Editorial

The Eucharist is an unmerited gift

None of us deserves to receive Christ in the Eucharist. Holy Communion is always a completely unmerited gift that we receive as a result of God’s grace. Nothing we can do by our own initiative makes us worthy that the Lord should enter our hearts. All we can do is try to be ready, try to “stay awake” and be attentive, and try to be truly grateful when our Lord gives himself to us in the great eucharistic mystery.

St. Augustine admonishes us to live as if we deserved Christ’s sacrificial gift to us. He challenges us to change our lives, as he did, and to see our lives as a progressive journey of hope in which we “seek the face of the Lord continually.”

St. Augustine knew from personal experience that conversion is a lifelong process. Only the Blessed Virgin Mary was sinless. The rest of us struggle mightily to be worthy of the love of Christ and the great gifts that we receive from him every day.

All these gifts—life and love, freedom and happiness, truth and hope—come to us freely from the abundant generosity of our God. We do nothing to earn God’s grace. We receive it freely because God’s very nature is to give generously, demanding nothing in return, simply because he loves us.

Of all God’s gifts, nothing can compare to the holy Eucharist. Why? Because it is a gift of self, an intimate communion between the Son of God and us, his sisters and brothers. Through our baptism, we have become members of his body, the Church. Through our reception of holy Communion we are joined to him in the most perfect way imaginable—becoming one with him, body and blood, soul and divinity. Our imperfections are made perfect by his union with us. Our sinful natures become pure and holy because he enters our hearts and transforms us by his grace.

But this experience of conversion is never “once and for all.” Every day we are invited, and challenged, to live as if we deserved to receive the daily bread from heaven that Christ offers us in the Eucharist. St. Augustine admonishes us, “Before you receive Jesus Christ, you should remove from your heart all worldly attachments which you know to be displeasing to him.”

St. Augustine knew that we all too readily forget that we have been made perfect in Christ. We easily fall from grace and give in to selfishness and sin. Our imperfections manifest themselves in our words and actions—in what we say or do and in what we fail to say or do. We are called to repent, to confess our sins, to resolve to sin no more and to do penance.

This continual striving for perfection is at the heart of the sacrament of reconciliation. Just as Christ gives himself to us freely in the eucharistic mystery, so he makes his love and forgiveness available to us just for the asking, with no strings attached. This is the great sacrament of reconciliation between God and us—the sinful men and women who do not deserve his mercy but who receive it abundantly nonetheless! We should thank God daily for his patience with us and for his readiness to forgive us and help us, whenever we fall short of his perfect love.

Despite God’s abundant grace, we are not perfect. We are always on the way to perfection. “Even in eternity,” St. Augustine says, “our seeking will not be completed; it will be an eternal adventure, the discovery of new greatness, new beauty and an even richer understanding of truth.”

This Sunday, we will celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity (Trinity Sunday). Our reception of Christ’s gift of himself in the holy Eucharist allows us to participate in the inner life of the one God who is Three Persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit).

When we are united with Christ, we are also joined to his Father and the Holy Spirit. When we pray before holy Communion, “Lord I am not worthy that you should enter my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed,” we acknowledge both our unworthiness and God’s power to forgive us and, so, make us worthy.

Let’s live as if we are worthy of this great gift of communion with our triune God and, so, grow in holiness and charity in union with Christ and with each other.

—Daniel Conway