[Editor's Note: This article is the third in a series of six articles celebrating the Year of the Eucharist. Click here to read the first article and second article.]
In some churches, when the morning sun is bright, the people celebrating Mass might observe a rainbow effect as the sun’s rays shine through the church’s windows. Like a rainbow, it’s a reminder that God is always with us. His covenant love — manifested in the rainbow — is one of the most beautiful images we can have as we receive Jesus in the Eucharist.When I bring clouds over the earth
and the bow is seen in the clouds . . .
I will remember my covenant that is between me and you. (Genesis 9:14-15)
Throughout Scripture, we see how God has always wanted to have a covenant relationship with us. We see it in the stories of Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David. God’s desire for a covenant runs in all of the prophets; it is a central theme in the gospels; it is explained in the letters; and it reaches its dramatic climax in the Book of Revelation. In short, God is eternally covenanted to us, and he calls us to be covenanted to him.
As we continue to explore different images of the Eucharist, we want to dedicate this article to looking at how the Eucharist reveals God’s covenant with us. Every time we receive Jesus’ body and blood, we can hear God repeat his promise to us: “I will be your God, and you will be my people.”
The God of the Covenant
The crux of our covenant with God involves responsibilities on both sides. On God’s side, he promises to be our God — to give us his Spirit, to reveal himself to us, to put his laws in our hearts, to forgive us, and to care for our welfare. On our side, God asks us to be his people — to love him, to be faithful to him, to turn to him for help, to refuse any form of idol worship, and to obey his commands.
Throughout history, God has always upheld his side of the covenant, while we have not been so faithful. Our love for him has been erratic. We haven’t always obeyed his commands. We have worshipped idols. Over and over again, we have sold our birthright. But instead of turning from us and rejecting us, our heavenly Father continues to reach out to us in the hope of drawing us home.
Who can forget the story of Hosea and his wife, Gomer (Hosea 1-3)? Gomer was unfaithful to Hosea, and, not surprisingly, caused him a great deal of pain and suffering. But through this painful relationship, God told Hosea two things. First, he told Hosea that the people of Israel have treated God just as Gomer has treated Hosea. And second, he told Hosea to take Gomer back and to be reconciled to her. He told Hosea to love Gomer just as God loves unfaithful Israel. In a way, this story of Hosea and Gomer is a microcosm of the story of God’s covenant love for us.
So much of this story changed, however, when Jesus came to earth. Finally, in Jesus, God found someone who would uphold the covenant in every way. Not once did Jesus violate his part of the covenant. Not once did he sin. And what’s more, when Jesus broke the bread and blessed the wine at the Last Supper, he who lived the covenant perfectly then became the new covenant between God and us. By his own blood, Jesus ratified a new covenant with God — for all of us. He became the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29).
At its heart, this is what we celebrate every time we participate in Mass. By gathering around the table of the Lord, we are embracing God’s new covenant with us and pledging ourselves to uphold our side of the covenant. At the same time, the Mass is God’s greatest opportunity to write this covenant on our hearts and convince us that he will never abandon us.
The New Covenant
An Event and a Sacrament. As mysterious as it may sound, the new covenant is both a historical event that took place on the cross and a sacrament of grace that transcends time and place. It is true that the sacrifice of Jesus will never be repeated. It happened once, for all time (Hebrews 10:14). And yet Jesus told us to relive this sacrifice every time we celebrate the Eucharist (1 Corinthians 11:24). As Mary once did, we too may want to ask the Lord, “How can this be?” (Luke 1:34). Perhaps the words of one of the Fathers of the Church can help us here.
St. John Damascene once wrote, “You ask, how can the bread become the Body of Christ and the wine . . . the Blood of Christ. I shall tell you: the Holy Spirit comes upon them and accomplishes what surpasses every word and thought . . . Let it be enough for you to understand that it is by the Holy Spirit that the Lord, through and in himself, took flesh” (An Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, 4.13).
As John of Damascene acknowledged, we may never understand the mystery of the Eucharist. But neither should we let that stop us from receiving its blessings. Perhaps it is enough for us simply to know that Jesus has told us to do this in memory of him. Perhaps it is enough to believe that eating and drinking of the Lord can have an undeniably life-changing impact upon us.
Protected by the Eucharist
Among all the popular diets these days, there is one called the “catabolic diet.” This diet focuses on foods that help you burn more calories than you take in: carrots, celery, asparagus, and the like. The catabolic diet promises that as you eat you can actually lose weight.
