AUGUST 2004 - ISSUE 3 - ISSN 1448 - 632

Abstract

This article highlights the eschatological character of the Eucharist. In celebrating the future already present to the Church, it provides the foundation for Christian hope-filled activity by stimulating a liberating vision of the transformative possibilities for the life of human society. The divine gift celebrated in the Eucharist encompasses history and the cosmic process in which the Spirit is working. This summit and source of the life of the Church is therefore a foretaste of the life to come.

1. Introduction

The Christian understanding of the Eucharist has been remarkably enriched in recent years, with a rediscovery of the eschatological dimension of the memorial of Christ’s death and resurrection. With it we come to realize an essential feature of significance for a renewed appreciation of the formative power of the celebration of the Eucharist in Christian life, as well as its considerable ecumenical, social, political and ethical importance. Such an eschatological orientation of the Eucharist was, in fact, a strong element in the experience of the early Christian community. The New Testament testifies to this experience within a complex series of meal events in the ministry of Jesus, describing these experiences as “dining in the Kingdom of God.” [1] To eat the bread and drink the wine of the Eucharist was to remember Christ; and it was to anticipate Christ, and to participate proleptically in the future fulfilment of all God’s purposes. 

The Eucharist was thus celebrated in the context of the resurrection of Christ and the radical renewal of all things and the coming of God’s reign. Recall, for example, that the first Christians were so convinced of God’s power through the resurrection of Christ and the sending of the Spirit at Pentecost that they expected the Parousia in their own lifetime, and with it the establishment of God’s Kingdom. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul refers to the Eucharist as the sacrament of the Eschaton, in which the Christian community is aroused to hope in Christ’s coming again: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor 11:26). [2] Apparently, it is out of this eschatological hope that the early Christians continued to devote “themselves to the Apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). There is thus an awareness of the Eucharist as a thanksgiving for the works of salvation in Christ, and a celebration of praise to God who has made the believers worthy to anticipate the future unity of the reign of God. [3]

The eschatological significance of Christian worship is also reflected in the act of gathering for the Eucharistic sharing on a Sunday. The interconnection of the Pasch and the Lord’s Supper was the principal reason for the early Christians to celebrate the Eucharist on Sunday, as the first day of the week, the day of the resurrection. [4] Here is the sense that, in the Eucharist, the saving act of God has been realized in Christ, and that, through his Passover from death to life, the Christian community can share in the life of the resurrection. The early Christians looked forward to the eschatological fullness of God’s Kingdom, as we also learn from the Didache: “As this broken bread was scattered over the hills, and then, when gathered, became one, so may your Church be gathered from the ends of the earth into your Kingdom.” [5] Later in this remarkable document comes the first clear evidence of the liturgical use of Maranatha, the eschatological prayer: “May grace come and this world pass away! Hosanna to the God of David; Maranatha! Amen.” [6] An eschatological hope for the final coming of Christ was thus closely connected with the experience of Christ encountered in the Eucharist.

The question that arises today is whether it is possible and desirable to retrieve this eschatological dimension of the Eucharist. How can the Eucharist, in the third millennium of the Christian history, be more fully appreciated as the sacrament in which “Christ is present as hope’s food and drink,” [7] and celebrated as a fuller anticipation of the heavenly banquet? How does the celebration of the Eucharist connect with eschatology with practical implications for the way we live in the present and the future? How might this eschatological approach to the Eucharist serve as a fruitful source for reflection on every aspect of Christian hope, that is, immanent and transcendent, prophetic and apocalyptic?

The interconnection of the Eucharist and eschatology is an important and interesting area. Yet, it is only the twentieth-century scholarship that witnesses something of an “eschatological renaissance in Christian theology.” [8] The eschatological dimension of the Eucharist faded into the background, but never entirely disappeared. Given its deep roots in the New Testament and patristic literature, we find, for example, a brief mention of the Eucharist as “a pledge of future glory and everlasting happiness” in the Decree on the Eucharist of the Council of Trent. [9] Thomas Aquinas also described the Eucharist as a “signum pronosticum, a sign which recalls a past event, the passion of Christ, indicates the effect of the passion of Christ in us that is grace, and foretells, that is heralds the glory to come.” [10] Why, then, has the “loss” of the eschatological understanding of the Eucharist only been retrieved in more recent years? In retrospect, traditional theology of the Eucharist, forgetful of the biblical context of eschatology in which the Eucharist is celebrated, for a long time gave almost exclusive attention to the Eucharistic doctrines of sacrifice and real presence to the detriment of its eschatological nature.

Consequently, the subject of eschatology appeared as an appendix to the rest of theology, and therefore did not function as the light illuminating other realities of the Christian faith. [11] Eschatology was regarded largely as the study of the “Last things,” namely death, final judgement, heaven and hell. The emphasis of eschatology also centred on the eternal fate of the individual person and the end of history, rather than on the hope for the consummation of God’s purposes for all creation, for the completion of the creative and redemptive activity of God in Christ and the Spirit, that is, for the coming of God’s Kingdom in its eschatological fullness.

Recently, however, with the emergence of the Kingdom of God as the subject of intense scholarly research and discussion, a renewed interest in the eschatological implications of the Eucharist has also begun and is continuing. Informed by a more biblical and holistic view, the theology of Vatican II considers eschatology as a dimension of every aspect of Christian life and thought, pointing to the Paschal Mystery as the focal category for understanding the eschatological significance of the Eucharist.

Lumen Gentium proclaims the Eucharist as “the source and summit of the Christian life.” [12] This leads to the renewal of Eucharistic liturgy and Eucharistic theology, including the recovery of its eschatological nature, whereby the Eucharist foreshadows and anticipates “the eschatological banquet in the kingdom of the Father, proclaiming the Lord’s death till his coming.” [13] The pilgrim people are described as needing to be nourished on the body and blood of Christ as they move on the earthly journey towards “the marriage feast and to be numbered among the blessed.” [14] The Eucharist thus gives a sense of direction to humanity, activating hope in the present.

