The Eucharist

The holy Eucharist: The reason to be Catholic

Father Daniel Duplantis

Do you remember the first time you went to eucharistic adoration? I do. It is a very vivid memory of my early teenage years growing up at St. Louis Church in Bayou Blue. My twin brother and I, as well as a good friend from high school, were helping with the set-up for a youth group event. Afterwards, we were offered the opportunity to have adoration. I had grown up believing that the Eucharist is Jesus but adoring him in that way was something totally different than anything else I had experienced before.

Although I attended public school, the majority of my classmates were Catholic. I was never really challenged in my faith by someone else until my junior year of high school. I encountered a Pentecostal my age who grilled me on all kinds of questions: The papacy, the Bible, infant baptism, etc. For the first time in my life, I was having an existential crisis of faith. I started to ponder one question: Besides being born and raised a Catholic, why am I a Catholic now?

Coincidentally, it was around that time that a parishioner at St. Louis gave me a copy of a newly published book for which I am forever grateful. That book was Dr. Brant Pitre’s Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist. At 17 years old, I could not put this book down. I was absolutely mind blown by the typology from Old to New Testament as the details of the Jewish Passover and Exodus were explained in incredible detail. By the time I finished reading the book, my crisis of faith was clearing up. I did not have all of the answers to my questions yet, but one thing was certain: I was absolutely convinced that the Eucharist is truly the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ.

From that point forward, the Eucharist was the springboard of my search for more answers. There is a reason the Catechism of the Catholic Church refers to the Eucharist as “the source and summit of the Christian life (CCC 1324). “In brief, the Eucharist is the sum and summary of our faith: ‘Our way of thinking is attuned to the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn confirms our way of thinking (CCC 1327).’” In other words, we do not have to have all the answers to our questions at one time!” Even as a priest, I still have questions about our faith. The seminary can only teach so much.

However, there is no greater starting point for understanding the Catholic faith than the Eucharist. There are many reasons for this. First, the celebration of the Eucharist through the Mass makes us participants in the Paschal Mystery. It is his suffering, death and resurrection that changed everything for the human race. Through the celebration of the Mass, we are present at the upper room, at the cross, and at the empty tomb.

Second, receiving the Eucharist worthily unites us to Christ in the most intimate way possible. The phrase “you are what you eat” is certainly true of the Eucharist. By consuming Christ, we are gradually conformed to him. It is one thing to know about a

Father Daniel Duplantis celebrating Mass

LAWRENCE CHATAGNIER/BAYOU CATHOLIC

God, but anyone can get a degree in theology. Even the demons know quite a bit about God. However, true knowledge of God is to be one with him.

Finally, the Eucharist unites us as the mystical body of Christ. If you are what you eat, then by eating Christ’s body, we become Christ’s body. Just as one meal nourishes the whole human body, so too does the Eucharist serve as the one meal that nourishes the church as one body in Christ. That is why the sacrament is often referred to as “Communion.” The bottom line is that as great as it is to understand biblical typology and correlations between Testaments, if we understand what the Eucharist embodies, it becomes both the starting point and the ending point of our faith.

So what is one to do if there is a struggle or hesitancy to believe that Jesus is fully present in the Eucharist? I can think of no better solution than the one that was presented to me in my early teens: Go to adoration. It might seem awkward at first, and you might have no idea whatsoever what to do in that time, but Jesus has every idea what to do with the time that you give him in adoration. We do not have to do anything except show up. It’s that simple.

As human beings, we are created with both an intellect and a will. Consequently, spiritual writers associate these faculties with the mind and the heart respectively. It is important that both be used in prayer. Typically, a person will naturally use one with greater ease than the other. Both are good and should be used together. Perhaps we get stuck using one more than the other.

Personally, I overthink everything. It is more natural for me to use my mind. The challenge for me is to move prayer from my head to my heart. Adoration is a great help for this. Just as it is considered rude to constantly be on one’s phone at the dinner table, it is also not good to “junk up” our prayer in adoration by filling up the time with various devotions. A relationship with anyone requires the exchange of thoughts, feelings and desires. The people to whom we mean the most want our time and our presence above all else. The same is true with God. Through the Eucharist he gives us the time and space to nurture our relationship with him.

While it is always good to just sit in silence in adoration, there are ways by which we can make the most of our time so that prayer in adoration becomes a conversation. The Institute for Priestly Formation calls this type of prayer ARRR. (Those of us who have been through IPF as seminarians jokingly refer to it as “Pirate Prayer,” but it helps us remember the steps!) Step One is Acknowledge, which means to put ourselves in the presence of God and acknowledge the intercession of the saints. Step Two is Relate, which means to express to God what is on our hearts and minds. Step Three is Receive, which means just that: We receive from God by listening and by our disposition to his grace. Step Four is Respond, which means we thank God for the time we have spent with him and for all he has done in our lives.

Again, we do not have to have all the answers to our questions. Know that God is aware of this and wishes to help us. The Eucharist is his abiding presence with us on earth. No time is wasted with him when we are in his eucharistic presence. We are also never too young or too old to take advantage of adoration. The Eucharist is truly the source and summit of our faith. It is the first step on a climb to the top of the mountain! (Father Daniel Duplantis is the associate pastor of the Cathedral of St. Francis de Sales parish in Houma.) BC

LAWRENCE CHATAGNIER/BAYOU CATHOLIC