The Eucharist Contains the Person of Christ – the Author of Life

Corpus Christi is the celebration of the body of Christ proposed by St. Thomas Aquinas in 1264. In the Laudo Sion, he writes that the Eucharist is the living and life giving bread.

“The Eucharist is the Sacrament of Love; It signifies Love, It produces love. The Eucharist is the consummation of the whole spiritual life.”

Archbishop Fulton Sheen in explaining the Eucharist said that the “ Eucharist the greatest of all sacraments because it contains the person of Christ who is the author of life.”

Just as we need food for sustenance in this world, the Eucharist is our sustenance for our spiritual growth. We become what we eat- as we participate in the Eucharist, we become more like Jesus. The Eucharistic is not symbolic but rather the true presence of Jesus.

Jesus gave priests the power to change bread and wine into His body and blood when He said to the Apostles, “Do this in commemoration of me.” Therefore, during mass, at the consecration – the priest speaks with full authority in the person of Christ – ‘Take this all of you, and eat of it, for this my body, which will be given up for you.’ It this divine word that has the power to change the bread and wine to body and blood. This change of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Our Lord is called Transubstantiation. – SR