The Eucharist and Salvation

by Letters Editor · August 31, 2016

Kevin Andersson, Pietermaritzburg – After reading the third Holy Eucharist submission by Emmanuel Ngara (June 15) titled “Our great yearning for the Eucharist”, it is beneficial to revisit his two earlier submissions titled “Communion is not just a ritual” (March 23) and “How the Eucharist liberates us” (April 20).

In these three essays Mr Ngara invites attention to the most important and fundamental issues of our Catholic faith.

In Fr Ralph de Hahn’s submission titled “Eucharist and gospels change lives”, he emphasises the centrality of the Eucharist in our Catholic faith and also refers to our laxity and paucity of appreciation in this regard.

Here we are invited to the question phrased by Fr Raniero Cantalamessa OFM Cap in the first chapter of his short publication titled The Eucharist: Our Sanctification. I quote: “The question now is what place the Eucharist has in the history of salvation. Where should we place it? And the answer is that it has no particular place — it is the whole thing.

The Eucharist is coextensive with the history of salvation. Just as on a clear morning the whole sky is reflected in a dewdrop on a bush, so the Eucharist reflects the whole of the history of salvation.”

At this point it is opportune to turn to Fr Ron Rolheiser’s publication titled Our One Great Act of Fidelity: Waiting for Christ in the Eucharist which holds out such hope and relief for all of us sinners.

In conclusion, for us Catholics, it is the Mass that matters and, further, it is the Eucharist which makes the Mass. It follows that it is of great importance to include our appreciation and gratitude in all our most humble and sincere prayers, for surely it is the infinite love of Almighty God for us, even before our wonderful gift of faith, that we can accept and believe this supreme mystery unreservedly.