Reflection on the Eucharist.

The Eucharist cannot be said to be food. We believe in the presence under the manner of bread and wine of the Lord Jesus, the Son of God. We know that to receive this, one of the seven sacraments can only be received by one who is in a sinless state, a baptized Christian Catholic, who believes that Christ is present under these modalities. Thus, the Eucharist cannot be received by an in-believer, even though he believes in God, in Jesus Christ, but does not accept the doctrine of the presence of Christ under the species of bread and wine from their beginning in the celebration of the Holy Mass to their physical end. Many non-believers admire and come to know these and other truths of religion, even during holidays and vacations. Jesus says: “You do not seek me because you have seen..” (Jn. 6:26).

The early Christians used homemade leavened bread to celebrate the Eucharist, although Christ Himself used unleavened bread at the Last Supper. As reverence for the Eucharist grew, seals with Christian motifs were imprinted, which can still be seen today on the host (called sacrificial bread in Latin). The sacrificial bread was baked with wheat flour and water. Gradually, wafer communion wafers came to be used instead of unleavened bread. Bread is an honest food that really keeps a person alive. Therefore, God gives Himself to us as food in the form of bread; thus, it becomes a living food for us humans. St. Ignatius of Antioch writes to the believers in Ephesus: “We break bread; it shall be to us the sacrament of immortality.” It is the food that feeds our whole being with the living God and makes us feel that we are in Him and he in us.

The bread for the celebration of the Eucharist, according to the tradition of the entire Church – is to be wheat and according to the tradition of the Latin Church – unleavened. The nature of the emblem requires that the matter of the Eucharist look honestly like food. Therefore, the Eucharistic bread should be so arranged that the priest, at the Holy Mass celebrated in the presence of the people, can break the host into several parts and serve them to at least some of the faithful. Small hosts are not excluded if the number of communicants and other pastoral reasons are required. But the act of breaking the bread, by which the Eucharist was signified in apostolic times, more clearly expresses the power and importance of the sign of the unity of all in the one bread and of the sign of love as the one bread is distributed to the brethren.

How many people are hungry for the bread of truth. People worldwide are bombarded by media advertising, false ideologies and lies that come from the evil one. We believe Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. We believe and confess that the words of Jesus are true. In the same way, without the Eucharist, the life of grace is not possible. Therefore, the Christian receives the Eucharist because he realizes the goal of his life, where he has the promised state of being free from hunger and thirst.