So, filled with hope, as Sacrosanctum Concilium also points out, Christians celebrate the Eucharist as “a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a paschal banquet in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us.” [15] In this direction of Christian hope, the beginning of Gaudium et Spes highlights the Church’s change of understanding concerning the place of history: “The joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the men of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted in any way, are the joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as well. Nothing that is genuinely human fails to find an echo in their hearts.” [16] The Christian community is thus called to co‑operate with Christ through the power of the Spirit so that the world might be brought to its fulfilment. The words of Gaudium et Spes then affirm:

Christ left to his followers a pledge of this hope and food for the journey in the sacrament of faith, in which natural elements, the fruits of man’s cultivation, are changed into His glorified Body and Blood, as a supper of brotherly fellowship and a foretaste of the heavenly banquet. [17]

The Eucharist is thus the symbol of the final realization of the eschatological Kingdom. [18] To work and to wait in joyful hope for this future Kingdom is but to desire that, in the words of the Eucharistic Prayers, “we shall sing your glory with every creature,” [19] and be united with God, who sends the Spirit “as his first gift to those who believe, to complete his work on earth and bring us the fullness of salvation.” [20] The Eucharistic transformation is itself thoroughly eschatological, implicating all the elements of nature and culture, involving the whole world of God’s creation. [21] To deepen the sense of its eschatological import, the new Catechism of the Catholic Church also refers to the Eucharist as “an anticipation of heavenly glory” and “a sign of hope in the new heaven and the new earth.” [22] Through the Eucharist the whole cosmos anticipates its own consummation. [23]

As the sacrament of hope, the Eucharist is a sacred symbol of vital importance to the Christian community and to our contemporary world. It is a sign of God’s coming reign and of the promised transformation of all things. It looks toward a future in hope and with confidence that the victorious death and resurrection of Christ makes a definitive difference and will bring all creation to perfect fulfilment. As we read in John Paul II’s most recent Encyclical Letter, Ecclesia de Eucharistia:

The Eucharist is a straining towards the goal, a foretaste of the fullness of joy promised by Christ (cf. Jn 15:11); it is in some way the anticipation of heaven, the “pledge of future glory.” In the Eucharist, everything speaks of confident waiting “in joyful hope for the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.” Those who feed on Christ in the Eucharist need not wait until the hereafter to receive eternal life: they already possess it on earth, as the first-fruits of a future fullness which will embrace man in his totality. For in the Eucharist we also receive the pledge of our bodily resurrection at the end of the world: “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (Jn 6:54). This pledge of the future resurrection comes from the fact that the flesh of the Son of Man, given as food, is his body in its glorious state after the resurrection. With the Eucharist we digest, as it were, the “secret” of the resurrection. [24]

As the sacrament of the Kingdom, “already” but “not yet” fully embraced, the Eucharist has an intrinsically eschatological nature. What the Christian community celebrates here on earth is a participation in the banquet of eternity, that is, the final gathering of all the ages on God’s holy mountain (Is 25:6; Heb 12:18, 22-24; Mt 22:2-14; Jn 6:51,54). The liturgical acclamation, “Christ will come again” or “We await your coming in glory,” and the response following the Lord’s Prayer –“For the Kingdom, the power, and glory are yours, now and forever”– express the eschatological thrust of the whole Eucharistic celebration. The Eucharist is truly a glimpse of the eschatological banquet. “It is a glorious ray of the heavenly Jerusalem which pierces the clouds of our history and lights up our journey.” [25] Thus in the celebration of the Eucharist the whole range of Christian life in time – with its memory of the death of Christ, its experience of the power of his resurrection in the present, and its joyful hope for the final coming of God’s Kingdom – is expressed.  

Such an understanding of the eschatological dimension of the Eucharist serves not only to lead the Christian community to the expectation of “new heaven and new earth” (Rev 21:1), but also to increase a sense of responsibility for the world. Here the Eucharist anticipates the coming joy of God’s reign of justice, peace and freedom. Again, the words of Ecclesia de Eucharistia point in this direction:

Many problems darken the horizon of our time. We need but think of the urgent need to work for peace, to base relationships between peoples on solid premises of justice and solidarity, and to defend human life from conception to its natural end…Proclaiming the death of the Lord “until he comes” (1 Cor 11:26) entails that all who take part in the Eucharist be committed to changing their lives and making them in a certain way completely “Eucharistic.” It is this fruit of a transfigured existence and a commitment to transforming the world in accordance with the Gospel which splendidly illustrates the eschatological tension inherent in the celebration of the Eucharist and in the Christian life as a whole: “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20). [26]

As it sacramentally celebrates the commemoration of Christ’s Paschal Mystery, the Eucharist thus embodies the eschatological character of hope for the world as a whole. When Christians celebrate their hope in this manner, says Tony Kelly, “they are not engaging in private meditation, nor are they meeting for a philosophical discussion on the afterlife. Rather, they are eating, drinking, tasting, breathing, and sharing the real presence of the future that God has prepared for them in Christ.” [27] In a distinctly paschal dimension, the Eucharist celebrates the human attitude of hope and is “an instance of the world’s passing over into the new creation.” [28] Thus, as a sign of future realization, the Eucharist is utterly central and fundamental to any discussion of hope. It is both a word of hope and a participation in the eschatological banquet of the Kingdom to guide the whole world into the future. By bringing the memorial of the past and an anticipation of the future into the present, the Eucharist gathers up all that Christ stood for, namely, the coming reign of God. [29] It is the Eucharist that puts the Christian community in touch with its future glory, giving the meaning of hope to the ultimate destiny of humanity and the entire creation in directing the course of history towards its absolute consummation.

In what follows, the overall aim of this essay is to explore the need for and value of a retrieval of an eschatological appreciation of the Eucharist. It would seem indeed that the whole project of approaching the interconnection of the Eucharist with eschatology serves as a useful and appropriate introduction to the direction Eucharistic theology is currently taking, as the Church approaches new cultural, socio-political and theological arenas. As expressed in the Eucharist Prayers, the eschaton pervades the liturgical celebration as the sacramental anticipation of the future glory that is the Christian community’s steadfast hope. The Eucharist is, in the words of Alexander Schmemann, “the ascension of the Church to the place where she belongs in statu patriae.” [30] Seeking a fuller elaboration of the Eucharist as the sacrament of Christian hope, we attempt to outline a holistic and coherent synthesis of the Eucharist and eschatology, and to indicate directions of further study that may enrich Eucharistic eschatology. We will identify four significant features of our study that can be taken into account in a constructive retrieval of the eschatological dimension of the Eucharist: (1) the form of the Eucharistic hope as eschatological communion; (2) the Eucharist as source of a hope-filled praxis of liberation; (3) the Eucharist as eschatological gift of God in Christ; and (4) the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist as divine milieu of the Trinity.

2. The form of Eucharistic hope as eschatological communion: “God will be all in all”

The recognition that hope is both a vital part of human existence and an essential element of Christian faith can help in the reconstruction of the interconnection between Eucharist and eschatology. A number of questions thus enter into the anthropological aspects of hope: What is the Eucharist in relation to an understanding of becoming more fully human in all the struggles for life, love and truth? How does this sacrament of salvation move beyond the defences and isolation of individualism and the harm of dualism into a realization of true solidarity between the living and the dead, between the spiritual and the physical, between the individual and the community, between the human and the cosmic? Does the Eucharist contain the promise of new life for all creation in the new humanity of Christ? 

The Eucharist is a celebration of the shared life and the destiny of humanity and creation. It enacts the mystery of the interconnection of personal, interpersonal, ecclesial, and cosmic salvation. In a fundamental way, the Eucharist is a sign and an effective source of “holy communion;” those who come to celebrate it are always more deeply inserted into community. In the Eucharist the many people become one body of Christ (1 Cor 10:17) in such a way that Christ takes them up “into himself” as one body of the new creation. To participate in this eschatological sacrament means to be incorporated into the person of Christ and transformed in the totality of one’s ecclesial relationships. This focus on the Eucharist as an event of eschatological communion provides a significant point of entry for a renewed anthropology whereby Christian hope is brought into dialogue with contemporary quests for some key aspects of being human.

