Eucharist

Through Baptism, we are incorporated into the Body of Christ and made sharers in the salvation won for us by Jesus Christ. 

In Confirmation, the grace received at Baptism is completed and, by an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we are formed more fully into the image of Christ. 

In this article we will look at Eucharist, the sacrament that completes Christian Initiation.

‘The Holy Eucharist completes Christian Initiation.  Those who have been raised to the dignity of the royal priesthood by Baptism and configured more deeply to Christ by Confirmation participate with the whole community in the Lord’s own sacrifice by means of the Eucharist.’   (CCC, 1322)

Eucharist as Source and Summit

The Church teaches us that the Eucharist is ‘the source and summit of the Christian life'  (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, n. 11).  

This statement summarises the importance of the Eucharist in the life of each individual and in the life of the Church as a whole.  By sharing in the Eucharist, we participate in the fullest way possible, as the Body of Christ, in the salvation attained for us.  This is the end to which Christian Initiation is a means.

An End That Continues

Whilst the Eucharist completes Christian Initiation, it is also an ongoing source of grace for the fully initiated.  By receiving Communion, we receive nourishment for our spiritual life, so that we may grow in union with Christ.

The new life, which is given at Baptism and strengthened in Confirmation, needs continual nourishment and this is found in full and frequent participation in the Eucharist.

‘Those who receive the Eucharist are united more closely to Christ.  Through it Christ unites them to all the faithful in one body – the Church. Communion renews, strengthens, and deepens this incorporation into the Church, already received at Baptism.  In Baptism we have been called to form but one body.  The Eucharist fulfils this call.’  (CCC, 1396)

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This article was originally published in ‘Sacraments of Initiation’. ©  Diocese of Parramatta. 2002, 2007. Reprinted with permission.

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