From the Pastor: 08-04-2019

​It was rather disturbing to read a recent Pew Survey on the knowledge that Catholic Americans have on various religious issues. It was revealed that only 50% of Catholics in the United States have a correct understanding on the Eucharist, which is the center of our sacramental lives of us Catholics. Fifty percent correctly stated that the Eucharist is truly the “Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity” of Jesus Christ that we receive each week in Holy Communion. The other 50% thought the Eucharist was merely a symbol! (Seventy one percent of American Catholics knew correctly what Purgatory is and that is not one of those doctrines that we talk about all the time!) I always wonder if when they do these surveys whether they make any distinction between active and inactive Catholics, meaning those who regularly go to Mass and are involved with the life of the Church. To make it clear, this is a brief teaching on what the Church teaches about the Holy Eucharist from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

• The Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life." "The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch."
• The Eucharist is the memorial of Christ's Passover, that is, of the work of salvation accomplished by the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, a work made present by the liturgical action.
• By the consecration the transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ is brought about. Under the consecrated species of bread and wine Christ himself, living and glorious, is present in a true, real, and substantial manner: his Body and his Blood, with his soul and his divinity (cf. Council of Trent: DS 1640; 1651).
• Anyone who desires to receive Christ in Eucharistic communion must be in the state of grace. Anyone aware of having sinned mortally must not receive communion without having received absolution in the sacrament of penance.
• Communion with the Body and Blood of Christ increases the communicant's union with the Lord, forgives his venial sins, and preserves him from grave sins. Since receiving this sacrament strengthens the bonds between the communicant and Christ, it also reinforces the unity of the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ.

This is just a short overview of the Church’s teaching on the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Pick up the Catechism and learn more!