Catechism Corner | To Understand the Eucharist (Part 1)

Many Catholics found the mass celebrations boring and dry. It is really unfortunate that many of us have lost sight of what is really essential in the liturgical celebration. Why? One of the reasons is people do not understand the celebration of the Eucharist. So, for the next few weeks we try to understand the part of the Eucharist. Our hope is that by understanding the Eucharist, we celebrate the Eucharist with enthusiasm and joy and we will get the fruits of the Eucharistic.

The Importance and Dignity of the Eucharistic Celebration

16. The celebration of Mass, as the action of Christ and the People of God arrayed hierarchically, is the center of the whole Christian life for the Church both universal and local, as well as for each of the faithful individually. [22] In it is found the high point both of the action by which God sanctifies the world in Christ and of the worship that the human race offers to the Father, adoring him through Christ, the Son of God, in the Holy Spirit. [23] In it, moreover, during the course of the year, the mysteries of redemption are recalled so as in some way to be made present. [24] Furthermore, the other sacred actions and all the activities of the Christian life are bound up with it, flow from it, and are ordered to it. [25]

17. It is therefore of the greatest importance that the celebration of the Mass that is, the Lord's Supper be so arranged that the sacred ministers and the faithful taking part in it, according to the proper state of each, may derive from it more abundantly [26] those fruits for the sake of which Christ the Lord instituted the Eucharistic Sacrifice of his Body and Blood and entrusted it to the Church, his beloved Bride, as the memorial of his Passion and Resurrection. [27]

18. This will best be accomplished if, with due regard for the nature and the particular circumstances of each liturgical assembly, the entire celebration is planned in such a way that it leads to a conscious, active, and full participation of the faithful both in body and in mind, a participation burning with faith, hope, and charity, of the sort which is desired by the Church and demanded by the very nature of the celebration, and to which the Christian people have a right and duty by reason of their Baptism. [28]

19. Even if it is sometimes not possible to have the presence and active participation of the faithful, which bring out more plainly the ecclesial nature of the celebration, [29] the Eucharistic Celebration always retains its efficacy and dignity because it is the action of Christ and the Church, in which the priest fulfills his own principal office and always acts for the people's salvation.

It is therefore recommended that the priest celebrate the Eucharistic Sacrifice even daily, if possible.[30]

20. Because, however, the celebration of the Eucharist, like the entire Liturgy, is carried out through perceptible signs that nourish, strengthen, and express faith,[31] the utmost care must be taken to choose and to arrange those forms and elements set forth by the Church that, in view of the circumstances of the people and the place, will more effectively foster active and full participation and more properly respond to the spiritual needs of the faithful.