Preparation of Gifts
Fr. Roch Kereszty, O. Cist.

The Liturgy of the Eucharist in the strict sense begins when the bread and wine are brought to the altar either by the servers or by what is called an offertory procession. This rite has been simplified by the Post-Vatican liturgical reform. All those prayers were omitted that could mislead us into thinking that at this point we offer the sacrifice of the Church, a sacrifice different from that of Christ. In reality the point of the Eucharist is that the sacrifice of Christ becomes the sacrifice of the Church, but this will happen only when the bread and wine are consecrated into the Body and Blood of Christ.

What, then, is the meaning of preparing bread and wine for the sacrifice? The bread and wine come from the earth and from the fruit of the vine. Thus, they represent the whole material universe. At the same time the bread and wine are “the work of human hands,” symbolizing all our work and all our efforts by which we build up a human civilization. In this enterprise individuals work together, each in his own way, sowing and harvesting, grinding the grain into flour, baking the hosts, packaging and mailing them and finally carrying the ready-made hosts to the altar. In a similar way many people cooperate in planting the vine stock, pressing out the grape juice and preparing the barrels in which the juice will turn into wine ready to be served at the altar. Those who prepare the bread and wine invest part of themselves into their work. We see then this multilayered meaning of the gifts. By placing bread and wine on the altar we mean to return to God his creation, as well as all the good things our human civilization has produced. And ultimately, we symbolize the giving over to God of our very selves, along with the many relationships we have developed.

Yet all this is only preparation, anticipation, but not the perfect sacrifice. The only perfect sacrifice, worthy of God the Father, is the gift of self of his own Son. In many human families, the son knows the goodness of his father much more deeply than anyone else. Regarding God, only the Son knows fully his Father’s goodness and thus only the Son loves, worships and praises God as the Father deserves to be loved, praised and worshiped. Moreover, only the Son can offer an overabundant atonement for our sins. We might sum it up in this way: only God can offer a perfect sacrifice to God. Even if we were sinless, we could not offer such a sacrifice, since we would not have the infinite love that the infinitely good Father deserves. But if this is indeed so, you may ask, then why bother? Why should we try to offer a sacrifice to God if only that of the Son is acceptable to Him?

Because God takes our efforts of offering ourselves to him seriously, and his Son gave over to the Church his own sacrifice so that we may unite ours to his. That God takes our efforts seriously is expressed on the level of sacramental signs in that God does not shove aside the bread and wine we bring, He does not annihilate the symbols of our own gift of self. Rather, He transforms the bread and wine into his Son’s own crucified and risen Body and Blood. He tells us: “Look, I accept your efforts at a sacrifice, and I want to transform your feeble gift of self into the perfect self-gift of my Son.” Here we begin to glimpse the importance of what is traditionally called transubstantiation. Its purpose is our transformation into Christ. After the consecration the bread and wine are no longer ordinary bread and wine; they have become the bread of life and the cup of eternal salvation, that is, Christ’s Body and Blood. We will not cease to remain human beings, but, hopefully, we become more and more conformed to the Son, a more and more perfect gift to the Father through the Son, with the Son and in the Son. “May he make us an everlasting gift to you,” – as we ask of Christ in the Eucharistic prayer.