What is one of the biggest problems in the Catholic Church? Is it not wanting to go to Confession? (Why do I have to go to a priest to confess my sins?) NO it isn't. Maybe not being able to eat meat on Fridays during Lent? Nope, that is not it either. Nor is it having to go to Mass EVERY Sunday, though there are many Chreasters out there, (a portmanteau of Christmas and Easter). The BIGGEST problem is that ~70% of Catholics do not believe that the Holy Eucharist is truly the Living Body and Blood of Jesus Christ! I hope you find that as shocking as I did...but with that great of a number who do not believe one of the most important tenets of our Faith, YOU may be one of them.
From the very beginnings of the Catholic Church, which is traced back to the Apostles of Jesus Christ, the number one and most important tenet of the Faith was just that.... Jesus is truly in the Eucharist. The Bread and Wine is not merely a symbol of Jesus' body and blood... it is His Body and Blood. And Jesus proclaimed that himself, many times throughout his ministry, before he would die for us on the cross.
In the Bread of Life discourse of John's Gospel, (John 6:48-64) Jesus tells his disciples:
"I AM the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh." "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink."
Many of his disciples, when they heard this, grumbled and were shocked by what he said as no Jew would ever eat meat and blood together never mind eat the body and blood of a man.
Did Jesus stop them and say, "No I was just kidding!" or did Jesus say "I meant that as symbolic? " No, Jesus never soften his teaching on this. And to further explain what he was saying when Jesus said "eat" my flesh he used the word that meant "gnaw" on it to further stress the act of eating. The Jews at that time were very familiar with symbolic language and knew Jesus was not talking symbolically when he said this. They understood exactly what he was saying, but could not accept it, they lacked faith in Jesus and they left him. Jesus did not compromise, He turned to his Apostles his closest followers and asked them if they would leave him too?
(Interesting side note to this part of John's Gospel: John 6:66 is the verse: "From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him." The number 666 is symbolically the number of the devil, the antichrist, or evil in general.) However, in the time when John wrote his gospel, he did not put in chapter numbers or verse numbers, they were only added much later. I find this an interesting connection, possibly more than a mere coincidence. Perhaps something to take note of.)
To further show the importance of the Eucharist there are many foreshadowings of the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist throughout the Old Testament and even the New Testament. I will show you just a few.
In Exodus, the Hebrews were protected from the final plague when they followed the instructions Moses gave them for the Passover Meal. At the first Passover Meal, a lamb was sacrificed. Its blood was painted on the lintels of the houses so that the angel of death would pass over those houses; saving them from death. And then the lamb was totally consumed. It was in following these instructions that they were saved. The Passover Meal is one of the most important traditions of the Jewish faith, practiced for thousands of years even up to this day. It was a lamb that saved the Israelites. Jesus often called himself the lamb of God. He is the TRUE Lamb and his blood was shed for the salvation of the World. It was the Passover Meal that Jesus was celebrating when He gave us the gift of the Eucharist fulfilling the Old Testament foreshadowing of the life saving meal.
At the Wedding Feast at Cana, Jesus performs his first miracle. He had the servants fill the water containers that were used to wash the feet of the guest, not the empty wine containers. These were huge water containers, much larger than the containers that held the wine. And Jesus had the servants fill them to the brim. After blessing the water (a sacramental act) the water turned into wine. And not ordinary wine but the best wine according to the wine steward. This first miracle foreshadows his last miracle that Jesus performs at the Passover feast with his disciples. There he takes ordinary bread and wine and blesses it and turns it into his body and blood--eternal food and drink.
In the story where Jesus fed the vast number of people with the loaves of Bread and Fish that story is a foreshadowing of the Mass. Jesus sits down with the crowd seated at his feet. (the posture of a teacher and his students) That foreshadows the Liturgy of the Word at our Mass where we hear the readings of the Old Testament and the New Testament and the significance each has in the story of our salvation.
At the Wedding Feast at Cana, Jesus performs his first miracle. He had the servants fill the water containers that were used to wash the feet of the guest, not the empty wine containers. These were huge water containers, much larger than the containers that held the wine. And Jesus had the servants fill them to the brim. After blessing the water (a sacramental act) the water turned into wine. And not ordinary wine but the best wine according to the wine steward. This first miracle foreshadows his last miracle that Jesus performs at the Passover feast with his disciples. There he takes ordinary bread and wine and blesses it and turns it into his body and blood--eternal food and drink.
