The Year of the Eucharist

Pastoral Letter

The Eucharist unites us to God

 and to each other

by Most Rev. Philip Boyce OCD,

 Bishop of Raphoe

23rd January 2005

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`The Week of prayer for Christian Unity, celebrated every year between 18th and 25th January, intensifies our desire and our prayer for that unity which Christ wished to have in his Church. The longing which he felt, as he sat together with his chosen disciples at the Last Supper, is revived in our hearts: “that all may be one, even as you, Father, are in me and I am in you” (Jn. 17). We know that the fulfilment of this desire will depend very much on the reflection of Gospel values in our daily life. Unity is the result of faith and love, coming from living the Gospel with generosity and fidelity, as individuals and as a community.  

In this Year of the Eucharist, we are reminded that our daily or Sunday Mass has a very profound influence on our relations with God and with others. The Eucharist is called the Sacrament of unity. It creates unity or ‘communion’ between us and God as well as between members of the community who attend Mass and receive in a worthy manner the Body and Blood of Christ. It is significant that an integral part of each Mass, and our sharing in Christ’s Sacrifice, is called “Holy Communion”.  

  • “The Eucharist creates and fosters communion. Saint Paul writes to the faithful in Corinth explaining how their divisions reflected in their Eucharistic gatherings, contradicted what they were celebrating, the Lord’s Supper. The Apostle then urged them to reflect on the true reality of the Eucharist in order to return to the spirit of fraternal communion” I Cor. 11 [Pope John Paul II, Encyclical on the Eucharist, No. 40]
  • “Christ the Lord made holy at his table the mystery of his peace and unity. Whoever receives the mystery of unity without preserving the bonds of peace receives not a mystery for his benefit but evidence against himself” ( St. Augustine ).

There is unity or a communion brought about by the Eucharist which is twofold. St Paul mentions both in the text: “The bread which 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” (I Cor. 10:16 -17). The first time he says Body, he means the real Body of Christ which we receive and which unites us to Him. The second time, he means the mystical Body, the Church, to which all of us, who are many, belong. That is a very simple and clear way of saying that Eucharistic Communion brings about at the same time communion (unity) with God and communion (unity) among ourselves. Of course, it does not bring about that unity automatically on its own, it needs our effort and cooperation.  

‘The Christ I receive in Holy Communion at Mass is the same undivided Christ the person next to me receives. He unites all of us to one another, while uniting us all to Himself’ (R. Cantalamessa). Therefore when saying, “Amen” as we receive Holy Communion, we say “Amen” to the Body and Blood of Christ, but also to his Mystical Body, especially to those who receive the same Body of Christ as we do in Holy Communion. United with them by the One Bread that nourishes our soul, we cannot either neglect our duties towards God or disinterest ourselves in our brothers and sisters. To disobey God or to offend our neighbour means to break that unity established between us by the Mass and Holy Communion.  

We are a people made one with Christ and one with each other precisely through the Holy Eucharist. The Catechism therefore says: “the Eucharist is the efficacious sign and sublime cause of that communion in the divine life, and that unity of the People of God by which the Church is kept in being” (No. 1325).  

Our desire is to have Christ “with” us. He goes beyond our hopes by finding a way to stay “in” us. He does that by Holy Communion. Receiving the Eucharist means entering into a profound communion with Jesus. At the Last Supper, when he gave himself in Holy Communion to the Apostles for the first time, he stressed that they should remain one with him and with each other, in his love: “Abide in me and I in you… I am the vine you are the branches… As the Father has loved me so have I loved you, abide in my love… This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (Jn. 15).  

This union with Our Lord and with each other in Holy Communion is a sign and a foretaste of the final unity of all the elect in heaven. From one celebration of Mass to another, we advance with the pilgrim People of God to the final banquet in Heaven. It is the Lord of Glory who comes to us in the Eucharist and we have there a foretaste of the joys of eternity, where complete unity will be established. We have pain and sorrow when we see we are not united fully as yet with all Christians. The Mass, however, keeps alive our yearning for unity, and helps us to be instruments of reconciliation and concord.  

The Mass, then, is the centre and source of unity in the Church. When we receive Holy Communion we are drawn more deeply into the spiritual reality of the Church as the Body of Christ; and into the visible reality of the Catholic Church. Therefore, to receive Holy Communion worthily, we must be one with the Church in a spiritual and inner way, and also exteriorly and visibly by belonging to the Catholic Church.  

That means, first of all, that we have to examine our conscience and make sure that we are free of serious sin. St. Paul tells us this when he writes: “Whoever therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the Body and Blood of the Lord” (I Cor. 11). If we are in grave or mortal sins, then, we must first of all confess them all personally to a priest in Confession. If that is not possible, we may still go to Mass, but not receive Communion. We can join the Communion procession, but when we come to the priest, we should fold our arms across our breast, bow our head and get a blessing. This may be the case at times with weddings or funerals, when some people attend the Church Service but have not prepared themselves to receive Holy Communion.  

Moreover, when unable for any reason to receive Holy Communion, we can make a “spiritual communion”, that is, we can ask the Lord to come spiritually into our souls and give us the strength to do his holy will.  

On account of our reverence for the Blessed Sacrament and since the Eucharist represents full unity with the Church, those who are not in full communion with the Church and who do not profess the same Faith in the Eucharist as we do, should not receive Holy Communion at Mass. As Pope John Paul II teaches: “It is not possible to give Communion to a person who is not baptised or to one who rejects the full truth of the Faith regarding the Eucharistic mystery” (Encyclical on the Eucharist, No. 38).  Similarly, if Catholics are present at a service in a non-Catholic church, they cannot receive at a communion service there.  

These prohibitions bring home to us the pain of our separation from other Christian communities, but they should urge us to pray all the more “that all may be one” some day, with complete unity established.  

At each Holy Mass we are called to measure ourselves against the ideal of unity among early Christians, who were ‘one heart and one soul’ in the love of Christ. They obeyed the Apostles and had all things in common, sharing generously even their material goods with those in need. May our Sunday Mass, in this Year of the Eucharist, find us together more truly as a parish community united in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.