Jesus institutes the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Every Catholic man can grow in happiness by seeking the Gift of Knowledge from the Holy Spirit so he can perceive and receive the True Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and by seeking the Gift of Understanding from the Holy Spirit so he can be filled with awe when in the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.
Liturgy
See: Holy Week – The Passion of Our Lord – Sunday – Cycle A – Mt 26:14-27:66; Solemnity of the Corpus Christi – Sunday – Cycle B – Mk 14:12-16, 22-26; Holy Week – The Passion of Our Lord – Sunday – Cycle C – Lk 22:14-23:56
Commentary
Jesus, the Son of God the Father, comes into the world for the salvation of mankind. In His Passion (Latin: passio, meaning “suffering”), Jesus completes His Father’s work by His sacrificial and redemptive death on the Cross to forgive sins, and establishes the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
God, over the centuries, gave many prophetic signs of the Sacrament of the Eucharist including the sign of Melchizedek through his gifts of bread and wine (Gen 14:18), the miraculous feeding of the Israelites with manna during the Exodus (Ex 16), the Bread of the Presence in the Temple (Ex 25:30, 1 Sam 21:6), Jesus’ own miraculous Feeding of the 5000 (Mt 14:13-21) and His extensive discourse on the Bread of Life (Jn 6) in which Jesus reveals His coming Eucharist. Jesus now acts to formally establish the Sacrament of the Eucharist by mysteriously transforming the Passover Seder, a ritual meal which commemorated God’s deliverance of Israel from slavery by Egypt (Ex 12).
At the Last Supper, which appeared to be a traditional Jewish Passover Seder, Jesus stuns the Apostles when He gives them His True Body and Blood in the signs of bread and wine. Rather than end the Seder with the last ritual cup of wine, Jesus extends the ritual throughout His entire Passion until He is sacrificed as the Lamb of God on the Cross. Jesus completes the transformation of the Seder, when He sips wine from the Cross, a symbol of the last cup of the Seder, and dies (Jn 19:23-30).
Be awed by Jesus Christ
Be astounded by the mysterious actions of the Son of God and Divine Priest in the Passion: He transforms the 1200-year-old annual ritual of the Passover, becoming the sacrificial Lamb of God in a New Passover by which men can be saved from eternal death; He incorporates the ancient Jewish rituals of thanksgiving (Greek – eukharistos) and establishes the Sacrament of the Eucharist; He continues to supernaturally feed Catholics at every single Mass through the transubstantiation of bread and wine into the True Presence of His glorified Body and Blood.
Perceive and receive the True Presence
Realize: As the Son of God, everything Jesus does fulfills a divine purpose which He accomplishes across the ages; His careful planning for, and revelation of, the Sacrament of the Eucharist across Salvation History is but one example.
Believe: Reflect upon the Sacrament of the Eucharist in the Signs of the Bread and Wine (CCC 1333-1336).
Pray: Holy Spirit, give me the Gift of Knowledge so You help me perceive the stunning reality that simple bread and wine is miraculously transubstantiated into the actual Body and Blood of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ at every Mass.
Ask the Spirit for awe of Christ’s Real Presence
Realize: Tragically, in many parishes there is a sacrilegious and scandalous lack of awe and honor for Jesus in the Mass, because most Catholics do not believe His Real Presence actually resides in the Eucharist: casual or immodest dress, chatter before, during and after Mass, irreverent liturgies/music, casual or even damning reception of the Eucharist due to being in a state of mortal sin (1 Cor 11:27).
Believe: Reflect upon Deep Reverence of the Eucharist (CCC 1384-1390, 1415, 1418, 2628), Sacrilege (CCC 2118, 2120, 2139), and Scandal (CCC 2284-2287, 2326).
Pray: Holy Spirit, give me the Gift of Understanding so I am guided by You to comprehend and be awed by the Real Presence of Christ’s Body and Blood in the Eucharist and I have an overwhelming reverence for the Sacrament of the Eucharist.