Jesus, instituted the Eucharist and gave us as a gift his whole life and is present among us in the most humble and light (in terms of weight) form. This form Jesus manifested to his disciples when he came walking on the water! Jesus offered his body and blood taking upon him the sins of the world. Yes, the Eucharist is the source and summit of our life. St Padr. Pio tells us exactly what happens during the Eucharist as he has gone through the Passion of Christ. The one chosen by Jesus to reveal his Passion! I am reminded of God, who allowed Prophet Hosea to undergo the infidelity of his wife just as the chosen people Israel were unfaithful to Him.
The Constitution ‘Sacrosanctum Concilium’ reminds “At the Last Supper, on the night when He was betrayed, our Saviour instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of His Body and Blood. He did this in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout the centuries until He should come again, and so to entrust to His beloved spouse, the Church, a memorial of His death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a paschal banquet in which Christ is eaten, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us”.
In this Holy Week, we will witness the Passion of Christ while there are live way of the cross or enactments! Reading and reflecting the Passion of Christ may enable us to understand the Way of the Cross! And what is Jesus Christ asking us to offer together with His body and blood.
Here is something I was touched upon: What do we offer then when we offer our body and blood along with Jesus in the Mass?
In the word “body” we offer our time, health, energy, abilities, affection, brokenness perhaps even one little smile – because only a spirit that lives in a body is able to smile, and, at times a smile is a very, very precious thing. In the word “blood” we offer our humiliations, failures, illnesses, limitation that come with age or ill health: everything, in short that “mortifies” us.
Let us try to imagine what would happen if we could bring this kind of personal participation to our celebration of the Mass: if each of us, silently, could truly say, at the moment of the consecration, “Take, eat: this is my body. Take, drink: this is my blood.”
A wife and mother celebrates her Mass this way and goes home, to start her day filled with a thousand little things. Her life is crumbled away like a biscuit. But what she does is in no way insignificant: she is Eucharist, together with Jesus.
A parish priest or a Bishop celebrates the Mass that way, and then gets on with his day: praying, hearing confessions, reading, receiving people, visiting the sick, listening. His day too is Eucharist. He can say: “In the morning, I am the priest and Christ is the victim: during the day, Christ is the priest and I am the victim.”
Whoever we are: Married, Anointed, Consecrated, workers or young people, let’s give glory to God with our body with an undivided love for Christ to the service of others and give it as a gift of love for humanity.
