The Eucharist & John 6

Our Lord definitively teaches that the Eucharist is essential to anyone who wishes to have eternal life, who wishes to be saved:

  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. 

Here Our Lord also makes clear that the Eucharist is the seed of our own personal resurrection in Christ at the end of the world when we have the General Resurrection from the Dead of the Blessed and the Damned [see Matthew 25:31–46].

 He unambigously states that He is not talking metaphorically or matephorically but realistically when he says:

 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. 

 How do we remain in Him?

We remain in Him by receiving the Eucharist but without any obstacle of grave sin which would prevent the grace we have received being fruitful in our lives; and this is the foundation of the doctrine for how Merit is acquired.

Merit is what happens when we do good works in a state of Sanctifying Grace which we receive in Baptism and which is nourished by the Eucharist, but it is lost by wilfully chosen grave sin. Good works in a state of mortal sin have no merit as they are a sinner’s works and not God’s!

Remember that Judas received this gift at the Last Supper and, like so many since, he went into the dark for he had evil in his heart, mind and soul (John 6:71–72; 13:26-27). We can all so easily become like Judas be we a layman, laywoman, a lay boy or girl, a deacon, a priest, a bishop, a Cardinal, and even a Pope!

Remaining in Christ is accomplished by being personally tabernacles of Christ in and through receiving the Eucharist worthily, reverentially, and humbly in a state of grace and in living out what we have received. Indeed, the Mass has a liturgical command: ‘Ite Missa est’ where the word ‘Ite’ means ‘go’ with moral force to do God’s Will. Hence, when the Priest dismisses the people in this parish, we use these words of the Rite: Ite ad Evangelium Domini annuntiandum - Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord.

The dynamic of the Mass is a real participation in eternal life as it is truly the life of the Trinity. For in the Mass we have the fullness of God’s presence as we experience how the Holy Spirit gathers us to be united to the Son who offers both Himself and us to the Father. That is why in the Eucharistic prayer we find we are praying to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. Hence, the words of the doxology as the end of the Eucharistic prayer:

 Through him, and with him, and in him, O God, almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honour is yours, forever and ever. Amen.

So, let us treat the gift of the Eucharist at Mass with supreme reverence.

• When we receive Our Lord in a standing position we should first bow or genuflect before receiving Him, as the norm is to receive Our Lord in the kneeling position.

• If we do receive Our Lord on our hand then both hands must be clean.

• After receiving Our Lord, be it on our tongue or on clean hands, we should always make reverently the sign of the cross before departing back to our seats.

 It is through such acts that each of us shows ourselves to be a true witness to others of faith in Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist; both before the tabernacles of our churches and in our reception of Him in Holy Communion.