The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 181: The Sacrament of the Eucharist (2025)

Episode Date: June 30, 2025

The sacrament of the Eucharist has many different names, and "each name evokes certain aspects of it." Fr. Mike explains the meaning behind this sacrament's various titles, including; thanksgiving to God, the Lord's Supper, Breaking of Bread, the Holy Sacrifice, Holy Mass, and others. All the names of this sacrament ultimately remind us that the Eucharist is both a noun and a verb. It is the Son's great sacrifice to the Father and Jesus Christ himself. Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 1328-1332. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi everyone, before we get started, I wanted to let you know about an exciting announcement that could revolutionize the way you listen to the Bible in the air and the Catechism in the air. Ascension has released a new Bible and Catechism app called the Ascension app. No, here's what you get. In this app, you get the entire text of the Great Adventure Bible. This is incredible. You also get the entire text of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, as long with the Catechism

in the Air podcast and the Bible in Your Podcast, and transcripts for each episode. If you're like, I'm tired of listening to that guy, I just wanna read it, there's complete transcripts from each and every episode. One thing that makes this app incredibly unique is that it includes special features that make connections between the Bible and the Catechism

so crystal clear through color-coded references and all these links. The hyperlinks are amazing. I tried it out and I'm like, oh my gosh, it kind of has changed the way I read through the catechism, kind of changed the way I read through the Bible. These features will help you navigate the Bible and catechism even more seamlessly

so you can get more out of your experience. Also, the app provides almost 1,000 answers to Bible questions that people who listen to the Bible in a year, they wrote in with their questions, almost 1 a thousand answers and those answers come in the form of audio clips, video clips, as well as resources excerpted from some of Ascension's published works. If you want to download this app for free, super simple. Just go to the app store and search for Ascension app. I am telling you, if learning about the Bible and the Catechism is important to you, then this app will change your life. Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast,

where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 181, we are reading paragraphs 1328 to 1332.

As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations of Faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own Catechism in a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y. And lastly, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and

daily notifications. Today is day 180 and we are continuing to read about the Eucharist. So yesterday we talked about how just the introduction, right? This whole Eucharist completes Christian initiation. We talked about that it's the source and summit of the Christian life today. We're just talking about what is this sacrament called because the sacrament has a bunch of different names. You call it the mass, call it the Eucharist,

but there's so many things. Every one of the names that we call the Eucharist reveals something distinct about it. It says there, each name evokes certain aspects of what the Eucharist really is and what the Eucharist does. And so when it comes to God names are never merely names. Names always mean something and so that's so important. Your name means something and what we call the Eucharist, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Breaking of the Bread, all these they mean something and they invite

us into a deeper aspect of what it is to participate more and more fully to enter more more deeply into The reality of the Eucharist so in order to prepare our hearts for this our minds Let's open up ourselves to prayer open up ourselves to the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus. We pray father in heaven Thank you father. You have revealed your name to us You've revealed the name of your son, Jesus Christ, our Lord to us. And you've revealed the different ways in which we are called to consider the Eucharist. Lord God, when we begin to think that we know you, it's pretty clear that we only know something of you. Help us to know your heart in the depths.

Help us to know your heart as well as we know anyone's heart. Help us to know you even better than we know anyone. As you continue to reveal yourself to us in your sacraments, in your scripture, here in the Eucharist we ask that you please deepen our love for you. Not just our knowledge. Broaden our love for you. Not just what we know. And help us to allow you and your grace to transform our lives into living reflections of you so that we can be walking tabernacles so that we can be walking witnesses, apostles sent forth because you have made us your children in baptism, you have strengthened us with confirmation and

you feed us and you make us into yourself in this unique and mysterious way in the Holy Eucharist. Oh God, may you be praised and glorified. Hear our prayer now and forever. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It is day 181. We are reading paragraphs 1328 to 1332. What is this sacrament called? The inexhaustible richness of this sacrament is expressed in the different names we give it. Each name evokes certain aspects of it.

