Luke 22:19 tells us on the night Jesus was betrayed he took bread, broke it, blessed it, gave it and said Do this in remembrance of me.
Jesus could have said write this in remembrance of me or read this in remembrance of me but he said DO THIS IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME!!!
The Eucharist is not symbolic. It is the true presence of Jesus, and that is why we celebrate the Eucharist at Mass EVERY day. It has been celebrated this way from the time Jesus ascended into heaven by his Apostles and ever since down through the ages.
Luke 24:13-35 – The road to Emmaus encounter of two of the disciples meeting the risen Jesus. They did not recognize Him until the breaking of the bread. Here again, after a long walk together of talking and Jesus opening up the scriptures to these two disciples they still did not recognize Him until he sat down with them to eat and again took bread, broke it, blessed it, gave it, suddenly their eyes were opened and they recognized Him. He disappeared and they ran back 7 miles to tell the others.
Why did Jesus vanish? Because once we encounter The Risen Jesus, he no longer needs to appear to us in physical bodily form, that is why he sent The Holy Spirit, which is actually a person, the third person of the Blessed trinity. In addition He left us His Word and His Body! Hence, the Eucharist is the most important thing we celebrate on a daily basis.
In the road to Emmaus story it could have happened they recognized Him when He was speaking the Word or quoting from Scripture how the messiah would suffer, die and rise from the dead, but no the disciples did not recognize Him in all His Words, again, and pay attention to this, “They recognized Him In The Breaking Of the Bread”!!!
That is why the Eucharist is so important and why Jesus instituted Holy Orders of The priesthood on The night he was betrayed, Holy Thursday, He wanted his Apostles and all His Holy Priests down through the ages to be able to consecrate through Transubstantiation the bread and wine into His body and blood as a memorial for all time. That is also why the hands of a priest are so important because only the hands of priest, which have been given power by Jesus Himself in and through The sacrament of Holy Orders of The Priesthood can consecrate the bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus. This is the memorial Jesus set down as the New Covenant at The Last Supper on the night before He was betrayed.
Peace, Love, Truth and Mercy!!!
Charles DeFeo: Catholic Blogger and Useless Servant of Christ 