The Real Presence of Christ
TANIA M. GEIST
EUCHARIST
The Real Presence of Christ
EUCHARIST
The Real Presence of Christ
TANIA M. GEIST
Copyright © 2024 by RENEW International
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written consent of the publisher.
Unless otherwise indicated, scripture passages are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved.
RENEW International is grateful to Father Ronald Rolheiser, OMI, for permitting excerpts from his book on the Eucharist, Our One Great Act of Fidelity.
Nihil Obstat
Rev. Monsignor C. Anthony Ziccardi, S.T.D., S.S.L. Censor Librorum
Imprimatur
His Eminence Joseph William Cardinal Tobin, C.ss.R. Archbishop of Newark
Cover and interior design by James F. Brisson
ISBN: 978-1-62063-215-4
Printed and bound in 2024 in the United States of America
RENEW International 1232 George Street Plainfield, NJ 07062-1717
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About the Author VII
Foreword IX
SESSION 1: From Dark to Light
Eucharist and Easter Victory 1
SESSION 2 : Christ with Us
Eucharist as Tangible 7
SESSION 3: The Word Made Flesh Christ as Creative Word 15
SESSION 4: Our Presence at Mass Showing Up as an Act of Fidelity 23
SESSION 5: Viaticum
Eucharist as Food for the Journey 31
SESSION 6: The Tabernacle as God’s Home Approaching the Threshold 37
SESSION 7: Human and Divine
Eucharist as Rooted in Christ’s Identity 45
SESSION 8: Christ Still with Us The Work of the Holy Spirit 51
SESSION 9: A Joyful Love for
World Eucharist as a Gift of Peace 58
SESSION 10: The Language of the Eucharist Fellowship, Thanksgiving, Peace 67
SESSION 11: Becoming the Body of Christ A Posture of Gratitude 77
SESSION 12: Receive Who You Are Finding Ourselves in the Eucharist 85
The Easter Sermon of St. John Chrysostom 95 Notes for Small-Group Leaders 98 The Structure and Flow of a Session 100 Faith Sharing in a Small Group 101 About RENEW International 103 Additional Resources from RENEW International 104
Father Ronald Rolheiser writes that the sacraments are God’s physical embrace. In particular, Father writes that after Jesus had carried out his ministry relying chiefly on words, he gave us his embrace in the Eucharist on the night before he died.
Many times in life, we experience moments of joy, celebration, or sadness in which the embrace expresses more than we can say to each other. It’s that way with the Eucharist and with all the sacraments.
This is at the heart of our faith, that God does not only create us, govern us, teach us, judge us. In a gesture that words cannot capture, God embraces us. And in the Eucharist, the relation we form with the divine is so complete that when God touches us in the body and blood of Christ, we become the Body and Blood of Christ—God’s family, God’s Church.
Inspired by Father Rolheiser’s book Our One Great Act of Fidelity, Tania M. Geist explores the meaning of this sacrament in 12 faithsharing sessions for small Christian communities. We read that God is not limited by time or space and yet is present to each of us in the sacrament in which we touch and adore Christ. We read that Christ is really present in the Eucharist and that our encounter with him in that tangible form both validates the sacredness of our present lives and foreshadows our ultimate union with God in heaven.
Drawing on both her many years of scholarship and her experience as a writer, editor, wife, and mom, the author invites us to refresh our faith in the living presence of the one who said, “I am the bread of life.”
I pray that, as you gather in your small communities, the Lord will accompany you to an even deeper and more vibrant faith.
Yours in Christ,
G. Gregory Tobin President and Executive Director RENEW International
EUCHARIST
The Real Presence of Christ
SESSION 1
From Dark to Light Eucharist and the Easter Victory
Opening Prayer
Pray together
Dear Lord,
At the Eucharistic feast, you feed us bread that sustains in every sense.
We enter a space where past, present, and future come together. We commemorate the love you poured out on earth. We unite with you and all the saints present at the altar. We receive a foretaste of your heavenly banquet.
