The Eucharist

The Eucharist is the sacrament of bread and wine and is celebrated as part of the Mass. Catholics also call this communion and it is the high point of a Catholic's spiritual life. Catholics believe the bread and the wine become Jesus. For Catholics this is more than a symbol it is a real presence of Jesus in the appearance of bread and wine. The changing of the bread and wine by a priest into Jesus' body and blood is called transubstantiation.

The Eucharist is the spiritual food that connects the receiver to Christ. The person receiving the Eucharist is also connected to all the people. The Eucharist is soul-food that helps a Catholic live out the promises made at their baptism. Eucharist is the Centre.

Catholics have many ways of expressing their faith such as prayer and charity, they regard these as essential but also recognise that the centre of their spiritual life is the Eucharist and that every other spiritual practice flows from the receiving of the Eucharist. In fact, if a Catholic becomes too ill to go to Mass to receive the Eucharist then it will be brought to them by a Eucharistic minister.

The Eucharist can only be prepared by a priest, he consecrates (makes holy) the bread and wine. In many parts of the world there are a shortage of priests but because the Eucharist is so important this does not stop people receiving it. Instead the people will gather to take part in a Eucharistic service which uses already blessed bread as the centre of the worship. It is distributed by a Eucharistic minister.

Effects of the Eucharist

Once the Eucharist has been received then the Catholic has a responsibility to go out and share, to the best of their ability, the benefits of the communion with others. The Mass ends with the instruction to:

"Go in peace to love and serve the Lord."

The parable of the Sheep and the Goats [Matthew 25: 31-46] explains that by being kind to other people is the same as being kind to Jesus himself. People who are dirty, needy or despised are as important as anybody else. The parable of the Sheep and Goats warns that:

"Whenever you refused to help one of these least important ones, you refused to help me."

It is, of course, Jesus who is talking.

CAFOD (Catholic Aid for Overseas Development) is a charity that is inspired in its mission by the benefits of the Eucharist and the understanding that the poorest people have dignity and a right to share in all of God's gifts, both spiritual and physical.