Insights on the Institution of the Eucharist
believers are not called to grasp it perfectly or seek empirical evidence
of its truth. Rather than trying to analyze it or explain it rationally, we are
called to accept it and to believe in it, the mysterium fidei. Both Orthodox
Christians and Catholics agree on an interpretation of the Eucharist as a
renewed offering of Christ. While our Catholic tradition makes an effort
to give intellectually satisfying explanations about the meaning of the
Eucharist, Orthodox theology emphasizes the mysterious reality of it
and insists on fidelity to the words of the liturgy itself.
Rather than trying to analyze or explain the Eucharist rationally, we are called
to accept it and to believe in it, the mysterium fidei.
In the face of so great a mystery as the Eucharist, it is consoling to
know that God comes to us in and through Holy Communion. Just
as physical food nourishes and sustains our bodies and produces life
and growth, Communion wonderfully achieves these in our spiritual
life (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1392). God becomes part of our
lives when we consume the body and blood of Christ, and we are
united with God in Christ. The Bread of Life Discourse clearly states
that eating of his flesh and dinking of his blood is the way to a life of
union with God and him.
Although the Gospel of John does not have the words of institution at
the Last Supper, as the Synoptics and the First Letter to the Corinthians
do, John 6 is eminently eucharistic in nature. It witnesses to the union
of the believer with Jesus and the Father through partaking of his
body and blood. The Eucharist presupposes that Jesus gave his life for
others in his passion and his resurrection.
Jesus calls us to receive his life in the Eucharist. We come to him as
we are. In establishing this beautiful sacrament, Christ reveals God’s
closeness to us. God comes to meet us in our human reality. Although
none of us is worthy of this gift, we are nonetheless invited by Christ
to be sustained in Holy Communion.
The church encourages us to believe in the mercy of God, whose perfect
love overcomes our weaknesses, limitations, and sins, and creates a
spirit of repentance in order to receive the Eucharist worthily.
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