Living a eucharistic life is at the heart of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and at the heart of becoming like Him and sharing in His identity and mission. Henri Nouwen, a famed spiritual master, wrote that the greatest danger of our times is the separation of Jesus from the Church. Sometimes people separate the two because they see scandal in the untidiness of life, the distressing echoes of sin and division—and even in places where unity and communion are proclaimed. They cipher that all remains well when having Jesus apart from His body. However, Jesus without His Church is a head without a body; and we call a head without a body a corpse. This was not God’s plan, and it must not be ours.
God’s plan is to re-establish all creation in His Son, Jesus of Nazareth. (cf. Eph 1:10) Not only does God save us by the sacrifice He offered on Calvary, but His plans for us are even bigger. He who is the eternal Word made flesh, Son of God and Son of Mary, desires to take fallen man and fallen creation to a new and shocking level.
God wants to, as Pope St. John Paul II wrote, re-create the cosmos in a new key. The key is to reveal Jesus—in His incarnate presence—as the pattern for the new creation aborning in Christ. This process begins when the person is “born from above” (cf. Jn 3:3) through baptism. It proceeds through the sacraments, most especially through the Eucharist and the imitation of Christ in the lived virtues.
Both Pope St. John Paul II’s “key” and this pattern are eucharistic. God’s plan is not only to save mankind but also to elevate men, women and all creation, giving us a new capacity to become, by grace, like Jesus. In this way, all creation might be offered to the Father in Christ, and you and I might take the sum and substance of our lives and the created order and, joined to Jesus’ one perfect sacrifice, offer it as His priests to the Father.
To live eucharistically is to understand Real Presence—that is, the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist—and to know that through the Eucharist, through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, His sacrifice is applied to us. Washed in Jesus’ blood and consecrated to Him, we might, through patience and perseverance and by the sacrament of His body, become a Real Presence as well.
The Mass is not a re-enactment of a remote event in Jerusalem; it is a mystical gathering at the foot of the cross, where we enter into, and are caught up in, Jesus’ sacrifice. In this sacrifice, the Father accepts us and our offering because of, and through, the sacrifice of the Son.
To live eucharistically is to allow the Holy Spirit to reveal to us that Jesus—and His mission—is the new pattern for all creation’s transformation. We are invited to share in this mission: to put on Christ and make no provision for the flesh. (cf. Rom 13:14)
The lion’s share of our becoming takes place through the sacraments, most especially at the Mass. It is a sacrificial and sacramental process: like the bread and wine, we are, by the Holy Spirit, transformed into something we were not before. We are fed the sacrificed and resurrected Christ, who has been broken and poured out for us and for our salvation, so that we might become what we receive. In this way, we ourselves might be offered, broken and shared—living what is meant to be a truly eucharistic life.
To live eucharistically is to allow Christ to transform us so fully that we become, united to Him and His mission, His Real Presence in the world—offered, broken and shared for the life of others. May we truly become what we receive, living tabernacles who, in Christ, with Christ and through Christ, draw all creation into the love of the Father.
By The Most Reverend Gerard W. Battersby, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of La Crosse
Published in the Fall 2025 Edition of Catholic Life Magazine