2.1 The personal dimension of eschatological communion

A first feature within this renewed Eucharistic anthropology arises from our awareness of being human as personal. A person may be defined as a human subject, an individual center of consciousness, an intentional, historical person with his or her own personal traits and life story, an individual identity, one who knows and is known, loves and is loved, and exists as a free, unique and unrepeatable entity. [31] As such, the human person is not simply someone who has a body, but someone who is a body. [32] This concept of person has a close affinity to our emphasis on the human subject as an embodied reality through and through, from the beginning to end.

This insight addresses the problem of traditional philosophy and theology which delivered a vision of the human person as a “composition” of body and soul and what became the classical form of dualism in which the soul is viewed as a transcendent, permanent, incorruptible principle, and the body is exactly the opposite. Here a renewed anthropological form of the Eucharistic hope stands in contrast to the traditional treatment of the human subject. It envisages the human person as at the same time embodied spirit and inspirited body. The body is, to use Dermot A. Lane’s words, “the key to the personal” and we can realize that “a better understanding of the body gives us a deeper understanding of the human spirit.” [33] A similar insight appears in the writing of Gustave Martelet, who claims that the body is “an entirely personal act of expression” [34] in a community of creation. Louis-Marie Chauvet expresses this well when he speaks of the body as “the primordial place of every symbolic joining of the ‘inside’ and the ‘outside’…the human ‘way’ of inhabiting the otherness of the world as a home, a familiar dwelling.” [35] The human person thus appears as embodied self-consciousness and exists corporeally in the world as a whole person in relation to God and to others.

Contemplation of the human person in this non-dualistic way draws attention to the eschatological hope for the fulfilment of personal life in resurrection. Christian hope is distinctive in its inclusive reference to the quest for fulfilment and wholeness; it concerns the individual in the community, the material as well as the spiritual. [36] While Christian hope in God’s final triumph over sin, evil, suffering and death is a total hope, it does not exclude the dimension of the person as self-identity, individuality and embodied self-manifestation. If the Risen Christ truly gives himself personally in the Eucharist, where Christians are nourished by the “deathless life of the Body of his Resurrection,” [37] then hope for personal fulfilment in the resurrection of the total and unified human being is an integral part of eschatological hope.

2.2 The interpersonal and ecclesial dimension: The event of persons in communion

Although in terms of personal identity, being and living, each human person is a unique subject, a transcending, responsible, communicative and free being, there is something fundamentally communal about the human subject. Here a significant feature arises from our emphasis on the interpersonal and ecclesial dimension of personhood. Relationship is a fundamental characteristic of all beings in the world; one is present to oneself only insofar as one is present to others in terms of communion. Since human existence is an invitation to a life of inclusive communion with other persons and with all created entities, a person is not a self-enclosed entity. As already examined in our study, an isolated person is a contradiction in terms, just as an essentially unrelated, self-contained, self-focused subject or the “solitary ego” is incompatible with both the human and Christian experiences of hope. By its very nature, hope involves a consciousness of communion. [38] As Zizioulas phrases it, “one person is no person.” [39] Ernst Bloch, a Marxist philosopher of hope also writes, “unus Christianus nullus Christianus.” [40] Thus, the human person fully alive is formed through relationships. For the Christian perspective, it would not be possible to speak of the personhood without the concept of communion.

The eschatological meaning of the Eucharist then emerges in this interpersonal dimension of personhood. There is no self apart from other selves. To exist is always to co-exist, [41] and to be always means to be in communion. Gabriel Marcel, a Christian existentialist reminds us that hope is always related to a “thou,” that is, to a real communion established among persons. [42] So, as a sacrament of hope, the Eucharist includes the reality of communion since we can speak of the esse of Christ in the Eucharist in terms of his ad-esse, being present to the Church, to the celebrating community. [43] Christ is the bread of life “broken” for all humanity. Here the Eucharist communicates not only the interaction between the divine and the human initiated by God, but also gives witness to the fact that the uniqueness of a human person exists within a community of mutual relationships.

This interpersonal dimension of human existence gradually develops into a community. [44] The human self becomes a self-in-community and exists in communion with other persons who are different from oneself in all levels of life. There is within such human experience a sense of belonging to the whole world as one interconnected community. As Teilhard de Chardin explains:

In fact, from the beginning of the Messianic preparation, up till the Parousia, passing through the historic manifestation of Jesus and the phases of growth of His Church, a single event has been developing in the world: the Incarnation, realized, in each individual, through the Eucharist.

All the communions of a life-time are one communion.

All communions of all men now living are one communion.

All the communions of all the men, present, past and future, are one. [45]

If Christian hope is finally in the triune God, who is essentially relational, as persons in communion, then it is necessarily a hope not of isolated individuals but of people in community, in which everyone gathers without the barriers of race, language or cultural traditions. In terms of Eucharist communion, hope is thus a positive attitude to various communities of people, an appreciation of unity in diversity, and an understanding of the ultimate reality as relational. Diarmuid O’Murchu appears to support a similar insight based on the findings of quantum physics:

God is first and foremost a propensity and power for relatedness, and the divine imprint is nowhere more apparent than in nature’s own fundamental desire to relate – interdependently and interconnectedly. The earthly, the human, and the divine are in harmony in their fundamental natures, in their common propensity to relate and to enjoy interdependent coexistence. [46]

Just as the bread and wine become the real food and drink of the Kingdom, those who participate in the Eucharist are united in body to the life of the new humanity of Christ, as the result of the transforming action of the Spirit. [47] The Eucharist perfects and fulfils the body of Christians. Incorporated into a transfigured world of the resurrection, Christians come to a new birth in Christ, finding in him a new human community and appropriate ways to enter into solidarity with others. In other words, as the event of persons in communion, the Eucharist enables the participants to move beyond the isolation of individualism and egocentricity into a fuller expression of the body of Christ, the body of the Church, and the body of the Eucharist. [48]

2.3 The cosmic dimension

A third aspect of being human concerns our communion not only with other human beings but also with the whole of creation. Since Christian hope has a cosmic dimension, the future fulfilment which human beings yearn for, cannot be found apart from the transformation of the world to which they are bound in life and death. [49] As an event of eschatological communion, the Eucharist celebrates the unity and solidarity of humans, the earth, and the whole cosmos when the bread and wine, as earthly realities, come into their own as bearers of the ultimate future of humanity and the cosmos. In this sense, the mystery of the Eucharist extends to the whole of creation.

