—perhaps athletics or brunch or a project at home. Saint Gaudentius of Brescia teaches us that the heavenly sacrifice instituted by Christ, the Eucharist, “is our sustenance on life’s journey; by it we are nourished and supported along the road of life until we depart from this world and make our way to the Lord.”

The Eucharist supports us on our life’s journey through the rest of the week!

Jesus in the Eucharist teaches us how to walk through life’s maze of joys and struggles and tears. Diognetus wrote in a letter in the 2^nd or 3^rd Century state that there is something extraordinary about the lives of Christians, about our lives, yours and mine.
 
“And yet there is something extraordinary about their lives. They live in their own countries as though they were only passing through. …Any country can be their homeland, but for them their homeland, wherever it may be, is a foreign country. … They live in the flesh, but they are not governed by the desires of the flesh. They pass their days upon earth, but they are citizens of heaven. Obedient to the laws, they yet live on a level that transcends the law. Christians love all men, but all men persecute them. Condemned because they are not understood, they are put to death, but raised to life again. They live in poverty, but enrich many; they are totally destitute, but possess an abundance of everything. They suffer dishonour, but that is their glory. They are defamed, but vindicated. A blessing is their answer to abuse, deference their response to insult. For the good they do they receive the punishment of malefactors, but even then they rejoice, as though receiving the gift of life (The Letter to Diognetus).

We are encouraged to live on this earth as if passing through. Saint Gregory the Great opens up our hearts to the joy of the heavenly feast to which we are called:

Beloved brothers, let us set out for these pastures where we shall keep joyful festival with so many of our fellow citizens. May the thought of their happiness urge us on! Let us stir up our hearts, rekindle our faith, and long eagerly for what heaven has in store for us. To love thus is to be already on our way. No matter what obstacles we encounter, we must not allow them to turn us aside from the joy of that heavenly feast. Anyone who is determined to reach his destination is not deterred by the roughness of the road that leads to it. Nor must we allow the charm of success to seduce us, or we shall be like a foolish traveller who is so distracted by the pleasant meadows through which he is passing that he forgets where he is going (From a homily on the Gospels by St Gregory the Great, pope).

Saint John Chrysostom, however, speaks more directly to the Eucharistic life that we are called to live after receiving Jesus in the Eucharist at Mass. He comments on St. Paul’s words: “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Cor. 10:17). Helping us dig more deeply into the meaning of this verse of the Bible that we hear–and even sing–often, Chrysostom explains how amazing these words of Paul are. It is true that in the Eucharist we have “communion in the body of Christ, as Paul stated in the previous verse. But now, the great Apostle goes further by stating that we are this very body of Christ. “For what is the bread?” Saint John Chrysostom asks. “It is the body of Christ. And what do the communicants become? The body of Christ. Not many bodies, but one body. For as the bread consists of many grains, so united that they are no longer distinguishable, and as they still subsist, though their individuality is no longer apparent to the eye because of their intimate union, so are we united one with the other and with Christ. … And so Paul adds: ‘We all partake of the one bread.’ If therefore by eating of the same body we all become that body, why do we not manifest to one another the same charity, and become on in this respect as well?”

O charity beyond all telling!

We have been loved with an endless outpouring of God’s charity. We have become through our partaking of the Eucharist one body with Christ and with each other. And we are called to live in this world a Eucharistic charity that is also beyond all telling! The first Christians were visible to the world around them only because of their love for one another and so should we be known for this same selfless outpouring of love.

Direction for prayer this Easter Season:

1. At Mass, use images and phrases from this article that you have most resonated with to help you prepare more deeply for receiving the body and blood of Jesus in the Eucharist in Holy Communion and in your thanksgiving.
2. Reflect slowly on the words of Saint Gregory the Great: “Let us set out for these pastures where we shall keep joyful festival with so many of our fellow citizens. May the thought of their happiness urge us on! Let us stir up our hearts, rekindle our faith, and long eagerly for what heaven has in store for us.” How could your love for the amazing gift of Jesus in the Eucharist bring you greater happiness the rest of the week?
3. Read the challenging words of Saint John Chrysostom and ask Jesus: What more can I do? “For what is the bread?” Saint John Chrysostom asks. “It is the body of Christ. And what do the communicants become? The body of Christ. Not many bodies, but one body. For as the bread consists of many grains, so united that they are no longer distinguishable, and as they still subsist, though their individuality is no longer apparent to the eye because of their intimate union, so are we united one with the other and with Christ. … And so Paul adds: ‘We all partake of the one bread.’ If therefore by eating of the same body we all become that body, why do we not manifest to one another the same charity, and become on in this respect as well?”

Image Credit: Blessed Sacrament Chapel in the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, D.C.