by Belinda Simon

Created on: April 19, 2010   Last Updated: April 21, 2010

When Jesus gave his life for our redemption, he became the source of new life for all Christians. When he rose from death he became the summit of Christian hope.

Jesus was born and raised Jewish. His adoptive parents, Joseph and Mary, presented him as a baby in the Temple to dedicate him to the Lord as the law required. As Jesus grew, he followed God’s laws in the teachings of Moses. Both Mary and Joseph lived according to God’s laws.

From the time of Cain and Abel, God wanted his people to offer sacrifices in thanksgiving. The old sacrifices offered to God were the dedication of the first-born son, the first crop of the season, and the first-born livestock to be offered as a burnt offering. God sent his Son, Jesus, to live among us, as one of us, to tell us to repent and return to God, to teach both Jews and Gentiles about the Kingdom of God, and in dying and rising to life, to be the new and ultimate sacrifice.

On the evening before He was crucified, Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples. The Passover was very important to Jesus. He had planned his journey to culminate in Jerusalem so he could share this important occasion with his disciples.

The Passover is the Jewish celebration of their freedom from generations of slavery, and their deliverance out of Egypt to a life of freedom in their own country. Just as the Passover meal is the Jewish celebration of their freedom from human slavery, the Eucharist is the celebration of Christian freedom from the slavery of sin into God’s grace again.

The Eucharist is the new covenant Jesus makes on behalf of God to forgive sins. During the Mass, Catholics celebrate the Eucharist because Jesus instructed his disciples to “do this in remembrance of me” during his last Passover meal with them before he died. (Luke 22:19) When the priest prays to God over the bread and wine, Catholics believe it actually becomes the body and blood of Jesus Christ. When Catholics eat and drink this consecrated host, they believe they are reliving Jesus’ death on the cross and are joining in His sacrifice.

The word “Eucharist” means praise and thanksgiving. The Eucharist is sharing in Jesus’ sacrificing his life for the forgiveness of our sins. His rising to life is the summit to which Christians’ desire to be united with Him in God’s Kingdom.

Catholics believe Jesus is truly present in the bread and wine of the Eucharist, and as Jesus is the source and summit of Catholic life, the Eucharist as Jesus, is the source and summit of Catholic life.

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