Word to the Wise
Friday, May 6, 2022 - 3rd Week of Easter - Fri
[Acts 9:1-20 and John 6:52-59,]"The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his Flesh to eat?" Jesus said to them, "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. For my Flesh is true food, and my Blood is true drink. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and I in him." [John]
When we read or hear these words of Jesus, spoken while teaching in a synagogue in Capernaum more than 2000 years ago, they are still somewhat jarring. Most Catholics would prefer to think of "going to communion" than "eating Jesus flesh and drinking his blood." It sounds to us, like it did to the original audience, like cannibalism. Another challenge that faces us is HOW ordinary elements like bread and wine BECOME that flesh and blood of Jesus! This subject has been fiercely debated for centuries, even before St. Thomas Aquinas, O.P. provided much of the outline for standard Catholic teaching on this subject. The term "transubstantiation" is one word that addresses the HOW but it is not the only question. What does REAL PRESENCE mean even after that HOW is proposed?
These are subjects that theologians continue to examine. The teaching of the Second Vatican Council points out that "real presence" includes the gathering of the assembly, the proclamation of the Word, the "in persona Christi" action of the celebrant AND, in a unique way, the consecrated bread and wine. [cf. CCC 1374-1376]. At the celebration of the Eucharist, it is the action of the Holy Spirit that transforms the offering of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. This is a matter of faith. Whatever terms we use to describe HOW the Holy Spirit does this in the realm of earthly realities, what remains is that it does happen. And when we receive this transformed bread and wine, we receive the Lord himself and are "in communion" with him and with all believers.
Jesus' teaching resulted in some of this disciples leaving him. But Peter and others stayed. As Peter put it, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal life!" AMEN