Allow me to offer a small reflection on the Eucharist.
Often when I receive Communion, I reflect on the connection that this creates between all Catholics in the world. When I was a child, my pastor explained the Eucharist in a way I could understand: “When you eat a Big Mac, it becomes a part of you. When you eat the Eucharist, you become a part of Christ.”
There was a deep truth in that very simple analogy. Through His mystical Body and Blood, Jesus calls us to participate in becoming substantially united with Him. Since the Eucharist is His true Body and Blood, we become one with Christ Himself.
But if other Catholics also participate in the Eucharist, then we have communion not only with Christ, but with each other. After I receive the Eucharist, I sometimes think about how I am also united with the other people in my congregation. And then I think of how my bishops and all the priests and religious in my diocese are united by this reception. And then I think of the whole world and how I am also united with the Pope and all Catholics in the world from celebrities like Mark Wahlburg and Jim Caviezel to the poorest of the poor in every corner of the world.
This brings to life the words of Scripture how we are one body, but many parts (1 Corinthians 12:12). Being one body, we are reminded that doing good for one is doing good for the whole. And harming another is to harm the entire Body of Christ. This imagery helps us feel a closeness to all of our Catholic brothers and sisters and help us to put aside any enmity, rivalry, envy, or selfishness. If I can learn to rejoice in the good fortune of others as if it was my own, then my negative feelings towards that person will melt away. Thinking of all of us as one body can help with that.
This also helps overcome the geographic barriers that separate us. Some of my best friends live hundreds of miles away. And while I call and text my pals often, there is still that physical distance. But when I go to the altar to receive the Body of Christ, I know that we are united in a mystical closeness that is stronger than physical proximity. When we are called to lift up our hearts and we say, “We lift them up to the Lord,” all of our hearts are drawn together like the spokes on a wagon wheel until they converge in the center: the Body of Christ.
But my spiritual director recently helped me realize that Communion overcomes not only the barrier of space, but also of time. Jesus is beyond space and time, so entering into His mystical body unites all time in Himself.
I always understood that Mass is a place where time folds in on itself and we become mystically present at the Last Supper and the Crucifixion. But this also means that every Mass converges together. When I receive the Eucharist, I am united with Peter, Andrew, John, James the Greater, James the Lesser, Thomas, Jude Thaddeus, Bartholomew, Philip, Simon, and Matthew. I receive the same Eucharist and am united with Francis of Assisi, Thomas Aquinas, John Paul II, Edith Stein, Mary Magdalene, GK Chesterton, JRR Tolkien, Thomas More, Maria Goretti, Mother Cabrini, Miguel Pro, Charles Lwanga, and the great men and women of the Church throughout the ages.
But this also means that I am in communion with my Catholic ancestors. For at least 500 years in my family’s past when the missionaries brought the Gospel to my father’s country, I am in communion with all those who came to the altar. My father’s parents were people of great faith. I remember when my grandfather had trouble walking, he would take my arm as I walked him up the communion line and we would both receive the Eucharist.
He still has my arm when I receive the Eucharist today.
My mother passed away seven years ago. We shared a bodily connection when she conceived me.
And through the Eucharist, we are connected once again.
The same is true of so many friends and family members whom I love that have gone before me in death. I cannot hold their hands again in this world, but our closeness is not lost in Christ.
And I am in communion with so many others who are not yet born. The Church will last until the end of time. Between now and then, there will be countless more people to whom I am connected that have not yet received the Eucharist, but will in the years to come. Christ overcomes time and I am united with them. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if someone centuries from now comes to the altar because you and I shared the Gospel with someone?
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