Last week and once again this week, the Church calls us to reflect upon an adult “mystery” of the Catholic faith, meaning “truths that escape the full comprehension of the human mind that must be believed if they are to be understood...albeit never completely.”
Don’t let the word “mystery” mystify: It’s similar to the mystery of deciding to get married: A bride or groom must believe in the existence of a “happily ever after” if one is to experience it. Why? The facts indicate almost infallibly that getting married and living happily ever after is nothing but a fantasy.
Think about it: Nothing guarantees perpetual happiness in this life!
Last week we recalled the “mystery” of the Most Holy Trinity—the truth of “One God in Three Divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” namely, the “Creator,” “Redeemer,” and “Sustainer” whose bond of perfect Love makes it possible for each person to act in perfect unity. It’s an apt image of what constitutes a perfect marriage wherein spouses will live happily ever after “until death do we part” which, of course, is an impossibility simply because spouses are human.
Today, we recall the “mystery” of “Corpus Christi”—the “Real Presence of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist,” a central tenet of the Catholic faith. What the Real Presence means for Catholics is that the bread and wine aren’t “symbols” of Jesus’ reminding us of something that occurred in the bygone past. No, for Catholics, it’s the “real deal” today, just as it was on Holy Thursday. “This is my body; this is my blood,” we heard Jesus stated definitively in today’s gospel. Once again, this is an apt the image of kind of self-giving that’s required for spouses to live happily ever after “until death do we part” which, once again and of course, is an impossibility simply because spouses are human.
The Eucharist is a mystery precisely because it is through the Eucharist that each of us participates in God’s plan to save humanity through His only begotten Son. As a mystery, human beings cannot grasp the Eucharist in its fullness, just as his disciples couldn’t…that is, until “they recognized him in the breaking of the bread.” Believing in and then partaking of the Eucharist—God’s Word and Sacrament—is crucial if we’re to stretch our understanding beyond its natural limitations to grasp God’s self-revelation when we encounter God in the Eucharist. Even so, none of us can never fully grasp this mystery in its spiritual completeness because we’re human.
Again, this experience is similar to that of a husband or wife who have experienced wedded bliss, yet for whom one’s spouse remains an enigma wrapped in a riddle. Yes, the years and decades of marriage have taught that one’s spouse is consistent and predictable yet can also be altogether surprising and unpredictable, not conforming at any particular moment to one’s expectations and always revealing something new and unexpected that’s not only attractive but also alluring. In their more candid moments of surprise and unpredictability, these spouses will say, “Geez, I thought I knew you.”
In today’s gospel, we recalled Jesus’ words “This is my body…this is my blood of the covenant….” This is what the Church means by the term “Real Presence”…Jesus’ real body and real blood. When we celebrate the Eucharist, the Risen Lord becomes present under the appearances of bread and wine in a mysterious way where, in the act of consecrating the elements, the “substance” of the bread and wine are changed by the power of the Holy Spirit into the “substance” of Jesus’ real Body and Blood. Concurrently, the “accidents” (or appearances) of bread and wine remain.
In this way, the Church’s spiritual teaching about the Real Presence turns the natural world, as our mind grasps it, upside down. This teaching reminds us not to be a “doubting Thomas” who proclaim “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Doubt begets spiritual blindness so no mind can pierce into the mystery. Instead, as Jesus said, be a “converted Thomas” who proclaims “I believe so that I can see it” as we also can utter our amazement at what God makes possible: “My Lord and my God.” Belief opens the eyes to pierce into the mystery, although only imperfectly so, yes, because we’re human.
What all of this conveys imperfectly is what the Church teaches is a fact: What appears to be bread and wine in every way (the “appearances” at the level of “accidents”— physical attributes—that can be seen, touched, tasted, or measured) have been changed into Jesus’ real Body and Blood (the “essence” at the level of “substance”—the truth of who Jesus—that cannot be seen, touched, tasted, or measured). This change in substance that occurs at the moment of consecration is what the Church calls “transubstantiation” which, I would add, is as mysterious as the Real Presence.
What has always struck me about the Protestant view of the Eucharist is that if it’s merely the symbol of the reality, why should anyone come to Mass to partake of it? To encounter God in symbols? That can be done anywhere and in any place. Nature worshippers do that every day! They say, “You go to church.” Then, with a broad, sweeping gesture of the arm pointing to one of nature’s beautiful venues, “This is my church!”
That just doesn’t make much sense. Think about it: Nature isn’t God. Our faith teaches that God is nature’s Creator. The same is true of human beings! Do we worship human beings as gods, deifying human beings in the way people in ancient Greece and Rome did?
