Reception of the Holy Eucharist is never done for the purpose of strict satisfaction of an obligation imposed. Attendance at Sunday Mass is done for such a reason, in order to obey the divine precept to “keep the Lord’s Day holy.”
Errors with regard to the difference between the celebration of the Liturgy and the sacrament which results from its celebration lead to further errors in the administration of the Eucharist.
The “Communion call” to the sick and homebound is not an arbitrary case of “take-out” Eucharist, with more than one possible instance
arbitrarily during a given week except in cases of the administration of viaticum.
It is, rather, a separation of the sacrament of the Eucharist from the liturgical celebration of the Sunday liturgy out of pastoral consideration for those unable to keep the Lord’s Day holy together with the Church through no fault of their own.
In His act of instituting the divine Liturgy, the Lord commanded, “Do this in memory of me.” The action of the liturgy has the aspect of a memorial but one which makes present the One in whose memory we gather and pray.
“The Eucharist is the memorial of Christ’s Passover, the making present and the sacramental offering of his unique sacrifice, in the liturgy of the Church which is his Body. In all the Eucharistic Prayers we find after the words of institution a prayer called the anamnesis or memorial” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1362).
The fundamental connection between Christ who offers in the liturgical celebration and the Christ offered sacramentally in the Eucharistic Bread flows from His one divine Personhood as God and Man. The faithful maintain a relationship with the Lord which is the purpose of the Eucharist by respecting the inner connection between His liturgical action and His subsiding Presence in the Sacrament of the Altar. The symbolism of the altar itself helps us to realize the inner connection between liturgy and sacrament.
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