Dear friends,
The question of the faith in the Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is one at the center of the crisis we face in the Catholic Church. A recent surveil on the matter revealed that a great number of Catholics, though practicing and regular to the Holy mass, do not believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Why would this matter erode the faith, one would ask? It is precisely because the Eucharist is at the Center of our Christian life. The Church says, “The Eucharist is the source and the summit of our Christian life.” In other words, the Eucharist makes the Church and the Church celebrates the Eucharist to live.
Today’s gospel reading takes us back to that reality. The risen Lord joins his disciples on their life journey. They are on the way to Emmaus. There, He appears to them and engages in the conversation, opening their minds to the intelligence of the Scriptures. Tradition has looked at the event as the explanation of the Holy mass with its two tables: the Table of the Word and the Table of the Sacrifice (the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of Eucharist), which are the essential parts of the Eucharistic Celebration.
Notwithstanding the importance of the Table of the Word, meaning the Liturgy of the Word, let us focus today on the second table, which is the Liturgy of the Eucharist. We are told that the disciples recognized the Lord in the breaking of the bread. There, the Lord repeats the gestures of the Last Supper: “He took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them.” Immediately their eyes were opened and they recognized him. Yet, He vanished from their sight. It is exactly here that the Eucharistic miracle is realized. Their eyes are opened to the truth of the real presence of the Lord in the species of bread and wine, which are no longer bread and wine but body and blood of the Lord. We have the blessing to be eyewitnesses to this. Here at this table, we experience the Eucharistic miracle, and we are given the Lord as food for our journey. The Lord feeds us with his Body and Blood.
As we prepare to receive the Lord in this Eucharist, let us ask for the gift of faith in the true and real presence of Him whom we receive. Let us open the eyes of our faith to see Emmanuel, God with us, at this Table of thanksgiving. To be able to do so, we will need to let our hearts burn as He breaks open the Scriptures for us and let our hearts embrace the transforming fire of the Holy Spirit consume every doubt and mistrust therein. Because it is only in so far as we allow this transforming power to work within us that we can be able to go and share the joy of the resurrection of the Lord with others. As disciples of the Lord, we are commissioned at the end of this celebration to go and say to others, “what we have heard from the Lord, what we have seen with our eyes, and touched with our hands,” this is exactly what we come to proclaim to you.” That Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, and he is present, and truly present in the Eucharist we celebrate.
And let us continue to pray for one another and for our parish family.
Fr. Emery