PROMPT #1
There is this struggle within me in choosing the one distinct (in my opinion) and specific sacrament that draws one to a deeper union with Christ. Not because I believe it is a difficult choice but perhaps a bit too obvious choice. Every sacrament has its own purpose and significance in the lifeblood of the Church yet to me there is no other sacrament that stands above the rest (not out of importance but uniqueness) than that of the Eucharist. There is no other sacrament that has been written about more and studied more by both Catholic and non-Catholic theologians alike. And for good reason! I think it can be safely said that no other ritual is more identified with the Catholic faith (again by Catholic and non-Catholics alike) than the Eucharist. But why? This will then be the purpose and aim of this blog is to highlight the reasons why and more specifically how it brings into deep union with Christ those that partake of the blessed Eucharist.
I must first re-emphasize as I did in parenthesis above, that in no way is the intention of this blog to diminish or abdicate the other six sacraments from their importance within the Catholic Church. As O’Neill makes clear, there is no greater sacrament than Christ who is “the original and foundational Sacrament of Christianity” and all seven rites are “related to the foundational sacrament and share in its symbolism and its efficacy…. If we bear in mind their relative status, we may say that they are sacraments only because they transpose the humanity of Christ in to terms of Church ceremonial” (Colman E. O’Neill, Meeting Christ in the Sacraments, pg. 78). So, in light of Christ, all seven sacraments are positioned to draw each person into a fuller and deeper union with Christ in each of the sacraments own and distinct way. Yet, I cannot betray my sensibilities to the uniqueness of the Eucharist amongst the other sacraments. This may come as somewhat of hypocritical presumption as I must first admit that as a lifelong (slightly to moderately annoyed) Protestant, I have indeed never partaken in the Eucharist. However, if it is admissible in any way, I have thoroughly been marveled while observing it many of times from my pew when I have attended the Mass. Though my only “experience” might be witnessing it “from afar”, my mind and soul compels me to believe that there is something that sets this particular sacrament apart not only from within the sacramental family but from perhaps anything else in the world.
The objection may arise that perhaps because the Eucharist is one of the most visual sacramental rituals that takes place in the Church that it is a most obvious choice to write about regarding a deeper union with Christ. I would not and for that matter, could not push back on that sentiment. The purpose of the sacraments is to visualize in the natural what is more deeply spiritual to which we may not be able to see or for that matter visualize. O’Neill observes that, “Men cannot communicate with each other by purely spiritual intercourse…. the Christian’s union with Christ is not purely spiritual; on the contrary, it is human; and this necessarily implies that, while faith is at its heart, bodily contact is essential to its fullness” (Colman E. O’Neill, Meeting Christ in the Sacraments, pg. 88). This is the reason the Eucharist stands out amongst the others is because it engages all the human senses within one beautiful sacrament. No other sacrament is fuller and rich in symbolism and meaning than the Eucharist. When Jesus stated in John 6:56 that “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them” (RSV), he was signifying the uniqueness of Eucharist as the defining sacrament that leads to experiencing the deepest union with Christ. There is contact and a communication that must be experienced by each of us; contact with the risen Lord and King who sits at the right hand of the Father ever interceding for us but also that “purity and worthiness of the Head of the race must still be communicated to individuals. In the Eucharist, above all this contact and communication are achieved. Because this sacrament contains the body that suffered for men and that has risen to glory to be the source of all graces, the Eucharist is the supreme sacrament” (Colman E. O’Neill, Meeting Christ in the Sacraments, pg. 171).
It is through the Eucharist that each person is bound more closely and intricately in love to every person that is a member of the mystical Body of Christ and through this, is bolstered against sin and is emboldened to rise above and meet head-on, the trials and temptations that are apart of the Christian life. This binding of love to one another within the Church cannot be separated from a more perfect both individually and corporately union with our Lord. The Eucharist is the only sacrament that is celebrated during every Mass and with that it is, in my humble opinion, that the Eucharist is the most unifying feature of the Catholic Church and her members. If I may add a brief subjective note here from personal experience, the Eucharist is the one ritual that brings a somewhat type of (hopefully righteous) jealousy upon the onlooker from the “outside”. There is also this wonderful and beautiful nourishment that is received by each partaker through the body and the blood that also creates a restorative power within each person. This spiritual nourishing of our souls is akin to the physical nourishing that our corporeal bodies need through food and drink. The Eucharist not only nourishes and restores but also sustains us in our earthly wanderings, gives us that spiritual growth that we so deeply desire and lastly but surely not least, it gives us joy and brings us pleasure to our spirits which is intoxicated with the goodness of God!
In closing, I understand that this blog barely takes a few minute grain sands off the surface of the vast richness of the Eucharist and its singular aim to bring each partaker to a wonderfully deeper and more amplified union with Jesus Christ. But my hope is that this would at least provoke and produce a spark within the reader to dive deeper into the beauty and power of the Eucharist and for that matter, all of the sacraments! I would like to quote O’Neill once more when he marvels about St. Thomas writing in his Summa about a saint who likened the Eucharist being “like the live coal taken by a seraph from the altar with tongs and touched to the mouth of Isaiah; it is aflame with God” (Colman E. O’Neill, Meeting Christ in the Sacraments, pg. 172). As already stated, my aim was not to designate the other six sacraments to a lesser prestige as they each have their own purpose and power within the Church. Yet, the Eucharist gives each of us that powerful ritual that engages not only our five physical senses, not only brings the Church together in unity to celebrate and partake in, but perhaps above all, to experience Christ in a way that is powerfully and wonderfully transcendent upon and within each individual who receives the Eucharist. There is nothing that I can see that is more powerfully unifying within the Catholic Church and perhaps within all of Christendom to our risen Lord Jesus Christ that one can experience in this life.