Pope John Paul II: Encyclical Letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia, Part 18

In 2003, on Holy Thursday, 2003. Pope John Paul II issued what would be his final encyclical: Ecclesia de Eucharistia, "On the Eucharist and Its Relationship to the Church." This encyclical contains much to prayerfully ponder/meditate on. The encyclical's Chapter One, The Mystery of Faith, continues as follows: 

"18. The acclamation of the assembly following the consecration appropriately ends by expressing the eschatological thrust which marks the celebration of the Eucharist (cf. 1 Cor 11:26): 'until you come in glory'. 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'.³⁰ In the Eucharist, everything speaks of confident waiting 'in joyful hope for the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ'.³¹ 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. For this reason Saint Ignatius of Antioch rightly defined the Eucharistic Bread as 'a medicine of immortality, an antidote to death'.³²

Notes

 

³⁰Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, Second Vespers, Antiphon to the Magnificat.

³¹Missale Romanum, Embolism following the Lord's Prayer.

³²Ad Ephesios, 20: PG 5, 661