“DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME” (Lk
22:19)
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Among many blessings given to us by
Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, the most precious and sacred are the Holy
Church, the Blessed Virgin Mother and the Most Holy Body and Blood.
The Most Holy Body and Blood of the
Lord is granted to us as a sacrament and the greatest sacrament of the seven
sacraments of Christianity.
What does a sacrament mean?
According to Christian faith, a
sacrament is first of all a sign.
However, it is not just a mere sign showing us something else, or
leading us to another reality, of which it is a symbol. For example, traffic lights and sign posts
along the road are symbols reminding drivers of traffic laws and of
directions. A sacrament, on the contrary,
is a sign that by itself contains and conveys a sacred reality which is a gift
from the Almighty and All-powerful God.
The sacrament of Baptism for instance,
is the symbol of a spiritual washing by which man is cleansed of the stain of
sin, both original and personal. The
amazing and touching truth is that the sacrament of Baptism, when celebrated
properly in accordance with Christ’s command and the Church’s law, does make
man not only clean of sin, but a new creation as well. In fact, the Church teaches us this truth
that it is not the minister of the sacrament who forgives or makes people and
things holy, but it is Christ Himself acting as Lord and Savior of all and true
God in the sacrament Who forgives and sanctifies and gives eternal life to those
who receive with strong faith in Him.
So is the reality of the sacrament of
the Lord’s Body and Blood.
Out of His great love for humanity for
whom He once for all laid down His own life on the cross in order to save it
from sin and death, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, wants His sacrifice for
the salvation of the world to be not just a mere sign or symbol reminding His
believers of an event in the past, nor a commemoration of historical facts, no
matter how important they might be, but always a truth, as real, alive, and
effective as it was offered by Himself at the Last Supper.
Now, we have to watch Jesus at the
first Holy Mass take the bread and the cup of wine, and listen to Him say the
blessing. He was acting in the role of
the High Priest of the New Covenant, offering not the blood of animals splashed
on the altar and sprinkled on the people as required by the Old Testament Rite
to obtain God’s forgiveness, but His own Blood with the absolute cleansing
power that brings universal salvation. By saying, “This is my Body, this is my
Blood”, Jesus made the bread His real Body and the wine His real Blood. When He said, “Do this in memory of Me”, He
made the truth of His powerful words that turn bread into His Body and wine His
blood forever efficient, and by so doing, He made His promise come true, that
He would stay with us always to the end of the age. From then on, every time His very words are
pronounced in His Holy Name and in His Person, by the Church’s ordained
ministers, bread and wine become His Body and Blood.
Saint Thomas Aquinas stresses this
truth that faced with this great sacrament of Christ’s most holy Body and
Blood, our human senses such as sight, smelling, touching, taste, hearing and
reasoning all fail. Only with faith in
the words of Jesus, “This is my Body, this is my Blood”, and in obedience to
the teaching of the Church on this matter of faith regarding the real presence
of Christ Jesus in the sacrament of the Eucharist, can we overcome the danger
of doubt and disbelief.
To the Church’s minister who showing
us the consecrated host says, “The Body of Christ”, we, filled with unwavering faith
and deep gratefulness, firmly respond: “Amen”, that means, “Yes, Lord, I do
believe.”
Fr. Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Nhut, O.P.
