Holy Thursday: The Eucharist

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

(Proofread)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

“And when the hour had come, he reclined at table, and the twelve apostles with him. Then he said to them, ‘I have longed and longed to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you that I will eat of it no more until it has been fulfilled in the Kingdom of God” (Luke 22:14-16).

Again, Our Lord talks about the hour—the hour has now come. “Now has the hour come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (John 12:23). It's a word that Our Lord uses frequently in relation to these hours, the hour of the Redemption.

“He reclined at table, and the twelve apostles with him,” surrounded by His friends, the people that He loves so much, that He's chosen, that He's formed, that He's going to send out to change the world. And among them still is Judas.

Then He says, “I have longed and longed to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15). It's pretty expressive. You could say that today, Holy Thursday, is the feast of the longing and longing. It's the heart of Christ, speaking about the love that He has for His own.

He wants to stay with them for all time, and now He's going to make it possible. Usually, people can't go away and stay at the same time, but He's going to do precisely that. Some translations say, “I have greatly desired to eat this Passover” or “I have ardently desired to eat this Passover.”

It's very deep, profound, strong. The heart of Christ is speaking very clearly to the hearts of the people that He loves. And He's going to institute the sacrament of love.

“I've desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” Christ foretells that He's going to suffer. This is why the Sacrifice of the Mass is not just a renewal of the Last Supper; it's a renewal of the Sacrifice of Calvary. There's a link between the Last Supper and Calvary.

At the Last Supper, Our Lord foretells the sacrifice that's going to take place: “I say to you that I will eat of it no more until it has been fulfilled in the kingdom of God” (Luke 22:16).

All through the discourse in the Last Supper, Our Lord used very deep, profound words. Did the apostles understand what He was saying? Perhaps not, but He used them anyway; later on, they're going to understand. The Holy Spirit is going to enlighten their minds for all the things that He has said to them.

“And having taken bread, he gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body’” (Luke 22:19).

“This is my body.” Christ doesn't say, ‘This is a figure of my body’ or ‘a symbol of my body.’ He said, “This is my body.” These words are very important.

John Paul II has said that the words, “This is my body, this is my blood,” form the center of the life of every priest (cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, Point 31, April 17, 2003). And we all have a priestly soul.

These words are the basis for our belief in the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. We believe that He is “really, truly, and substantially present, body and blood, soul and divinity, whole and entire, under the species of bread and under the species of wine” (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, Point 1374).

The Sacrament of Love is at the center of the whole of the life of the Church. This day, Holy Thursday, the feast of the institution of the Eucharist, occupies a very special place, therefore, in the liturgical year.

We have to be aware of the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. It has to influence our lives. We try and teach this to children with our example, with our genuflection.

There was a Japanese tourist once who was touring Rome, and he had no religion, and he was in one of these marvelous basilicas. There was an altar server who was going over and back across the sanctuary area. The altar server genuflected each time in front of the tabernacle, and the Japanese tourist was wondering what this was all about.

He went to him after a while and he said, “I noticed that when you go over and back here, you go down on one knee. Why do you do that?”

The altar server explained, “You see, we believe that our God is present there in that box which we call the tabernacle.”

And the Japanese tourist said, “Oh, where I come from, if we believed that Our God was there in that box called the tabernacle, we'd be on our knees from the door.”

Interesting way of looking at things. When we approach the Blessed Sacrament, there needs to be reverence, faith put into practice.

St. Edith Stein talks about how, as a Jewess, she was looking for truth. And one day in [Frankfurt], she entered into a Catholic church. She'd never been inside a Catholic church before.

When she was there, a lady came in with her shopping basket to make a visit to the Blessed Sacrament. She was thinking, “No Jewess would ever think of passing by the synagogue to say a prayer, coming from the marketplace with her shopping basket.”

She was very touched by the faith of this good woman who just put her faith into practice in a very simple way. God used that example to stir the faith in a future saint.

She converted to Catholicism. She entered a Carmelite convent. She fled to Holland. She was taken back to Auschwitz. She died there as a martyr. She is now one of the patronesses of Europe.

We never know how God is going to enkindle faith in His Real Presence around us.

There was a parish priest once who found a big bulge under the altar cloth in front of the tabernacle. He went to investigate, and he found there was a banana there.

Somebody had placed a banana under the altar cloth in front of the tabernacle. He took it away, a bit surprised at who could have done this or where this came from.

The following day there was another banana. This went on for quite a few days. And he decided he had to get to the bottom of this.

He roughly deciphered when the banana was appearing. It was just after lunchtime. There was a kindergarten school beside the parish church. He hid in the sacristy to see who was placing the banana.

Then there was the pitter-patter of little feet. Some four-year-old comes up, looks left, looks right. Then he goes up to the altar, sees there's nobody around, lifts up their hand, and feels on the altar cloth. He can't see, but feels with the hand, and feels there's nothing there, and says to Jesus, “Oh, Jesus, very good. I see you are hungry. Well, never mind. I brought you another one.”

