June is full of incredible feasts this year! Every Sunday, we’ve gotten to celebrate something amazing! On June 1, we celebrated the Ascension. On June 8, Pentecost. On June 15, the Most Holy Trinity. This Sunday, June 22, the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi). Next Sunday, June 29, we’ll celebrate the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul.
Each of these Sundays celebrate something wonderful and beautiful about our faith. On the Ascension, we celebrated Christ returning to Heaven as the victorious king and bringing God and man for all eternity. On Pentecost, we celebrated the Holy Spirit filling the Church–and us!–with life and with the power to preach the Gospel to all nations. Last Sunday, we contemplated the confusing but wonderful mystery of who God is.
This Sunday, we contemplate yet another stunning and incredible mystery: that Jesus gave us his Body and Blood for us to consume. Which sounds a little weird, but let’s take a quick look at what the Eucharist is and the effects that the Eucharist has on us.
The Church teaches us that the Eucharist is the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ. Christ is fully present, our Church teaches, in the Eucharist. The Eucharist is not a symbol or a sign. It is God. Since Mass is us as a Church reliving the Last Supper, the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ when Christ takes the bread and says, “This is my body,” and then takes the wine and says “This is the chalice of my blood.” You see the priest, but it is Christ doing this work, using the priest as his instrument. It is like saying “I wrote you a letter,” even though the pen was what actually made the shapes in ink, or a keyboard and a computer made text appear on a screen.
The effects of this gift from God are endless, but here are a few: The Eucharist gives us a participation in the life of God in a fuller way. The Eucharist unites us as one Church: we are united to God, and he is united to all others who receive the Eucharist. The Eucharist forgives venial sins and preserves us from spiritual death, strengthening us against sin. This is the gift of which Christ said, “If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.”
Because of the incredible gifts we receive from the Eucharist, and the intimate sharing of life with God that it gives us, the Church teaches us that we must prepare ourselves to receive Communion by fasting from all food and drink except water and medicine for one hour before receiving Communion. We must confess any mortal sin we are aware of before receiving the Eucharist. Mortal sin cuts us off from God. It is a spiritual death of our soul. If we receive the Eucharist in such a state, we endanger our souls even more. St. Paul warns the Corinthians that this “is why many among you are ill and infirm, and a considerable number are dying.” (1 Cor 11:30)