How does the Eucharist help us become the Body of Christ?

We gather together in worship, not to "refuel" lives devoid of grace, but because we need to celebrate all the grace-filled moments of our lives, which are so easily overlooked or ignored. We gather at Eucharist to be challenged to deeper awareness of what God is doing in our lives, in this world, all week long.

We have to keep remembering to ask the questions: "Who is at the table? Who is around the table?" as well as the question, "Who is on the table?" The Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes a moving passage in which St. Augustine relates the Body of Christ in the Eucharist (on the altar) to the Body of Christ that is the Church (at and around the altar).

Says Augustine at the turn of the fifth century: "If you are the body and members of Christ, then it is your sacrament which is placed on the table of the Lord; it is your sacrament that you receive. To that which you are, you respond: 'Amen' ('Yes, it is true!'), and by responding to it you assent to it. For you hear the words 'The Body of Christ,' and respond 'Amen.' Be then a member of the Body of Christ that your Amen may be true" (#1396).

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