An “appointment in Paradise”

Over the centuries, the understanding of the Eucharist has remained the same – because it is Jesus’ Body and Blood – and at the same time, its power has become even more compelling as saints and theologians discover ever more of this sacrament’s effects and consequences of this sacrament. From the beginning, it was clear that this practice – breaking the bread and sharing the chalice – was a distinct part of the reunions of the first Christians. 

The Biblical Roots
All four Gospels mention the Last Supper. While the Synoptic Gospels emphasize bread and wine, John places the discourse on Jesus as the Bread of Life earlier, after the multiplication of the loaves and fishes (chapter 6). 

The words used in the Consecration during Mass trace back to Luke: “When the hour came, he took his place at the table with the apostles. He said to them, ‘I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer for, I tell you, I shall not eat it [again] until there is fulfillment in the kingdom of God.’ … Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me.’ And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you.’” (Luke 22:14-20)

Mark and Matthew record the promise Jesus made to his apostles: “I tell you, from now on I shall not drink this fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it with you new in the kingdom of my Father” (Mt 26:29), thereby affirming the premise of resurrection and eternal life.
The Evangelist John describes the Eucharist’s function as a path to Heaven: “This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (John 6:50-51). He continues, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day” (John 6:54). 
St. Paul shows his strong faith in the body and blood of Christ in his writings: “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Cor 10:16) He then describes the marvelous effect of this partaking: “Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.” (1 Cor 10:17)
 
For the Life of the World
The Eucharist gives us divine life already in this world. Jesus himself said, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). This divine bread nourishes us so that we may be with Him, still here on earth. Several saints and founders of religious congregations dedicated their lives to understanding and venerating the Eucharist.
St. John CrysostomIn the early times, the Church Father St. Athanasius (328 –373) wrote in his fourth letter, “Now, however, that the devil, that tyrant against the whole world, is slain, we do not approach a temporal feast, my beloved, but an eternal and heavenly.” For him, eating the bread and drinking the wine, which became the Body and Blood of Christ, is celebrating Easter, re-living it: the Eucharist is the Sacrament of Communion with the Risen Lord, “participating already here on Earth in His glorious life and in His communion with the Father.” 

St. John Chrysostom (c. 349–407) developed the concept of the Church as the Body of Christ, drawing on St. Paul’s writings. In a homily on Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he said, “For we, who are many, are one bread, one body. … For what is the bread? The Body of Christ. And what do they become who partake of it? The Body of Christ: not many bodies, but one body. For as the bread consisting of many grains is made one, so that the grains nowhere appear; … so are we conjoined both with each other and with Christ.”
 
Being changed into ChristSt. Thomas Aquinas
During the second millennium, the concept of Eucharistic Adoration and perpetual Adoration developed and became widespread in the 13th century. For St. Thomas Aquinas (1225 –1274), the Eucharist was “Jesus Christ’s greatest miracle.” He is the author of two Eucharistic hymns still used today – the Tantum Ergo Sacramentum (“Therefore, so great a sacrament”), which is part of nearly every Benediction, and Pange lingua (“Sing, my tongue”), especially on Holy Thursday and the Feast of Corpus Christi. 

St. Thomas Aquinas explained what happens when we consume the Eucharist: “Material food first changes into the one who eats it, and then, as a consequence, restores to him lost strength and increases his vitality. Spiritual food, on the other hand, changes the person who eats it into itself. Thus, the effect proper to this Sacrament is the conversion of a man into Christ, so that he may no longer live, but Christ lives in him; consequently, it has the double effect of restoring the spiritual strength he had lost by his sins and defects, and of increasing the strength of his virtues.” (St. Thomas, Commentary on Book IV of the Sentences)

His mentor, Albert the Great (1200-1280), wrote: Christ “has embraced us with such abundant love that He has given Himself to us as food, so that by this, the most intimate and natural means, we might be united to Him” (De Corpore Domini). “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me” (John 6:56-57). God remains in me – He goes beyond Himself, and I remain in Him, which means I am going beyond myself. Albert wrote, “It is by the path of love, which is charity, that God draws near to man and man to God, and even penetrates in us to the marrow.”
 St. Philip NeriThe same Jesus as in Judea
St. Philip Neri (1515–1595) had an intense, joyful devotion to the Eucharist, reminding the faithful to approach the altar with a profound desire for Christ. When a man left Mass immediately after Communion, St. Philip sent altar servers with candles and bells to accompany him, emphasizing that the Lord remains present in the communicant.

St. Peter Julian Eymard (1811-1868), a French priest and founder of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, was known as the “Apostle of the Eucharist.” He wrote: “Jesus Christ, too, desires to have His memorial—His legacy, His masterpiece—which renders Him immortal in the hearts of His own and which ceaselessly calls to mind His love for humanity. ... It is the Divine Eucharist.”
St. Peter Julian Eymard
He explained that Jesus does not merely remain among us in a spiritual way but is present in His full being: “Our Lord did not want to remain on earth only through His grace, His truth or His words; He remains in person. We possess the same Lord Jesus Christ who lived in Judea, although under a different form of life. He has put on a sacramental garment, but He does not cease being Jesus, the Son of God and the Son of Mary.” He concluded, “The Eucharist is the supreme proof of the love of Jesus. After this, there is nothing more but Heaven itself.” 

And the Second Vatican Council affirms: “The Most Blessed Eucharist contains the entire spiritual wealth of the Church, that is, Christ himself, our Pasch and Living Bread, by the action of the Holy Spirit through his very flesh vital and vitalizing, giving life to men who are thus invited and encouraged to offer themselves, their labors and all created things, together with him” (Presbyterorum Ordinis, 5). 
St. Carlo Acutis
St. Carlo Acutis (1991-2006), the first millennial saint, expressed his devotion in simple yet powerful words:“When we face the sun we get a tan… but when we stand before Jesus in the Eucharist, we become saints.”