The Church and the Eucharist

And so the Good News of Our Lord’s Resurrection spread, with the Church, to every part of the world.  And we ourselves have the proof of it in our midst today.  The Church, to which we belong, is the one which the Apostles gave their lives to found.  We, like them, keep Sunday as a day of worship and rejoicing in honour of Our Lord’s Resurrection on the first day of the week.  And Sunday by Sunday we, like them, take part in the Eucharist in which Jesus is present in his Risen Body in the Blessed Sacrament.

For it is only because God raised Jesus from the dead that we today have the Church, and Sunday, and the Eucharist, and the Blessed Sacrament.  “Peace be with you”, the Apostles heard Jesus say in his well-known voice on the first Easter Day.  And that is echoed still at the Eucharist today – the Risen Lord’s greeting to his own (1):

“The peace of the Lord be always with you”. (2)