Cardinal Tobin: Eucharist—Living Christ’s Gift of Self as if We Deserved It
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Vol. 6. No. 23
My dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
On Sunday, June 22, 2025, our Holy Father Pope Leo XIV celebrated the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) in the Square of Saint John Lateran, the Cathedral Basilica of Rome. After Mass, there was the traditional Eucharistic procession and blessing.
In his homily (see selection below), Pope Leo quoted the patron of his Religious Order, Saint Augustine of Hippo, as follows:
Christ is truly “panis qui reficit, et non deficit; panis qui sumi potest, consumi non potest” (Serm. 130, 2): He is bread that restores and does not run short; bread that can be eaten but not exhausted. The Eucharist, in fact, is the true, real, and substantial presence of the Savior (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1413), who transforms bread into Himself in order to transform us into Himself.
Saint Augustine also counsels us to live as though we deserved to receive this “daily bread from heaven,” the sacred Body and Blood of our Redeemer. Of course, Augustine knew that none of us deserves to receive Christ in the Eucharist. Holy Communion is always a completely unmerited gift that we receive as a result of God’s grace.
Nothing we can do by our own initiative makes us worthy that the Lord should enter our hearts. All we can do is try to be ready, try to “stay awake” and be attentive, and try to be truly grateful when our Lord gives himself to us in this great mystery of our faith.
Saint Augustine admonishes us to change our lives, as he did, and to see our lives as a progressive journey of hope in which we seek the face of the Lord continually. He knew from personal experience that conversion is a lifelong process. We struggle mightily to be worthy of the love of Christ and the great gifts that we receive from Him every day. And so, we should “act as if” we deserved Christ’s sacrificial gift to us.
All Christ’s gifts—life and love, freedom and happiness, truth and hope—come to us freely from the abundant generosity of our God. We do nothing to earn God’s grace. We receive it freely because God’s very nature is to give generously, demanding nothing in return, simply because he loves us.
Of all Christ’s gifts, nothing can compare to the Holy Eucharist. Why? Because it is a gift-of-self, an intimate communion between the Son of God and us, his sisters and brothers. Through our baptisms, we have become members of His Body, the Church.
Through our reception of Holy Communion, we are joined to Christ in the most perfect way imaginable—becoming one with Him, body and blood, soul and divinity. Our imperfections are made perfect by His union with us. Our sinful natures become pure and holy because He enters our hearts and transforms us by His grace.
But this experience of conversion is never “once and for all.” Every day, we are invited and challenged to live as if we deserve to receive the daily bread from heaven that Christ offers us in the Eucharist. Saint Augustine admonishes us, “Before you receive Jesus Christ, you should remove from your heart all worldly attachments which you know to be displeasing to him.”
Augustine knew that we all too readily forget that we have been made perfect in Christ. We easily fall from grace and give in to selfishness and sin. Our imperfections manifest themselves in our words and actions—in what we say or do, and in what we fail to say or do. We are called to repent, to confess our sins, to resolve to sin no more, and to do penance.
This continual striving for perfection is at the heart of the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession). Just as Christ gives himself to us freely in the Eucharistic mystery, so He makes His love and forgiveness available to us just for the asking, with no strings attached.
This is the great sacrament that reconciles God and us—the sinful men and women who do not deserve His mercy, but who receive it abundantly nonetheless! We should thank God daily for His patience with us, and for His readiness to forgive us and help us whenever we fall short of His perfect love.
Pope Benedict XVI once wrote that, “Faith in Christ brought all Augustine’s seeking to fulfillment, but fulfillment in the sense that he always remained on the way.” We are not perfect. We are always on the way to perfection. “Even in eternity,” Saint Augustine says, “our seeking will not be completed; it will be an eternal adventure, the discovery of new greatness, new beauty and an even richer understanding of truth.”
The famous quote from Saint Augustine’s widely read Confessions sums it up: “Our hearts are restless till they rest in you, O God.” The eternal rest that we will know in heaven is not the experience of dullness, boredom, or stagnation. It will be an adventure that propels us deeper and more fully into the discovery of God’s boundless love and mercy.
We can begin now by partaking of the bread from heaven that sustains us in our Pilgrimage of Hope. Each time we prepare to receive this Living Bread, the sign of Christ’s Love for us, let’s live as if we were worthy of this great gift of communion with God and, so, grow in holiness and charity in union with our Redeemer.
Sincerely yours in Christ the Redeemer,
Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R.
Archbishop of Newark
Saint Augustine on the nature of the Sacrament of the Eucharist (Sermon 272)
What you see on God’s altar, you’ve already observed during the night that has now ended. But you’ve heard nothing about just what it might be, or what it might mean, or what great thing it might be said to symbolize. For what you see is simply bread and a cup – this is the information your eyes report. But your faith demands far subtler insight: the bread is Christ’s body, the cup is Christ’s blood. Faith can grasp the fundamentals quickly, succinctly, yet it hungers for a fuller account of the matter. As the prophet says, “Unless you believe, you will not understand.” [Is. 7.9; Septuagint] So you can say to me, “You urged us to believe; now explain, so we can understand.”
