The Table of the Eucharist and Priesthood (Part 1 of 2)

What is the relationship between the Table of the Eucharist and Priesthood?

The points to be presented in this write-up are not exhaustive. The topic is too broad that this needs a thorough research and objective study so that we can be provided with enough and suitable understanding about the relationship between the Table of the Eucharist and Priesthood. The purpose of this write-up is to provide basic understanding and answers to the questions: What is the relationship between the Table of the Eucharist and Priesthood? What is the importance of the Table of the Eucharist at the altar of Churches?

To answer these questions, it is proper to begin our inquiry into how Jesus gives us description of his identity and mission during his public ministry as narrated in the gospels and in other writings of the New Testament. With this, “it invites us to recognize in Jesus the priest par excellence and thus offers us a decisive clue whereby to interpret the data we find in the gospels.” This approach allows us also to go back on how Jesus, the priest, identifies himself through words and deeds during his public ministry. At the same time this inspires us to examine what other New Testament writings say and describe about the priesthood of Christ in relation to the table of the Eucharist.

Eucharist and Priesthood

Pope John Paul II, in his Apostolic Letter, “Dominicae Cenae,” a Holy Thursday Letter to Bishops and Priests of the Church, February 24, 1980 stated, “In reality, the ministerial and hierarchical priesthood, the priesthood of the bishops and the priests, and, at their side, the ministry of deacons – ministries which normally begin with the proclamation of the Gospel – ARE IN THE CLOSEST RELATIONSHIP WITH THE EUCHARIST. The Eucharist is the principal and central d’etre of the sacrament of the priesthood, which effectively came into being at the moment of the institution of the Eucharist, and together with it.” In this way, the ordination to the priesthood, the celebration of which is linked to the Holy Mass from the very first liturgical evidence. Priesthood in its core is, “united in a singular and exceptional way to the Eucharist.”

Therefore, we cannot separate the Table of the Eucharist from priesthood for in a certain way, priesthood derives and exists for it. “The priest fulfills his principal mission and is manifested in all its fullness when he celebrates the Eucharist, and this manifestation is more complete when he himself allows the depth of that mystery to become visible, so that it alone shines forth in people’s hearts and minds, through his ministry.”

These statements would help us make a valid claim on the inseparability of priesthood from the Eucharist, which is always celebrated on the altar of Churches. (to be continued)

(By Fr. Edilberto R. Mahinay, STL)