A “symbol” points beyond itself to something else, sometimes to several realities simultaneously. A wedding ring points to a spouse’s being “bound” to another human being not just by law but, for Catholics, in body, mind, soul, and God. A ring also symbolizes one’s personal commitment through one’s fully and freely uttered word—“a man’s word is his bond,” we’ve all been told about a promise and more so of a vow. Sometimes just feeling the back of a wedding ring with one’s thumb, a spouse is reminded to try a little harder and sometimes to bear with the challenges marriage presents spouses. Looking at the wedding ring, a spouse is also reminded of the day he or she said “I do”…as in “I will love you, honor you, and obey you all the days of my life…until death do we part.”
A wedding ring is a symbol pointing beyond the accidents to the substances of what a marriage is as God intended it in and from the beginning.
So also with the Eucharist.
Natural food provides physical nourishment for the body and sharing a meal establishes a natural communion among those who partake in it...like a family meal, a holiday feast, and a wedding reception. Likewise, the Eucharist provides spiritual nourishment for the body and as the community of faith shares in this meal it established a spiritual communion not only with each other but also with the Most Holy Trinity we recalled last Sunday—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—forming one body, the living Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:17). God uses the symbolism inherent in the act of eating bread and drinking wine at the natural level to illuminate the truth concerning what God is accomplishing today in the Eucharist through His only begotten Son.
The most recent Pew Research on the topic indicates that most self-described Catholics—that’s 70% of them—don’t believe this core mystery with only 30% reporting they believe that “during Catholic Mass, the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus.” What this finding really means is that nearly 70% of Catholics are Protestant in their belief about what Protestants call “Holy Communion,” namely, partaking of the bread and wine symbolically commemorates Jesus’ life and teaching not his continuous, living, and Real Presence both in the Church and our daily lives today.
That’s why what has always struck me about the Protestant view is that if the Eucharist is the symbol of the reality, why should anyone come to Mass? To encounter God in symbols?
For us as Catholics, belief in the Real Presence raises some important questions concerning what the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has recently called “Eucharistic coherence.” That is, is how we prepare for and present ourselves to receive “Holy Communion”—to invite the Real Presence of the Risen Lord in our body and to be transformed by his Body and Blood—coherent with what the Church teaches?
With 70% of U.S. Catholics rejecting this core teaching of the Catholic faith—and that may include some of us present today—that represents our challenge from this week’s scripture: To reflect this upcoming week upon those areas where we treat the Eucharist as if it’s a symbol rather than the real deal, namely, the Real Presence of the Risen Lord.
These reflections can be prodded by focusing upon any of the following questions:
- Does my attire for Mass reveal my believe that receiving the Eucharist is the source and summit of my life as a Catholic?
- How do I prioritize my time so that I’m present to meet God from before the processional rite when the Crucified Christ enters into the midst of the congregation until after the Crucified Christ leads the members of the congregation out into the world to live as Jesus taught?
- What is my focus when I’m present at Mass? Am I distracted by all of the passing things of this world or attentive to God’s presence in Word and Sacrament?
- What does the way I approach receiving the Real Presence say about my belief in it—is it like grabbing a piece of candy or cookie on the way out the door or a most solemn encounter with the living God really present in the bread and wine?
These are just a four of many questions that can be raised and have the power to prod us to become more attuned to the Church’s teaching about the Real Presence of the Risen Lord in his Body and Blood. Then, as we become more focused upon what the Eucharist is and partake of it, what we believe in faith will be nourished and strengthened. That is, we become the Real Presence of the Risen Lord beyond the walls of this building in all of the places where it counts most—in our marriages and families as well as in our neighborhoods, workplaces, and schools. This is authentic discipleship: To be the Real Presence of Jesus Christ alive and at work in the world today, extending the saving mission of God’s only begotten Son in the way we conduct ourselves.
That’s also what constitutes an “adult faith.” It’s not the stuff of a “childish” faith but of the more “childlike” faith Jesus taught his disciples to live. With a more “childlike” belief in the Real Presence, the more consciously we will partake of the consecrated bread and wine and receive the Real Presence of the Risen Lord into our soul. Then, as each of us cooperates with God’s grace, the Real Presence gradually will transform our hearts and minds to love God and neighbor as we love ourselves which, Jesus taught, is the “greatest commandment” which fulfills both the Law and the Prophets.
In short: To exhibit Eucharistic coherence each and every day of our lives.
Each day this week, let us recall the Truth of Christ concerning his Real Presence so that we will remain in this Truth of Christ:
Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink….Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. (John 6:53-57)
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