YOUCAT Question n. 216 - Part I. In what way is Christ there when the Eucharist is celebrated?
(Youcat answer - repeated) Christ is
mysteriously but really present in the sacrament of the Eucharist. As often as the
Church fulfills Jesus’ command, “Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Cor 11:24),
breaks the bread and offers the chalice, the same thing takes place today that
happened then: Christ truly gives himself for us, and we truly gain a share in
him. The unique and unrepeatable sacrifice of Christ on the Cross is made
present on the altar; the work of our redemption is accomplished.
A deepening through CCC
(CCC 1362)
The Eucharist is the memorial of Christ's Passover, the making present and the
sacramental offering of his unique sacrifice, in the liturgy of the Church
which is his Body. In all the Eucharistic Prayers we find after the words of
institution a prayer called the anamnesis
or memorial.
Reflecting and meditating
(CCC Comment)
(CCC 1366)
The Eucharist is thus a sacrifice because it re-presents (makes present) the sacrifice of the cross, because it
is its memorial and because it applies its fruit: [Christ], our Lord
and God, was once and for all to offer himself to God the Father by his death
on the altar of the cross, to accomplish there an everlasting redemption. But
because his priesthood was not to end with his death, at the Last Supper
"on the night when he was betrayed," [he wanted] to leave to his
beloved spouse the Church a visible sacrifice (as the nature of man demands) by
which the bloody sacrifice which he was to accomplish once for all on the cross
would be re-presented, its memory perpetuated until the end of the world, and
its salutary power be applied to the forgiveness of the sins we daily commit
(Council of Trent (1562): DS 1740; cf. 1 Cor 11:23; Heb 7:24, 27).
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