IN FOCUS - THE LIVING TABERNACLES | KAIROS GLOBAL | JUNE 2019

Author: Jismy Judathadevus

Intro: Why is Eucharist considered the ‘source and summit of Christian life?’  In this article, Jismy Judathadevus explores the importance of Eucharist centered life and the great mission that follows.

There was a time when the expression ‘God encounter’ greatly confused me. Growing up in a typical Catholic family, faith for me came about as a very gradual process without any major defining moments or turning points. So, when I started hearing testimonies where people said they encountered God in tangible ways, I started feeling that maybe I haven’t yet ‘encountered’ this God. What astounded me was the realisation that there is no more intense, tangible and profound encounter with Jesus than in the Eucharist.

The Holy Eucharist, Vatican II tell us, is “the source and summit of Christian life”. Christianity is a relationship with the person of Jesus Christ and in the Eucharist, Christ himself is present in the most sublime manner. Hence the Eucharist is at the very centre of Christian life, it being both the "source" of grace and holiness, and the ‘summit’ that all the other aspects of Christian living including the other sacraments are oriented towards. In Eucharist, the intense desire of God to be one with us is realised. Throughout the scripture we see this longing of God to be present with his people through the ark of the covenant, pillar of fire, the temple and many more instances. In the Eucharist, God in his unconditional love and humility comes down to where we are to raise us up to where he is. Eucharist being the most tangible presence of God on earth, presents us with a foretaste of heaven and is the most precious thing we have on this side of the eternity.

Worship has always been at centre of the lives of God’s people and true worship involves sacrifice. The night before he was crucified, Jesus expressed how he desires to be worshipped. He took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise, the cup after supper, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” (Luke 22:19-20).  The ultimate sacrifice of Christ who “offered himself without blemish to God” (Hebrews 9:14) is made present in the celebration of the Eucharist, which makes this the highest form of worship. There is nothing more that man can offer to God than God himself. 

In the Eucharist we experience intimate union with Christ. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in them” (John 6:56). In this union, it is not the eucharistic food that is changed into us, but rather we who are mysteriously transformed by it. Consumed by the Eucharist, we become what we receive and as a result we not only become Christians but Christ himself. St Thomas Aquinas says that the actual effect of Eucharist is the transformation of man into God.

As we grow in union with Christ, we become more disconnected from sin, being cleansed of our past sins and strengthened for the battle against future sins. The more we share the life of Christ and grow in his friendship, it becomes increasingly difficult to break away from him by mortal sin.

Holy communion also renews, strengthens and deepens the unity of the church. In Baptism we are called to form one body. The Eucharist fulfils this call. In the Eucharist when we receive the body of Christ, we grow in union with the body of Christ, the Church.

Eucharist is a mystery to be lived. Day by day as we become "a worship pleasing to God" (Romans 12:1), it cannot remain as a purely private matter but demands a life marked by concrete practice of love. Hence the Eucharist, as the source and summit of the Church's life and mission, must be translated into a life lived "according to the Spirit" (Romans 8:4).

The word ‘Mass’ comes from the Latin dismissal ‘Ite missa est’- Go now you are sent. At the end of every Holy Mass, we are being sent with a mission: to bring Christ to those around us. Pope Benedict XVI reminds us that the love of God, given to us in the Holy Eucharist, is not a gift for us alone but rather, by its very nature, is to be shared with others. When we ourselves are filled to the brim with this love and then go out into the world to people who are hungry and broken, we will have something and someone to give them.

By his real presence in the Eucharist Christ fulfils his promise to be with us "always, until the end of the age" (Mathew 28:20). As St. Thomas Aquinas wrote in Summa Theologiae "Christ has not left us without his bodily presence in our pilgrimage, but he joins us to himself in this sacrament in the reality of his body and blood". God gives himself to us in the Eucharist not only to give us strength for our journey, but also to accompany us at every moment of this journey.

In his encyclical Ecclesia De Eucharistia, St John Paul II calls Mary ‘the Woman of the Eucharist’. When Jesus steps out of the altar into us, we are in the place of Mary, a living tabernacle, carrying Christ to the world.

Jismy, having completed her degree in Physics is currently serving as a full-time youth volunteer for Jesus Youth UK. She lives in Eastbourne, UK with her parents and sister, Jitsy.