Man can aptly be called a ‘knot of relations’. Love is the basis of all relationships. According to whom that love is shown, it takes different names and forms.
The Church celebrated the Solemnity of the Transfiguration of Christ last Sunday. As Christ longed to eat the Passover meal with his disciples before his passion (Luke 22:16), do we also long to eat the Eucharist, the living food that he has offered us (John 6:51)?
The whole life of the Church is interwoven with the mystery of the Eucharist. The Church and the Eucharist are joined to such an extent that it is said that there is no Church without the Eucharist and no Eucharist without the Church. As Vatican II says, the Eucharist is the Sacrifice. ‘The fountainhead of the Christian life,
The eucharistic sacrifice. ‘The fountainhead of the Christian life’ The Eucharist is a sign of mercy, a sign of unity, a bond of love. The Passover, in which Christ is eaten: the soul is filled with grace: the promise of the coming majesty is given to us (Ps. No. 47).
In the celebration of the Eucharist, Christ’s death and resurrection are commemorated and the same mystical presence is present: we partake of it in a sacramental manner. The Eucharist is also a sign of heavenly glory, so the Eucharist also contains the Trinity.
The Eucharist: Connects Us to Christ and to Each Other The Eucharist connects us closely to Christ. “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood will be united with me. I will be joined to them” (John 6:56).
By partaking of the Eucharist we also become Christ and reach the state where ‘it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me’ (Gal 2:20).
When the monastery where St. Thomas Aquina lived suddenly caught fire, he clutched the Eucharistic ark and cried, “Lord! We are burnt to ashes” he shouted, what a novelty! The fire extinguished itself. The Eucharist is our lust. It is a powerful aruladayam that extinguishes various fires like Kaimakara fire, competition fire, jealousy fire, greed fire etc.
The Eucharist connects us not only to Christ, but to each other. “The bread is one, therefore we are one body, though we are many. For we all partake of that one bread” (1 Cor 10:17). Therefore, ‘all of us who partake of the body and blood of Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit, are one in Christ. The body should be understood as life’
Discrimination among Christians, especially casteism, is a deadly disease: an incurable cancer. Can the eucharist we consume with caste difference be a medicine that gives health to our body and soul? Or will it be a curse that brings us to judgment and punishment? The question that haunts us.
