277. How the Eucharist helps your friends
277. HOW THE EUCHARIST HELPS YOUR FRIENDS
Does my reception of the Eucharist, like intercessory prayer, help those I love as well as myself?
Whether this sacrament benefits others besides the recipients?
Prayer is made for many others during the celebration of this sacrament, which would serve no purpose were the sacrament not beneficial to others. Therefore this sacrament is beneficial not merely to them who receive it.
As stated above, this sacrament is not only a sacrament but also a sacrifice . . . to others who do not receive it (as a sacrament), it is beneficial by way of sacrifice, inasmuch as it is offered for their salvation. Hence it is said in the Canon of the Mass: Be mindful, O Lord, of Thy servants, men and women . . . for whom we offer, or who (themselves) offer up to Thee, this sacrifice of praise for themselves and for all their own, for the redemption of their souls, for the hope of their safety and salvation. And our Lord expressed both ways, saying (Mt 26:28, with Lk 22:20): Which for you, i.e., who receive it, and for many, i.e., others, shall be shed unto remission of sins (III,79,7).
There are numerous prayers for others in the liturgy of the Eucharist: both the dead and the living, both those outside the Church and all ranks in the Church. These are not extra additions, like icing on a cake or costumes on a body. They are part of the Eucharist and its power.
We tend to think that on the one hand there is the Real Presence of Christ given to us as we receive the sacrament, and on the other hand we offer prayers for others as we would do in other religious ceremonies. But there is no such “on the one hand” and “on the other hand.” These prayers are not added to the Eucharist; they are parts of it. Therefore the prayers we offer in the Mass for the world are far more powerful than the prayers we offer outside the Mass, even if the prayers we offer outside the Mass are the same prayers, and even if there are more of them, and even if they are offered for the same people, or for more people, and even if they are offered with the same faith and devotion on our part, or even with a little more faith and devotion on our part.
How big a difference does the Mass make to intercessory prayer for our loved ones? The difference between the intercessory prayers for those we love prayed outside the Mass and the same prayers prayed in the Mass is the difference between prayers prayed by you and prayers prayed by Christ. It’s the difference between you and Christ. How big a difference is that?
Here is why, here is the explanation of how that works: Even though those we pray for in the Eucharist do not receive the Eucharist as a sacrament, they can receive great benefits from it because the Eucharist is not only a sacrament that is subjectively received but also a sacrifice that is objectively made. Christ Himself prays for them in this sacrifice, for their salvation and sanctification; for that was the whole purpose of His sacrifice: their salvation and sanctification! Christ’s Passion and death were the most powerful prayer ever offered; and that is what is made really present in the Eucharist, in an unbloody manner. The Eucharist is a time machine. It collapses 2,000 years of time and brings the most important event that ever happened, 2,000 years ago on Calvary, into the present.
At the very heart of the Mass we pray the words of Christ quoted by St. Thomas (in the last paragraph) that unite the “you” and the “many”, those who are physically present receiving the sacrament and those who are absent but prayed for.