Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 217 - Part IV.

YOUCAT Question n. 217 - Part IV. What happens in the Church when she celebrates the Eucharist?

(Youcat answer - repeated) Every time the Church celebrates the Eucharist, she stands before the source from which she herself constantly springs anew. By “eating” the Body of Christ, the Church becomes the Body of Christ, which is just another name for the Church. In the sacrifice of Christ, who gives himself to us, body and soul, there is room for our whole life. We can unite everything—our work and our sufferings, our joys—with Christ’s sacrifice. If we offer ourselves in this way, we are transformed: We become pleasing to God and like good, nourishing bread for our fellowmen.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 1370) To the offering of Christ are united not only the members still here on earth, but also those already in the glory of heaven. In communion with and commemorating the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints, the Church offers the Eucharistic sacrifice. In the Eucharist the Church is as it were at the foot of the cross with Mary, united with the offering and intercession of Christ.

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) Again and again we grumble about the Church, as though she were just an association of more or less good people. In reality the Church is what happens daily in a mysterious way at the altar. God gives himself to each one of us individually, and he wants to transform us through communion with him. Once we are transformed, we are supposed to transform the world. Everything else that the Church is besides that is secondary.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 1372) St. Augustine admirably summed up this doctrine that moves us to an ever more complete participation in our Redeemer's sacrifice which we celebrate in the Eucharist: This wholly redeemed city, the assembly and society of the saints, is offered to God as a universal sacrifice by the high priest who in the form of a slave went so far as to offer himself for us in his Passion, to make us the Body of so great a head.... Such is the sacrifice of Christians: "we who are many are one Body in Christ" the Church continues to reproduce this sacrifice in the sacrament of the altar so well-known to believers wherein it is evident to them that in what she offers she herself is offered (St. Augustine, De civ. Dei, 10, 6: PL 41, 283; cf. Rom 12:5).     

(The next question is: What is the right way to honor the Lord present in the bread and wine?)