The Eucharist, Outstanding Encounter with the Living Christ

There have been believers in Christ who claim that they are saved simply by accepting Christ as their personal Savior. Just like that. Many of them were Catholics; I even know someone who studied at the Ateneo in high school and college, who was employed as one of the executives in our foundation for the blind who used to talk like this: "Since I became a born-again Christian, it doesn’t really matter whether I am separated from my wife, since I have accepted Christ as my personal Savior."

We who still carry our heads squarely on our shoulders, know our creed, what we should believe in about Christ. So it doesn’t make sense to say we accept Him when we do not accept many truths about Him. It doesn’t also make sense that one who became a baptized Christian according to the rites of the sacrament in the Catholic Church will say later on when he has grown old and bald or she has wrinkled and lost her sex appeal, that that was about the time she accepted Christ as a personal Savior, and became a Christian. And so away with the commandments of God, away with devotion to Mary whom we call, our Mother. No, away with all this idolatry of "Mary, full of grace, blessed are you among all women". Destroy all her images and throw them piece by piece into the trash can. No more Apostles Creed. Just read the Bible and that’s about all there is to believe.

Today, we celebrate with special solemnity the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. We make the feast doubly solemn this year because we are presently in the "Year of the Eucharist", a special solemnity inaugurated by His Holiness, John Paul II, of blessed memory, on October 17 last year 2004 to this year 2005. "I Am the Living Bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever" (Jn 6:51).

Jesus speaks these words to the hungry crowd following the multiplication of the loaves and fish. He presents Himself as the true manna, given by the heavenly Father so that men may have eternal life (cf. Jn 6:26-58). In some way, His words foreshadow the great gift of the Eucharist, the sacrament that He would institute in the Upper Room during His last supper with His apostles just a couple of hours before he entered His Passion.

The mystery of Christ’s suffering death and resurrection are fulfilled in this Paschal event. It is a mystery unceasingly kept alive in the Eucharist, the mystical banquet. Here Christ offers Himself as food uniting to Himself all those who partake of His banquet by taking and eating Bread (His Body) and drinking Wine (His Blood) in a bond of love and life stronger than death. For when we receive Him under the species of Bread and Wine, we receive Christ, the very life of God within us.

The supreme gift of God is Christ, Bread broken for us, and His precious Blood, Wine poured out for our salvation to the last drop. For us, Christians, the Eucharist is the fullest expression of adoration, of love, of thanksgiving, and praise to God because Christ is the perfect offering to God. We make an offering of Christ to God with our lives with all our prayers, works, joys and suffering.

How, then, can one say he or she accepts Christ as his or her personal Savior, and become once and for all saved, if they are not part of His offering? The Eucharist is a mystery of faith as Jesus told His apostles, "Take and eat; this is My Body. Take and drink; this is My Blood which is shed for you and for many unto the remission of sins."

The late John Paul II exhorts the faithful: "The Eucharist is the living and lasting center around which the entire community of the Church gathers . . . it is the outstanding moment of encounter with the living Christ."

Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, John 6:51-58.