YOUCAT Lesson 247
YOUCAT the catechism
for Catholic youth
247 What is meant by “Viaticum”?
Viaticum means the last Holy Communion that a person
received before dying. [1524-1525]
Rarely is Communion so vitally necessary as in the moment
when a person sets out on the path that completes his earthly life: In the
future he will have only as much life as he has in union with God.
“He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life,
and I will raise him up at the last day.” John
6:54
The word viaticum is a Latin word meaning
"provisions for a journey," from via, or "way." The Eucharist is
seen as the ideal spiritual food to strengthen a dying person for the journey
from this world to life after death.
V. VIATICUM, THE LAST SACRAMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN
…….1524
In
addition to the Anointing of the Sick, the Church offers those who are about to
leave this life the Eucharist as viaticum. Communion in the body and blood of
Christ, received at this moment of "passing over" to the Father, has
a particular significance and importance. It is the seed of eternal life and
the power of resurrection, according to the words of the Lord: "He who
eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at
the last day."(John 6:54.)141 The
sacrament of Christ once dead and now risen, the Eucharist is here the
sacrament of passing over from death to life, from this world to the Father.(Compare John 13:1.)142 –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second
Edition
…….1525 Thus, just as the sacraments of Baptism,
Confirmation, and the Eucharist form a unity called "the sacraments of
Christian initiation," so too it can be said that Penance, the Anointing
of the Sick and the Eucharist as viaticum constitute at the end of Christian
life "the sacraments that prepare for our heavenly homeland" or the
sacraments that complete the earthly pilgrimage. --CCC
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