We thus arrive at an understanding of salvation as the entry of all creation into God’s eternal community of love. [50] According to the findings of contemporary cosmology, we are all part of the whole and see everything in the cosmos and part of ourselves as interrelated. There is nothing outside the scope of this universe as “God’s body,” the source and breath of all existence. There is emerging a new way of looking at the universe called the “common creation story,” which acts as a corrective to both modern anthropology and the classic organic model. [51] This cosmic story emphasizes the one common origin of all forms of life in the whole cosmos. [52]

In light of this renewed anthropology as well as the eschatological approach to the Eucharist, Christian hope emerges as a concept that encompasses the entire creation, involving a transformation of the whole universe. Furthermore, in this Eucharistic model of the world as the Body of Christ, every creature is “God’s self-expression, a word of God, a sign of the Trinitarian God, a mode of divine presence.” [53] It is no longer possible to view the material cosmos as merely a resource to be exploited to serve humanity’s needs. Each creature is a symbol, a sacrament of God’s presence, and a work of art of the Trinitarian God. [54]

In this way, God’s salvation comes upon the whole of creation “without annihilation, without spoliation, without alteration: it enriches.” [55] Here we arrive at the point of profound respect for the created world, since the material cosmos has been entrusted to humanity which is responsible for its protection, preservation and cultivation. With regard to eschatological hope, then, the end of the world will not be a destruction of the universe, but a transformation and fulfilment so that it will become “the new heaven and the new earth” (Rev 21:1). Through the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection God has entered into solidarity with the cosmos and, through the grace of the Eucharist, begun the process of divinisation of the material universe itself. A renewed Eucharistic hope as cosmic communion thus emerges. Christians come to the Eucharist, bringing the bread and wine as symbols of the whole universe to be transformed by the Spirit into the body and blood of the Cosmic Christ.

3. The Eucharist as source of a hope-filled praxis of liberation

Christian hope is primarily justified in its praxis, its committed responsible action for the salvation of the world, for its liberation from social oppression and cultural alienation. The action for justice and the praxis of liberation in present history become an imperative intrinsic to the celebration of the Eucharist. As a celebration of hope, unity, peace and reconciliation, the Eucharist thus reminds Christians of the part they must play in helping resolve exploitative and unjust situations. As Gustavo Gutierrez emphasizes, “Without a real commitment against exploitation and alienation and for a society of solidarity and justice, the Eucharistic celebration is an empty action, lacking any genuine endorsement by those who participate in it.” [56] Here the eschatological dimension of the Eucharist brings effective meaning and power not only to the personal and interpersonal realms, but also to the body politic, the social systems which we create and in turn shape us. A vision of hope in terms of the concrete performance of love of neighbour highlights the intrinsic and dynamic connection between the celebration of the Eucharist and the praxis of liberation. [57]

3.1 The political, social and liberating implications of the Eucharist: Hunger for justice

The most dramatic illustration of the divine demand for justice and for the liberation of the oppressed is the story of Exodus. This great story of the liberation from slavery and the journey across the wilderness to the land of promise and the covenant established by God on Sinai prefigures the liberation of all humanity in the context of the Paschal Mystery of Christ. It is not, however, an isolated example of God’s concern for the poor. The prophets often speak of God’s judgement on those who consider that the performance of religious ritual, rather than the struggle for justice for all, is the principal demand God makes upon people (Is 1:11-17; 58:4-8; Mic 3:1-3; 6:7-11).

God’s saving activity on behalf of the poor and the oppressed is continued and intensified in the New Testament. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus in his public ministry is portrayed as having a special compassion for the marginalized and the oppressed. For him, eschatological hope is the basis for social justice and ethics. He welcomed society’s outcasts and sinners into table-fellowship with him as an anticipation of the Kingdom, announcing the year of God’s liberation (Lk 4:18-19). This prophetic and eschatological tradition also appears in the life and worship of the earliest Christian community (Acts 2:44-47; 3:13-15; 4:32). According to the biblical witness, Christian faith is active in deeds of justice and love, and they are the test of true forms of worship.

The fundamental characteristic of the Eucharist as praxis of liberation can be understood in terms of communion, which has a threefold sense. [58] Firstly, it concerns the liberation from social situations of oppression and alienation. The Eucharist embodies and defines a mode of human community as the body of Christ, for it celebrates Christ’s victory over all that oppresses and divides; it is the victory of a new order into which Christians are gathered together, united with Christ in his death and now raised to live the resurrected life (Rom 6:4-5). The Eucharist indicates this new order as eschatological hope, consisting in a total openness to the reign of God, the reign of justice and peace. To this Eucharistic hope then, Christian response must be a life of mercy, justice and love for others. All kinds of injustice, racism, separation, division and lack of freedom are thus radically challenged when Christians come to share the Eucharist, the privileged place for knowing God’s presence.

Secondly, the Eucharist as liberation calls for a personal and ecclesial transformation by which Christians live with inner freedom in the face of every kind of bondage. The Eucharist sets them free from the fear of suffering and death, from loneliness, self-centeredness and pride, in order to form a community in which all can share life with each other, having all things in common and placing themselves at the service of the poor and the needy (1 Jn 1:3, 6; 1 Cor 1:9; 2 Cor 9:13; Rom 15:26-27). In celebrating the Eucharist, the Christian community is called to witness to what the resurrection of Christ promises for the future of the world.

Thirdly, the Eucharist is the sacrament of Christian liberation from sin in all its dimensions. Sin, whenever it exists, is a destructive influence in the reality of all relationships, a breaking of communion with God and with other human beings, and thus is the exact opposite of what God is, namely, persons in communion. Through sharing in Christ’s body and blood, Christians are progressively wrenched from the forces of evil. The Eucharist reveals to them the presence of sin in the selfishness, in the apathy or complicity in social injustice, while drawing them towards a new life.  As Gutierrez explains:

In the Eucharist we celebrate the cross and the resurrection of Christ, his Passover from death to life, and our passing from sin to grace. In the Gospel the Last Supper is presented against the background of the Jewish Passover, which celebrated the liberation from Egypt and the Sinai Covenant. The Christian Passover takes on and reveals the full meaning of the Jewish Passover. Liberation from sin is at the very root of political liberation. The former reveals what is really involved in the latter. [59]

In this way, God’s saving and healing action in Christ is what the Eucharist recalls and celebrates against all the forces of destructiveness (1 Cor 11:17-24; Jas 2:14). The Eucharistic celebration is, therefore, “a moment of conversion - to go beyond the alienations, boundaries, polarities and classes of the given society in order to become a genuinely open community of love and hope for all.” [60] Each celebration of the Eucharist is the outcome of the divine all-forgiving love and reconciliation; it is both a moment of truth and a movement of life and growth. 

The Christian community that gathers for the Eucharist cannot share the communion of divine life without reflecting upon what that means for Christian agape in a world without sufficient nourishment, a world in which injustice, poverty, and oppression are ever present realities. To celebrate the memorial of the death of Christ “until he comes” (1 Cor 11:26) means to adopt a practice of Eucharistic hospitality, a readiness to give one’s very life. Participation in the Body of Christ thus “presupposes acceptance of the daily effort for justice in love.” [61] This eschatological vision of the Eucharist is deeply rooted in its “memory of Jesus,” in what he proclaimed and lived in terms of the Kingdom. Yet, this Eucharistic witness is not simply a looking back toward the life of Jesus. It also looks forward and shares visions of what is to come, visions of the peace of God’s Kingdom by which the creation will be transformed and fulfilled.   

