Most Rev. John Akin Oyejola, Bishop of Oshogbo has called on lay faithful, parishes and Church groups to rediscover the beauty of adoration and set time for personal and communal prayer of silence and of meditation, stressing on the need for personal encounter with Jesus Christ, present in the Eucharist. He said the Eucharist is the Source and Summit of Christian Life, and backed the Church’s stance with five illustrations he termed, ‘Eucharist and Last Supper.’ ‘Eucharist as Real Presence’, ‘Eucharistic as Sacrifice’, ‘Eucharistic Adoration/Benediction’, and the ‘Eucharist as the Centre of Christian Life’. The Bishop of Oshogbo said this while presenting a paper entitled, “The Eucharist as the Source and Summit of Christian Life”, at the 5th Eucharist Congress held recent in Benin City. Bishop Oyejola said, “Pope Benedict XVI in his admonition on the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament instructs that: “The personal relationship which the individual believer establishes with Jesus present in the Eucharist constantly points beyond itself to the whole communion of the Church and nourishes a fuller sense of membership in the Body of Christ.”
“For this reason, besides encouraging individual believers to make time for personal prayer before the Sacrament of the Altar, I feel obliged to urge parishes and the other church groups to set aside times for collective adoration (Sacramentum Caritatis, no 68). This instruction from the Pope emeritus should be one of the important take homes from this Eucharistic Congress.” According to the cleric, Eucharistic adoration is connected with our (Church’s) understanding of what the Eucharist is “the real body and blood of Jesus Christ.” He recalled that right from the second century, Christians usually took the Eucharist – communion to the sick. Hear him, “From the third century we hear of Christians keeping the Blessed Sacrament in their homes to enable them have communion on days when there was no Mass. “There is evidence of the reservation of the sacrament in Churches from the seventh century, but it is only from ninth century that it became a common practice. The introduction of the doctrine of transubstantiation by the Lateran Council of 1215 A.D served as the motivation for the increase in devotion to the Blessed Sacrament outside the Mass. “It is to be noted that, “The principle behind the reservation of the sacrament is the permanence of Christ’s presence in the Eucharistic species until they are consumed. When we embark on adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, we receive grace and gain renewal of spiritual strength. “The devotional prayer of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary devotees reveals this fact concretely.”
Emphasising that the Eucharist is a complete act of worship, at one and the same time a sacrifice and as the centre of Christian life, he affirmed the Second Vatican Council rightly proclaimed that the Eucharistic sacrifice is “the source and summit of the Christian life”. He substantiated his claims with facts from the Second Vatican Council for Christians to ponder over. “For the most Holy Eucharist contains the Church’s entire spiritual wealth: Christ himself, our Passover and living bread. The Eucharist, as Christ’s saving presence in the community of the faithful and its spiritual food, is the most precious possession which the Church can have in her journey through history. The Church has received the Eucharist from Christ her Lord not as one gift among so many others, but as the gift par excellence, for it is the gift of himself, of his person in his sacred humanity, as well as the gift of his saving work. Nor does it remain confined to the past, since all that Christ is all that he did and suffered for all men participates in the divine eternity, and so transcends all times”. “This sacrifice is so decisive for the salvation of the human race that Jesus Christ offered it and returned to the Father only after he had left us a means of sharing in it as if we had been present there. Each member of the faithful can thus take part in it and inexhaustibly gain its fruits.” He quoted Pope John Paul II and related parts of the gospel: “The Church draws her life from the Eucharist. This truth does not simply express a daily experience of faith, but recapitulates the heart of the mystery of the Church. In a variety of ways she joyfully experiences the constant fulfillment of the promise: “I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20), but in the Holy Eucharist, through the changing of bread and wine into the body and blood of the Lord, she rejoices in this presence with unique intensity.
Through the sacred priesthood and exercise of the priestly ministry of Christ, the Church keeps the Eucharistic faith uncorrupted. “Jesus called the twelve apostles out of the numerous people following him. He trained them publicly and privately for a period of three years. He ordained them on Holy Thursday and entrusted to them his body and blood and asked them, “Take and eat, take and drink…do this in remembrance of me.” (cf Lk 22:19). “The Church teaches that priestly ordination is the indispensable condition for the valid celebration of the Eucharist” (Scramentum Caritatis, no 23). Pope St. John Paul II summarizes the reflection of today in these words “The Church draws her life from the Eucharist. This truth does not simply express a daily experience of faith, but recapitulates the heart of the mystery of the Church.” (Ecclesia De Eucharistia, no 1). The Eucharistic sacrifice is “the source and summit of the Christian life. For the Most Holy Eucharist contains the Church’s entire spiritual wealth.” “The following points reveal why the Eucharist is the center of the Christian life. (i) Through our communion in his body and blood, Christ grants us his Sprit. He, who eats it with faith, eats Fire and Spirit… (Ecclesia de Eucharistia no 17). (ii) The Eucharist prepares us for the glory of heaven, it is a fore taste of the joy promised by Christ cf. John 15: 11. (iii) In the Eucharist we also receive a pledge of our bodily resurrection in the future; John 6: 54. (iv) The Eucharist expresses and reinforces our communion with the Church in heaven. (v) The Church’s faith is essentially Eucharistic faith, and it is especially nourished at the table of the Eucharist (Scramentum Caritatis, no 6). (vi). Remedy for sin. In the Roman Missal, a preface states that: “As we eat his body which he gave for us, we grow in strength. As we drink his blood which he poured out for us, we are washed clean.”
