Eucharist: A Feast for All – The Evolution of Love

Nancy Tondy
Sep 14
3 min read

by Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP

Like the earliest followers of Jesus who gathered around tables in their homes to remember him and live his Way, women priests today are leading a renewal of Eucharistic gatherings that reclaim the heart of Christian faith. Around open tables, where bread and wine are shared in loving communion with all creation, the Eucharist becomes more than ritual—it becomes the cosmic Mass of the universe.

It is a coming together in the midst of life’s chaos, a gathering of people committed to justice, peace, and equality. It is the real Presence of the Universal Christ embodied in all living beings.

It is more than human language can describe. Eucharist is the evolution of love—hands and hearts connecting, caring, and sharing. It is the bread of life blessed and broken, the cup of compassion blessed and poured, filling bodies and souls with vibrant energy for the journey. This Sacred Mystery is always more than we can imagine, and every theology is but a reflection of how God’s people have experienced Divine Love in their time and place.

The medieval doctrine of transubstantiation arose in a context shaped by juridical categories of guilt and sacrificial atonement. While it safeguarded belief in Christ’s presence, it also reinforced a hierarchical model in which priests held exclusive power and the faithful became spectators rather than participants. Too often, Eucharist was reduced to a transaction for sin, rather than an overflowing encounter with God’s love.

By contrast, a contemporary theology of Eucharist reclaims its original meaning as eucharistia—thanksgiving. It is a celebration of blessing, inclusion, and transformation. The Real Presence of Christ is revealed not only in the consecrated bread and wine, but also in the gathered community, the Word proclaimed, the Spirit breathing through creation, and the mission that flows from the table into the streets.

Eucharist is not the possession of the priest but the gift of Christ to the whole community of disciples. This vision affirms baptismal equality, honors diverse gifts, and calls the entire assembly into co-responsibility as the living Body of Christ.

The witness of the earliest Church confirms this horizon. In Acts 2:42–47, believers “broke bread and prayed,” shared possessions, and cared for the poor—a Eucharistic life that extended beyond ritual into justice and solidarity. The Didache, one of the earliest teaching documents, portrays Eucharist as a communal thanksgiving meal uniting the faithful as “one loaf” and “one vine.”

These roots remind us: Eucharist was never intended to be locked in clerical control or reduced to metaphysical puzzles. It was, and is, the heartbeat of a community transformed by love.

Today, women priests at the Table of Christ embody this vision. They proclaim that the Body of Christ is all of us. They lead the People of God from exclusion to embrace, from hierarchy to shared responsibility, from fear to hope.

Around open tables, Eucharist becomes a feast of empowerment where the excluded are welcomed, the broken are healed, the weary are nourished, and all are sent forth as sacraments of justice and compassion.

This Sacred Mystery transcends all words, yet its truth shines clearly: Eucharist is a Feast for All—a cosmic banquet, a table without walls, a sacred evolution of love.