The Happy Priest - God is With Us: The Gift of the Holy Eucharist

Thousands anxiously seek strange devotions and apparent extraordinary phenomena.  But Jesus is really with us.  Why don't we go to Mass every day?  Why don't we make visits to the Blessed Sacrament?  It is because we really don't believe.  We believe that God is a distant God.  But, he is not distant.  He is really with us.  Close to the tabernacle a candle burns brightly as a permanent reminder that God is with us.   God is truly present and he reveals himself to all those who believe. 

CORPUS CHRISTI, TX (Catholic Online) - As we continue our consideration on the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John, the Catholic liturgy reminds us that we possess an immense treasure.  When a Catholic priest takes a little piece of unleavened bread and repeats the words that Jesus spoke at the Last Supper, "This is my body," and when he takes a small of amount of wine in a chalice and says, "This is my blood," the bread is no longer bread and the wine is no longer wine.

"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" (John 6: 51).  
 
Once again, let us review something that is so fundamental: at every Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we participate in a marvelous miracle, the miracle called Transubstantiation.  Transubstantiation means "change of substance," or "change of reality."  When the priest repeats the words that Jesus spoke at the Last Supper, the bread is no longer bread, and the wine is no longer wine.  Instead, the entire substance of the bread and the entire substance of the wine have been changed into the substance of The Body and Blood of Christ.

Transubstantiation occurs only by the power of God, and in a way that we cannot empirically detect.  We know that transubstantiation takes place through the certainty of faith.  Jesus, the Son of God; Jesus the Messiah; Jesus the Lord and Savior of the universe said: "This is my body;" "This is my blood."

Faith is a vision superior to reason, but it does not contradict reason, precisely because faith relies upon the authority of God who does not deceive, nor can be deceived.  Jesus is the truth and thus is incapable of lying.

When we consider the sixth chapter of John's Gospel, we are faced with a dilemma.  As C.S. Lewis put it so clearly, either Jesus is a liar, a lunatic, or he is who he says that he is: the one true God.

"The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said, 'I am the bread that came down from heaven', and they said, 'Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph?  Do we not know his father and mother?  Then how can he say, 'I have come down from heaven'?" (John 6: 41-42). 

The crowd could not grasp and accept Jesus' teaching on the Eucharist because of their lack of faith.  They could not see Jesus for who he really is. 

In our modern times it is commonly understood that among Catholics there is an alarming loss of faith in the Real Presence.

This massive loss of faith is expressed in the loss of reverence in our parishes.  Sloppy dress, loud talking in church, cell phones going off, lack of Sunday attendance at Mass, and few people going to Confession, are all signs of a terrible loss of faith in something so fundamental to Catholicism. 

What is the cause of this disturbing apostasy? 

Every Sunday during the Profession of Faith, we affirm our belief in eternal life.  "We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come."

Do we really believe this? 

How many times do we ever hear convincing homilies about the eschatological teachings of the Catholic Church?

Rather than being an affirmation of the realities of eternity, many funeral homilies tend to be a humanistic celebration of the person who has died.

 In our modern day culture we are continually bombarded by secularism and we need to be continually reminded of the most basic fundamentals of our Catholic Faith

"Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life" (John 6: 47). 

God and eternity are not things that are distant from us.  When we truly believe, we already participate in eternity. 

"Life shared with God, eternal life within temporal life, is possible because of God living with us: Christ is God being here with us.  In him God has time for us; he is God's time for us and thus at the same time the opening of time into eternity.  God is no longer the distant and indeterminate God to whom no bridge will reach; he is the God at hand: the Body of the Son is the bridge for our souls" (Joseph Ratzinger, God is Near Us, 144). 

Close to the tabernacle a candle burns brightly as a permanent reminder that God is with us.   God is truly present and he reveals himself to all those who believe. 

What is it that keeps us from really believing in eternal life?

If our sight is set on the things of this world alone, we will eventually no longer seek the world to come.  The loss of seeking eternity is rooted in our loss of faith in God.

The only way that we can truly believe in the Real Presence is if we truly believe: believe that God is alive and with us throughout our entire existence; believe that the Father sent his only Son to save us from our sins; and believe that this Son is truly with us in the miracle of the Eucharist. 

However, do we really believe in miracles? 

The Eucharist is the most visible miracle known to the human person. 

Thousands anxiously seek strange devotions and apparent extraordinary phenomena.  But Jesus is really with us.  Why don't we go to Mass every day?  Why don't we make visits to the Blessed Sacrament?  It is because we really don't believe.  We believe that God is a distant God.  But, he is not distant.  He is really with us. 

What a consoling thought.  God is with us.  We can say goodbye to all of our anxieties. 

In this Sunday's first reading from the Book of Kings, Elijah had had enough.  ".but then an angel touched him and ordered him to get up and eat" (1 Kings 19: 5).

The lesson is clear.  We will find strength for the journey of life through the Eucharist.  The more intense our Eucharistic life is the greater strength we will receive. 

"There is no surer pledge or clearer sign of this great hope in the new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells, than the Eucharist.  Every time this mystery is celebrated the work of our redemption is carried on and we break the one bread that provides the medicine of immortality, the antidote for death, and the food that makes us live for ever in Jesus Christ" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1405). 

The intense battle of our secular culture against Christianity and the dramatic unraveling of order will become even more intense.  Deacon Keith Fournier continually reminds us that we are living in a new missionary age. 

The way that you can live a life filled with profound Christian joy and hope is to center your life on the Eucharist. 

Daily Mass; adoration; visits to the Blessed Sacrament: that's the answer.   At the tabernacle and at the altar is where we need to be.  It is Jesus who will give us the strength that we need to resist the culture of death and transform it into the culture of life.

Perhaps the one thing that is going to save our beloved nation from self-destruction is the constant and authentic smile of every disciple who truly believes that God is truly with us through the mystery of faith, the awesome gift of the Holy Eucharist. 

Let the name of Jesus be praised now and forever, and may many souls find salvation in the name of Jesus the Lord.  Amen. 

"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" (John 6: 51).  

How awesome is our Catholic Faith. 

-----

Father James Farfaglia, is a contributing writer for Catholic Online and author of Get Serious! - A Survival Guide for Serious Catholics.

---

'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'

Copyright 2021 - Distributed by Catholic Online