Why do we gather for
Eucharist?
In the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses reminds the people that God has fed them with manna, a food
unknown to them, in order to show them that not by bread alone does one live, but
by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord. Throughout their sojourn in the desert, God takes
care of God’s people, sees to it that they have everything they need. And they do need physical food, yes, of
course, but more than that, Moses says, they need to listen to the word of God,
to allow it to feed and direct their lives – this is essential. In Psalm 147, God is praised for having
provided Jerusalem with the best of wheat,
but also for proclaiming his word to
Jacob, to Israel as a nation –
the word of the Lord according to which they must live, for that word is
life-giving.
John’s Gospel makes this
clear: I am the living bread that came down from heaven; and the one who feeds on me will have life
because of me. Only by the Word of
God – Jesus himself – do we live; God’s Word is essential, necessary to our
existence. At Creation, Jesus is the Word
through whom all things come into existence; in the Incarnation, all Jesus says
and does is of God, and reveals God—Jesus is the perfect revelation of God, of
God’s eternal love for humankind, the fullest revelation of God we have ever received. To eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus
Christ –true food, true drink—is thus
to be one in that revelation, to become one with that essence, one with the
transformed bread and wine that become the body and blood of Christ. We gather for Eucharist because in Eucharist,
as Paul tells the Corinthians, the cup of
blessing that we bless is a
participation in the blood of Christ, and the bread that we break is a
participation in Christ’s body. In Eucharist, we participate in the body
and blood of Christ. In Eucharist, we are fed in our spiritual
bodies by the Word made flesh, thus becoming one body, one essence.
Why do we gather for
Eucharist? Because in Eucharist, we are
made one, one with Christ, one with each other, one in that Body of Christ that
is the life-giving essence of our identity as Christians, that we might share his gift of life with the world.
This post is based on Fr.
Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: Wordle
Image source: Wordle
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