Eucharistic Presence
When I was in high school, I had a seminar class, where we were allotted an hour in the morning to work on homework and study. In this class, I had a friend named Joy. We were the only Freshman girls in the class, so we had an instant solidarity. Additionally, our friendship was built on the foundation of being completely comfortable in the presence of one another. We did not have to be constantly making conversation but grew in our relationship simply by being with each other, a mutual understanding. Through her companionship, I felt totally accepted for who I was, and reciprocally loved her. I genuinely enjoyed just being in her presence without the necessity of words or doing activities together. The two of us spent hours in silence together, just being with one another, and I have often thought that this relationship was a sort of conditioning and precursor to the comfortable silence that I experience in the Presence of the Blessed Sacrament.
We believe in the corporeal, substantial presence of Christ in the Eucharist. He is present body, blood, soul, and divinity; it is not just a symbolic or spiritual presence. Christ is truly present, Himself. We are found in Him and He is in us. Of course, my relationship with Jesus far surpasses that of my “comfortable silence” with Joy, but perhaps God gave me that immature Freshman relationship to teach me about the abiding presence of Our Lord in the Eucharist. We have all had the experience of being in the company of someone who was not truly present. Someone distracted. Someone physically present, but whose mind is occupied in other matters. Sometimes we have been that person. I know I have more often than I’d like to admit. As the nemesis of this kind of “presence,” Jesus is truly Present in the Blessed Sacrament in a way that surpasses the reality of how we are present to one another. He is always there waiting for me to give Himself. He may not respond in the way that I had hoped or desired, but He has consistently been there for me. In a way, it is as if He allowed Himself to be confined to the Tabernacle, simply to sit and wait for me…. for you… for anyone and everyone! Jesus waits for us because He loves us. Many spiritual authors have spoken of Christ in the Tabernacle as a “Prisoner of Love,” always there waiting for us.
The Eucharist is the Sacrament of Spiritual Nourishment. Saint Thomas Aquinas states that the Eucharist is the greatest of all the sacraments since only the Eucharist contains the substantial presence of Christ and His Sacrifice. All the other sacraments are ordered to the Eucharist as their source and end. Jesus says, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day… He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him” (John 6:54, 56).
In this Sacrament, Christ gives Himself to us. His presence transforms us, again and again conforming us to His likeness. In His presence our souls are filled with grace and a pledge of future glory is given to us. This union extends beyond the communication of words, plunging into the very depths of our being. By this remembrance of His passion, the effects of His redemption are felt in our lives.
In his Corpus Christi writing Aquinas reflects on the verse from Deuteronomy, which states, “What great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us” (4:7). With the Hebrew people God humbled Himself by speaking to Moses and drawing near to His people, but now He far surpasses that, having become flesh, taking our human nature, and remaining among us in the Eucharistic bread. What we receive in the Transubstantiated Host is a person, the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, both God and man. A real transformation takes place in the Mass; there is something new that was not present before. What was simply bread and wine has been transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of Christ, while the accidents remain, the substance has changed.
The Eucharist is the Sacrament of Charity (STh III, q. 73, a. 3.). Love desires union with the beloved. Lovers seek more than just to be in one another’s presence; they seek intimate union with each other. Love of its very nature is diffusive, seeking the beloved. It goes out of itself and gives all that it has. Christ instituted the Eucharist to be the sacrament by which He would continue to dwell with his disciples on earth, leaving a memorial and a testament to His loved ones, Himself.
While my relationship with Joy so many years ago passed away and I have no idea where she is now, it taught me something fundamentally important about friendship and being truly present for another, foreshadowing in a way my relationship with Jesus. We approach this Sacrament with adoration in love and fear (cum amore ac timore), because we know that Christ is truly present. This unitive abiding presence culminates in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, transforming us as we go about our days, so that it is no longer us who live, but Christ who lives in us (Gal 2:20).