GARCIA-LUENSE: Engaging in Christ’s gift-giving

As the last days of November roll by, we are entering into a season known particularly for the giving and receiving of gifts. This gift-giving time stands out as special in both our activities and our imaginations. But gift giving is not limited only to Christmas.  

We give gifts at other times as well: birthdays, weddings, Baptisms, retirements and other moments that mark major life transitions. But in the Church, we speak of gifts far more frequently and regularly. We speak of gifts at every celebration of the Eucharist.  

In the Eucharist, after we have completed the Liturgy of the Word, we have what we call the “Preparation of the Gifts.” We are referring especially to the gifts of bread and wine. We bring forward bread, not many grains of wheat. We bring forward a single container of wine, not a collection of grapes. Many grains of wheat were ground into flour, and from that flour came bread.

So, too, the wine. Many grapes were crushed, and the juice mingled so that we brought forward a single cup of blessing whose contents could no longer be distinguished or separated.

In this, we see the ecclesial character of our actions. We, though many individuals, have come together into a single assembly. What happens in our churches is not the activity of lone and separated individuals but of the one Church of God, made present in our coming together.  

Gift-giving is more about the relationship that exists between those who give and receive than it is about the things exchanged. These are our gifts, which come forth from the midst of the assembled people of God, carried in procession by representatives of this assembly. In this rite, we are all actively engaged in gift-giving.

We bring forward gifts of bread and wine — both of them the product of human action and activity. We receive gifts from God, transform them through human effort and ingenuity into human things, and bring them back again as gifts we are prepared to offer. When we place them on the altar, we do not expect God to consume them.

No, we place them on the altar with the full expectation that God will act to transform them into the very body and blood of Christ — the gift of God’s own self — to be given back to us. Gift-giving is about relationships that constantly grow and deepen through the mutual exchange of gifts.  

In the preparation of the gifts, we see this basic pattern. We take what we have received from God, transform it by our human effort, and offer it back to God in the hopes that God will transform it further and offer it back to us. Should not this pattern be the pattern of our entire Christian lives?  

The exchange of gifts is not primarily about what is offered but about who is offered. These gifts of bread and wine, these human things, stand not just for our efforts, but for ourselves. In a real way, it is not just the work we do that we bring as a gift, but our very being. It is not just bread and wine we placed on the altar during the preparation of the gifts, but our entire selves.  

And it is our sure and certain hope that the transforming power of the gift of God’s grace acts not only on the gifts of bread and wine but on us as well. Not only do they become the body of Christ, but we, the Church, gathered together, become the body of Christ.  

At the preparation of the gifts, we again come to know our unity as a Church. In the dialogue of the gift, acknowledging our dependence on God, we offer our entire selves, confidently expecting that God will transform the gifts and transform us, drawing us into ever deeper relationship.

We leave different from when we came, knowing that in and through the Liturgy, our relationship with God is deepened and renewed, and the dialogue continues. 

Brian Garcia-Luense is an associate director with the Office of Evangelization and Catechesis.