Our unity intensifies through the Eucharist

The Eucharist makes us one through the love, life and power of the Holy Spirit
 
“The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf” (1 Cor. 11, 16-17).
 
I invite all my readers to practice a word substitution regarding the Eucharist. Every time you see or hear the word “communion” think “common union” and when you see or hear “community” think of “common unity.”
 
This might help us better understand what happens when we receive the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ at Mass. The Holy Spirt works through the Eucharist to realize our common union and unity in his love.
Our union and unity with Christ, and with one another, is one born of divine love and life, grace. This unity in divine love is one of the primary effects of being nourished with the Holy Eucharist. The love, life and power of the Holy Spirit makes us one, a love communicated to us through the Eucharist. We are what we eat, the Body of Christ.
 
The Eucharist makes the Church. Catholics and every baptized Anglo, Mexican, Vietnamese, African-American, American Indian and every other nationality, group, etc., are intrinsically united in the love, life and power of God, through the Holy Spirit, when we receive Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. We are not separated or divided when the Eucharist makes us one. Separations and divisions are born from sin while grace, the Eucharist, unites us in a love that transcends our own ability to love. Only our own personal sins destroy this unity. Where sin abounds so does division and strife. Where grace abounds, wherever you find a truly eucharistic people, you will find one body united in love, you will find Christ.
 
Any Catholic that properly receives the Holy Eucharist is united and becomes one with God, his love and every other person on this planet that is baptized.
 
The unity among the baptized is intensified through the Eucharist. Race, color, language, nationality, gender do not separate those that are one in the Holy Spirit that acts in and through Holy Communion, our eucharistic feast. To say that we share the same Eucharist and then say that we are separated, to deny or ignore our true unity with Christ and one another, is wrong and causes great harm.
 
Those that live an intense eucharistic spirituality are never separated from others that live that same spirituality even if they don’t speak English, even if they do not have our citizenship, even if they live, or once lived, in another country. There are social consequences to receiving the Eucharist. All human beings become brothers and sisters at baptism, and this is intensified through the actions of the Holy Spirit in every person who receives the Eucharist.
 
To receive the Eucharist and deny the real unity with anyone else receiving the same Eucharist is a clear sign of someone in need of profound conversion of heart. Spiritual unity in the Body of Christ is more intense and more real than social or national unity. We need to give witness to the world of truly being a eucharistic people. We need to show the world that “though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”
 
Nearly 20 years ago, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops published a wonderful little pamphlet entitled, “The real presence of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist: Basic questions and answers.” Here are two quotes from the document:
 
“…the sharing of an ordinary meal establishes … communion among the people who share it; in the Eucharist, the people of God share a meal that brings them into communion not only with each other but with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”
 
“…the priest also asks the Father to send the Holy Spirit down upon the whole assembly so that ‘those who take part in the Eucharist may be one body and one spirit.’ It is through the Holy Spirit that the gift of the Eucharistic Body of Christ comes to us and through the Holy Spirit that we are joined to Christ and each other as the Mystical Body of Christ … The celebration of the Eucharist should thus increase our love for one another and remind us of our responsibilities toward one another. Furthermore, as members of the Mystical Body, we have a duty to represent Christ and to bring Christ to the world.” 
 
I would like to end with another quote. This time from Saint John Paul II’s encyclical on the Holy Spirit, Dominum et Vivificantem. These quotes are taken from paragraph 62:
 
“Through the Eucharist, individuals and communities, by the action of the Paraclete-Counselor, learn to discover the divine sense of human life, as spoken of by the Council: that sense whereby Jesus Christ ‘fully reveals man to man himself,’ suggesting ‘a certain likeness between the union of the divine persons, and the union of God's children in truth and charity.’ This union is expressed and made real especially through the Eucharist, in which man shares in the sacrifice of Christ which this celebration actualizes, and he also learns to ‘find himself ... through a ... gift of himself,’ through communion with God and with others, his brothers and sisters.”
 
“All believers in Christ, therefore, following the example of the Apostles, must fervently strive to conform their thinking and action to the will of the Holy Spirit, ‘the principle of the Church's unity,’ so that all who have been baptized in the one Spirit in order to make up one body may be brethren joined in the celebration of the same Eucharist, ‘a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity!’”
 
Visit the Blessed Sacrament and just say, “Thank you Jesus for making us one body. Thank you for so many brothers and sisters. Help me with the power of your love to be able to love and live the unity that you invite us to live. Amen.”
 

Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paragraph 1396:

The unity of the Mystical Body: the Eucharist makes the Church. Those who receive the Eucharist are united more closely to Christ. Through it, Christ unites them to all the faithful in one body – the Church. Communion renews, strengthens and deepens this incorporation into the Church, already achieved by Baptism. In Baptism, we have been called to form but one body. The Eucharist fulfills this call: ‘The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread:’

If you are the body and members of Christ, then it is your sacrament that is placed on the table of the Lord; it is your sacrament that you receive. To that which you are you respond ‘Amen’ and by responding to it you assent to it. For you hear the words, ‘the Body of Christ’ and respond ‘Amen.’ Be then a member of the Body of Christ that your Amen may be true.”