Cathal BarryThe Church teaches that celebration of the Eucharistic is directed toward the intimate union of the faithful with Christ, writes Cathal Barry
The Church teaches that the Mass is the sacrificial memorial in which the sacrifice of the cross is perpetuated and the sacred banquet of communion with the Lord's body and blood.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church notes that the celebration of the Eucharistic sacrifice “is wholly directed toward the intimate union of the faithful with Christ through communion”.
“To receive communion is to receive Christ himself who has offered himself for us,” the key teaching document states.
The altar, around which the Church is gathered in the celebration of the Eucharist, represents the two aspects of the same mystery: The altar of the sacrifice and the table of the Lord.
This is all the more so, according to the Catechism, “since the Christian altar is the symbol of Christ himself, present in the midst of the assembly of his faithful, both as the victim offered for our reconciliation and as food from Heaven who is giving himself to us”.
"For what is the altar of Christ if not the image of the Body of Christ?" asks St Ambrose. He says elsewhere that “the altar represents the body [of Christ] and the Body of Christ is on the altar”.
The Church teaches that “the Lord addresses an invitation to us, urging us to receive him in the sacrament of the Eucharist”: "Truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you." (John 6:53)
To respond to this invitation we must prepare ourselves for so great and so holy a moment, the Catechism states.
St Paul urges us to examine our conscience: "Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself." (1 Cor 11:27-29)
The Church teaches that it is in keeping with the very meaning of the Eucharist that the faithful, if they have the required dispositions, receive communion when they participate in the Mass.
As the Second Vatican Council says: "That more perfect form of participation in the Mass whereby the faithful, after the priest's communion, receive the Lord's Body from the same sacrifice, is warmly recommended."
The Church obliges the faithful to take part in the Divine Liturgy on Sundays and feast days and, prepared by the sacrament of Reconciliation, to receive the Eucharist at least once a year, if possible during the Easter season. However, the Church strongly encourages the faithful to receive the holy Eucharist on Sundays and feast days, or more often still, even daily.