“A contemplative gaze ‘upon him whom they have pierced’ (Jn 19:37) leads us to reflect on the causal connection between Christ’s sacrifice, the Eucharist and the Church. The Church ‘draws her life from the Eucharist’. Since the Eucharist makes present Christ’s redeeming sacrifice, we must start by acknowledging that ‘there is a causal influence of the Eucharist at the Church’s very origins’. The Eucharist is Christ who gives himself to us and continually builds us up as his body.”
