The Eucharist is one of the most integral parts of the Catholic Faith. The Sacrament of the Eucharist is the celebration of the bread and wine becoming the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. The real Christ is wholly present, His body, blood, soul and divinity, in the form of bread and wine. By partaking in the Eucharist, Catholics are called to unite their bodily forms with Christ and experience His divinity in a temporal manner on Earth (as well as a spiritual union through the sacrament). On this page we’ll discuss the origin of the Eucharist, the Transubstantiation, and the act of receiving the Eucharist.
Origin
The Sacrament of the Eucharist traces it’s roots back to the Last Supper and other events in the Bible. At the last supper - a Passover meal - Jesus takes the bread and wine, gives it a special blessing and distributes them to his apostles with the instructions “Take and Eat, this is my body and blood, which will be given up for you”. The Passover meal is a ritual act in the Jewish faith, originating when Moses freed the Israelites from Egypt - the evening before their liberation, they had a special meal with a sacrificial lamb, and the angel of death passed over their houses, saving their lives and enabling their freedom from Israel.
In a similar manner, at the Last Supper Jesus was the sacrificial lamb, by whose death on the cross the next day, all of humanity was freed from death (sin). In such a way, the Eucharist is similar to the Passover feast, it is our way to connect with our salvation. However, it is so much more than a symbol.
Transubstantiation
The Eucharist is not merely a symbol of Christ’s body and blood, it truly is his body and blood. We see this in two key components of Scripture. The first is the Last Supper, when Christ gives his blessing, he says “This is my body” and “This is my blood”. When he says this, the bread and wine go through a process called “Transubstantiation”. Transubstantiation is the process in which the Bread and Wine become the true substance of the Body and Blood of Christ. The miracle of the Eucharist is that the Bread and Wine become the Body and Blood of Christ without any changes to the outward characteristics of the substance.
A good example would be a sleeping cow that dies. This is an example of a “substantial change” (substantial being the root of the word “Transubstantiation”). When a sleeping cow dies, there is not much change to its outward appearance, it was already lying down, eyes closed (the only difference would be breathing, but from far away you cannot tell). However, its nature has changed; it is no longer a living animal, it is now a deteriorating physical feature that will slowly decompose. Its nature has changed, despite no outward visible sign to people passing by.
This is Transubstantiation. The inner characteristics of the bread and wine have changed, while the outward form is the same. In addition to the actions at the last supper, we have Jesus’s words in John 6:51-54:
“ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.' Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, 'How can this man give us his flesh to eat?' Jesus said to them, 'Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
What is important here is not only that Jesus says he’s the bread of life, but that when the Jewish people question his teaching (How can this man give us his flesh to eat?) He did not correct them or explain any symbolism he was inferring. Instead, he doubled down, and later in John 6 he tripled down. And by the end, thousands of disciples walked away. If they were merely misunderstanding symbolic speech, he would’ve corrected them and explained it further (as he does elsewhere in the Gospel). But instead, he doubles down on it, triples down even. He cannot change his teaching. This is where we as Catholics derive the Truth that Christ is wholly present in the Sacrament of the Eucharist; from the Last Supper and His teaching in John 6.
The Act
The Sacrament of the Eucharist is performed by the priest. In the second half of the Mass, the priest performs the “Liturgy of the Eucharist”. This is where he, through a series of prayers and actions, acts as a Christ-like figure and facilitates the Transubstantiation. Through the priest, Christ transforms the Eucharisitic Host and the Wine into His Body and Blood.
After this, the congregation is invited forward to receive the Eucharist through a process commonly referred to as “Communion”. During Communion, there are many different methods for different churches, but the two main ways to receive the Host are directly on the tongue or on your hand (and then you place it in your mouth yourself). As you go through an initiation program like RCIA, they will give you more guidance and instruction on how to receive the Eucharist.
Below are a few good resources for the Sacrament of the Eucharist. The first is a video explaining the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Also linked below is the website of St. Carlo Acutis. St. Carlo Acutis, dubbed “the first millennial Saint”, was an Italian computer programmer who created a website that tracked all documented incidents of Eucharistic miracles. These miracles further substantiate the Catholic belief in transubstantiation.
