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What is the Eucharist?

Christ's great homily on the Eucharist

John 6:41-51

Jesus continues his sermon about eternal life with his explanation of the Eucharist he's going to provide. He says: "Whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life."

Question: How is it that the Eucharist gives us life?

He answers: "Whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." In other words, he gave himself to the Cross to take our punishment, i.e., the death that results from our sins. The resurrection of his body defeated this death. Therefore, his body, crucified and risen, is the source of our life.
 

This is what we celebrate in Mass!

Every Mass unites us spiritually to his sufferings on the Cross and to his Resurrection by providing us with his body and blood, here and now, in the form of food: the bread of life. As Pope John Paul II points out in Ecclesia de Eucharistia, "The Second Vatican Council rightly proclaimed that the Eucharistic sacrifice is 'the source and summit of the Christian life'."

John 6:52-59

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