3.2 The Eucharist and the human hunger for meaning and purpose

The disclosure of the nature of human existence in terms of “hunger” provokes further questions. This notion provides a significant Eucharistic application in terms of a hunger for the Bread of Life, for full participation in the divine hospitality. How then can the Eucharist as the bread of life be understood? Does not the Eucharist in this perspective recall our responsibility to deal with the dominant hungers of the world, such as the hunger for freedom and dignity, the hunger for peace and love, for meaning and purpose? 

Since the Eucharist links the living bread of the Eucharist (Jn 6: 31-57) with the manna given by God to the hungry people in the wilderness (Ex 16: 4-35), the bread broken and shared enables the Christian community to glimpse the shape of a new world that is coming to be. Here the Eucharist becomes a sign of the generous justice by which God invites the hungry to the eschatological banquet. [62] Since hunger is a general experience and common to all human beings. [63] It refers, on one level, to the physical sustenance and, on another level, to the human sense of incompleteness, which makes people reach out for new life in terms of communion and continuing betterment. Hunger calls into being what is “not yet” and is a realm of possibility. [64] On whatever level such hunger is defined, it reveals, in a deeper sense, the essential interconnectedness and interdependence of all humanity and all creation.

If hunger brings into focus both our human dependence on the bounty of nature and our interrelationship with one another, the Eucharist concerns material and spiritual needs without making one more important than the other. Because its primary symbols are drawn from the activities of human life: the bread of human labour and struggle, the wine of human fellowship and commitment, the Eucharist is not a sacramental world separated from that of social reality. Christian tradition confirms that, in the Eucharistic celebration, Christ makes himself known to us not only on the table as the bread of God, but also “in the breaking of the bread” (Lk 24:32, 35). This is an act of sharing daily food with the hungry, showing hospitality to the strangers, and thereby giving them hope. In the Eucharistic sharing, we find a positive correspondence between human welfare on earth and final salvation in heaven, between the historical future and the eschatological Kingdom. [65] Thus, the Eucharist “cannot escape from the world problems that the provision of food forces upon humankind.” [66] It is in this perspective that we can understand the Eucharist as hope’s food and drink for the world.     

Food and drink, however, are not just a means for survival or staying alive. In the New Testament, for instance, every table fellowship with Jesus is, in a wider sense, an event of peace, liberation, trust and hospitality, a sign of reconciliation and an anticipation of the eschatological banquet in the consummation of the Kingdom (Lk 14:15; 15:2; Mk 2:15-17; Mt 26:29). [67] There is an obvious, though not literal sense in which Jesus can claim to be the bread of life (Jn 6:35, 48, 51), which God provides for the world’s nourishment, feeding the hunger of humanity for meaning and purpose in life. The Eucharist thus becomes a constant challenge for the Christian community in the search for appropriate relationships in social, economic and political life, pointing to a sharing and reconciled community, and the fullness of life.

4. The Eucharist as eschatological gift of God in Christ 

In what sense can we say that, in the Eucharist, Christians anticipate the future and are given a foretaste of things to come? To this, our response must be understood as participation, in Christ, of what God will do to transform the whole of creation. Since the Eucharist is already communion with Christ, and yet a communion which will reach its plenitude with the coming of the reign of God, how does this expectation give new energy for the cultivation of this life with all the practical aspects of hope? We note that the Eucharist is always God’s self-gift that freely initiates this eschatological communion of life and love. Here the notion of the pure gift, as correlated with contemporary critical experience, is also fundamental to the ways we understand the Eucharist as a celebration of thanksgiving.

4.1 The Eucharist as gift of freedom

The gift of freedom is connected with the Eucharist as the Eucharist is with the Paschal Mystery of Christ. The Eucharist is the sacramental celebration of a new Passover in which Christ communicates to humanity the gift of himself, so that the whole world may move towards “the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Rom 8:21; 1 Jn 3:1-3). [68] In all its salvific reality, the Eucharist is Christ’s free gift of self, which reveals the authentic meaning of a love freely given: “Having loved his own in the world, he loved them to the end” (Jn 13:1). It manifests, in this sense, the basic vision of the mystery of grace, a divine gift distinguished by its gratuity. [69] Sharing in the Eucharist, Christians open their minds and heart to the gift of freedom in Christ. Eating and drinking what Christ’s Body and Blood, they become partakers of his glorious life. [70] As the fourth Eucharistic acclamation expresses it, “Lord, by your cross and resurrection you have set us free. You are the Saviour of the world.” The Eucharist is thus a celebration of a new Passover from darkness to light, from sin to freedom. What the Christian community receives is sanctification and its end, eternal life (Rom 6:22).   

In this gracious reality, Christians are free to accept the Eucharist which is offered to them. It is not something they earn or merit on their own. Yet, the acceptance of the Eucharistic grace enhances their freedom, makes them free to give in terms of their unconditional relationships with God and others. There is no such thing as debt or an obligation to satisfy some exchange in economic terms. [71] Rather, as Christians celebrate the Paschal Mystery in the Eucharist, they grow in the new life of freedom which Christ has won for the world. This freedom is the capacity to create and to develop the conditions for orienting human life toward the future in which God’s work of salvation can be fully realised. In other words, the Eucharist is a participation in the source of divine freedom and an anticipation of God’s promise for the future. It is both divine gift and activity in the sense that it is even now joined with our own bringing forth into history the fulfilment of God’s Kingdom.   

If freedom is the ultimate fulfilment of hope and the one thing necessary, [72] then the Eucharist is the most surprising gift of the divine freedom, connecting it with the gifts of freedom in the mystery of Christ. These gifts can be expressed as freedom from loneliness and isolation for relationships and communion, freedom from hunger for sharing in the meal of the Kingdom, freedom from sin for salvation and reconciliation, and freedom to hope for the fulfilment of future glory. [73]

4.2 The Eucharist as celebration of thanksgiving

As has been explored, whatever the circumstance, the Eucharist is the sacrament of thanksgiving in which Christians gather together to celebrate and share God’s saving gift in Christ. [74] According to contemporary critical thought, however, the bestowal and reception of a gift is, in essence, sheer generosity. Since there is no expectation of a return in any form, then how are Christians to understand the Eucharist as a thanksgiving celebration? What can they possibly do to celebrate the graciousness of such divine benevolence?

Christians come to give thanks, not because of the feeling of being indebted, but because they live in a world of grace and blessing; they become the anticipatory fulfilment of Christ’s self-giving love in history. It is the Eucharist that transforms the community of Christians into the new humanity of Christ, so that they, in turn, become bread for the world, to be broken, given away and consumed. The Eucharist is a celebration of thanksgiving precisely in the sense that the grace of the Eucharist is free gift of God, of which no one can take possession, since it is never simply in the present passing moment, but is eschatologically oriented, always moving into the future. 

