I like my breakfast full. Not full-English or full-Scottish. It’s full when I have a newspaper to flick through and read while having breakfast. For that reason, I’ve had a subscription for years, so the paper could arrive regularly and be cheaper-ish. In practical terms, the publisher would send me a bunch of special vouchers I could use to buy the paper in a newsagent. It wasn’t a perfect system. Sometimes the man at the counter wouldn’t know what to do with the voucher; sometimes the paper didn’t arrive at the newsagent’s until midday; I had to go out each morning to get the paper – I didn’t save money on the vouchers to spend it on paperboys, obviously! Then the publisher moved to the 21st century and started producing a digital version of the paper. With the digital subscription, the new issue regularly lands on my tablet each day so I always have the paper for my breakfast early in the morning; no more awkward conversations at the counter, no more missing issues and no more morning walks in dreich weather. Even better, I get it wherever I am: at home, away or even abroad. Since the switch to digital, I’ve always had a very satisfying, full-Tad breakfast.
Tonight we are celebrating the institution of two sacraments: the Eucharist and priesthood. It’s a bit tricky and pointless to rank all seven sacraments on their importance; each one is important because each one does provide a specific service or grace (to use an old-fashioned, traditional term). However, the Eucharist is described in the Church’s documents as “the source and summit of the Christian life” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1324). It’s just the latest concise way of presenting the great importance of this particular sacrament for the life of the Church as a faith community and for its individual members. It seems to me that some Christians have lost such an understanding and effectively reduced the Eucharist to a rather pathetically symbolic gesture that consequently has led to treating Sunday Mass as an optional event attended when it doesn’t get in the way of any other, more “attractive” and “entertaining” offers. When that happens, it’s mostly caused by the misunderstanding of what the Eucharist is and what it offers.
When we read the gospels, we can clearly see that Jesus was in great demand. People gathered around him to listen to him, to get healed or released from demonic possessions and so on. Many times the crowds followed him; when he tried to avoid them, they actively searched for him. Jesus and his disciples were sometimes completely knackered by their workload. I’m not quoting any passages here because I would have to virtually recall the four gospels in their entirety. It was reported that Jesus spread his mission by sending out the twelve Apostles or other 72 disciples, but it was still a relatively small area they could cover. And then people would follow those people back to find Jesus because they wanted “the real thing”, not just his representatives. The physical, bodily presence of Jesus had the same limitations as everyone else’s: time and space. Just as I cannot be at the same time in two different places, neither could Jesus. Just as I cannot give my full attention to a number of people at the same time, neither could Jesus; although in my case an additional factor is that I am a man and I’m not capable of multitasking… Anyway, the purely bodily, physical presence of Jesus was unsustainable and ineffective. But that wasn’t the plan from the outset. From the very beginning of Jesus’ earthly mission this was a crucial, but only an initial stage. Jesus alluded to his ultimate solution early in the gospel of St John, namely, chapter 6 – it’s too long to recall it here. Essentially, Jesus announced that His body and blood would be the life-giving food and drink. Jesus fulfilled that plan at his Last Supper, an event that we are commemorating tonight.
At the Last Supper Jesus symbolically anticipated the sacrifice he would make on the cross on the following day, Good Friday. By having died on the cross and coming back to life, the Last Supper’s symbols of bread and wine have become truly sacramental forms of Jesus’ presence. On the morning of Jesus’ resurrection, the bread and wine were no longer symbols; they became the body and blood of Jesus. Not of his carcass, but of the living God. Suddenly, thanks to this mystery, Jesus is present everywhere where the Eucharist is celebrated and where it’s kept, like in the tabernacle behind me. It’s a very silly comparison, but like my newspaper’s digital subscription, the mystery of the Eucharist makes Jesus’ physical presence available to everyone and everywhere, virtually unlimited by time or space. It’s the closest and the surest way we can be so close to Jesus. When we receive Holy Communion, via our digestive and blood system he is in our every single living cell; so close that we cannot be separated from him. It’s mind-blowing when you think about it! There’s one thing required of you and me: an act of faith. It’s no different to meeting Jesus when he tramped across the Holy Land. As many of his then opponents testified by their actions, not everyone believed He was someone special, the Messiah. Similarly, faith is needed to see beyond the form of bread and wine; to recognise the living Jesus who is with us until the end of time.