The Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist

By Josh Justine M. Allapitan

STEM 12 -St.Jude

One of the renown tradition of Filipinos are the celebration of fiestas. And fiestas
are often celebrated in order to emphasize the culture or in remembrance of a patron
saint. One thing that will never be dismissed when we talk about fiestas is the foods.
The food or the meal offered and served during fiestas serves a particular meaning,
not only in fiestas do we often serve meals but also through our daily lives. This meal
serve as a way to celebrate an important thing, or happenings. Through this meal we
are able to become closer with one another as we share stories over the table.

On the night before our Lord Jesus Christ died, he shared a very special meal
with his disciples which is known as the Last Supper wherein Christ told his disciple
to remember him and broke the bread and give it to them as well as the wine, the
bread in particular is the symbol of body of Christ while the wine is the symbol of the
blood of the new eternal covenant. This action of Jesus Christ is the institution of the
Eucharist and he commanded his apostles to celebrate it until his return. Thus the
offering and consecration of the bread and wine as the body and blood of Christ, the
breaking and sharing of the body and blood of Christ is a very important ritual of the
celebration of the Eucharist.

The Eucharist is the summit and source of our Christian life and it is the
efficacious sign and and sublime cause of the communion in the divine life. It refers
to the thanksgiving of Jesus when he instituted it. If Baptism and Confirmation are the
stepping stone towards being a Christian, Eucharist in turn is the peak wherein it is the
sum and summary of our faith. This sacrament is expressed in different names in
which each of it evokes certain aspects of it. First is the Breaking of the Bread
because Jesus use this during his last supper and that it is the action by which the
disciples of Jesus will recognize him after his resurrection, by breaking it, they
signified that those who eat of the broken bread will enter into communion with
Christ and thus form one body.

Second is the Lord’s Supper in which it is because of the connection with the
Lord who celebrated it with his disciples. Third is Eucharistic Assembly due to the
fact that the Eucharist is celebrated amid the assembly of us, the faithful. Fourth is the
Memorial of The Lord’s Passion and Resurrection wherein it is in the Eucharist that
we get to remember the passion and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Fifth is the
Holy Sacrifice because it makes present the sacrifice of Jesus Christ our savior and
since it includes the offerings of the Church. Sixth is the Holy and Divine Liturgy due
to the fact that the Eucharist is the center of all liturgical celebrations. Seventh is the
Holy Communion because in the Eucharist, we are able to be united with Christ in
order for us to form one body. Last but not the least is the Holy Mass because the
Eucharist ends with the sending of the faithful to fulfill God’s will in our daily lives, it
is where we do our part and take action.

In search for meaning of things around us, remembering therefore is a very

important aspect that enables us to have a connection to our loved ones. It recognizes
a special moment or a life that we share with someone we loved or value. The last
supper was our Lord Jesus Christ’s memorial and because of this, the Eucharist is also
called a memorial, a remembering and a recollection. It is through our action of
remembering of the past that enables the events in the past to be alive again. When
Jesus said “Do this in memory of me” he actually means more than being remembered,
for every time we celebrate the Mass or the Eucharist, we are able to renew without
bloodshed.

As a peak of the Christian life, the Eucharist, we as a Christian must actively

participate in the mass of the Holy Eucharist, for it is through this sacrament that we
are able to remember and recall the sacrifices our Lord Jesus Christ made and to held
it dear in our daily lives as a Christian. We must not take it for granted, for these
sacraments are the means of getting closer to God and having an understanding of our
Christian lives. These sacraments serves as a pathway towards becoming closer to
God.