Our Eucharistic Identity

By my count, it’s been a little over three weeks since the faithful last had the chance to receive the Eucharist at Mass. Do you miss the Eucharist yet? I hope so. All of us – even we priests who still get to celebrate Mass – should feel a great sorrow at the current conditions, and a renewed longing for the Eucharist. If we don’t feel that, if we are not hungering for the Body and Blood of the Lord, then perhaps that’s an indication that we haven’t really come to appreciate the gift of Jesus’s Real Presence in the way we should.

I imagine that many of us feel particularly saddened today, on Holy Thursday, to not be able to receive the Lord in the Sacrament which he instituted on this day. But the Eucharist still has great power to nourish us, even if we can’t receive it right now. I remember when I was in the second grade, preparing for First Holy Communion, the teacher told us: “Normally, when we eat food, the food becomes part of our bodies. But with the Body of Christ, it’s different; when we receive the Eucharist, we become part of his Body.”

Meister des Hausbuches, Christ Washing the Feet of the Apostles [detail] (1475)

There’s a great truth in that. The Body of Christ is not just something we receive. It’s an identity and a reality we live out. The presence and the power of the Eucharist can nourish us even when we can’t receive it – indeed, perhaps especially then. How? Through loving service. Jesus symbolized that loving service in the washing of feet, but he showed its fullest extent in laying down his life on the Cross. Every day we are offered chances to lay down our lives for each other: spouses for their spouses; parents for their children; children for their siblings; teachers for their students; doctors and nurses for their patients; the contented for those who are brokenhearted; the privileged for those who are needy; the peaceful for those who are in distress. Even when we are in need, there is always someone in even greater need than us, and when we lay down our lives for them, even in some small way – even if only by offering up our sufferings and inconveniences as a prayer to God – whenever we do that, we are reflecting the Eucharistic heart of Jesus. We are living out the Mass, despite the fact we can’t come to it right now.

Friends, Jesus has given us a model of love to follow. In the washing of feet, in the sacrifice of the Cross, we see the meaning of the Eucharist made clear for us. Whether priest or people, we all await the chance to participate together in this Holy Sacrifice. In the meantime, though, let’s look for ways to live out our Eucharistic identity as the Body of Christ, laying down our lives in loving service to those around us.