And out came another banana. The parish priest nearly melted. But then he was thinking, “Now how do I put a stop to this?”

He had an idea, and he got a basket of fruit and he found out where the little child lived and went to pay a visit to the child. He said, “This basket of fruit is from Jesus to thank you very much for all the fruit you've been bringing him. But thank you very much. He doesn't want any more bananas.”

Today, in a special way the Church tries to foster our faith in that Real Presence with the Eucharistic procession, with the Altar of Repose. We learn how to treat Jesus well in the Blessed Sacrament, showing our affection with care of liturgical details, of the linens, of the candlesticks, perhaps placing flowers on the altar, seeing how, with all of these simple material things, we transmit our faith. “We go to the great spiritual mysteries through physical signs and symbols” (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, Point 1146).

When the priest at the Consecration says the words of Consecration, he says, “This is my body.” He doesn't say, ‘This is the body of Christ.’ He says that when he's distributing Communion.

But in the moment of the Consecration, he says, “This is my body,” because the priest is acting in the person of Christ, in persona Christi.

We believe that God is coming down and taking over the life of the priest, using his words, his being, to bring about the miracle of the Transubstantiation, whereby the substance of the bread and wine is changed into the substance of the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ becomes present in that moment.

“This is my body, which is being given for you” (Luke 22:19). With that verb “given,” He foretells the sacrifice of the Cross that's about to take place.

“In like manner, he took also the cup after supper saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood which shall be shed for you’” (Luke 22:20). Again, Our Lord foretells the shedding of His Blood on Calvary, emphasizing again that the Mass is a sacrifice.

John Paul II, in one of his final apostolic letters on the Eucharist, says that the Eucharist is “the heart of the mystery of the Church” (John Paul II, Encyclical Letter, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, Point 1, April 17, 2003). The Church exists for the Blessed Eucharist. It's the most perfect of all the sacraments.

All the sacraments, says [Fr. John Hardon], “transmit grace, but the Blessed Sacrament contains the author of grace.” It is the most perfect of the sacraments (Catechism, Point 1374).

That's why we have to try and prepare very well for every Holy Communion. Every Holy Communion is important. We can grow in our fervor.

Perhaps, we can pray the prayers that we prayed as little children, or look at our Missal or some other prayer book that contains prayers in preparation for Holy Communion, or prayers [of thanksgiving] after the Mass, that help us to realize a little bit what has just taken place, so that it doesn't pass us by. We don't get into routine. But we savor those moments.

“In the Holy Eucharist,” says Pope John Paul, “through the changing of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of the Lord, the Church rejoices in this presence with unique intensity” (ibid.).

The ceremonies of these days, and particularly the procession and Altar of Repose, express that joy, rejoicing in His Presence. Every day, we have an opportunity to rejoice in that Presence.

There was a story of a little girl who was told by her mom about the Blessed Sacrament, and that each day when she was at school, she could run to the chapel and make a little visit.

That's where every day she ran into the chapel and said, “Hi Jesus, this is Mary. Bye.” And she fled off again. She made this flying visit every day, as taught by her mom.

But then one day she became very ill. Her mother was very worried because she thought she might die. But the little girl said to her mom, “Mom, don't worry, because last night I had a dream, and in the dream, Jesus came to me. And He said, ‘Hi Mary, this is Jesus.’”

Our Lord is very grateful for our visits. Our Lady, in all of her apparitions, has spoken about the joy and consolation that her Son gets from every visit to the Blessed Sacrament.

We should try and make it a point in our day, outside of our Mass, to visit Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, and to try and foster similar visits when we're with the family, going to the supermarket, coming from the bank, going on a journey.

We help our family in that way—the domestic Church—to be that little bit more aware of who is there in the Blessed Eucharist.

John Paul says, “The Most Holy Eucharist contains the Church's entire spiritual wealth: Christ himself” (ibid.). This is the treasure of the Church.

That's why the Church has laid down that tabernacles have to be made of a certain substance, and sacred vessels have to be lined in gold on the inside.

Our hearts have to try and be also worthy when we receive Him, because the entire spiritual wealth, our treasure, is there. Tabernacles that reserve the Blessed Sacrament overnight, in principle, should be screwed to the altar. Every security precaution should be taken.

He says, “Consequently the gaze of the Church is constantly turned to her Lord” (ibid.). Look at the beautiful words the Holy Father uses: “the gaze of the Church.” Not “the look” or “the stare,” but “the gaze.”

It's a gaze full of wonder. Holy Thursday is a day for a special gaze. We constantly turn towards Our Lord, present in the Sacrament of the Altar, so that we help our families to gaze there also.