It is called Eucharist because it is an action of thanksgiving to God. The Greek words Eucharistain and Eulogain, recall the Jewish blessings that proclaim, especially during a meal, God's works, creation, redemption, and sanctification. The Lord's Supper. Because of its connection with the supper which the Lord took with his disciples on the eve of his passion, and because it anticipates the wedding feast of the Lamb in the heavenly Jerusalem. The Breaking of Bread Because Jesus used this rite, part of a Jewish meal, when as master of the table he blessed and distributed the bread, above all

at the Last Supper, it is by this action that his disciples will recognize him after his resurrection and it is this expression that the first Christians will use to designate their Eucharistic assemblies. By doing so, they signified that all who eat the one broken bread, Christ, enter into communion with Him and form but one body in Him. The Eucharistic Assembly, Synaxis. Because the Eucharist is celebrated amid the assembly of the faithful, the visible expression of the Church.

The Memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection. The Holy Sacrifice, because it makes present the one sacrifice of Christ the Savior and includes the Church's offering. The terms Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Sacrifice of Praise, Spiritual Sacrifice, Pure and Holy Sacrifice are also used, since it completes and surpasses all the sacrifices of the Old Covenant. The Holy and Divine Liturgy. Because the Church's whole liturgy finds its center and most intense expression in

the celebration of this sacrament. In the same sense, we also call its celebration the Sacred Mysteries. We speak of the Most Blessed Sacrament because it is the sacrament of sacraments. The Eucharistic species reserved in the tabernacle are designated by this same name. Holy Communion. Because by this sacrament we unite ourselves to Christ who makes us sharers in His body and blood to form a single body. We also call it the Holy Things, Ta Hagia, Sancta. The first meaning of the phrase Communion of Saints in the Apostles' Creed, the Bread

of Angels, Bread from Heaven, Medicine of Immortality, Viatecum. Holy Mass, Misa. Because the liturgy in which the mystery of salvation is accomplished concludes with the Sending-forth, Missio, of the faithful, so that they may fulfill God's will in their daily lives." Okay, there we are. Paragraphs 1328 to 1332. These incredible names. These names might be all familiar with you. You might think, oh, I know every one of these. I use every one of these names to talk about the Eucharist. The first one is Eucharist. What is Eucharist? Well, it comes from the Greek word Eucharistain, right? So it is Thanksgiving.

Hebrew word, Todah, is Thanksgiving. If you're in Israel and you're speaking Hebrew to somebody, or they're speaking Hebrew to you and you want to say thank you, say Todah. Back in the Old Testament, remember there were many different kinds of sacrifices. There were sacrifices of atonement, sacrifices of petition, sacrifices of Thanksgiving, many different kinds of sacrifices. The rabbis though, the rabbis at one point they had said that in the age of the Messiah all sacrifices will cease except for one. The only sacrifice that would remain in the age of the Messiah according to the rabbis was the Tudda sacrifice, the Eucharistic sacrifice, which I think is remarkable because here are

those rabbis speaking in some is remarkable because here are those rabbis speaking in some prophetic way. Because here you realize all other sacrifices have ended, right? The temple was destroyed in the year 70 AD. And so since then, there has been no temple. Since then, there has been no sacrifice except for the one great sacrifice of the Son to the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit. The sacrifice of the Eucharistist just like the rabbis had taught

The one sacrifice that remains in the age of the Messiah is the Tudda the Eucharistic sacrifice So we call it Eucharist. We also call it the Lord's Supper Which makes sense because here we are Jesus established this at the Lord's Supper the breaking of the bread You know during the Easter season you will hear this a lot Especially because we read a lot from the Acts of the Apostles and And so you have the resurrection appearance of Jesus, this is the end of Luke's Gospel, the resurrection appearance of Jesus on the road to Emmaus to the two disciples, right? Cleopas and I think it's Mrs. Cleopas, but that's up for debate. Anyways, the two people, they're walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Jesus shows up, talks with them, gives them a good Bible study.

