At Pentecost, we celebrate the day when the Holy Spirit descended on Mary and the Apostles, who began to proclaim the Gospel in all languages so that everyone could understand.
During this second year of the National Eucharistic Revival, I’m continuing my series of columns explaining the Eucharist and the real presence of Christ from a liturgical point of view. At Pentecost, it makes sense to reflect on the decisive role the Holy Spirit plays in Mass to make this presence real.
In the first epiclesis of the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the Church asks God the Father to send his Holy Spirit over the bread and wine with water, so that they become, by his power, the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
We kneel before God while the priest extends his hands over bread and wine mingled with water, which symbolize our own life, which we offer to God as a personal sacrifice in each Mass. But do we realize what happens every time the priest pronounces this prayer?
The same Spirit that proceeds from the Father and the Son is acting. It is the same Spirit who swept over the waters in creation; who spoke through the prophets in the Old Testament; who overshadowed the Virgin Mary and left her pregnant with the Word of God incarnate; it is the same Spirit who descended from heaven when Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River; who pushed him into the desert to be tempted and who inspired him to overcome the temptations of the Evil One; the same Spirit who, at the Last Supper, transformed the bread that Jesus blessed into his body and the wine into his blood, and at Pentecost burst into the house where Mary and the Apostles were and enlightened them so that they could announce the Gospel in every tongue. That same Spirit, every time the priest extends his hands over that bread and that wine mixed with water, is sent by God our Father and truly transforms them into the body and blood of the Lord.
The divine Spirit, always present and active in the history of the people of God, performs the transubstantiation on our altar and before our very eyes. Believing in the Holy Spirit implies believing that Christ is present in the Eucharist — there is just no choice.
Let us ask our Father this Pentecost to send his Spirit not only upon the hosts and the chalices that will be consecrated in each Mass throughout our country, but also to send him to burst forcefully into our hearts and make us believe again that yes, it is true: Christ is present in that bread that is no longer bread and in that wine that is no longer wine, but his body that he offers and his blood that he sheds for our salvation.
Be passionate about our faith!
Northwest Catholic magazine — April/May 2024