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Now we come to the last theme: The Eucharist is life. It transforms us and brings us eternal life. This too is an enduring theme throughout the whole of our tradition. Listen to a communion hymn from around the first century.
He gave them bread from heaven
and men ate angels’ bread;
he gave them bread from heaven.
Blessed the bread we have received.
We have taken the Lord’s body and his precious blood.
The Lord has transformed the bread …
The saving cup is brimming with life.
We have received the holy bread. (Adalbert Hamman, Early Christian Prayers [Chicago: Henry Regnery Co., 1961], no. 105)
Doesn’t this sound like chapter 6 of the Gospel of John? “I am the bread of life, … the living bread.” And fifteen hundred years ago the Eucharist was life. St. Cyril of Alexandria, wrote in the fifth century, in a commentary on the Gospel of John,
Christ gave his own body for the life of all, and makes it the channel through which life flows once more into us….
When the life-giving Word of God dwelt in human flesh, he changed it into that good thing which is distinctively his, namely, life, and by being wholly united to the flesh in a way beyond our comprehension, he gave it the life-giving power which he has by his very nature. Therefore, the body of Christ gives life to those who receive it. Its presence in mortal men expels death and drives away corruption because it contains within itself in this entirety the Word who totally abolishes corruption. (The Liturgy of the Hours, vol. 2 [New York: Catholic Book Publishing, 1976], Saturday, Third Week of Easter, 744)
And today, two thousand years after the birth of Christ, it continues to be life. As Pope John Paul II said,
The Church draws her life from the Eucharist. This truth does not simply express a daily experience of faith, but recapitulates the heart of the mystery of the Church. In a variety of ways she joyfully experiences the constant fulfillment of the promise: “Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20), but in the Holy Eucharist, through the changing of bread and wine into the body and blood of the Lord, she rejoices in this presence with unique intensity. (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, no. 1)
Not only does the Eucharist give life, it transforms us. Irenaeus, in the second century, said,
Just as a cutting from the vine planted in the ground fructifies in its season, or, as a grain of wheat falling into the earth and, becoming decomposed, rises with manifold increase by the Spirit of God and becomes the Eucharist, which is the body and blood of Christ, so also our bodies, being nourished by it and deposited in the earth, and suffering decomposition there, shall rise at their appointed time. (Against Heresies, bk. 5, chap. 2, no. 3, in Johannes Quasten, Patrology, vol. 1 [Westminster, Md.: Christian Classics, 1992], 304–5)
This transformation is a death and resurrection. St. Ephrem said in the fourth century that “he who eats [the Eucharist] with faith, eats Fire and Spirit…. For it is truly my body and whoever eats it will have eternal life” (see Ecclesia de Eucharistia, no. 17). And Vatican Council II said in the twentieth century, “the Eucharist … draws the faithful into the compelling love of Christ and sets them on fire” (Sacrosanctum Consilium, no. 10). It is a transformation from life into eternal life. As Pope John Paul II said, “Those who feed on Christ in the Eucharist need not wait until the hereafter to receive eternal life: they already possess it on earth, as the first-fruits of a future fullness…. With the Eucharist we digest, as it were, the ‘secret’ of the resurrection” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, no. 18).
So you see the connections between the themes of reality, healing, and life: Reality, healing, and life are inseparable in the Eucharist. The reality of Christ present in the Eucharist heals and feeds us giving us life here on Earth and eternal life.
But we ourselves are not merely passive, simply receiving reality, health, and life. We are expected to play an active role in the Church and in the world. Let us listen again to the words of Pope John Paul II:
Proclaiming the death of the Lord “until he comes” (1 Cor 11:26) entails that all who take part in the Eucharist be committed to changing their lives and making them in a certain way completely “Eucharistic.” It is this fruit of a transfigured existence and a commitment to transforming the world in accordance with the Gospel which splendidly illustrates the eschatological tension inherent in the celebration of the Eucharist and in the Christian life as a whole. (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, no. 20)
This is not the end, but only the beginning. “The Eucharist is a mode of being which passes from Jesus into each Christian through whose testimony it is meant to spread throughout society and culture” (Mane nobiscum Domine, no. 25). Therefore, it is up to you to bring the reality of Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, into your heart and mind, to allow Christ to be your healing and health, to allow him to transform you and give you eternal life through the Eucharist which is fire and Spirit. I close with words from Pope Benedict XVI, in his first message upon being elected:
The Eucharist, the heart of Christian life and the source of the evangelizing mission of the Church, … the Eucharist makes constantly present the Risen Christ who continues to give himself to us, calling us to participate in the banquet of his Body and his Blood…. I ask everyone in the coming months to intensify love and devotion for Jesus in the Eucharist and to express courageously and clearly faith in the Real Presence of the Lord. (Message at the End of the Eucharistic Concelebration with the Members of the College of Cardinals in the Sistine Chapel, April 20, 2005, 4)