As we gather now, open our eyes and our hearts to the truth of your goodness, the truth of what you invite us, through the Eucharist, to enter, to become.
Open our eyes and our hearts to one another, that our fellowship may also be a foretaste of that same feast.
Amen.
The Word of God
A member of the group reads the scripture passage aloud.
If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no power over him. As to his death, he died to sin once and for all; as to his
life, he lives for God. Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as being dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.
–Romans 6:8–11
Sharing
Take a few moments to silently reflect on the following questions; then, share your responses.
The work of dying to sin is ongoing and often cyclical for us, but if you’ve been able to move past a sin that used to be a frequent stumbling block and feel comfortable sharing without being specific, what was that like? What keeps you from being discouraged if you do repeat a sin?
Reflection
The Easter Vigil is the pinnacle of the liturgical year. The sanctuary is dark. We light our candles from the Easter fire. The ancient Exsultet hymn recalls that “This is the night, when Christ broke the prison-bars of death and rose victorious from the underworld.” Readings from the Old and New Testaments recall all that has transpired to bring about our salvation. This is our path each Easter from death to new life. Traditionally, we welcome new members into the Church in baptism and confirmation at the vigil—another beautiful sign of Jesus alive today. In the moment of Easter Resurrection, the sanctuary is ablaze; God’s light has broken through, and it will not, cannot, ever be extinguished. Death has been defeated by love, once and for all. What victory could be bigger, or more significant?
A New Ritual
Last year, under the less-than-glorious fluorescent light at the pharmacy, an idea struck me to help our kids better understand the mystery we celebrate at Easter. On the shelf, I found real confetti eggs (also known as cascarones), a traditional Easter item that originated in Mexico. On Easter morning, I taped a sign to our kitchen wall that read, “All Death” and invited the kids to launch the confetti eggs against it. They loved the mess of it, of course, but, perhaps even more, so loved chanting, “Destroy All Death!” The toddler sprawled her body on the floor and made angels as if the confetti were snow. Pure joy!
Easter is indeed the celebratory moment of victory, and even the littlest among us can appreciate a definitive win against evil and darkness. It is for good reason that we keep the celebration going for so long: 50 days! But there is beauty, too, in understanding that every Sunday Mass is a mini-Easter, a fruit of the very same mystery.
Word, Death, and Resurrection
This Paschal Mystery weaves together the most important moments that led to our salvation. The meaning of Easter and of our Eucharistic rituals is rooted in the events of Jesus’ ministry, his ultimate sacrifice on the cross, and his rising. His words when he broke bread with his disciples laid a foundation, but “the Last Supper alone is not sufficient for the institution of the Eucharist. For the words that Jesus spoke then are an anticipation of his death, a transformation of his death into an event of love, a transformation of what is meaningless into something that is . . . significant for us.” 1 It was the selfless gift of his life for us on the cross that continues to bear fruit—a reality that evokes the traditional Tree of Life icon, depicting the cross as a tree in bloom, with the apostles among its fruit.
The image of Christ on the cross also calls to mind his opened side, which Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger called “the source from which spring forth both the Church and the sacraments that build up the Church.” This detail evokes a strong memory for me, of seeing the Shroud of Turin in person. The stain of pooled blood on the linen is striking. I traveled to see it shortly after the former Cardinal Ratzinger, as Benedict XVI, had visited and preached on its meaning as an “icon written in blood,” of a dead man whose “every trace of blood speaks of love and of life.” 2 On that day, I was grateful that temporary confession areas had been placed alongside the church in Turin where the shroud was on display.
The blood Jesus shed for us was the beginning, then, but we understand that in the Resurrection his love definitively conquered death.
Thus the three belong together: the word, the death, and the Resurrection. And this trinity of word, death, and Resurrection,
1 Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, God is Near Us. Ignatius Press: San Francisco, 2003, p. 43.
