1. Who is God?
2. Who am I?
3. What am I going to do about it (that is, questions 1 and 2)?

These are the three questions that will be on the final examination. I refer to the very final examination when we stand before the throne of God in judgment.

The Eucharist is the key to the answers to these questions.

1. In the Eucharist we experience the presence of Christ, who reveals to us who God is.
2. In the Eucharist we are incorporated more and more into the Body of Christ, and in that Body we find our true identity.
3. Through the Eucharist the Holy Spirit empowers us, as Church, to continue the mission of Christ. We become ambassadors of reconciliation, ministers of healing, sacraments of God’s love.

In the Eucharist we find the meaning of life. In the Eucharist we come into contact with the mysterious plan of God. In the Eucharist we become Church. This is why the Eucharist, as Pope John Paul II has proclaimed, is the “source and summit of the life and mission of the Church.”

Father Thomas Richstatter, O.F.M., S.T.D.

REFLECTION

1. Complete the sentence, “The Eucharist is………….”
2. Through the Eucharist we are empowered to continue Christ’s mission of reconciliation and healing and to be sacraments of God’s love. Am I taking my mission seriously?
3. The Church teaches that Eucharist is the first and greatest sacrament. How does my participation in Mass need to change to better reflect how important the Eucharist is in my life?