And then it says, they recognized him in the breaking of the bread. The church has always interpreted that as Eucharist because even Acts chapter two, verse 24, it says the disciples devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the communal life, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers. And again, going back to this, breaking of bread doesn't just mean

they ate meals together. It's code essentially for the Eucharist. It's code for the mass and so that's gonna be there. The Eucharistic assembly, right? Because we don't just do this on our own. It's called the Eucharistic assembly because we gather together and it's the whole church that offers up the Eucharist. It is the memorial of the Lord's passion and resurrection. Remember we talked about the word animesis, memory, that when we remember what Jesus has done we're not simply recalling

something but we're actually there once again so it's the memorial of the Lord's passion and resurrection. But coming on to the next couple terms, the last one we talked about 1332, Holy Mass or Misa, it comes from the end of the old rite of Mass, well any Latin rite of mass, which is you know essentially go forth, right? So sending forth is missio. So they called it the mass because it was where you would be sent forth and that's so true, right? We get filled with the Holy Spirit, we get filled with Jesus Christ, body, blood, soul, and divinity and then we're sent out into the world to do what? Well to bring that body, blood, soul, and divinity, to bring that Holy Spirit to the world were sent forth by the mass but in 1330 there is a unique

term for the Lord's Supper the unique term for the Eucharist and it is the holy sacrifice or the holy sacrifice of the mass a sacrifice of praise spiritual sacrifice pure and holy sacrifice that was also used. What that is, remember we talked about the Tuddaa sacrifice, right, that's still offered. At the heart of everything, the Eucharist is the sacrifice of the Son to the Father and the Power of the Holy Spirit. We said this yesterday, that out of all sacraments, the Eucharist is unique because it is Jesus. It's not simply an action of Jesus. 100% totally true

At the same time the Eucharist is an action. It is also a verb and it is the holy sacrifice of the mass it's the unbloody sacrifice of Jesus Christ to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit and it is that sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary It is the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. That's what it is and so yes, it's a noun, it's also a verb. And what is the verb? The verb is sacrifice. And that is so important for all of us

because we recognize that here's the love of our God and we also, we get to join in this. I will say this so many times in the next number of days. The heart of religion is not merely the creed. Now we've talked about the creed a lot, right? We had the first pillar. It took a long time to get through it because the creed is very important.

And the heart of religion is not gonna be the moral life, although we're gonna talk about that after this. The heart of religion, all religion, is worship. The heart of religion is what are we giving to God? And the heart of worship is sacrifice. This is so important for us to understand that the heart of religion is worship and the heart of worship is Sacrifice and at the heart of our relationship with God at the heart of our religion at the heart of our worship is

the great sacrifice of the Son of God to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit that we get to participate in in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. So when you and I go to the Mass, we're not just watching this happen. We are participating in the Sacrifice of Praise. We're participating in this pure and holy sacrifice as it goes on to say, the Holy and Divine Liturgy and the sacred mysteries. We get invited into this and that's man. So yes, we receive Holy Communion,

and that's another term. We receive Holy Communion, it's amazing, incredible. We get fed with what they call the bread of angels, right? Bread from heaven. And yet, before that, we get to participate in worship. Before that, we get to participate in the offering of the sacrifice by lifting up with the ministerial priest, right?

You remember, you've been baptized. You're a kingdom priest. You share in a baptismal priesthood, you get to unite your prayers with the prayers of the ministerial priest who's united, right, to the prayers of the one great high priest, Jesus Christ. And so when you and I go to Mass, we are at the holy sacrifice of the Mass, offering up that great and eternal once for all sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross. We participate in it in an unbloody way. And that's so incredible. I just, you guys, you remember when I got kind of excited

a couple of days ago about confirmation, having the five effects of confirmation, all those things. This is gonna be an entire section of just, I am so grateful. I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful to be able to be sharing this with you, walking through this section on the Eucharist and the next other sacraments, of course,

but especially these days, it just highlights what an incredible gift it is for all of us to be able to be united like this, to be able to just press play and hear what God has in store for all of us. Oh man, I thank you so much for being a part of this journey because it is remarkable to be able to hear how much God loves you.

This is so much of it, right? We have all these names for the Eucharist. At the center of all of it though is the Eucharist is the love of the Father for you. The Eucharist is the love of the Father for you. The Eucharist is the love of God for you. So I hope that we just received that love today. I am praying for that for you.

Please pray for that for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.