By Deacon Mike Seibert
Connecting Liturgy and Life
Editor’s note: For 2026, the weekly “Connecting Faith and Life” column has been renamed “Connecting Liturgy and Life.” The column consists of reflections on Part Two of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), which focuses on the Liturgy and the Sacraments.
cf. CCC 1322-1332
The Eucharist is also called “Holy Communion, because by this sacrament we unite ourselves to Christ, who makes us sharers in his Body and Blood to form a single body” (CCC 1331).
Notice the words I underlined. Do those words remind you of anything? Those words have a marital context: pointing to the one flesh union of matrimony. We go to communion; we receive communion; but there’s a deeper meaning many have never considered. The root word “communio” means “union with” or “shared life together.” That doesn’t sound earth-shattering, but I’d like to show you how these two definitions link the Eucharist to the Sacrament of Marriage.
In his “Theology of the Body,” St. Pope John Paul II spoke of marriage as the primordial sacrament. “All the sacraments of the new covenant find in a certain sense their prototype in marriage.” That means marriage is somehow reflected in every other sacrament, and I think it’s most obvious in the Eucharist.
Think about it: When is marriage consummated? When the two become one flesh! That, by definition, is communion — an intimate and complete sharing of life.
Recall a couple of things Jesus said which support this way of thinking. First, he said, “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53). We know as Catholics that this command to “eat the flesh” is fulfilled when we receive the Eucharist: The Body of Christ. This is the one-flesh union of marriage.
Another time, he told us many will come and talk about all the great things they did in life (thinking that that qualifies them for heaven), but Jesus will say, “I never knew you; depart from me” (cf. Matthew 7:21-23). I never knew you: What do you think that means? Of course, God knows you, he knows all of us. Heck, he created us, how can he say he never knew us? It’s in the word know. In Hebrew, it’s yada. Here’s a hint, Genesis 4:1, “Adam knew (yada) Eve his wife; and she conceived.”
Did you catch that? To KNOW someone is to have an intimate relationship —– a ONE FLESH UNION! When does the one-flesh union happen in marriage? When the married couple enters the marriage bed. Their union is ordered towards the two conceiving life. Are you seeing the connection yet? In Communion, we experience the one-flesh union WITH CHRIST! Jesus is the bridegroom, and the Church is his bride. Yeah, that might feel weird to men, but Jesus invites us all to HIS wedding feast in order to marry us. Coming to the altar is like entering the marriage chamber with Christ. The altar is the marriage bed of the Lamb of God. Entering this one flesh union with Jesus is where He knows (yada) us, and we conceive life … ETERNAL life.
Think this is too weird to be true? Ever notice how the altars in the big cathedrals are built with a baldachin? It’s like a marble four-post canopy over the altar. (Google “St. Peter’s Rome baldachin” for an example). What does this four-post canopy look like? A four-poster bed. Again — the altar is the marriage bed of the lamb.
If we don’t open ourselves to this one-flesh union with Christ, we have no life within us … eternal life.
All Christians are invited to know God and be known by him. This goes way beyond knowing things about God. This is intimacy at the level of a spouse. Jesus continually refers to himself as the bridegroom and heaven as the wedding feast of the lamb.
We’re invited to extreme intimacy with God: To receive him in the Eucharist, and to be received by him; to open ourselves to him in prayer; to read his word, his love letter to you, and let the word read you. To sit before the Blessed Sacrament and allow yourself to be seen by the one who already sees everything — every wound, every failure, every hidden corner of your heart — and loves you still. This is what the saints have always understood: The spiritual life is a love story. It’s personal; it’s yada.