As you know, today we celebrate/commemorate the Last Supper and Jesus' institution of the Sacrament of the Eucharist. I like to say that the real birth of the Church happened at that table on that Thursday night. (Sometimes you'll hear people say Pentecost is the birth of the Church, but I think it's Holy Thursday, which to me would make Good Friday & Easter the baptism of the Church, and then Pentecost would be the Confirmation of the Church, but that's hardly Church teaching, that's just me talking.)

Anyway, I was thinking about how, when it comes to what most people would agree is Christianity's most important, and defining, doctrine - the doctrine of the Trinity - there was a lot of debate about that in the early Church, and it proved difficult to clarify, ultimately requiring two ecumenical councils in the fourth century. But when it comes to the Church's theology of the Eucharist - that the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, who is really and truly present under the veil of the elements - there was NO debate about this in the early Church - NO controversy, and the only dissenters were the heretics, whom I suppose we need to thank for that since the mainstream bishops would never have felt the need to write down their clarifications of the doctrine, if not for the few heretics who rejected it.

So as we go into Triduum, I think it's important to keep in mind the intimate connection between Jesus' sacrifice, and his sacrament - a connection which continues on every time we receive him in the Eucharist.