As we continue this graced time of Eucharistic Revival in the United States and prepare for the historic National Eucharistic Congress in July, I am devoting my column this year to a deeper catechesis on the mystery of the Eucharist and the Mass.
In Eucharistic Prayer IV, we pray the following petition: “Look, O Lord, upon the sacrifice that you yourself have provided for your Church, and grant in your loving kindness to all who partake of this one bread and one chalice that, gathered into one body by the Holy Spirit, they truly may become a living sacrifice in Christ to the praise of your glory.”
The sacrifice referred to, of course, is the sacrifice of the Eucharist, the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ that we offer to the Father in our celebration of the Mass.
It is a real participation in the cross of Jesus Christ. And, what we ask for is that being drawn into this sacrifice, and drawn together as the mystical body of Christ, we “truly may become a living sacrifice in Christ to the praise of your glory.”
This is a profound mystery that demands deeper reflection as we approach the season of Lent, a time that is deeply imbued with this notion of sacrifice.
As we begin Lent, I want to invite you to engage more deeply with the Holy Eucharist, and to see the connection between the sacrifice you offer when you participate at Mass, and the little sacrifices you make every day as you seek to live as disciples.
In our baptism, we are uniquely configured to Jesus Christ as priest, prophet and king. We also are called to a prophetic and kingly mission as baptized Christians, but we will save that for another day. Right now, I would like to focus specifically on what the Church calls “the common priesthood of all the faithful.”
To understand our identity as Christians configured to Christ the priest, we need to understand what priests are meant to do.
From the beginning, the priesthood has been oriented toward sacrifice. The priests in the Old Testament were the men who took the people’s offerings and made sacrifices to the Lord in the temple. Day after day, month after month, year after year, the priests faithfully offered sacrifices to the Lord.
This is the proper exercise of priesthood that all of us are called to live. We are called to offer sacrifice.
In the circumstances of our lives, we do this in many ways. Husbands and wives are called to let go of some of their own preferences to care for their spouses and their children. This is an expression of sacrificial love.
Priests are ordained to live not for themselves, but for the flock entrusted to them. In this way priests conform their lives more closely to Christ, who came not to be served but to serve and lay down his life for others.
We all are called to live sacrificially and give of ourselves to help those in need and those who live on the margins of society. The Church asks us to sacrifice especially on days of fasting and abstinence, and to give alms throughout the season of Lent.
These all are ways in which we can participate in Christ’s priesthood as baptized Christians. We do well to remember, though, that our sacrifices only have merit insofar as they are united to the one sacrifice of Jesus who offered himself on the cross. And this is why we always come back to the Eucharist.
As the Church has clearly taught, the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life. This means that if we are to live the Christian life fully, we always begin with the Eucharistic sacrifice, and we’re always directed back to the Eucharistic sacrifice. Every time we go to Mass, we should ponder this mystery.
On a Sunday, for example, we ought to come to Mass mindful of the sacrifices we have made throughout the week – the offerings we have made and the sufferings we have accepted. These concrete things give expression to our own self-offering as we unite ourselves with the offering of Christ our high priest on the altar at Mass.
At the beginning of the liturgy of the Eucharist, the priest invites us to: “Pray, brothers and sisters, that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father.”
When the sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated, it is not just the priest who is acting, but the entire mystical body of Christ.
You, as a baptized Christian, are part of that mystical body of Christ. Your sacrifices are united to the sacrifice of Christ, so that you “may become a living sacrifice in Christ” to the praise and glory of God the Father.