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November 21, 2023By Mary Lim
“The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life. The term ‘Eucharist’ originates from the Greek word ‘eucharistia,’ meaning thanksgiving.” (USCCB)
This week America celebrates Thanksgiving, a yearly tradition. It’s also an opportune time to focus on the definition of the word Eucharist. In the above quote from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, when we replace “the Eucharist” with “Thanksgiving,” we read, “Thanksgiving is the source and summit of the Christian life.”
Did that happen to shake up your perspective on the upcoming all-American holiday and the way that we celebrate it?
The term “thanksgiving,” which refers to the action of giving thanks existed long before the American Thanksgiving holiday was established. In fact, when we delve deeper into the history of thanksgiving as celebration, we find that sharing a meal has been a part of human practice since the Old Testament. Even in these ancient celebrations of thanksgiving, the primary celebration consisted of an offering – a thanks-giving – which was given as a sacrifice to God in recognition of and gratitude for all his works.
We recognize this type of thanksgiving offering in the Old Testament and the New Testament in the celebration of Passover, and in the Gospel when Jesus shares in the Last Supper with his disciples, and then again in his fulfilment of the Old Testament as the ultimate (thanksgiving) sacrifice on Good Friday.
Before he became Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger explained in his book, “Feast of Faith,” that thanksgiving offerings were made often in the Old Testament. The ritual would be practiced when a person was saved from a death, and so the offering was made as a thanks-offering, and as a celebration of a new life.
Ancient Israelites practiced many kinds of offerings for many different occasions, but the most important offering was the thanks-offering.
Let’s refer again to the USCCB stating, “Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life.” This is the most important part of our faith as Catholic Christians who have the Eucharist.
The Eucharist is the greatest mystery of the Church, and not one that I am qualified to explain beyond the above brief history. It is without a doubt the most important part of our faith. We know this intellectually as Catholics, but how do we internalize this knowledge, and really integrate it into our way of living?
It can be difficult to practice true thanksgiving, especially while we are living in these modern times.
As Catholics, we can recognize the true meaning of a celebration of a thanks-offering, we can incorporate sacred moments of thanksgiving into our annual Thanksgiving celebration, and we can strive to live a life of thanksgiving every day. This is our goal: to live a Eucharistic life.
This week the New Outlook invites you to listen to our Thanksgiving themed playlist as you prepare to give thanks for your many blessings and as you celebrate the true meaning of the holiday this Thursday.
“The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life. The term ‘Eucharist’ originates from the Greek word ‘eucharistia,’ meaning thanksgiving.” (USCCB)
It is to this quote from the USCCB website that inquirers are directed when they start their learning journey about the National Eucharistic Revival. This revival kicked off in June of last year, on the feast of Corpus Christi, and is scheduled to last through the year 2025. At this time, we are in the phase of parish revival. The National Eucharistic Revival website has an abundance of resources for individuals, groups, parishes, ministries, and families to access to learn more about how they can be a part of the Revival.