In this sacrament, “she [the Church] discovers the full manifestation of His boundless love” (ibid.).

We discover in the Eucharist that we're loved by a heavenly Father. We try to correspond to that love by receiving Him frequently and always worthily, by appreciating the gift, appreciating His Presence.

Sometimes that may mean that we might have to travel a long distance to get to Mass or to make a visit of the Blessed Sacrament. But there's no greater penance we can make than that effort, that time. We show Our Lord that we really appreciate His Presence. We show Him that we're sorry for our sins.

“For this very reason,” says Pope John Paul, “the Eucharist, which is in an outstanding way the sacrament of the Paschal Mystery, stands at the center of the Church's life” (ibid., Point 3).

The Eucharist is at the center. It’s very appropriate that we are Eucharistic souls. We think of the Blessed Eucharist. We make desires to receive the Blessed Eucharist in our Spiritual Communion, if we can't receive Our Lord sacramentally for some reason, or if we're sick in bed, or some other problem. “The hour of redemption is there,” says Our Lord (John 17:1).

Every priest who celebrates Holy Mass, together with the Christian community which takes part in that Mass, is led back in spirit to that place and that hour. The liturgy is like a time machine. It leads us back to that place and that hour.

The Holy Week ceremonies have that purpose also. They help us to relive those moments.

“By the gift of the Holy Spirit," John Paul II says, “at Pentecost the Church was born and set out upon the pathways of the world, yet a decisive moment in her taking shape was certainly the institution of the Eucharist in the Upper Room. … The thought of this leads us to profound amazement and gratitude” (John Paul II, ibid., Point 5).

That word “amazement” is an important word. It's good for us to be amazed. To be amazed, like little children are amazed. Perhaps to remember our First Communion and think how we prepared for that day or how others prepared us for it. The most important day in our life. Don't think the most important day in your life is your wedding day because you might never get married. But the day that Our Lord came into our soul for the first time was a very special day.

We can relive those moments, that preparation. Try to never get used to receiving Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Those prayers that you find in the Missal or in the hymn book that are prayers before Mass, prayers of St. Thomas Aquinas, of St. Bonaventure, great saints, can help us never to get used to this great privilege.

St. John Paul says, “This amazement should always fill the Church assembled for the celebration of the Eucharist. But in a special way, it should fill the minister of the Eucharist” (ibid).

When the priest is saying Mass or when you see a priest about to say Mass, try to unite yourself to that Mass, to his intentions. That way you get graces and benefits from that Mass that's about to be said.

The priest “says with the power coming to him from Christ in the Upper Room: ‘This is my body which will be given up for you. … This is the cup of my blood, poured out for you.’ The priest puts his voice at the disposal of the One who spoke these words in the Upper Room and who [desires] that they should be repeated in every generation by all those who in the Church ministerially share in the priesthood” (ibid.).

St. John Paul says we have to try and rekindle this Eucharistic “amazement.” That was part of his purpose in publishing that Encyclical Letter: to rekindle the Eucharistic amazement.

We could ask Our Lady in our prayer to help us to rekindle that Eucharistic amazement.

Pope John Paul, in that encyclical, talks about how we should be able to rekindle that amazement and how Our Lady must have received the Blessed Eucharist from the hands of St. John.

After the death of Jesus, she would have been present at the Masses that St. John celebrated. And she would have received Holy Communion, the Body of Christ.

Having received Him spiritually at the Annunciation, now she receives Him sacramentally. How must Our Lady have prepared for those moments! And how she must have thanked Our Lord for coming into her soul, nourishing her soul that was already full of grace.

Mary, may you help us to take better care of the Blessed Eucharist, better care of our preparation and better care of our thanksgiving, so that we may learn from your fervor how to make each Holy Communion.

There was an engineering student in Manila one time who was a Catholic but who didn't know his Catholic faith very well. He found he was looking for something. But he didn't know what he was looking for.

He became a Mormon, and he spent two years as a Mormon. But then he found that what he was looking for wasn't in the Mormon faith.

Then he became a Baptist and spent another two years being a Baptist. But then he found that whatever he was looking for wasn't there either.

Then one day he was reading the Gospel of John, Chapter 6. And he read, “I am the bread of life. No one who comes to me will ever hunger, and no one who believes in me will ever thirst” (John 6:35).

He began to realize, "That’s what I'm looking for. I'm looking for something to satisfy my hunger and my thirst.” He began to rediscover the mystery of the Blessed Eucharist in his own Catholic faith, and that began to draw him back to Catholicism like a magnet. He reconverted back to Catholicism.

And after some time, he decided he wanted to become a priest. But when the Cardinal Archbishop of Manila heard that he'd been a Baptist and a Mormon, he wasn't very comfortable about allowing him into the seminary. He had to go somewhere else, to another university to study philosophy and theology. When it was clear that he was bona fide, he was ordained and accepted into the archdiocese.

