From Jesus of Nazareth to Jesus in the Eucharist: Liturgy Step by Step

From Jesus of Nazareth to Jesus in the Eucharist: Liturgy Step by Step

How do we get from ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ to ‘Jesus in the Eucharist’ and from Jesus walking the roads of Galilee to now acting in all the sacraments? Over time Jesus took on many types of bodies. His Historical Body gave way to his Resurrected Body, which gives way to his Mystical Body, which gives way to his Eucharistic Body. The Eucharist enables and nourishes his Mystical Body, the Church, to be the sacrament of Jesus to the world. In light of this reflection on the many iterations of his body, the phrase,  ‘This is my body given for you’ takes on a more complete meaning.

The Promise 

Before he ascended to heaven Jesus commissioned the Apostles to go out to the whole world and baptize all nations in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. He then made an incredible promise. He said, “Behold, I will be with you always”. This is what we call the promise of the liturgy. He then gave them the Great (liturgical) Command,  “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you".

The next thing that happens is that Jesus ascends to the Father! This is a conundrum. How can he be with us always and then disappear into the clouds? The clue to answering this is another promise that Jesus gave. He promised to send the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, to lead us into truth.

The Holy Spirit

We know that the Holy Spirit is not a bird, fire or wind. Those are ways that he uses nature to reveal his presence. The Holy Spirit is not the soul of Jesus. When Jesus promises to be with us always, the Holy Spirit coming at Pentecost is not the fulfillment of that promise. This is because the Holy Spirit is a separate person. Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit on a special day. 

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate* to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.  In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you” (Jn 14:15-20). 

Pentecost Infusion

The Holy Spirit, “On that day” (Pentecost), will transform the Church and sanctify it so that the Church will realize that it has been fused together with Jesus in one body. This fusion is a marital union which will be finally celebrated at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, on earth at Mass and in finally in Heaven. The Holy Spirit animated the Church as the living body of Christ. He gave life to the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church. This is why Pentecost is called the ‘birthday’ of the Church.  The Church is fused with Christ as a bride to a husband and infused with the Holy Spirit as a soul is to a body.

The Mystical Body of Christ 

Led into the truth by the Spirit, the Church realized that it was the continuation of Christ on earth as his living, breathing Mystical Body.  “Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it” (1Cor 12:27). In this way the church is a sacrament of Jesus to the world. Jesus himself affirmed the truth of this union as one body. ‘I am in you and you are in me’. This is an unusual statement to make about an acquaintance or a friend. This is intimate marital language or family language. This is the language of covenant. 

In the Gospels, Jesus set up what was to come. He said, ‘Whoever listens to you listens to me’. Jesus spoke these words to his Apostles, as the authoritative teachers of the faith. Because of Apostolic Succession, these words extend to the Magisterium of the Church. In a secondary way though, these words extend to all the baptized disciples who are members of His body. As baptized Catholics we have a missionary mandate to be witnesses for the Gospel to the world.

In the Acts of the Apostles, we have a key story where Jesus breaks into the life of Saul to initiate a conversion. ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ Saul could have said, "I am persecuting the Church not you! He didn't because these words of Jesus demonstrate that Jesus identifies Himself with the Church as one. This is the most clear affirmation of the oneness of Christ and the Church after Pentecost. What Jesus was saying to Saul was, 'When you mess with his body the Church, you mess with Jesus the head'. The two have become one. They are one in the same by virtue of the marital fusion that occurred at Pentecost.

During World War II, a church in England was bombed by the Nazis. A statue of Jesus with his arms outstretched was damaged. The hands were broken off. Instead of repairing the hands, the church decided to put up a plaque at the base that states, "I have no hands but yours." This is a reference to a poem by St. Teresa of Avila that begins: "Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours." This description of the Church as the Body of Christ is theologically true and it relates to the liturgy.

Liturgical Actions

The word liturgy means ‘public work’. Applied to the Church, it is the work of Jesus, the work of salvation that continues today in the Sacraments. The actions of the Church are actions of Christ. What Jesus did in his earthly, historical body: teaching, healing, forgiving sins, feeding, washing and blessing, He continues to do those same actions today through his earthly, Mystical Body - the Church. These sacred rituals are called ‘Liturgical Actions’. 

The Sacraments

The seven most important liturgical actions are the seven Sacraments. Of those seven the most important is the Eucharist because it fulfills the promise the best. That promise, “I will be with you always” is most relevant in Holy Communion. In the Eucharist He is present in a substantial, material way, marital and intimate way. It is in receiving the Eucharist that we realize that he is in us and we are in him.