An important consideration here is that the Eucharist is an open gift, not a gift closed in upon itself, but overflowing, making place for creation and history. As the fourth weekday preface in the Eucharist expresses: “You have no need of our praise, yet our desire to thank you is itself your gift. Our prayer of thanksgiving adds nothing to your greatness, but makes us grow in your grace.” [75] In the face of such Eucharistic giftedness, unlike the human situation of giving, God’s giving demands no obligations, but offers divine life, freely and graciously, and out of the sheer desire to give. [76] The only fitting response that can give meaning to the acts of praise and thanksgiving of the Christian community is the willingness to enter into the fellowship of love between the divine persons, and to participate in the sharing of life with others. As Kelly explains:

Whatever the circumstance, God and only God stands at the beginning and at the end of all we are – and thanking the divine goodness is a permanent dimension of the faith, hope, and love we profess. It is not as though God needs our praise and thanksgiving, however, for it is ourselves who need to become thankful and praising people if we are to live in our true freedom and spiritual creativity. [77]

This is a genuine and spontaneous appreciation of the gift of the Eucharist. Christian praise is our way into the inner life of God. [78] This means that, through thanksgiving and praise, those who participate in the Eucharist are drawn into God’s lifestyle. The Eucharistic gift continues, in this sense, to increase, being at any one moment beyond measure, the continual dawning of the future. It is, therefore, not gift fully possessible in the present moment, not in any way given back to God, nor adding something to God’s being, but rather witness to the mystery of Christ’s self‑giving love, always open to surprise.

4.3 The Eucharist as sharing in God’s gift of salvation in history

An important outcome of this eschatological vision of the Eucharist is the responsible sharing of Christians in God’s gift of salvation in history,  preparing the way for the coming reign of God. If the gift is only received in the giving, without expectation of return, then, in a similar fashion, the Christian community is called to embody the very promise of the future Kingdom of God. The Eucharist, as Wainwright observes, “has an inescapable missionary significance in so far as it is the sign of the great feast which God will offer…to express for ever the universal triumph of His saving will and purpose.” [79] Thus there is a real flow to the eucharistic gift opening up its possibility, and drawing Christians into communion in witness and mission.

In the Eucharist, the self-giving love of God shows forth in the self‑giving love of Christ, and then, as David Power envisions: “This self-giving love of Christ shows forth further when through the Spirit it is embodied in the Church, which in turn gives that life, pours out that love from within itself, so that others may share in it. Bestowed upon, Christians are in turn bestowers.” [80] Christians therefore cannot in honesty speak of Christ’s self-giving love in the Eucharist, if this gift does not carry over into the manner of Christian living, in all of its manifestations of self-emptying, so that they become active participants in the transformation of the world. [81] In other words, the Eucharist is Christian entrance into the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection. When Christians proclaim Christ’s free self-offering, they celebrate their own life of freedom, entering into the pure unselfishness of the communal life of the Trinity itself, and thus participating in the selfless love of the divine. [82] The Eucharistic and the eschatological are thus essentially interconnected in the self-giving of Christ. In a certain sense, one can say that the primary significance of the Eucharist is the bread that must be broken and shared in anticipation of the future.     

The simple action of carrying the gifts and the prayers of offering recall the entire economic, political and social realities of our world and all forms of life, bringing to our consciousness all these gifts, all the kinds of giving that nourish our existence, the holiness and wholeness of creation. [83] While the Christian community continues to “proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes” (1Cor 11:26), the Eucharist embraces the realities of human experience including the lack of freedom and various experiences of alienation and ecological issues. The Eucharist, then, is celebrated in the hope of reaching ultimate freedom from the concrete reality of suffering and death. True hope is learned in communion with the God who is with us, for us, and involved with us in our struggle to bring forth a just and loving world. Understood in this way, the Eucharist has profound significance for the mission of the Church in the world today.

Whatever the ultimate future of humanity and the cosmos may hold, God’s saving action will be fully consistent with what God has done in the history of salvation decisively confirmed in Christ. For this reason, the historical world really matters, because it mediates to all humanity in a sacramental way the goodness and salvation of God. So, to devalue history is to devalue eschatology. [84] For eschatology “does not wipe out history; it passes judgment on history and serves to crown it.” [85] In other words, the secular history is by no means extrinsic to the history of salvation; it holds within itself the anticipation of a possible future. A celebration of the Eucharist as eschatological sacrament thus attunes the Christian community to the value of its social transformation and cultural creations and the different ways the Spirit has been at work in the world. In the Eucharistic celebration, the “fruits of the earth and the works of human hands” are not only a reminder of all of God’s bounteous creation freely received, but they symbolize human longing for the future renewal of all things.  

5. The liturgical celebration of the Eucharist as divine milieu of the Trinity

Our study of the interconnection of the Eucharist with eschatology also leads to an understanding that the Eucharist is the divine milieu, the holy space of the life-giving mystery of the Trinity. When Christians come to celebrate the Eucharist, they actually participate, as an eschatological community, in communion with God’s very life. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Eucharistic Prayer itself. The Eucharistic Prayer expresses in a concentrated way, both in word and in action, the reality of Christian hope. The great doxology: “Through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honour is yours, Almighty Father, forever and ever” points in this eschatological and trinitarian direction. Thus the whole Eucharistic worship becomes a locus for the reception and transmission of the vision of a future, [86] wherein everything is coming from and moving towards the Trinity, as the origin and goal of all creation.

In the Eucharist, the believers are invited into relationship with each of the persons of the Trinity. This invitation to communion in and with the divine life is realized in the liturgical prayer that is addressed to God the Father, through the mediation of Christ the Son and performed in the Spirit. 

Firstly, as addressed to God the Father, who is “the fountain of all holiness,” [87] the “source of life and goodness,” [88] the Eucharist is the culmination of the Church’s prayer of thanksgiving for “the fullness of grace” [89] that has been given in Christ, as well as prayer of praise for all the divine actions in history that show “wisdom and love.” [90] In this celebration of thanks and praise, God the Father appears as the God of creation and consummation. What God has begun in creation, God will bring to fulfilment in the eschaton, for God’s purpose in what God does is to fill all “creatures with every blessing.” [91] In this sense, the Eucharist expresses the doxological vocation of all created beings, that is, the participation in the song of the whole universe, the “Holy, holy, holy.” All of creation celebrates and sings the glory of God through human beings. As Enrico Mazza remarks, “The Sanctus thus expresses the union of the liturgy of heaven with the earthly liturgy being celebrated by our community. We on earth take the angels and saints as models for our liturgical praise and glorification of God; as a result, the anaphora takes on an eschatological dimension.” [92] It is in the Eucharistic celebration that the eschatological future meets and shapes the Christian experience of becoming one with the whole cosmos, so as to be its voice in a continual hymn of praise to God.      

