Let me give you a couple hooks.
When we talk about “the Eucharist” we must keep in mind always that we are talking not only about the Blessed Sacrament, but also the celebration of the Blessed Sacrament.
Also, the Church is all about communication. God communicates His life to us through the mediation of the Church. The Church mediates the Gospel to her members (ad intra) and to the world (ad extra). The Incarnation is communication. Christ, the Incarnate Word, is the Perfect Communicator (Communio et Progressio, 11).
That said.
I just read another great offering by Leroy Huizenga on the site of First Things. Be sure to go read the whole thing there.
A key point:
As a new Catholic, I’m beginning to wonder if the way we receive the Eucharist at Mass has served to undercut our particularly Catholic understanding of the Eucharist. Lex orandi lex credendi, after all.
Indeed. The way we worship has a reciprocal relationship with what we believe. Change how we pray and we change what we believe.. and their other way round.
The Church’s most perfect form of communication with her members and the world is her liturgical worship.
The concluding paragraph:
Given what Catholics believe about the Eucharist, reverence matters, for God’s sake and our own. In any event the Catechism makes clear that the liturgy is “the privileged place for catechizing the People of God”. Indeed, Pope Benedict emphasized in Sacramentum Caritatis 64 that “the best catechesis on the Eucharist is the Eucharist itself, celebrated well.” It’s God, after all.
