Received and handed on to you

St. Paul on the Eucharist
 
While the Gospel of John shares the promise of the Eucharist, and its connection to service and love, the other three gospels bring us the sacred words of institution of the Eucharist. Christ’s words at the Last Supper over the bread and wine, words that each priest clearly recites at the consecration “in persona Christi,” (a Latin phrase meaning in the person of Christ), are words that Jesus speaks to us with transformative power.
 
The reality of Jesus living within us, see Galatians 2:20, is manifest in a special way at Mass in the person of the priest. In all truthfulness, when we look upon the altar at Mass it is Jesus who is presiding and leading us in prayer. It is Jesus who, through the priest, consecrates the bread and wine. It is Jesus who speaks to the Church. It is Jesus, pronouncing his own words from the Last Supper, that manifests his power to change the bread and wine into his own body, blood, soul and divinity.
 
Pope Emeritus Benedict XV wrote a wonderful book entitled “The Spirit of the Liturgy” and in it he reminds us an important detail regarding the priest at Mass. “It is not he himself who is important, but Christ. It is not he himself whom he is communicating to men, but Christ. He makes himself the instrument of Christ, acting, not from his own resources, but as the messenger, indeed, as the presence, of another – in persona Christi, as the liturgical tradition says.”
 
In addition to these sacred words of consecration, given to us by Jesus, appearing in three gospels they also appear in Saint Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, 11:23-25, written almost a quarter of a century after they were first pronounced. Here they are:
 
“For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’”
 
Saint Paul received from the Lord those divine words that are so filled with power and might that when they are spoken by a priest, “in persona Christi,” at Mass they have the power to create a new reality. These words change the bread and wine into the real loving and living presence of the risen Jesus Christ in his body and blood, soul and divinity. These words that Saint Paul received from the Lord he now also hands them to us and all future generations of believers. A sacred tradition guided by God himself through his holy Church throughout the centuries, to this day and for many centuries more.
 
Saint Paul clearly believed in the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. So much so that for Paul to disrespect the Eucharist was the equivalent of self-judgment and condemnation. It is important to note that no one gets condemned for disrespecting a mere symbol. Eternal judgment and condemnation are reserved for those who knowingly and freely disrespect God himself and close their lives to his loving presence and life.
Here is the quote I am referring to from 1 Corinthians 11:27-32…
 
“Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are ill and infirm, and a considerable number are dying. If we discerned ourselves, we would not be under judgment; but since we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.”
 
God is present to us in many ways. God is omnipresent. He is everywhere always and we cannot hide from his loving presence. God also is present in every soul that is in a state of grace, free from mortal sin. This state of sanctifying grace blesses us with the presence of the Most Holy Trinity in our souls. The third true and real presence of God is the Real Presence of God in the Eucharist. We can see throughout Saint Paul’s divinely inspired writings, in his letter to the Corinthians and elsewhere, that the risen Christ is truly alive and present in the Eucharist.
 
I invite you to visit the tabernacle after Mass and thank the Lord for his loving presence. “Jesus, thank you for this wonderful gift of your Real Presence here in the Eucharist. Thank you for staying with us, loving us and forgiving us. May each time I receive you Lord in the Eucharist be a moment of true personal awareness of your divine presence. Amen.”