Inside each of you, thoughts like these are rising: “Our Lord Jesus Christ, we know the source of his flesh; he took it from the virgin Mary. Like any infant, he was nursed and nourished; he grew; became a youngster; suffered persecution from his own people. To the wood he was nailed; on the wood he died; from the wood, his body was taken down and buried. On the third day (as he willed) he rose; he ascended bodily into heaven whence he will come to judge the living and the dead. There he dwells even now, seated at God’s right. So how can bread be his body? And what about the cup? How can it (or what it contains) be his blood?”
My friends, these realities are called sacraments because in them one thing is seen, while another is grasped. What is seen is a mere physical likeness; what is grasped bears spiritual fruit. So now, if you want to understand the body of Christ, listen to the Apostle Paul speaking to the faithful: “You are the body of Christ, member for member.” [1 Cor. 12.27] If you, therefore, are Christ’s body and members, it is your own mystery that is placed on the Lord’s table! It is your own mystery that you are receiving! You are saying “Amen” to what you are: your response is a personal signature, affirming your faith. When you hear “The body of Christ”, you reply “Amen.” Be a member of Christ’s body, then, so that your “Amen” may ring true! But what role does the bread play? We have no theory of our own to propose here; listen, instead, to what Paul says about this sacrament: “The bread is one, and we, though many, are one body.” [1 Cor. 10.17]
Understand and rejoice: unity, truth, faithfulness, love. “One bread,” he says. What is this one bread? Is it not the “one body,” formed from many? Remember: bread doesn’t come from a single grain, but from many. When you received exorcism, you were “ground.” When you were baptized, you were “leavened.” When you received the fire of the Holy Spirit, you were “baked.” Be what you see; receive what you are. This is what Paul is saying about the bread. So too, what we are to understand about the cup is similar and requires little explanation. In the visible object of bread, many grains are gathered into one just as the faithful (so Scripture says) form “a single heart and mind in God” [Acts 4.32].
And thus, it is with the wine. Remember, friends, how wine is made. Individual grapes hang together in a bunch, but the juice from them all is mingled to become a single brew. This is the image chosen by Christ our Lord to show how, at his own table, the mystery of our unity and peace is solemnly consecrated. All who fail to keep the bond of peace after entering this mystery receive not a sacrament that benefits them, but an indictment that condemns them. So let us give God our sincere and deepest gratitude, and, as far as human weakness will permit, let us turn to the Lord with pure hearts.
With all our strength, let us seek God’s singular mercy, for then the Divine Goodness will surely hear our prayers. God’s power will drive the Evil One from our acts and thoughts; it will deepen our faith, govern our minds, grant us holy thoughts, and lead us, finally, to share the divine happiness through God’s own son Jesus Christ. Amen!
(Original Latin text available at www.earlychurchtexts.com.)
A Message from Pope Leo XIV: In the one Christ, we are one
Dear friends, Christ is God’s answer to our human hunger, because his Body is the bread of eternal life: Take this and eat of it, all of you! Jesus’ invitation reflects our daily experience: in order to remain alive, we need to nourish ourselves with life, drawing it from plants and animals. Yet eating something dead reminds us that we too, no matter how much we eat, will one day die. On the other hand, when we partake of Jesus, the living and true Bread, we live for him. By offering himself completely, the crucified and risen Lord delivers himself into our hands, and we realize that we were made to partake of God. Our hungry nature bears the mark of a need that is satisfied by the grace of the Eucharist.
As Saint Augustine writes, Christ is truly “panis qui reficit, et non deficit; panis qui sumi potest, consumi non potest” (Serm. 130, 2): He is bread that restores and does not run short; bread that can be eaten but not exhausted. The Eucharist, in fact, is the true, real, and substantial presence of the Savior (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1413), who transforms bread into Himself in order to transform us into Himself. Living and life-giving, the Corpus Domini makes us, the Church herself, the Body of the Lord.
For this reason, echoing the Apostle Paul (cf. 1 Cor 10:17), the Second Vatican Council teaches that “in the sacrament of the Eucharistic bread, the unity of believers, who form one body in Christ, is both expressed and achieved. All are called to this union with Christ, who is the light of the world, from whom we come, through whom we live, and towards whom we direct our lives” (Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, 3). The procession that we are about to undertake is a sign of that journey.
Together, as shepherds and flock, we will feed on the Blessed Sacrament, adore him and carry him through the streets. In doing so, we will present him before the eyes, the consciences and the hearts of the people. To the hearts of those who believe, so that they may believe more firmly; to the hearts of those who do not believe, so that they may reflect on the hunger present within them and the bread that alone can satisfy it.
Strengthened by the food that God gives us, let us bring Jesus to the hearts of all, because Jesus involves everyone in his work of salvation by calling each of us to sit at his table. Blessed are those who are called, for they become witnesses of this love!
My Prayer for You
Please join me in prayer in the spirit of Saint Augustine:
Lord, you know I am not worthy that you should enter my roof but only say the word and my soul shall be healed. Help me to act as if I actually deserve the great gift of your Love, which you so generously share with me in the Holy Eucharist. Amen.