One of his first assignments was in the chapel of the university where he had studied engineering. Every day in the Mass, when it came to the moment to hold up the Sacred Host and say, "This is the Lamb of God, this is he who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29; cf. Communion Rite), he would add, “This is the bread of life. This is why I left the Mormon faith, and this is why I left the Baptist faith.”

But then there were many Mormons and Baptists in that university. They didn't like him saying these things. They complained. He had to be moved to a different parish. where he is to this day.

Venerable Fulton Sheen likes to say, "The greatest love story of all time is contained in a tiny white Host.” The Blessed Eucharist is the sacrament of love. We learn love from there. We grow in love.

Cardinal Vân Thuân has said, “A lamp can give no light if it has no oil. A car will not run on an empty fuel tank. The soul of the apostle will degenerate if it is not nourished with the Blessed Sacrament” (Francis Xavier Nguyen Vân Thuân, The Road of Hope: A Gospel from Prison, Point 360).

Our Lord invites us to receive Him. He's made Himself available on a daily basis. That food for our soul strengthens our soul, preserves us from sin, makes us healthy. Just like what human food does for the body, spiritual food does for the soul.

Van Thuân says, "Just as the sun shines brightly shedding its light on earth, so too does the Eucharist shine as the light for the spiritual life of human beings, and the source of peace among nations” (ibid., Point 361).

There's a light that shines out from every tabernacle in every parish, in every altar, in every chapel, in every church.

“If you lack everything,” he says, “or find yourself bereft of all possessions but still have the Eucharist, you should not be concerned. In fact, you still have everything, because you have the Lord of heaven here on earth with you” (ibid., Point 363).

St. Josemaría in The Forge says we have to make our life “essentially, totally Eucharistic” (Josemaría Escrivá, The Forge, Point 826).

It makes a lot of sense. A lot of problems get solved there. “As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes,” says St. Paul (1 Cor. 11:26).

John Paul II said all [candidates to the priesthood] “should be trained to share in the intimate dispositions which the Eucharist fosters: gratitude for heavenly benefits received, because the Eucharist is thanksgiving; an attitude of self-offering, which will impel them to unite the offering of themselves to the Eucharistic offering of Christ; charity nourished by a sacrament which is a sign of unity and sharing; the yearning to contemplate and bow in adoration before Christ, who is really present under the Eucharistic species” (John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Pastores Dabo Vobis, Point 48, March 25, 1992).

The Eucharist is also a medicine for our ills. There's a phrase in the Mass which precisely refers to that. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “[Holy Communion] separates us from sin” (Catechism, Point 1393).

“By the same charity that it enkindles in us,” says [the Catechism], “the Eucharist preserves us from future mortal sins. The more we share the life of Christ and progress in his friendship, the more difficult it is to break away from him by mortal sin” (Catechism, Point 1395).

If we're ever battling with some addiction, some major fault that we're trying to conquer, one of those “thorns in the flesh” that St. Paul speaks about (2 Cor. 12:7), one very basic medicine and remedy is the frequent reception of the Body of Christ in the Blessed Eucharist, that Real Presence that comes into our soul.

He brings the Blessed Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, fills our soul with grace. The more we're focused there, the greater chance we have of overcoming all of those temptations.

In The Way, we're told, “Consider what is most beautiful and most noble on earth, what pleases the mind and the other faculties, and what delights the flesh and the senses.

“And the world, and the other worlds that shine in the night: the whole universe. Well, this, along with all the follies of the heart satisfied, is worth nothing, is nothing and less than nothing, compared…with this God of mine! —of yours!

“Infinite treasure, pearl of great price, humbled, become a slave, reduced to the form of a servant in the stable where he chose to be born, in Joseph's workshop, in his passion and in his ignominious death…and in the madness of Love which is the blessed Eucharist” (J. Escrivá, The Way, Point 432).

Our Lord has remained for us in that madness of Love. Pope St. John Paul liked to call Our Lady, "the woman of the Eucharist.” He says, “What must Mary have felt when she heard from the mouth of Peter, John, James, and the other apostles the words spoken at the Last Supper: ‘This is my body which is given for you’ (Luke 22:19)?”

Mary must have “kept those words in her heart” in a special way (cf. Luke 2:19).

St. John Paul says, “The body given up for us and made present under sacramental signs was the same body which she had conceived in her womb! For Mary, receiving the Eucharist must have somehow meant welcoming once more into her womb that heart which had beat in unison with hers and reliving what she had experienced at the foot of the Cross.”

St. John Paul continues, “Here is the Church's treasure, the heart of the world, the pledge of the fulfilment for which each man and woman, even unconsciously, yearns” (John Paul II, Encyclical Letter, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, Points 53, 56,59, April 17, 2003).

More fervent.

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

EW