Secondly, the Christian community celebrates the Eucharist as a memorial of Christ in the context of calling to mind the whole Paschal Mystery of his life, death, resurrection and coming in glory. In the Eucharistic celebration Christ appears as the High Priest, [93] carrying out the only possible liturgy, [94] through whom the Church performs the same priestly action. In responding to Jesus’ command: “Do this in memory of me,” the community of believers actually prays and honours God: “Father, calling to mind the death your Son endured for our salvation, his glorious resurrection and ascension into heaven, and ready to greet him when he comes again, we offer you in thanksgiving this holy and living sacrifice.” [95] As Christians celebrate the Eucharist the significance of Christ’s event comes into focus. Here they experience in advance his eschatological coming: They experience by celebrating it in sacramental form, for in the liturgy, celebrate means make present. [96] As a celebration of the memorial of Christ, the Eucharist thus requires the Christian community as the medium for a primary experience of Christ’s invitation to the Kingdom. It demands them to live the dawning future, that is, God’s reign in the present moment. 

Thirdly, all this is brought about through the creative power of the Holy Spirit, the giver of life. To say that the Eucharist witnesses to the power of Christ at work in history is to say that the Spirit is at work, since the risen and glorified Lord is the Spirit-filled Lord. [97] Here there is a very real sense in which we acknowledge the Christological and Pneumatological aspects of the Eucharist. As in the history of salvation, so in the Eucharistic event, the missions of Christ and the Spirit are complementary; the sending of one person implies the sending of the other. In this way, the purpose of the epiclesis, the invocation of the creativity of the Spirit, is to accomplish the function of Christ’s self-giving in the Eucharist. In the Eucharist, the gifts of bread and wine are to be sanctified and transformed into their ultimate reality: “We ask you to make them holy that they may become the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.” [98] The Spirit is also invoked so that the Eucharistic communion in the body of Christ takes its effects in the believers: “Grant that we who are nourished by his body and blood may be filled with his Holy Spirit, and become one body, one spirit in Christ.” [99] In this regard, as John H. McKenna describes:

This is the goal of the Eucharist. And it is precisely this interiorization and divinisation that is the task of the Holy Spirit in the Eucharist. He is there not simply to “Spiritize” the bread and wine by making the glorified body and blood of Christ present in them. Even more, He is there to “Spiritize” those who partake of the bread and wine by making the glorified Lord present in them. [100]

Such is the goal of the Eucharist as an event of communion. The purpose of the Eucharist is both the divinisation of the Christian community, the communion of the believers with the triune God, and the communion with one another. As consecrated and transformed by the activity of the Spirit into the Body of Christ, the Christian community bears witness to the glory of God and is renewed in its authentically Trinitarian life. [101] Through the self-giving love of Christ and in the creativity of the Spirit, the Father is made known to the community of believers and they are divinised, as they are drawn into this Trinitarian event of salvation. [102] The Eucharist thus emerges as the manifestation of the mystery of communion of the triune God. [103] In other words, it is centered on the glory of the triune God that is revealed above all in the death and resurrection of Christ and that contains the promise of new life for the whole creation. Thus, as the life-giving milieu of the Trinity, the Eucharist can only proclaim the hope of glory.

6. Conclusion

We have explored the eschatological nature of the Eucharist and its implications for Christian liturgy, spirituality and ethical practice, with the aim of constructing a systematic synthesis of Eucharistic eschatology.  It thus appears that, as the memorial of Christ’s Passover, and as the “breaking of bread” (Acts 2: 42,46) in the early Christian community, the Eucharist is celebrated in the context of the Risen Lord’s presence in the midst of his disciples (Lk 24:28‑35,36‑43; Jn 21:9‑13). To share in the Eucharist at all is an anticipation of the coming of Christ in glory and the heavenly banquet.

For Christians, it is a distinctive sign of their faith that sees the interconnection between the Kingdom and the resurrection. Ultimately, as a participation in the risen life, together with the transformation of the material elements of bread and wine into the Body of Christ, the Eucharist speaks of the dreams and hopes released by Christ for the future destiny of humanity and the whole of creation. Since the Eucharist permits and indeed obliges the Christian community to live the present “between time” in eschatological hope, a new sense of being in the world and of being in communion is proposed that changes the horizon of hope. To eat and drink at the Eucharistic table is to be united with Christ and to be nourished by the self-giving and transforming love of the triune God. The Eucharistic celebration is thus the privileged meeting-place of the Trinitarian God and the Christian community in the present moment as an event of salvation history. This event is as yet an object of hope, and the working out of salvation in this present time is but a beginning or a sign and anticipation of what is to come. As the body of Christ, the Christian community offers “the fruits of the earth, the work of human hands,” pulling together words, signs and ritual actions to radiate what is most true, good and beautiful of God’s holiness and love. Every prayer, every act of sharing, eating and drinking together in the Eucharist is eschatological, pointing towards its completion in the fullness of time.

As the source and goal of the whole Christian life, the Eucharist relates the whole universe to Christ, who is the “first-born” of all creation and its final homecoming. [104] It connects the Christians with one another, and draws them into the eschatological communion of the community with God who gives eternal life to them in Christ and the Spirit. A new vision of creation emerges. In gathering at the Eucharistic table, Christians become part of creation caught up in a universe of Trinitarian love and life:

Father, you are holy indeed, and all creation rightly gives you praise. All life, all holiness comes from you through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, by the working of the Holy Spirit, so that from east to west a perfect offering may be made to the glory of your name. [105]

The prayer of the Christian community thus affirms that God is working out our eternal salvation, even now, through the Eucharist. It is by communion in the body and blood of the Risen Christ that the believers come to share in the hope of his resurrection and in the gift of eternal life, for it is this eschatological hope that most significantly transforms human life and gives meaning to our journey through history.

As the body of Christ, the Christian community is revealed as an eschatological people, for it is essentially a Eucharistic community – one which celebrates Christ’s Paschal Mystery by eating and drinking the bread and wine become real food and drink of the Kingdom, thereby living in the hope of Christ’s promises. Since the Eucharist is God’s eschatological gift, its giving opens the gateway of hope and enables Christians to envision a new world, as expressed in the Second Eucharistic Prayer of Reconciliation: “In that new world where the fullness of your peace will be revealed, gather people of every race, language, and way of life to share in the one eternal banquet.” [106] The coming together of the believing community in proclamation, prayer, symbol, and covenant commitment thus occurs within the communion of the love of the God, who has established the Christian community in the Kingdom of the beloved Son (Col 1:12-13).

Here is the sure foundation for Christian hope, the eschatological embodiment of Christ’s gift of self in our midst for the life of the world. Communion in God’s unfailing love celebrated in the Eucharist is the foretaste and promise of our ultimate communion with God. Our trials and sufferings are taken up into the mystery we celebrate and all that is true, good, and beautiful which we have created will be our definitive participation in it. Filled with hope in Christ’s resurrection, the Christian community journeys on towards that new world where “God will be all in all” (1 Cor 15:28). In this sense, the Eucharist is the celebration of the future, providing the foundation for Christian hope-filled activity and a liberating vision that has transformative possibilities for the life of human society.  As such, Christian hope encompasses history and the cosmic process; it is absolutely a divine gift, yet liberates humanity for partnership with God. The Eucharist summons Christians to work for the future glory in the present with joyful anticipation, confident that in Christ humanity and the whole of creation are given a foretaste of the life to come.

