The Eucharist is the Sacrament in which we receive the Lord’s Body and Blood under the appearances of bread and wine. Jesus instituted the Eucharist on the night before He died, at the Last Supper, when He took bread and a cup of wine, gave them to His disciples, and said, “This is my Body” and “This is my Blood.” Then, the next day, on the Cross, Jesus fulfilled His sacrifice. Every Mass is a representation of Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross. In the Mass, we worship and receive the Lord in His Word and in His Body and Blood from the same altar. We participate in the one and the same sacrifice of Christ made present again.

The Eucharist in Salvation History

St. Augustine notably stated that “the New Testament lies hidden in the Old, and the Old is unveiled in the New.” The Eucharist is an unfathomable mystery, and how we came into possession of this most gracious gift of Christ’s Body and Blood involves the entire history of salvation. It is prefigured in the Old Testament and finds its origin in the Incarnation, its institution at the Last Supper, and its full revelation and significance in Christ’s Death and Resurrection. Aided by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, these events comprise the bedrock from which we begin to understand the sum and summary of our faith: the Holy Eucharist. At the end of Jesus’ public ministry, approaching the hour He would depart from this world, came “the day of sacrificing the Passover lamb” (Luke 22:7). The Passover was the principal Jewish feast of the Old Testament and had been instituted to commemorate the Jews’ liberation from Egyptian slavery and the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham that He would establish a people uniquely His. By the same covenant, this same people would eventually come into possession of the Promised Land. God’s people were commanded to recall this event for all generations and to keep this feast day forever.

The Lamb of God

The Eucharist is a memorial of the Paschal Event. Christ is the lamb slain by His own trusted people. The Eucharist has become the Passover Lamb for all Christians, available to the entire Gentile world. In Him there is now one, complete sacrifice memorializing and sustaining our own deliverance from sinful captivity. Jesus gathered the Apostles in the upper room for the Last Supper and told them: “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15). Christ prophesied His Passion, revealing that He is the lamb to be sacrificed for our salvation. Jesus took a cup of wine, and after giving thanks He said, “Take this and share it among yourselves” (Luke 22:17). Then He took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me” (Luke 22:19). Christ instituted the Eucharist and commanded that we eat His Flesh and drink His Blood, signaling His victory over death through His Resurrection. Jesus said, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day” (John 6:54). After He broke and shared the bread, in a similar way He then took the cup of wine and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you” (Luke 22:20). Jesus instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper as the new and eternal sacrifice. It initiated an everlasting New Covenant with God’s people, sealed in His Precious Blood.

The Sacrifice of the Mass

We receive the Holy Eucharist at Mass. In the Eucharist, Jesus fulfills His promise to give Himself to us as the Bread of Life. When we receive the Eucharist, we are spiritually nourished, not by a mere symbol, but by Christ’s true Body and Blood. The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life. That means that the Eucharist is the foundation of our Faith and its greatest expression. Initiated on the eve of Calvary’s dark desolation, the Eucharist instituted during the Last Supper is a mystery of joyful light. A deeper understanding of the institution of the Eucharist lights the way for the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit to perfect nature as we strive to become saints.