Eucharist

The Eucharist is the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Also, in the Catechism of the Catholic Church we read that the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life (no. 1324).

Catholics believe that the Eucharist is the actual body and blood of Christ.  Virtually all of the different 23,000 Protestant denominations believe Christ is only present symbolically in the Eucharist.  In fact all Christians, with a few exceptions, held to the true doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist from the time of Christ until the Protestant Revolution in the sixteenth century.

When did Christ institute the Eucharist?

The setting in which Jesus chose to institute the Eucharist was during the Last Supper.  Jesus could not have chosen another night more packed with meaning and expectation that the Passover. Jesus enters the drama of the Passover, brings the Old Testament hopes to fulfillment, and establishes the foundational event for the New Covenant People of God: the Eucharist as the new Passover.

Most Catholics are quite familiar with Jesus’ words from the Last Supper, which are repeated by the priest at every Mass: