Guest column by Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz
Bishop Emeritus of Lincoln
“They came to know Him in the Breaking of the Bread” (Luke 24:35)
Foreshadowed in the desert manna, predicted in the hills of Galilee, instituted in the cenacle at Jerusalem, and enacted on the heights of Mount Calvary, the Holy Eucharist, the Blessed Sacrament, is Christ’s Supreme Gift of Himself to us, the Center of our worship and our life. The Holy Eucharist sets aside the veils of time and space, and makes present again the unique dying and rising of Jesus for our grace and participation. It is the continuing presence among us of our Lord and Savior in a real and substantial way. It is the joyful banquet celebrated in His remembrance. It is the gathering of His people around His table, which is, at the same time, the stone of His redemptive sacrifice. The Second Vatican Council calls the Holy Eucharist the Source and Summit of all the Catholic Church’s life.
God’s love, indeed, God Who is Love, (1John 4:8), was made visible in Christ Jesus, the only begotten Son of the Almighty Father. Love, we know, has three intrinsic qualities: sacrifice, union, and presence. It is understandable, then, that these qualities should mark the Holy Eucharist, the sacrament of Divine Love, par excellence, in which Jesus Christ, whole and entire, Body and Blood, soul and divinity is offered, received, and contained.
Songs, poetry, contemplation, preaching, and the meditation of more than two thousand years which have surrounded this Memorial and Gift recall the clear instruction by the teaching authority of the Church regarding this sacrament and sacrifice.
SACRAMENT
Even before considering the Holy Eucharist from the point of view of sacrifice, we must try to understand the Holy Eucharist as a sacrament. Saint Thomas Aquinas reminds us that sacraments are above all signs. These signs are often referred to in the word that derives from the Greek, mysteries. A mystery, after all, is something that is partly seen and partly unseen. There is some external visible aspect to each of the sacraments, something that can be heard, felt, seen, touched, etc. However, this material part of a sacrament often called in old scholastic terminology, the matter and form, is only a small part of the reality. Underlying the matter and form is the invisible reality.
As in all signs, the sacraments lead to the knowledge of something else. What is unique about the sacraments, however, is that they lead to much more than knowledge. They lead to grace. What is more astonishing is that they do not only lead to grace, but in a certain but real way, they cause grace. What makes this possible, of course, is that they were instituted by Jesus Christ and He Himself is present and effective in these signs which He instituted, when they are placed properly, by one with the authority and power to place them, and when there is no obstacle blocking their efficacy. The seven sacraments are the means by which Christ distributes to mankind the divine life He won on the cross. Not only are they the usual method by which His followers receive and increase sanctifying grace, but they are the way by which our Redeemer touches us with His healing love and gives His people the spiritual strength (actual and sacramental graces) they need and require to live a Christian life.
In a certain sense, Christ is the Great Sacrament of God and the Catholic Church is a kind of sacrament of Christ (an outward sign which He instituted to give grace). The seven sacraments or great mysteries are rooted in the Church and form a sort of solar system or complexus, which have as their sun the Holy Eucharist. This is one of the reasons why, to the extent possible, the other six sacraments are and should be administered in connection with Holy Mass.
SACRIFICE
The Holy Eucharist completes and surpasses all the sacrifices of the Old Covenant. It is called the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the sacrifice of praise, the sacrifice in spirit and truth, the pure and holy oblation, the sacrificial banquet. Its sacrificial nature was predicted by the Prophet Malachy (Malachy 1:11), and by the actions of the mysterious priest of Salem, called Melchisedech (Genesis 14:18).
The Mass, of course, is identical with the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Christ died once, never to die again (Hebrews 10:14). Christ does not die anew at every Mass. Rather the Eucharist makes present His one and only sacrifice. It is a memorial which does much more than recall. It applies and distributes in an unbloody manner what was accomplished in high priestly act of Jesus on Golgotha, when He was not only the Priest but also the Victim.
