Each year, the Church celebrates Corpus Christi (Latin for “Body of Christ”), which is a solemnity celebrating the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. The Church draws from John 6, which is the famous chapter where Jesus teaches about the necessity of eating His flesh and drinking His blood so that we have life in Him. Jesus’ “Bread of Life Discourse” in John 6 can be divided into two parts.
Part I: Jesus begins Part I of the speech by saying, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst” (Jn 6:35). In Part I, Jesus emphasizes belief. Jesus invites the Jewish people listening to Him in the synagogue in Capernaum to believe that He is from heaven. In other words, Jesus is divine and has existed from all eternity with the Father.
The first half of the Bread of Life discourse, then, is not about the Eucharist. It is an invitation to believe in Jesus’ divinity. If one does not grasp that Jesus is divine, he or she will never believe in the Eucharist. By first believing that Jesus is God, one can then come to believe that He has the power to change bread and wine into His body and blood. God’s Word has real power!
In Part I, John tells us that the Jews begin to murmur when hearing Jesus say that He is from God or has come down from heaven. If they had trouble with Part I and coming to belief in Jesus’ divinity, things will get much worse in Part II of the speech when Jesus speaks about eating his flesh and drinking his blood.
Part II: Jesus begins the second part of the speech by again saying, “I am the bread of life.” In Part II, which we hear in today’s Gospel, Jesus moves from talking about faith in Him to eating His flesh and drinking His blood.
In Part II of the speech, Jesus’ language becomes much more graphic. For example, when speaking about eating His flesh, Jesus uses a graphic word in Greek, trōgō, which describes how animals chew their food. Unless you gnaw or chew on My flesh and drink My blood, you do not have life within you.
Those listening are in a state of shock. Most are offended and a good many disciples even walk away, the only time in the Gospels that significant numbers of people walk away from Jesus. As they walk away, Jesus does not clarify or soften His teaching. In fact, Jesus turns to the twelve and asks if they want to leave, too. Peter responds by basically saying, “Kind of! This is way outside the sandbox.” Peter says, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
In closing, some thoughts about the basics of our belief in the Eucharist. First, in saying that we eat Jesus’ flesh and drink His blood, it is not the dead flesh and blood of Christ on the Cross, but rather the living Body and Blood of the Resurrected Christ.
Second, we receive the Resurrected Christ – Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity (the whole Christ) under the appearances of bread and wine. The bread and wine look, feel, and smell the same after the consecration. In other words, the appearances to our senses remain the same.
However, the power of Jesus’ word changes the underlying reality (substance) of the bread and wine. The substance or essence is the underlying reality of the bread and wine. At the words of consecration, the substance of the bread and wine are changed into the substance of the body and blood of Christ.
To give you an analogy, think of children when trick-or-treating. They change their appearances, but underneath their costume they are still the same person. The opposite is the case for the Eucharist at the consecration. While the appearances of bread and wine remain the same, God seizes the deepest reality of the bread and wine so that they become His body and blood.
Third, pay attention to your language when speaking about the Eucharist. We never say bread or wine after the consecration because it is no longer bread and wine. Instead, we say the body of Christ (or the Host, which means “victim” in Latin) or the blood of Christ. I gently correct people when I hear incorrect language because language shapes our thinking, i.e., what we believe.
Fourth, the Church asks the faithful to do a little bow of the head as a sign of reverence for the True Presence before receiving the Eucharist. The faithful can receive reverently in the hand or on the tongue.
The Eucharist is the greatest gift God has given to the Church and to the world because it is Christ Himself. That said, one should never leave Mass right after receiving the Eucharist as Judas did at the Last Supper! Take time to say thank you by kneeling in your pew for the great gift of the Eucharist, which is the True Presence of Christ!
~St. Thérèse, pray for us!