The Eucharist: Transformed

Holy Thursday | Mass of the Lord’s Supper
Today’s Readings: [Click here]

Tonight, as we celebrate the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on this Holy Thursday, we begin the Sacred Triduum, the holiest days of the Church year. On this night, the Lord gathered his apostles around him to celebrate the Passover, but with a special twist: this was the time and place that God ordained from all eternity to establish his new covenant in the blood of his Son. So in anticipation of his death—on Good Friday, tomorrow—and his resurrection—on Sunday, Easter—Jesus Christ instituted two awesome sacraments: the most holy Eucharist and the most sacred Priesthood.

Tonight, I’d like to speak with you about the first of these: the Eucharist.

It’s remarkable to think that Jesus uses ordinary things in the Eucharist: ordinary bread and wine. But by the power of God himself, they literally become Christ’s body and blood. And only by the gift of faith are we able to grasp the enormity of this transformation.

When we, as believers, receive the Eucharist, another transformation likewise takes place: God reaches out to us to consecrate our ordinary, mundane daily lives. Just as the bread and wine become something new and a means of grace for us at the Eucharist, so also do our very lives become the focus of God’s grace in this world.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Eucharist is a meeting between heaven and earth. Here, the eternal, invisible sphere and the temporal world join together. We experience our complete dependence on God, and God’s unshakable faithfulness to us. And once we realize that God will always be with us—he’ll never abandon us for any reason whatsoever—then we can completely be who we are; we can be vulnerable.

That’s why there is such sacredness in this holy Eucharistic banquet. Jesus promises eternal life and resurrection to those of us who participate. What a moment of grace!

I love the way the theologian, Paul Tillich, put it. He wrote, “At that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness and it is as though a voice were saying, ‘You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask for the name now; perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you re accepted.’ If that happens to us, we experience grace.”

Most of us here tonight have received Holy Communion hundreds or even thousands of times. Each time is an occasion of grace… a moment of transformation. Often the process is slow. Did you ever hold up a length of movie film and look at the individual frames? Often the change from frame to frame is almost imperceptible… but when you play several feet of film, all of a sudden, the action emerges. It can be like that with us, too. Gradually, but definitely, the action occurs. And what is this action, this transformation? Very simply, we begin to change into Jesus! As we come to know Christ more fully within ourselves and within our community, Jesus moves to the center of our relationships and they are transformed. As we claim Christ’s love and forgiveness for ourselves, we are able in turn to extend that same love and forgiveness to our other relationships.

In short, whenever we follow the path of Christ, we are saying “yes” to God’s working in our life. And there is literally nothing on earth that can help us onto this path more or better than the Eucharist.

Tonight, on this Holy Thursday, rejoice in the great gift of the Eucharist. We have done nothing to deserve such an incredible gift from God—but how blessed indeed we are.