The Eucharist is the Gift Par Excellence - 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time

My beloved parishioners,
The greatest gift our Lord Jesus Christ left us is the gift of himself in the Holy Eucharist. This gift is unlike any other, and cannot be compared to anything we know or imagine. It is evidence of the depth of his love for humanity. Whenever we celebrate the Eucharist, we not only call to mind this once and for all, unique and supreme self donation for the salvation of the world, we make present again and again the saving events of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection, whose effects are timeless. This is because the sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice. Saint John Chrysostom put it well: “We always offer the same Lamb, not one today and another tomorrow, but always the same one. For this reason the sacrifice is always only one... Even now we offer that victim who was once offered and who will never be consumed”. In his encyclical, which we began reflecting on last weekend, Pope John Paul II writes:

The Eucharist is indelibly marked by the event of the Lord's passion and death, of which it is not only a reminder but the sacramental re-presentation. It is the sacrifice of the Cross perpetuated down the ages. This truth is well expressed by the words with which the assembly in the Latin rite responds to the priest's proclamation of the “Mystery of Faith”: “We announce your death, O Lord”.

The Church has received the Eucharist from Christ her Lord not as one gift – however precious – among so many others, but as the gift par excellence, for it is the gift of himself, of his person in his sacred humanity, as well as the gift of his saving work. Nor does it remain confined to the past, since “all that Christ is – all that he did and suffered for all men – participates in the divine eternity, and so transcends all times”.

When the Church celebrates the Eucharist, the memorial of her Lord's death and resurrection, this central event of salvation becomes really present and “the work of our redemption is carried out”. This sacrifice is so decisive for the salvation of the human race that Jesus Christ offered it and returned to the Father only after he had left us a means of sharing in it as if we had been present there. Each member of the faithful can thus take part in it and inexhaustibly gain its fruits. This is the faith from which generations of Christians down the ages have lived. The Church's Magisterium has constantly reaffirmed this faith with joyful gratitude for its inestimable gift.
(Ecclesia de Eucharistia, no. 11)

Suggestions:
• Commit to a weekly Holy Hour before the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.
• Spend some time after Mass in thanksgiving to our Eucharistic Lord whom you have received into your soul.

May Jesus bless you, and may Our Lady protect you!