“The word ‘Eucharist’ isn’t in the Bible.”  That was the comment of a young man who had left the Catholic Church and was now a member of a Protestant denomination.  No doubt, it was something that he had heard there. 

A couple of weeks ago, I gave an example, using the word “spiritus,” to explain why it’s good to know just a little bit of Latin.

And now this is an example of why it’s good to know a little bit of Greek.

Because, of course, the word Eucharist is in the Bible.  In fact, it is found throughout the New Testament.  The New Testament was originally written in Greek, and the English word “Eucharist” comes from Greek:

“Eukharizesthai,” which means “to give thanks,” or “to offer graciously.”

“Eukharistos,” which means “grateful.”

“Eukahristia,” which means “thanksgiving.”

That’s what “Eucharist” means – thanksgiving or to give thanks.  Everywhere you read those words in the New Testament: “give thanks,” it is a form of the Greek word “Eukharizesthai.” 

We heard it in our second reading today, from St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians (11: 24): “and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.’”

Now, you don’t have to be a Greek scholar or a Bible scholar to figure that out.  All you have to do is look the word up in a good, English dictionary that provides the etymology, where the word comes from. 

Giving thanks to God is a theme that runs throughout the entire Bible, in both the Old and the New Testaments. 

In the first reading today, from Genesis, we hear of the encounter between Abram and the mysterious figure Melchizedek.  In thanksgiving for Abram’s victory over his enemies, the priest-king Melchizedek, who is a sort of “prototype” for Christ, offers God the sacrifice of bread and wine on Abram’s behalf. 

This brings up two very important points:

1)    Thanksgiving to God and sacrifice go hand-in-hand.  It is not really possible to have one without the other.  As it says in Psalm 50, “Pay your sacrifice of thanksgiving to God and render Him your votive offerings,” and later, “a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors me….” 

2)    It is not possible for human beings, on our own, to make that perfect sacrifice of thanksgiving to God.  Someone has to do it for us, as Melchizedek offered the sacrifice on behalf of Abram.  The author of the Letter to the Hebrews writes at length about how Christ offers himself as the perfect sacrifice, the one that fulfills what the bloody animal sacrifices of the Old Covenant could not fulfill – the forgiveness of sin and the reconciliation of God and man. 

That sacrifice of Christ was once and for all, on the Cross.  Through the giving of himself, Jesus drew his human nature, and by extension humanity itself, into the eternal exchange of love, the offering of the Three Persons of the Trinity to one another, that is the inner life of God.

In the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross is NOT repeated.  Rather, the sacrifice of the Cross, which is has become an eternal event because the redemption Christ accomplishes reaches across time and space, is made present to human beings in the here and now.  When we go to Mass, we go to Calvary. 

And here we receive the greatest of gifts: the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ, the perfect sacrifice of thanksgiving, of Eucharist, the sacrifice we cannot make for ourselves.