On the Institution of the Sacrament of the Eucharist
Offering in praise and thanksgiving is a basic human expression of paying tribute to God. The first ever mentioned offerings in the Bible are that of Cain from the fruits of the soil, and Abel from his flock. God favored the offering of Abel because it came from the best firstlings of his flock. After the flood, Noah chose from the clean animals and birds to offer God a holocaust on an altar he built. God smelled the sweet odor of the offering and he vowed never again to doom the earth. The quintessential offering of bread and wine was first made by Melchizedek when he greeted and later blessed Abraham.
When God commanded the Israelites to remember the great wonder of the Exodus from Egypt by celebrating yearly the Feast of the Passover, they instituted the ritual observance that includes a meal of bread and wine. A prayer of thanksgiving and blessing is said before eating the bread and before drinking the wine. Bread, to remember the unleavened bread the Israelites ate on the night of the Passover and the unleavened bread they brought as food for their journey, there being no time to wait for the rising of the dough; and Wine, symbolizing the blood of the lambs that was shed and painted on the doorposts. Bread also came to symbolize the manna, the bread from heaven, that was eaten by the Israelites in the desert. One can imagine the young Jesus observing the yearly Feast of the Passover with Joseph and Mary…
On the night of the Last Supper, Jesus gave new divinely profound meaning to the rites of Passover. He offered his own body and blood as a sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins and food for eternal life. Surrounded by his beloved Apostles, he took bread and, giving thanks, broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying: “Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my body which will be given up for you”. In a similar way, he took the chalice and once more giving thanks, gave it to his disciples saying: “Take this all of you and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my blood, of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins”. Ending with the command “Do this in memory of me”, Jesus thus instituted the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
When the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek in the 3rd Century BC, “giving thanks and praise”, in Hebrew berekah, was translated to eucharistia. When the English translation of the Bible was made, eucharistia was transliterated into Eucharist.
For a Sacrament to be truly effected, three conditions are necessary: Minister, Matter and Form. In the Sacrament of the Eucharist, the minister is a validly ordained priest. Matter is the unleavened bread which we call Host, and wine that must come from grapes. The Form is the very words Jesus said on its institution. And so whenever we attend Mass, we must be conscious and focus our attention to the Altar when these words of consecration are uttered by the priest for it is the most holy part of the mass when the sacrament is effected. Rubrics even dictate that the proper gesture for this moment is kneeling down because of its holy importance that must be accorded our highest form of respect.
In the Sacrament of the Eucharist where Jesus himself is the sacrificial offering, we render to God what is due to him: Praise and Thanksgiving. Thus, the Catechism tells us, the Eucharist is the source and summit of Christian life; sum and summary of the Christian Faith. That is why, the Eucharist must be at the heart of every disciple of Jesus. As St. Teresa of Calcutta once said, “We cannot separate our lives from the Eucharist”.
Icon Stock photos by Vecteezy
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