In this Bible story, Jesus wants to care for the crowd that followed Him into the deserted place by feeding them. He performs a miracle of turning a few loaves of Bread and a few fish into enough food so that thousands of people may be satisfied of their hunger. Just as in the story of Exodus, where God showered the Israelites with Manna from Heaven for them to eat. Both of these incidents foreshadow the Breaking of the Bread at the Last Supper, where Jesus institutes the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
Just before Jesus is put to death, He desires to leave his disciples an everlasting gift. Jesus performs his final miracle. He turns ordinary bread and wine into his Body and Blood and then commands his Apostles to "Do THIS in Memory of Me." He did not say let this be a symbol of my Body and Blood... but rather said, "This IS my body which will be given up for you. This IS my blood which will be shed for you." Jesus did not speak of symbols but of truth. I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Just before Jesus is put to death, He desires to leave his disciples an everlasting gift. Jesus performs his final miracle. He turns ordinary bread and wine into his Body and Blood and then commands his Apostles to "Do THIS in Memory of Me." He did not say let this be a symbol of my Body and Blood... but rather said, "This IS my body which will be given up for you. This IS my blood which will be shed for you." Jesus did not speak of symbols but of truth. I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Why do so many Catholics not believe this as Truth? Is it because it still looks and tastes like bread and wine? Is it because they don't understand? Do they lack the knowledge? Did you know that throughout all the history of the Catholic church the Eucharist was always proclaimed as the REAL presence of Jesus Christ.? How many of the early Christian martyrs died for this belief? Every one of them! That in itself is a remarkable testament of their faith. The First century writings of St. Ignatius of Antioch and St. Justin the Martyr proclaimed it was truly the Flesh and Blood of Jesus. Third century Origen of Alexandria so strongly believed it to be the body of Christ that he was so careful handling it that not even a crumb should be dropped to the ground.
The most important aspect of the Eucharist and its reality is to consider who gave it to us. Jesus is the Son of God or as John called him in his gospel: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was GOD! Jesus, before he took on human form through his incarnation, was the Word of God. The significance of that is God spoke the Word, Let there be light and there was light.... what God says has great significance. His Word results in change, in creation. Jesus spoke the words: "This IS my BODY, This IS my BLOOD," he did not say, this is a symbol of my body and blood he says this IS. If you believe in God and his Word made Flesh then there is no logical reason to not believe that when he said those words and also said "Do THIS in memory of ME" that he was telling the truth!
St Thomas Aquinas said this about the Eucharist:
"Material food first changes into the one who eats it, and then, as a consequence, restores to him lost strength and increases his vitality. Spiritual food, on the other hand, changes the person who eats it into itself. Thus the effect proper to this Sacrament is the conversion of a man into Christ, so that he may no longer live, but Christ lives in him; consequently, it has the double effect of restoring the spiritual strength he had lost by his sins and defects, and of increasing the strength of his virtues.” (St. Thomas, Commentary on Book IV of the Sentences, d.12, q.2, a.11)
Another important aspect of the Eucharist and its reality is to consider when did Jesus give us this gift. It was the last act he performed before his death. Jesus knew he was to sacrifice his life for us and when it was to happen. So he left us, whom he loved in this world, the most significant gift he could give all of us... Himself, his very presence, for all time, while we, his creation, lived on this Earth. So after the Passover meal, at the creation of His new church, He gave us his body and blood for all eternity. He gave the Apostles, the leaders of His church, the power to change common bread and wine into his body and blood, soul and divinity, and gave them the order to DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME. Would you or could you ever deny this wondrous life-given gift which once consumed we have Jesus living within us and HE becomes the inner strength within us? Would you be one of those follower who find this too hard to believe?
And let me ask you to consider the following. If you believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross for you, and you believe that he rose from the dead, and you believe he ascended into heaven...why is it you can't believe that the Holy Eucharist is truly his body and blood, a final gift of food from God to strengthen you through your life's journey on earth? If you believe in God and all that Jesus Christ taught and all he did to save you from sin, why can't you believe he can change ordinary bread and wine into his own body and blood? Maybe because some of us lack understanding? Maybe because some of us need to strengthen our Faith?
Might I suggest that you read the Bible and pay special attention to the stories about food: the forbidden fruit, the manna in the desert, the significance of the "Bread of Presence"-- (Showbread in the Jewish Tabernacle which was lifted up at the Jewish festivals and proclaimed as "God's love for you!"), the Last Supper, the followers of Jesus on the road to Emmaus, and the many other stories throughout the entire Bible that deal with food and bread and wine. They all have significance to open up your hearts to believe that Jesus is with us always, until the end of time in the Body and Blood that we receive every Sunday in the Holy Eucharist.
The ultimate means by which we understand Jesus Christ is not the Scriptures, but the Eucharist, for the Eucharist is Christ himself, personally and actively present. The embodiment of the Paschal Mystery, the Eucharist, is Jesus' love for the world unto death, his journey into god forsakenness in order to save the most desperate of sinners, his heart broken open in compassion.
--Bishop Robert Barron
Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you.
John 6:27
Might I suggest that you read the Bible and pay special attention to the stories about food: the forbidden fruit, the manna in the desert, the significance of the "Bread of Presence"-- (Showbread in the Jewish Tabernacle which was lifted up at the Jewish festivals and proclaimed as "God's love for you!"), the Last Supper, the followers of Jesus on the road to Emmaus, and the many other stories throughout the entire Bible that deal with food and bread and wine. They all have significance to open up your hearts to believe that Jesus is with us always, until the end of time in the Body and Blood that we receive every Sunday in the Holy Eucharist.
The ultimate means by which we understand Jesus Christ is not the Scriptures, but the Eucharist, for the Eucharist is Christ himself, personally and actively present. The embodiment of the Paschal Mystery, the Eucharist, is Jesus' love for the world unto death, his journey into god forsakenness in order to save the most desperate of sinners, his heart broken open in compassion.
--Bishop Robert Barron
Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you.
John 6:27
"and do not be unbelieving, but believing."
John 20:27
No comments:
Post a Comment