Eucharistic Presence

For many people the term “Real Presence” of Jesus Christ means simply and solely his sacramental presence in the Eucharist.

We need to reflect, if only, briefly, on ways in which Christ is present in the Eucharist. I recall one time when, being distracted while distributing the Holy Bread at Communion, I inadvertently changed the accompanying words. Instead of “This is the Body of Christ,” which I was supposed to say, I suddenly heard myself saying: “You are the Body of Christ.” A felicitous mistake putting unexpected words on a whole new dimension of the Eucharistic gathering, namely, the real presence of Christ in the assembled community of faith. Word presence is also a form of real presence. Think of being in a room with another person where each of you is reading in a different corner of the room. Then, on a sudden impulse, you desire to share what you have been reading with the other. Conversation ensues. Your presence to one another is changed. It is no longer physical presence merely, it is a typically human way of being present – through dialogue and conversation. Christ is also present, the (Vatican) council says, in the person of the priest-minister who presides at the Eucharist. The words that the priest speaks in the eucharistic prayer do indeed indicate Christ acting in and through him, though I would want to wonder at least if this is not a particular specification of the first way of presence in the Eucharist: Christ’s presence in the assembled people, including the one who presides. Finally, there is in the Eucharist that most excellent form of presence: Jesus’ presence in the sacramental species.

True eucharistic renewal demands not only that we expand our understanding of what real presence is, but also that we deepen our realization of what it means. Jesus is not present in the Eucharist in order that we may adore him (as a spirituality of devotion tends to emphasize) but in order that he may transform us into himself by drawing us into the mystery of his death and resurrection. His presence is not a static presence (just being there); it is a dynamic presence. He is there to re-create us into his own image.

– excerpted from pages 146-147 of “Silence on Fire: Prayer of Awareness” by William H. Shannon.

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