2 Meditation of Benedict XVI, Veneration of the Holy Shroud, 2 May 2010
which gives us an inkling of the mystery of the triune God himself, this is what Christian tradition calls the Paschal Mystery, the mystery of Easter. . .. And this single mystery of Easter is the source and origin of the Eucharist.3
The journey that culminates at Easter and the victory it represents are present at every Mass, and in a special way on Sunday. Not only do we commemorate these events as Mass-goers but we participate in them, as our rituals make present both the reality of Christ’s sacrifice and the Father’s response to it: the Resurrection.4
Sharing
Take a few moments to silently reflect on the following questions; then, share your responses.
1. It is said that we are perhaps most likely to feel God’s presence when we are in the peaks and valleys of life—the highest and lowest points. In C.S Lewis’s novel, The Screwtape Letters, he suggests that God is even more likely to use the valleys (or difficult times) that we traverse to shepherd souls toward conversion.5 Has this been true for you? If so, share examples.
2. Our baptismal vows establish our inheritance in Christ’s victory over death. Part of taking up that inheritance is to reject sin, to die to sin in order to share in Christ’s everlasting life. At times we may assume that we’re beyond redemption, when in fact God loves us unconditionally. Our deeds matter, of course! But in our baptism we become God’s forever, as we are joined to both Christ’s death and his Resurrection. No sin can entirely sever the connection we have to God through baptism. No sin is big enough to remove God’s love for us.
Have you ever had trouble believing that God had forgiven you even after you’ve received the sacrament of reconciliation? A
3 Ratzinger God is Near Us, 43–44.
4 Cf. Rolheiser, Ronald. Our One Great Act of Fidelity: Waiting for Christ in the Eucharist. Image: New York, 2011, p.59.
5 Cf. C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, Letter VIII
confessor told me that this attitude can be prideful (as counterintuitive as that sounds) because we make our sins bigger than God, when God’s mercy is bigger than anything we can do. This comment, combined with remembering that Jesus descended into the darkness of death for us, helps me when I struggle in this way. If you have experienced this doubt but have come to experience the fullness of God’s forgiveness, please share your experience.
Faith in Action
Gathering and sharing in a small Christian community fosters growth in our faith and in our spirituality. Still, no communal sharing is complete without a serious commitment to putting our faith into practice. Here are some examples:
1. “Living for God,” as mentioned in the passage from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans quoted above, can look as different from one person to the next as we ourselves do! What are some small, concrete ways you could anchor yourself in the truth of Christ’s victory over death, in the purpose you’ve been given to live for God? This mindset could be applied either to moments of joy, taken as opportunities to offer prayers of thanks or praise, or moments of irritation that can be offered to God as little sacrifices or that can prompt prayers for patience or mercy.
Two suggestions:
When you find yourself growing frustrated, inhale and pray, “More of you,” and then exhale while praying, “Less of me.”
My three-year-old will frequently thank the trees for their shade and the breeze for its chill. You, too, can look for little gifts from the Creator that evoke your gratitude.
2. Add something to your Sunday to help you think of it as a miniEaster. For example, arrive a little early to get settled before Mass and spend time with the risen Christ present in the tabernacle; invite friends or acquaintances for a meal or dessert, letting them know the reason for the “feast”; bring home fresh flowers, or listen to joyful music during the day.
3. Make time before Mass to pray with St. John Chrysostom’s Easter Sermon from c. 400 AD, on death being destroyed by the Resurrection. The full text can be found in the appendix.
4. If you know someone who is unable to attend Mass due to illness, disability, or lack of transportation, ask if that person is receiving Communion at home and, if not, take the necessary steps to make that happen.
Closing Prayer
Pray together:
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your love for us. When life grows dark, help us to remember that you have conquered darkness forever.
Much of what you are and what you do is beyond our understanding. Still, your love is always a beacon to us. When we lose sight of you, guide us home. Open our eyes to the width, the length, the height, and the depth of your great love. Amen.
Looking Ahead
To prepare for the next meeting, read the scripture passage and reflection in Session 2