The Church has reserved the second Sunday after the feast of Pentecost to reflect on the importance of the Eucharist, which is Christ’s body, blood, soul, and divinity wherein the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained.
The sacrament of the Eucharist, a cornerstone of Catholic belief, is not merely a symbol but the real presence of the resurrected Christ. It is a testament to a personal God who seeks intimate union through the humble elements of bread and wine. Jesus affirms, “For my flesh is true food and my blood true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” This thoughtful understanding of the Eucharist is encapsulated in the words of Vatican II, which defines it as “the source and summit of our faith of Christian life.”
In its profound wisdom, the Church proclaims that the Eucharist is not a mere representation but the presence of Christ in the consecrated host and wine. This mystery, often challenging to comprehend, is elucidated by the term transubstantiation, offering us a deeper understanding of this sacred sacrament. The doctrine affirmed by the Fourth Lateran Council and the Council of Trent teaches the bread and wine offered and consecrated changes the substance of the bread and wine in Christ’s body and blood even though the physical appearance remains the same.
A substance is a thing or being; in the case of bread and wine, the thing or being is the bread and wine. After the consecration, the bread and wine change so that the substance changes to Christ’s body and blood, even though the appearance remains unchanged. Aristotle describes the phenomenon of appearance as an ‘accident,’ meaning it is only a modifier of the substance.
To make this easier to understand, consider a dog, for instance. The substance is a dog; the accident could be a black, brown, or blonde dog. The substance is still a dog, whether the dog is black, brown, or blonde.
Of course, this teaching is hard to accept without faith. St. Thomas Aquinas opined that the sacrament is the true Body of Christ, and the senses cannot apprehend his true Blood but only through faith, which relies on divine authority. Thomas quotes St. Cyril, who brilliantly comments on the question of doubt in relation to the truth. “Doubt not whether this be true; but take rather the Savior’s words with faith; for since He is the Truth, He cannot lie.”
Still, many Christians and, regrettably, some Catholics have trouble believing in Jesus’ institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper and subsequent teachings. “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.” How else could this be effectuated unless we take the totality of Jesus’ message to eat his body and drink his blood in the sacrament of the Eucharist?
There is also a historical precedence behind the belief in the real presence of God living within a human person. The first and greatest disciple of Jesus, his mother, Mary, was the first human being to be intimately connected to God. Jesus becoming incarnate in the womb of the Blessed Mother proved that God can and wishes to reside in one of his creatures. Granted, Mary was unique insofar as she was sinless and full of grace, but she was still a person and not God.
The love of God is shown to his Mother by choosing her to be the Mother of God, which points to the reality that God loves us so deeply that he wishes to be intimately connected to us as beings having bodies and souls. It is not that farfetched to think and believe he wishes to reside in our beings through the gift of the Eucharist. As St. Athanasius beautifully pointed out, “God became man so that man could become like God.”
Finally, by receiving the Blessed Sacrament, the people of God begin to experience here on earth what heaven is all about. When Jesus tells us, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” By living forever, Jesus speaks about the life to come in heaven. And the eternal life we hope to enjoy is our eternal and intimate relationship with God. This is what heaven is all about intimate union with God. We experience the union even now through the invitation of God to be in a relationship with him by giving His Son again and again in the sacrament of the Eucharist.
May the Bread of Angels
Become bread for mankind;
The Bread of Heaven puts
All foreshadowings to an end;
Oh, thing miraculous!
The body of the Lord will nourish
the poor, the poor,
the servile, and the humble.
St. Thomas Aquinas