The Eucharist as center of communion with God and with each other

35. The Eucharist is more than simply the culmination of Christian initiation. While Baptism and Confirmation serve as a beginning and introduction to the life of the Church and cannot be repeated, (¹⁰⁷) the Eucharist is the living and lasting center around which the entire community of the Church gathers. (¹⁰⁸) The various aspects of the Eucharist reveal its inexhaustible wealth: it is at one and the same time a Sacrament of Sacrifice, Communion and Presence. (¹⁰⁹)

The Eucharist is the outstanding moment of encounter with the living Christ. For this reason, by their preaching and catechesis, the Pastors of the People of God in America must strive “to give the Sunday Eucharistic celebration new strength, as the source and summit of the Church's life, the safeguard of communion in the Body of Christ, and an invitation to solidarity, expressing the Lord's command: 'Love one another as I have loved you' (Jn 13:34)”. (¹¹⁰) As the Synod Fathers suggest, an effort of this kind must include a number of fundamental aspects. First of all, there is a need to renew in the faithful the sense that the Eucharist is an immense gift: this will lead them to do all they can to participate actively and worthily, at least on Sundays and Holy Days. At the same time, “efforts by priests to make attendance possible, even for the most distant communities” must be encouraged. (¹¹¹) The faithful need to be reminded that “their full, conscious and active participation, although essentially distinct from the office of the ordained priest, is an exercise of the common priesthood received in Baptism”. (¹¹²)

The need of the faithful to attend the Eucharist and the difficulties that arise from the shortage of priests make clear how urgent it is to promote priestly vocations. (¹¹³) The whole Church in America needs to be reminded also of “the link between the Eucharist and charity”, (¹¹⁴) a link which was expressed in the early Church by the joining of the agape and the Eucharistic Supper. (¹¹⁵) As a result of the grace received in the Sacrament, sharing in the Eucharist must lead to a more fervent exercise of charity.