Eucharist and Meal: Christian Sacraments as the Fulfillment of Human Experience

Eucharist and Meal: Christian Sacraments as the Fulfillment of Human Experience

Are Christian sacraments merely particular rites of the Church, or do they also have an anthropological basis in human life? Is there a relationship between the most mysterious Catholic sacrament--the Eucharist--and the experience of an everyday meal? Following Joseph Ratzinger’s essay “The Sacramental Foundation of Christian Existence,” this article aims to show the profound relationship between the sacraments and human experience. Human life presents a sacramental structure, an encounter of spirit and matter, expressed with signs, symbols, and rites. In all cultures, the most important or recurring events of human life, such as birth, entry into adult life, having a meal, sexual relations, suffering, and death, are often expressed by specific rites that underline their sacred and mysterious nature. Christian sacraments are the fulfillment of a common anthropological ground, to the extent that through them, according to the Church’s belief, God himself shares in his people’s lives, notably within their most significant moments and situations. Through the partaking of bread and wine, the Eucharist expresses the most intimate form of communion between God and humankind, introduced by the Incarnation and fulfilled in Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection.