Institution of the Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper

On the night before He died, Jesus celebrated a moment with His disciples that served to establish a way of being with Him for the rest of Time. The Holy Eucharist gathered together into one simple ritual all that He had taught and all the He has lived with them, and became the most intimate manner of passing on to other all that was entrusted to the disciples. For all Time, the Presence of the Lord with His own will be most intensely experienced in the Eucharist.

It is an experience of unity. The One God makes known to us the truth that human nature and divine nature are wedded together in Christ. Jesus, Who longed to share this Supper with His disciples, makes them one with Him in the act of sharing the Passover. Past, Present and Future are brought together. Time and Eternity are linked. All who have prepared the way, all who are on the journey, and all who are to come are joined in a unity that is effected by the Spirit.

It is a sacrifice. It begins for Jesus the final act of His pouring out His life for the salvation of the world. The New Covenant is made in the very act of giving over His Body and Blood, the act that would be consummated on the Cross. Its celebration makes present to all who experience it the saving Passion, Death and Resurrection of the Lord.

It is a sacred meal. It is an experience of Communion with God and with fellow believers. It joins together the simple sharing at table and the high ritual of Passover, calling for a sharing of life and hospitality. It brings to completion all the meals Jesus shared with His followers and the Signs He performed among them, revealing God's power to feed and nourish His People in Word and Sacrament.

It is a transformation of the material world into the bearer of Spirit. Transubstantiation of the substance of bread and wine into the Lord's Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, accomplishes the New Creation. This opens the way to the transformation of human beings that will enable us to enter into the Union of Love that is the Life of the Holy Trinity.

It is the Presence of the Lord in the Breaking of the Bread, the enduring sign of the Truth that in Jesus, God has "pitched His tent," that is "tabernacled" among us. Through the Holy Eucharist, the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, believers are invited to taste the Glory of Eternity even as we continue our journey through Time.