I desire the bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ

These last couple of weeks, I have been doing a lot of reflecting on the Eucharist, and specifically the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.  Exposition and Adoration of the Eucharist was one of the biggest parts of the youth conference I attended as a chaperone two weekends ago, the Eucharist was a topic of discussion during the religious education certification classes I took last week, and this past Sunday was the Solemnity of Corpus Christi (The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ).   That the bread and wine are truly transubstantiated into the body and blood of Christ during the Mass is something that I have never doubted or questioned, but it is something that I have found myself taking for granted from time to time.  

In the Eucharist, Christ is truly and substantially present under the appearance of ordinary bread and wine.  Think about that for a minute, what does it mean to you that the Savior of the Universe makes Himself present on every altar and in every tabernacle throughout the world? 

It isn’t easy for us to truly believe this, just as it wasn’t easy for the followers of Christ to comprehend when Jesus told them about it.  How often are we like the former disciples of Christ that we hear about in John 6:66, those who departed and returned to their former way of life because they could not accept that Jesus was the Bread of Life, that his flesh was true food and his blood was true drink?  These disciples could not accept this central teaching of Christ and so they departed.  We don’t see Jesus running after them, saying “Just kidding, I was only talking symbolically; I didn’t actually mean that I would give my flesh and blood for you to drink.”  No, Christ instead turns to the Apostles and asks them if they want to leave as well.  Peter, though, answers for them, saying “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”  John 6:68

How many times do we kneel at Mass and not really accept what Christ so clearly taught to his followers?  How many times do we genuflect before a tabernacle and think that maybe there isn’t really anything there?  

We must answer these times of insecurity and doubt just as Peter did.  We must declare that we believe and are convinced that Jesus Christ is the Holy One of God, that he gives his true flesh and true blood to be our food and drink, not just as a symbol of His love for us – but actually, in real and substantial witness to His love for us.

The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist has always been a doctrine of the Church.  It has been the belief of Catholics from Apostolic times to the present and will be until Christ comes again.  The sixth chapter of John’s Gospel and each of the institution narratives in the other Gospels are such rich illustrations of what Christ gives to us in the Eucharist. 

 The early Church Fathers had plenty to say on the subject, from Paul’s letters:

• "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?" (1 Cor. 10:16). 
• "Therefore whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. . . . For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself" (1 Cor. 11:27, 29).           

To Ignatius of Antioch around 110 A.D.:

• "I have no taste for corruptible food nor for the pleasures of this life. I desire the bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David; and for drink I desire his blood, which is love incorruptible" (Letter to the Romans 7:3 [A.D. 110]
• "Take note of those who hold heterodox opinions on the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us, and see how contrary their opinions are to the mind of God. . . . They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, flesh which suffered for our sins and which that Father, in his goodness, raised up again. They who deny the gift of God are perishing in their disputes" (Letter to the Smyrnaeans 6:2–7:1 [A.D. 110]).

  To Justin Martyr in 155:

• "We call this food Eucharist, and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true and who has been washed in the washing which is for the remission of sins and for regeneration [i.e., has received baptism] and is thereby living as Christ enjoined. For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is   nurtured, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus" (First Apology 66 [A.D. 151]).

This is just a small sample of the witnesses that the early Church Fathers give to us; so many other writings are still available to us today. 

I know that this is one Catholic belief that many of our separated brothers struggle with.  How could that little wafer actually be the Body of Christ?  The simple answer is that it is because Christ loves us so much that He humbles Himself to be truly present for us, just as He was truly present when he walked the Earth before and after His death.  

We Catholics believe that the Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life.” (CCC 1324).  I want to challenge myself and each one of you to carefully read and reflect on what Sacred Scripture, the Church Fathers, and the Catechism tells us about the Eucharist and to truly make the Eucharist the source and summit of our lives, today and until the end of time.