History is recorded by great events, and great events make up the memory of nations. However, like everything in creation, events have a hierarchy of being, and a very clear one. Standing at the top is the Eucharist—the very element capable of elevating mortal man into the immortal Heart of God, through the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Despite the immeasurable value of the Blessed Sacrament, most of us modern-day Catholics receive the Bread of Life with an indisposed heart, completely deprived of the regalia proper to the act of hosting the Creator of the universe in the bosom of our soul. This laxity of attitude towards the adequate receiving of the Holy Eucharist, in large measure, is due to the secularization of the Western world, the normalization of sin, and the collapse of the moral anthropology of the Western man.
Today, man is a product of a systematic, three-hundred-year attack on the Faith. Consequently, the modern person has become an antithesis of his own self, in the sense that he has been deprived from his own identity, which is mirrored in the image and likeness of God—namely, to have the faculty to know the truth and to love what is good.
In contrast, the modern man is one who does not know right from wrong, good from evil, or even the elementary differences between man and woman. This existential blindness comes from an attribute shared by the entire global culture, which is a profound hatred of the concept of truth. This inversion of the human identity is a design crafted by the enemies of God in order to erase the work of Christ from history, and to set the ground for a global dictatorship of evil. A dictatorship that would eventually, they hope, enable the crowning of the beast.
Standing between the plans of evil and their fulfillment is the Mystical Body of Christ, the sons and daughters of our Holy Mother Church, tasked to fight evil perpetually with the weapons of the spirit. And in order to be able to offer the resistance necessary to stand against the wrath of the devil, it is necessary to relearn the Eucharist. There is no way around it.
What is the Eucharist?
The English word “Eucharist” derives from the Greek Eucharistos, meaning thanksgiving. Therefore, the Blessed Sacrament is an act of giving thanks—and not just of any thanks, but of perfect thanksgiving, as it was Our Lord Jesus Christ who offered Himself, the perfect sacrifice, to the Father.
The Blessed Sacrament is also a mission of personal sanctification and universal evangelization. It is an invitation to share the joys and sorrows of Christ through the virtues of the cross. It is a call to spiritual warfare against the fallen principalities and serves as an unbreakable shield against the designs of Satan, which are the destruction of creation in both matter and spirit.
Furthermore, the Holy Eucharist is an act of love and a testament of majesty to Him who loved us to the end.
What are the effects of the Blessed Sacrament?
To consume something means to become one with the thing consumed, and becoming one with the thing consumed means either the elevation or degradation of our own essence, in accordance to the nature of the thing consumed.
When we take the Blessed Sacrament, we take eternity. Our flesh and bones absorb Love, Truth, Beauty, and Life itself. In essence, God allows His children to penetrate His divine mystery and to see the world from the scope of His throne.
Moreover, when we take the Blessed Sacrament, we receive the ultimate antidote against sin, in the form of temperance, prudence, fortitude, faith, love, and charity. Consequently, we are given the grace of fully participating in God’s plan for the restitution of the world.
The Holy Eucharist also gives us the ability to love the cross in our own lives and the strength to bear misgivings with patience and grace. Amongst all, we must remember that every time we partake in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, we become one with the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
We must remember always that the Eucharist is an act of victory over the spirit of the devil, the world, and the flesh. It is a victory that encompasses the past, the present, and the future. A materialized promise that links God with His children through the Blood of the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world.
The Way Forward with Christ
In Deuteronomy 20:4, we are told that the Lord our God is the one who goes with us to fight our enemies and who will grant us victory. In John 16:33, Christ tells us how the forces of the world will fight us, but that solace is in Him who has defeated the world. Further, in 1 Corinthians 15:57, St. Paul thanks God for giving us victory in Our Lord.
As Catholics, we know that the fallen kingdom will always wage war on us; nevertheless, the Holy Mother Church cannot be defeated (see Mt. 16:18). She cannot be defeated because she has the Blessed Sacrament where the victory over the world is recorded.
In light of these things, we must remember that a Good Friday is always followed by an Easter Sunday, and that the Holy Eucharist is the bridge between the two.
Christus Vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat!
