The Eucharist is a sacred meal and sacrifice

The Eucharist is the sacred meal that Jesus wished to share with his disciples the night before he died.  He charged them to celebrate this eucharistic meal and sacrifice in the future “in remembrance of him.”  In transforming the broken bread into his body that would be nailed to a cross and his blood that would be shed by whips, thorns, nails and spear during his crucifixion, he made this sacred meal, like its predecessor, the Jewish Passover meal, a sacrifice.  

There was a major difference between the Passover meal and the eucharistic sacrifice.  No animal, no lamb, or goat, or ox, was offered in place of humans in this sacrificial meal.  The sacrificial victim was Jesus himself, in the words of the Council of Trent, “body and blood” (true man), “soul and divinity” (true God).  

This is why the Catholic Church believes that Jesus becomes truly present in both the bread and the wine during the Eucharistic Prayer in the Mass.  A validly ordained priest is necessary to speak the words of consecration in the person of Christ but it is only through the power of Christ, now risen and reigning in heaven, that this transformation (or transubstantiation) takes place. Why must our Christian sacred meal be also a sacrifice?  To explain this truth of our faith is the purpose of this column.  

Our greatest desire and blessing as a human being is to escape death as a complete obliteration of all that we have ever known and loved.  But we are mortal and have no power of our own to make such a blessing happen.  I have often thought that the fear of death and the resulting drive to control our individual destiny is the source of our sinfulness.  As St. John the Evangelist writes in his first epistle, “Whoever says that he is not a sinner is a liar.”  When we ask ourselves why we humans are so greedy, so cruel and even murderous at times, so violent and unwilling to forgive, it seems to always come down to an insane desire for self-protection, a fear of vulnerability, a willingness to destroy others before they can destroy us.  

In the first book of the Bible, Genesis, after Cain out of jealousy murders his brother, Abel, we read that evil continued to grow and “the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth and ... every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually” (Gn 6:5).  The psalms often speak of the pervasiveness of human evil bringing about “the wrath of God.”  Bishop Robert Barron comments in his book, “Eucharist,” that “wrath of God” is a biblical symbol for God’s passion to set things right, to bring his beloved creation, humankind, back from injustice and alienation and to restore us to communion with himself and one another.

How God does this is the story of the Bible.  In the Old Testament we read of the covenants God makes with his chosen people, the Jews, through Noah, Abraham, Moses and King David.  God promises peace and prosperity provided the Jews recognize him as the only God and are faithful to his commandments.  They are unfaithful, even though God sends prophets to call them back to obedience like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Amos.  Exasperated by the disobedience of this “stiff-necked people,” these prophets look to the future when God will carve his commandments, not on stone, but “in the hearts of the people” (Isaiah and Ezekiel).  

But, in a world where there is so much wrong, the communion God so wants between himself and his people, and then through them with all humankind, will not happen without sacrifice.  The crooked ways will not be made strait without the suffering of holy ones.  Many of these Old Testament prophets were martyred, including Isaiah.  However, he foresaw a future Messiah who would be a “suffering servant” and would be a powerful instrument of God to restore the communion between man and God. There are more than 300 references to this Messiah in the Old Testament.

This grand story of God restoring justice and right order to us who are “made in his own image” reaches its climax in the New Testament.  God the Father sends his own divine son to take upon himself our nature in every way, except sinfulness.  His holiness would be his complete surrender to God whose plan was to give up his own Son to death brought about by the lust for control, prestige and power of the Jewish religious leaders and the Roman government.  

This is the message of a new covenant, the fulfillment of all God’s promises in the covenants of the Old Testament.  God himself in the person of his son would die for us, so that his father may raise him from the dead, manifesting our true destiny, eternal life and communion with God, father and son who share with us their Spirit of love and new life for all eternity.  As St. Paul would preach to the Corinthians, “O death, where is your sting?” Mortal death here on earth becomes our ticket to the heavenly banquet.  This is God’s new covenant with us, his final promise of salvation.  

But like all offers of love, it has to be accepted.  We do this by sharing the sacred meal left us by his son, whose body and blood, soul and divinity, the Eucharist, become the nourishment to strengthen  our faith, hope and love as we live our journey through life and prepare to offer our life back to God. In accepting with thanksgiving this sacred meal, we must also accept our share of the suffering of the crucified son of God.  This twisted world cannot be made just and whole without our sacrifice joining that of Jesus.   

Father Carviille  is a retired priest in the Diocese of Baton Rouge and writes on current topics for The Catholic Commentator. He can be reached at [email protected].