The Eucharistic Mission of the Church

Sept. 1, 2024

Catholics are called to share the gifts of charity and unity they receive in Christ’s sacrament of love

By Roland Millare

Sept. 1, 2024

Dominican Father Peter Martyr Yungwirth carries the monstrance as pilgrims journeying through the Archdiocese of New York on the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage's Seton (East) Route process through Central Park in New York City May 25, 2024. (OSV News photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)

Following the National Eucharistic Congress that drew more than 50,000 people to Indianapolis in July , Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, described the event as a “real experience of unity” for the Church in the United States.

It is no coincidence that the Eucharistic devotion displayed by so many Catholics — including so many Knights of Columbus and their families — during the ongoing National Eucharistic Revival should bear fruit in unity. The Eucharist, as St. Augustine taught, is both a “sign of unity” and a “sign of charity.” If we want to truly understand these founding principles of the Order, we must reflect upon the gift of the Eucharist.

Such an understanding should, in turn, inspire Knights and their families during the National Eucharistic Revival’s third and final phase — the Year of Mission. For it is precisely in the love and unity discovered in Christ’s true presence that the Church and society can find true renewal.

SIGN OF UNITY

Jesus Christ, present in the Most Blessed Sacrament, is the source of unity within the Church. St. Paul highlights this truth with these fundamental questions: “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?” (1 Cor 10:16). The Eucharist is the means by which we have communion with the blood and body of Christ.

This teaching of St. Paul is made even more explicit in the Catechism of the Catholic 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” (1396). Communion is both the union that the communicant has with Jesus Christ, via the gift of the Eucharist, and the unity that makes up the Church.

Cristo Eucarístico, 2012, painting by Raúl Berzosa, raulberzosa.com — *Cristo Eucarístico*, 2012, painting by Raúl Berzosa, raulberzosa.com

The Second Vatican Council proclaimed that the Church is both the “sign and instrument” of salvation (Lumen Gentium, 1). On one hand, the Church is a sign of the gift of communion between God and humanity. Simultaneously, the Church is also the means by which communion is achieved through the gift of the sacraments.

The sacraments of initiation lay the foundation for the gift of communion, beginning with baptism, progressing through confirmation and culminating in the Eucharist. The sacraments of healing — reconciliation and anointing of the sick — restore the gift of communion when it has been lost by mortal sin or is potentially hindered by the struggles of suffering and death. Finally, matrimony and holy orders are sacraments that work in service to communion.

The Eucharist strengthens and deepens the communion within the Church. It is a concrete foretaste of the union that awaits us in God’s kingdom and a concrete realization that we are called to live in union with another. We are made for a relationship of self-giving love with God and with other people. The many members of the Church are called to a life of communion as one unified body, and we can only achieve this solidarity through charity.

SIGN OF CHARITY

Charity has been defined by St. Thomas Aquinas as willing the good of another person for his or her own sake. In other words, charity is always a selfless gift.

Our Lord establishes a clear link between the Eucharist and self-giving love in his words at the Last Supper: “This is my body given up for you” (Lk 22:19). As Pope Benedict XVI reminded us in his apostolic exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis (The Sacrament of Charity), “Jesus Christ is the Truth in Person,” and via the sacrament of the Eucharist, “Jesus shows us in particular the truth about the love which is the very essence of God” (2).

We can either live charitably, in light of our call to enter into communion, or live selfishly, as isolated individuals, with little or no concern for others. We can reecho the Eucharistic words of our Lord with our lives of charity: “This is my body given up for you.” Alternatively, we can appropriate, and truncate, the words of our Lord with a life driven by utility, pleasure or power: “This is my body.”

As the “sacrament of charity,” the Eucharist impels us to love both God and neighbor. Pope Benedict highlighted the social implications of the Eucharist in his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est (God Is Love). “‘Worship’ itself, Eucharistic communion, includes the reality both of being loved and of loving others in turn,” he wrote. “A Eucharist which does not pass over into the concrete practice of love is intrinsically fragmented” (14). In other words, worship and love of neighbor are inseparable.

We can reecho the Eucharistic words of our Lord with our lives of charity: ‘This is my body given up for you.’ Alternatively, we can appropriate, and truncate, the words of our Lord with a life driven by utility, pleasure or power: ‘This is my body.’

The Eucharist has been the source of grace and strength for countless saints in their work of charity: St. Vincent de Paul, St. Damien of Molokai, St. Katharine Drexel and St. Teresa of Calcutta, to name a few. The religious community Mother Teresa founded, the Missionaries of Charity, go to daily Mass and make a daily Holy Hour. When people critiqued this practice as taking up time that could be spent serving more people, her response was that they would be “too poor to serve the poor” without the Eucharist. “Unless we believe and see Jesus in the appearance of bread on the altar,” she said, “we will not be able to see him in the distressing disguise of the poor.”

EUCHARIST AND MISSION

The National Eucharistic Revival has been a much-needed effort to reinvigorate Eucharistic faith and practice. In the United States and elsewhere, the work of the Knights of Columbus will continue to help the faithful in their parishes and dioceses appreciate the gift of the Real Presence.

Knights can foster Eucharistic devotion in their parishes by organizing Holy Hours or promoting perpetual Eucharistic adoration. Councils can continue to provide literature to help the faithful understand the Church’s teachings on the Eucharist and the celebration of the Mass. Cor groups can encourage council members and other men to reflect on the relationship between the Eucharist and charity.

In short, our efforts to contribute to the Eucharistic Revival must continue beyond the recent Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis as we focus on the relationship between the Eucharist and mission. The holy sacrifice of the Mass ends with the words “Ite, missa est” — words that send us out into the world. We are sent forth as disciples to announce the Gospel of the Lord, including the good news that Jesus remains with us, body, blood, soul and divinity.

In his message for this year’s World Mission Day, which will be celebrated Oct. 20 under the theme “Go and invite everyone to the banquet” (cf. Mt 22:9), Pope Francis reiterated his predecessor’s appeal in Sacramentum Caritatis: “We cannot approach the Eucharistic table without being drawn into the mission which, beginning in the very heart of God, is meant to reach all people” (84).

In a culture marked by division and hurt, our mission as Catholics and Knights is to share the charity and unity that flow from Our Lord’s Eucharistic heart.

*****

ROLAND MILLARE is vice president of curriculum and director of clergy initiatives for the St. John Paul II Foundation in Houston. The author of A Living Sacrifice: Liturgy and Eschatology in Joseph Ratzinger, he is a member of St. Basil Council 4204 in Sugar Land, Texas.

Archbishop William Lori celebrates Mass in the Church of the Gesù in Rome on Oct. 23, 2024.

The Eucharistic Mission of the Church

SIGN OF UNITY

SIGN OF CHARITY

EUCHARIST AND MISSION

Related Articles

Spiritual Life

The Heart of Prayer

The Heart of Prayer

Spiritual Life

The Raised Man of the Shroud

The Raised Man of the Shroud

Spiritual Life

Light and Life Amid Loss

Light and Life Amid Loss

Spiritual Life

St. Joseph’s Eloquent Silence

St. Joseph’s Eloquent Silence

Spiritual Life

What Do You Desire Most?

What Do You Desire Most?

Spiritual Life

The Silent ‘Yes’ of St. Joseph

The Silent ‘Yes’ of St. Joseph

Spiritual Life

The School of St. Joseph

The School of St. Joseph

Spiritual Life

Joseph, Did You Know?

Joseph, Did You Know?