THEME: THE REAL PRESENCE OF JESUS IN THE EUCHARIST
READINGS: Proverbs 9:1-6 / Ephesians 5:15-20/ John 6:51-58
20th Sunday in Ordinary time
INTRODUCTION
In today’s first reading, Wisdom invites all to a banquet of rich food and drinks. Similarly, in the gospel reading, our Lord Jesus Christ offers us the spiritual food of His most precious body and blood. It is in the Holy Eucharist that we receive the body and blood of Christ in the forms of bread and wine. Indeed, it is the real presence of Christ that we receive in the Holy Eucharist.
THE BANQUET OF WISDOM
In Proverbs 9:1-6, Wisdom, who is personified as a lady of nobility, offers a banquet of rich meat, bread and choicest wine. While the best of foods and drinks appropriate to our conditions nourish our physical bodies and contribute to our good health and well-being, words of wisdom when imbibed benefit us the more. They nourish us physically, psychologically, emotionally, professionally, morally, spiritually, etc.
THE SPIRITUAL FOOD OF CHRIST
Jesus Christ, who is greater than Solomon, that reputable wise king of Israel (cf. Matt. 12:42), is eternal and divine Wisdom. It is He who offers us the spiritual food, the true food of Wisdom, which nourishes for all eternity: ‘If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever’ (John 6:51; cf. 6:54). What is this bread or food? It is the spiritual food of His body and blood.
Thus, Jesus said: ‘The bread that I will give him is my flesh, which I give so that the world may live’ (John 6:51). This statement started an angry argument among crowd. ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ they asked. Jesus said to them, ‘I am telling you the truth if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in yourselves.… For my flesh is real food and blood is real drink’ (John 6:52-55).
Many followers of Jesus who heard the above message left Him. Now if Jesus did not mean what he was saying (that he will give us his flesh and blood), or if he was using a mere figure of speech, he would have called the deserting followers back to clarify his teaching. Rather, he turned to the twelve apostles and asked them if they also wished to leave him. Peter, then, responded: ‘Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. And now we believe and know that you are the Holy One who has come from God’ (John 6:68-69).
TRANSUBSTANTIATION OF BREAD AND WINE
It was not until the Last Supper that Jesus gave us the sacrament of his body and blood. At the Last Supper, Jesus did not say: ‘Take and eat, this is like my body’; neither did he say: ‘…this represents my body’; nor did he say: ‘…this is a symbol of my body.’ He simply said: ‘…this is my body.’ Likewise, with the cup of wine, He did not use the words like/represents/symbol; rather, He simply said: ‘This is my blood ….’ (Mark 14:22-26). We, therefore, believe that in the Eucharist, the bread becomes the true body of Christ and the wine the true blood of Christ. So, though usually we do not observe external transformation, the substance of bread is changed into the body of Christ, and the substance of wine is changed into the blood of Christ. This is what is referred to as transubstantiation.
Let me illustrate the body of Christ in the form of bread and His blood in the form of wine with a BBC news item I heard some years ago: four members of the International Criminal Court (ICC) were detained in Libya for illegally possessing, among other things, a camera in the form of a pen and a recorder in the form of a wrist watch. Would they have been detained for possessing an ordinary pen and wrist watch? No! They were detained because they possessed a camera (though in the form of a pen) and a recorder (though in the form of a wrist watch).
Similarly, in the Eucharist, though the form is bread it is truly the body of Christ; though the form is wine, it is truly the blood of Christ! That is why St. Paul asks those whose appreciation of the Eucharist is limited by the forms of bread and wine: ‘Is the bread we break not a communion in the body of Christ? Is the cup we drink not a communion in the blood?’ (1 Cor. 10:16). Subsequently, he states categorically: ‘It follows that if anyone eats the Lord’s bread or drinks from this cup in a way unworthy of him, he is guilty of sin against the Lord’s body and blood’ (1 Cor. 11:27). It is clear that St. Paul does not say the person sins against the blessed bread and blessed wine, nor simply against the bread and wine.
REAL PRESENCE OF JESUS
As a living person’s body and blood are not separated but they are together with his mind and soul, so in the Eucharist we have altogether the body, blood, soul and divinity of our living Lord Jesus Christ. This is what we call the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. That is why we should receive the Eucharist with due reverence; and we can adore Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament.
CONCLUSION
May the Lord, whom we receive and adore in the Holy Eucharist, nourish us physically, psychologically, emotionally, professionally, morally, etc.! Above all, may He nourish us spiritually, not only in this life, but for all eternity! Amen!
By Most Rev. John Kobina Louis
