"From the Office of Bishop Raymond J Lahey, Diocese of Antigonish, NS"

Easter and the Eucharist

One of the memorial acclamations we use at Mass, actually drawn from 1 Corinthians 11, marvellously summarizes the double dimension of the Lord's presence in the Eucharist: "When we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim your death, Lord Jesus, until you come in glory."
In fact, the word "proclaim" is weak, for neither the scriptural text nor the acclamation refers to words, but to the sacramental celebration itself. They remind us first that in this sacrament Jesus Christ becomes truly present on the altar, and that what we eat and drink are no longer bread and wine, but his own body and blood. But they remind us also that Jesus' presence as food and drink is not an end itself, but these are given to us so that, eating and drinking, we may become one with him and so enter into his death and resurrection.
We can better appreciate this when we recognize that presence is always a word indicating relationship. The more the Eucharist makes Christ present, the more human beings are drawn into that presence. Thus, as Christ is present to us, so do we become present "through him, with him, and in him." In him, we are drawn out of death into new life. With him, we are lifted up (see John 3.14-15). Through him, in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, we enter even today into real communion with God. The Letter to the Hebrews expresses this reality wonderfully when it speaks of Christ as our great High Priest who has gone before us to God, so that we can now approach God "with confidence" because we already stand with Christ in God's presence.

Thus the Eucharist is the gateway for us into the Paschal Mystery. When we eat the Bread of Life and drink of the Cup of Salvation not only does Christ become one with us, but we become one with him, his own Body. This is not something static. On the contrary, the sacrament of the Eucharist is given to us that we might have a real part in his Eucharistic sacrifice. By sharing the sacrament, we enter into the whole of Christ's sacrificial action, into all that he has done for our salvation: we die with him and are buried, we rise with him to new life, and we ascend with him to the Father, so that even today, in a true sense, we are with him before God. The real presence of Christ is both our assurance of this and the means by which it is accomplished.

Likewise the great Easter Triduum (the "three days" of Christ's dying, entombment, and resurrection) are really the first feast of the Holy Eucharist; other great feasts such as the Body and Blood of the Lord are there to re-kindle that Easter experience within us. So the Easter Triduum begins with the Mass of the Lord's Supper, and ends on Easter Sunday afternoon with the Gospel of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus eating with the Lord at table and recognizing him "in the breaking of the bread." This great Eucharistic theme is held together at the centre of our celebration by our solemn adoration on Good Friday of the wood of the Cross on which Christ died and was lifted up, for the Cross is at the heart of every Eucharist. This Eucharistic dimension is vital to the Easter celebrations, for the Triduum is pre-eminently the feast of Christian initiation, the process that begins with Baptism and Confirmation, but is completed only by the newly baptized becoming one with Christ in the Eucharistic sacrifice and sacrament.
In his letter The Lord's Day, Pope John Paul II presented this connection between Easter and the Eucharist also as being at the heart of our worship every Sunday. Indeed, he called Sunday "the weekly Easter", and quoted Pope Innocent I (c. 400 AD) who wrote that Christians celebrated the Resurrection "not only at Easter, but also at each turning of the week." Indeed, throughout the liturgical year, although prayers and readings change, each Eucharist does not commemorate some new event, but the same great redemptive action of God that we celebrate in the Easter Triduum. As much as Easter itself, every Eucharist is the celebration of the Great Passover of the Lord; as those given a part in this sacrament, we can say each time the Eucharist is celebrated: "Let us be glad and rejoice in it."