April 13, 2003

Practicing Catholics are to receive Holy Communion at least once each year, and this receiving of the Lord is normally to take place during the Easter season, i.e., in the weeks between Easter and Pentecost (Canon 920 of the Code of Canon Law). The Church encourages those who are spiritually prepared to receive Communion each time they participate in the Eucharist; but the minimum requirement to be in good standing in the Church is to receive Communion at Eastertime.

Each time we receive Communion, no matter the time of year, we encounter the risen Christ. What other Christ is there, except the One who has risen from the dead? Because Jesus has risen from the dead, he is not bound by the laws of space and time. He is perfectly free and can be anywhere he wants to be. He wants to be with us, and he gives himself to us under the form of bread and wine each time we receive him in Holy Communion.

If Christ is risen from the dead, he can certainly transform bread and wine into his risen body and blood. He does so at each Mass through the ministry of the priest, who takes the offerings of the people and recites over them the words of the Lord himself when he instituted the Eucharist. The ordained priest begins the Mass speaking in the name of the Church, but at the heart of the eucharistic prayer he speaks in the name and person of Christ himself: “This is my body; this is my blood.” It is the risen body of Christ we receive in Holy Communion, a body marked by the nails and the spear but no longer dead, a body splendid with the radiant glory of the eternal Son of God.

A couple of weeks ago, a national newspaper ran a page of photos with the title, “Faith in Time of War.” It showed U.S. soldiers reading the Bible and engaged in personal prayer. There was one picture of a Catholic priest offering Mass, with a number of soldiers about to receive Holy Communion. It is the Mass that matters, as persecuted Catholics have always known, whether in the catacombs of ancient Rome, in England and Ireland in the 16th century, in China and Sudan today. Priests have braved death to celebrate Mass, and Catholics have made enormous sacrifices to bring their lives to it. For over 60 generations, from the time of the first Christian community at Jerusalem to today, participation in the Eucharistic celebration on the first day of the week has been necessary for those who are disciples of Jesus Christ.

In the celebration of the Eucharist, we touch eternity because we are united with the risen Lord, who sits at the right hand of the Father now and forever. When Jesus promised the Eucharist to his disciples, he said: “The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:54). How could it be otherwise, since taking into our mortal bodies, doomed to death, the immortal body of the risen Christ plants in us the seeds of immortality, seeds which will blossom at our own resurrection from the dead.

Many who heard Jesus’ promise 2,000 years ago separated themselves from his followers. This has been the history of the Eucharist, which is always a sign of unity in faith and therefore also a sign of division from those who believe differently or do not believe at all. Sometimes our assent in faith to the mystery of Christ’s action and abiding presence in the Eucharist is weakened by our imagining Jesus as he walked on earth before his death and resurrection and wondering how that body can be “squeezed” into a host. Sometimes our imagination limits the Mass to the picture of the Holy Thursday supper, and we therefore think of Mass as if it were a regular meal. But the reality of Holy Thursday is Good Friday, and the fulfillment of Good Friday is Easter Sunday. The last supper was an anticipation of the Lord’s crucifixion and death, which is why the Eucharist is called the sacrifice of the Mass. And the Lord’s crucifixion and death is overcome in his rising from the dead on the third day, which is why the Eucharist is called an eschatological banquet. This is the Jesus we worship and adore in each celebration of the Eucharist: the one who offered himself in a unique sacrifice which is made available for us now in an unbloody, sacramental manner, under the forms of bread and wine which we receive here so as to live with Christ forever.

With eyes of faith, Catholics approach the Eucharistic Christ as Mary Magdalene and other disciples of the Lord approached him after the resurrection. Awe is expressed both in the ceremonies of the Church and in quiet prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, who came in contact with Catholic Eucharistic piety while living in Italy before her conversion to Catholicism, wrote to her sister-in-law in America: “How happy we would be if we believed what these good souls believe, that they possess God in the Sacrament, and that He remains in their churches, and is carried to them when they are sick.” Awe before the Eucharistic Lord connects the sacrament of penance to the Mass, for who would dare go to the banquet without the wedding garment of sanctifying grace?

This Easter, encourage someone who normally does not go to Mass on Sunday to go to the Easter Mass and enter again into the habit of the Sunday Eucharistic celebration. He or she will have to go to confession before making their Eastertime communion, but receiving the sacrament of reconciliation can be the occasion for conversion, for turning again to the Lord in his body, the Church. The risen Lord waits for us. He could force us, but he came to set us free; and he always respects our freedom, even the freedom to reject him or neglect him. He invites us and rejoices when we come to him.

This Easter pray for all those making their first Communion at the Easter vigil, as well as for those children who will be receiving the Lord in the sacrament for the first time during the Easter season. Pray for those who have lost their faith in the Eucharistic presence of the Lord or who teach falsely about it. At Mass each day, I pray for all the Catholics of the Archdiocese, and I count on your prayers in return. Have a blessed Easter.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Francis Cardinal George, OMI
Archbishop of Chicago

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