In the Breaking of the Bread

Every Eucharist is introduced with the reminder that the sacrament of Jesus' self-gift originates "in the same night he was betrayed." Those who eat at Jesus' table are his betrayers, then as now, yet from the death and hell to which our betrayal condemns him, he returns to break bread with us as before. It is no simple fellowship meal.

All meals with Jesus after Calvary speak of the restoration of a fellowship broken by human infidelity: the wounded body and shed blood are inescapably present. We do not eucharistically remember a distant meal in Jerusalem, nor even a distant death, we are made 'present to ourselves' as people complicit in the betrayal and death of Jesus and yet still called and accepted, still companions of Christ - those who break bread with him. When the Church performs the eucharistic action it is what it is called to be: The Easter Community, guilty and restored, the gathering of those whose identity is defined by their new relation to Jesus crucified and risen, who identify themselves as forgiven. What happens in the eucharist is that the Church assembles simply to make this identification in praise and gratitude, and to show in concrete form its dependence on Christ. It is an action which announces what the community's life means, where the activity radically opens to the creative activity of God in Jesus. Every sacrament is a sharing in Easter, in the paschal mystery. All their betrayals are to be understood as betrayals of him, and through that understanding comes forgiveness and hope.

Philippe Rouillard, From Human Meal to Christian Eucharist