I have always been struck by an expression of Saint-Exupéry in his wonderful little book The Little Prince: “what is most important is invisible”. When I think about the Eucharist, this phrase often comes to mind. At Mass, as a priest, I hold a small white host and my faith tells me that it is the Body of the Lord, the Body of Jesus Christ. It is a little wonderful thing; the essential part is invisible to the eyes but visible to the heart.
On Easter Sunday, while on their journey, the disciples of Emmaus asked their companion to remain with them, “stay with us for the evening is near”. The Lord accepted their invitation. He went in and stayed with them, and they recognised him at the breaking of the Bread. This gesture, which is a gesture of communion and hospitality, is one of the earliest signs of the beauty and the rich meaning of the Eucharist.
The first Christians used a number of names for the Eucharist. One of them was ‘the breaking of the Bread’. When Luke the Evangelist tries to portray the early Christian community, he reminds us that they used to be as one. They were dedicated to prayer and to the breaking of the Bread.
Another word the early Christians used was ‘Eucharist’, which means ‘giving thanks’, because the prayer which is said over the bread, thanks the Lord, the Father of all, for his gracious creation. Another name was ‘Communion’, because the Eucharist is given to us by Jesus to make us one with Him and with one another.
Breaking of the Bread, Eucharist, Communion. There is a price to pay for these high ideals and this extraordinary experience of oneness. Another name is ‘Sacrifice’, which is self-giving love. The Lord himself speaks about the grain of wheat that falls to the ground and dies so as not to be left alone but to multiply and give way to a large harvest.
The Eucharist is linked intrinsically with the sacrifice of our Lord on the Cross. After Consecration, we say that we are commemorating the death and the resurrection of our Lord as we await his Second Coming. Jesus gave us the Eucharist as a memorial of Himself, “do this in memory of me”. So the Eucharist is grounded in the history of salvation but holds a message for everyday life.
At the end of Mass, the priest invites the congregation to return to the world with a new sense of mission and apostleship, “the Mass is ended, go in the peace of Christ to love and serve the Lord”. The Eucharist as the Body of our Lord is invisible to the eyes of the flesh, but it is a presence visible to the heart of the Christian faithful.
This is what we are celebrating during this special ‘Eucharistic Week’, as we commemorate the first centenary of the International Eucharistic Congress of 1913. We do this in a new context, social and also religious. Yet, we are celebrating the same faith.
In 1913, Dun Karm Psaila gave the world the beautiful hymn T’adoriam Ostia Divina (Nadurawk Ja Ħobż tas-Sema), which even the benches and chairs in our parish churches know by heart. It is a very beautiful hymn with beautiful lyrics set to very devout music. It expresses a devotion to the mystery and an eagerness to express it; a readiness to share it with other people. Another beautiful expression of our faith are the processions of the Blessed Eucharist organised through our towns and villages.
This is also the season during which hundreds of children on the Maltese islands receive their First Holy Communion. Apart from noticing the social role of such initiation, it is also very moving to realise just how eager these young members of the Church are to receive the Body of Christ for the first time. They are like so many little princes and princesses who have wisdom which we adults at times do not enjoy. Theirs is the wisdom of the innocent heart that is able to see beyond what our eyes of the flesh may see. This goes to the essence of that mystery of love which is the Lord, giving himself under the species of bread and wine.
May the Eucharist, which we celebrate every Sunday, continue to be a feast of solidarity and an expression of our commitment to life and love. We need the Eucharist as the Martyrs of Abitina said at the beginning of the fourth century, “we cannot live without the Sunday Eucharist”. What a beautiful and extraordinary witness to the necessity to be as one, on a weekly basis, to celebrate our faith and to make a simple but profound statement that what is truly essential in life is, most often, invisible to eyes of the flesh.
✠ Charles J. Scicluna
Auxiliary Bishop and Vicar General of Malta
This Opinion Piece was published on The Sunday Times on 2nd June 2013.