While the analogy may not be perfect, we can see similarities between the Eucharist and the catabolic diet. When we receive the body and blood of Christ, we receive the power to fight against sin. The more we partake of the Eucharist, the more our tendencies to sin are eaten up. In other words, when you eat the Bread of Life, you lose “sin-weight”!
When Jesus said, “this is my blood that has been poured out for the forgiveness of sins,” it is certain that this blood offering contained an element of protection. Back in Egypt, when God had Moses prepare for the angel of death, he told him to have the people take some of the blood from their Passover sacrifice and put it “on the two doorposts and the lintel” of their homes. “When I see the blood,” God promised, “I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you” (Exodus 12:7,13).
Now, if God used the blood of a lamb to protect the Israelites who partook of that same lamb, will he not protect us from the ravages of sin when we eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God? Every time we eat and drink of Christ, we are not just renewing a legal covenant; we are entering into the strong, loving arms of God. We belong to him, and he will protect us and keep us as we stay close to him.
Pray for Renewal
In this article, and the previous articles on the Eucharist, we have tried to portray different biblical images of the Eucharist, images that help us see that God has always wanted us to internalize Jesus, to eat and drink of his very life. We want to encourage you to pray through the images of the Eucharist we have talked about in these articles. Dwell on them and ask the Holy Spirit to bring them to life within you.
These articles would be incomplete unless we ask the question, “Given all that the Eucharist does for us, and all that is ours in the new covenant, why is the church in the state it is in?” Why is there so much division? Why is there so much selfishness and disobedience? Why is there so much complacency?
While the answers to these questions are long and complex, one thing is clear: Unity in the church is integrally linked with an ever-deepening appreciation of the Eucharist. Every piece of bread that we eat is made up of thousands of grains of wheat. Every cup of wine that we drink is made up of thousands of grapes. Yet when we eat Jesus’ body and drink his blood, we are all eating one Eucharist. We are all participating in one eternal covenant.
Just as Jesus and his Father are one, God wants us to be one — not separated by division, disobedience, or indifference but bound together in a covenant of love and faithfulness. The Eucharist is God’s power to take us to a deeper level of unity. It makes us, individual members of the church, like grains of bread in a single loaf or crushed grapes in one cup. Communion heightens communion. It kneads us and crushes us and makes us one in Jesus Christ — in unity with our Heavenly Father.
As we celebrate the Year of the Eucharist, we ask the Lord to awaken in us a spirit of unity, love, and faithfulness. May God continue to bless us, and our whole church, as we partake of the Bread of Life. May we become more and more that one, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church that our Father so desires.
(This article comes from the May 2005 issue of The Word Among Us devotional magazine. Used with permission. It is part of the sponsorship of the Catholic Man by the National Fellowship of Catholic Men. You may e-mail the NFCM at info@nfcmusa.org or visit the NFCM website.)
Special Note: In honor of “The Year of the Eucharist,” the National Fellowship of Catholic Men is pleased to offer two books on the Eucharist that can be used in small Catholic men’s groups: Worthy is the Lamb, the Biblical Roots of the Mass by Thomas J. Nash (with discussion questions at the end of each chapter) and God Is Near Us: The Eucharist, the Heart of Life by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI). These books can be ordered directly from the NFCM on its website .
Reflection Questions on Page 2
Questions for Reflection/Discussion by Catholic Men
1. Throughout the Old Testament, we read of God’s desire to be covenanted to us. In what way does this desire reflect God’s great love for each of us?
2. In what way is the story of Hosea and Gomer “a microcosm of the story of God’s covenant love for us.”
3. How has God’s covenant love for us changed with the coming of Jesus? What has been your response to this covenant love?
4. In the article, we read these words, “By gathering around the table of the Lord, we are embracing God’s new covenant with us and pledging ourselves to uphold our side of the covenant. At the same time, the Mass is God’s greatest opportunity to write this covenant on our hearts and convince us that he will never abandon us.” What are some ways we can uphold our part of the covenant with God?
5. In the article, we also read these words, “When we receive the body and blood of Christ, we receive the power to fight against sin. The more we partake of the Eucharist, the more our tendencies to sin are eaten up.” What are some specific examples of this in your life?
6. How would you answer the questions posed at the end of this article: “Given all that the Eucharist does for us, and all that is ours in the new covenant, why is the church in the state it is in? Why is there so much division? Why is there so much selfishness and disobedience? Why is there so much complacency?”
7. If you are in a men’s group take some time to pray for ongoing renewal and greater unity in the Church, using the prayer at the end of the article as the starting point.