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[1] Eugene LaVerdiere, Dining in the Kingdom of God (Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications, 1994) , 24.

[2] In terms of Eucharistic hope, this conviction leads Paul to spell out the eschatological significance of being Christian, as a repeated refrain throughout his corpus of writings: “Christ is the fullness of time” (Gal 4:4; Eph 1:10), so that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has passed away and the new has come” (2 Cor 5:17). Since the New Testament unfolds the meaning of baptism as a dying and rising with Christ, the descent into the water signifies the Christian’s identification with Christ’s passion and death, and the ascent from the water signifies a participation in the new life based on the power of Christ’s resurrection (Rom 6: 3-5), a new birth, and a renewal through the Spirit (Eph 5:14). As such, the Christian community is now living in “the end of ages” (1 Cor 10:11), or in “the later times” (1 Tim 4:1), and is called “to put away” the old person in order to “put on the new person” in the ecclesial body of Christ (Eph 4:22; Col 3:9). The glorified and risen Christ is, above all, “the first-born among many (Rom 8:29; Col 1:18), “the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor 15:20). When Christ appears, Christians will appear with him in glory (Col 3:3-4).

[3] See Enrico Mazza, The Origins of the Eucharistic Prayer, trans. Ronald E. Lane (Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1995). Mazza notes: “All this material originates in Exodus 12, which typologically is applied to the death of Christ. This is the fundamental fact, and a genuine Christian theology is able to express in specific literary forms…a reinterpretation of the Old Testament Passover.”104.

[4] See Paul McPartlan, Sacrament of Salvation: An Introduction to Eucharistic Ecclesiology (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1995) , 4-5. For a fine treatment of the eschatological character of worship in relation to the essential act of gathering for the Eucharistic assembly on Sunday, see Don E. Saliers, Worship as Theology: Foretaste of Glory Divine (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994). “The eschatological significance of Sunday is well known in the early Church’s practice and teaching. First, Sunday emerged from the witness of the women who found the empty tomb…The connection between gathering to worship on Sunday and the gathering to greet the risen Lord is at the very beginning of Christian liturgy. Second, Sunday was known as the ‘eighth day’, a day both in time of the week, but already participating in the future age to come…A third point is closely related. Sunday, if conceived as the resurrection day, is readily associated in the mind of the early traditions with the final advent, the parousia itself.” 52-53. 

[5] Daniel J. Sheerin, The Eucharist (Wilmington, Delaware: Michael Glazier, 1986) , 352. See also Eugene LaVerdiere, The Eucharist in the New Testament and the Early Church (Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1996) , 131.

[6] See Sheerin, The Eucharist, 353-354; LaVerdiere, The Eucharist in the New Testament and the Early Church, 142.

[7] Kelly, The Bread of God: Nurturing a Eucharistic Imagination, 83.

[8] Lane, “Eschatology,” The New Dictionary of Theology, 329.

[9] See Joseph Neuner and Jacques Dupuis, ed., The Christian Faith in the Doctrinal Documents of the Catholic Church (New York: Alba House, 1998) , 578. Another evidence of the Eucharist as the sacramental anticipation of the eschaton can be found in the hymn attributed to St. Thomas Aquinas, “O Sacrum convivium in quo Christus sumitur: Recolitur memoria passionis eius. Mens impletur gratia, et futurae gloriae nobis pignus datur.” This quotation is taken from Michael Purcell, "This Is My Body Which Is Given "for You" ... Ethically Speaking," The Presence of Transcendence: Thinking 'Sacrament' in a Postmodern Age, ed. Lieven Boeve and John C. Ries (Leuven - Paris - Sterling, VA: Peeters, 2001) , 141.

[10] Cited in Lane, Keeping Hope Alive: Stirrings in Christian Theology, 207-208.

[11] Lane, “Eschatology,” The New Dictionary of Theology, 329.

[12] Vatican II Council, Lumen Gentium, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, par. 11, in Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents, ed. by Austin Flannery, (New York: Costello Publishing; Dublin: Dominican Publications, 1998), 362.

[13] See Vatican II Council, Eucharisticum Mysterium, Instruction on the worship of the Eucharistic worship, par. 3, in Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents, ed. by Austin Flannery, (New York: Costello Publishing; Dublin: Dominican Publications, 1998), 102.

[14] Lumen Gentium, 48

[15] See Vatican II Council, Sacrosanctum Concilium, The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, par. 47, in Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents, ed. by Austin Flannery, (New York: Costello Publishing; Dublin: Dominican Publications, 1998), 16.

Par 47

[16] See Vatican II Council, Gaudium et Spes, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, par. 1, in Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents, ed. by Austin Flannery, (New York: Costello Publishing; Dublin: Dominican Publications, 1998), 903.

[17] Gaudium et Spes, 38.

[18] See Victor Codina, "Sacraments," Mysterium Liberationis, ed. Ignacio Ellacuria and Jon Sobrino (New York: Orbis Books, 1993) , 672. 

[19] Eucharistic Prayers III

[20] Eucharistic Prayers IV

[21] Gaudium et Spes, 39. All of these various aspects of the eschatological hope are captured by the Church in what is essentially an effective meaning of the Eucharist: “When we have spread on earth the fruits of our nature and our enterprise – human dignity, brotherly communion, and freedom – according to the command of the Lord and in his Spirit, we will find them once again, cleansed this time from the stain of sin, illuminated and transfigured, when Christ presents to his Father an eternal and universal Kingdom.” 938.

[22] See Catechism of the Catholic Church, art. 1402, 1405 (Homebush, N.S.W.: St Pauls, 1995), 354

[23] Gaudium et Spes, 45. The Eucharistic transformation involves the whole cosmos and the universe itself, all the values of human creations and the different ways God’s Spirit has been at work throughout history. All human beings and the world are destined to find fulfilment in Christ: “The Word of God, through whom all things were made, was made flesh, so that as a perfect man he could save all men and sum up all things in himself. The Lord is the goal of human history, the focal point of the desires of history and civilization, the center of [humankind], the joy of all hearts, and the fulfilment of all aspirations. It is he whom the Father raised from the dead, exalted and placed at his right hand, constituting him judge of the living and the dead. Animated and drawn together in his Spirit we press onwards on our journey towards the consummation of history, which fully corresponds, to the plan of his love: ‘to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth’ (Ephesians 1:10).” 947.  

[24] Encyclical Letter of John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia: On the Eucharist in its relationship to the Church, par. 18  (Strathfield, N.S.W.: St Pauls Publications, 2003), 19-20.