Friday Gospel Recharge
A Reflection on John 6: 52 - 59
(3rd Friday of Eastertide, Year B of the Liturgical Calander, 2024)
Navigating doubt: Exploring the real presence of the Eucharist
The dynamics of doubt in human experience are multifaceted and can be influenced by various factors. Doubts may arise due to the uncertainty of an idea or situation, such as the idea found in the discourse in today’s Gospel: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” We can also doubt due to fear of the future: “If I take this job opportunity, would it really establish a new base salary for a promising and better future? If it doesn’t, what a waste of time and effort.” Cultural influence, another important factor, shapes one’s belief and attitudes in a particular way, making us sceptical and critical of other ideas, leading to moments of doubt too.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus sparks doubt with his doctrine on the Eucharist, which we profess to be Jesus’s true body and blood. The Jews, with the customs and rituals, are troubled by this saying, since Jesus presents them a new commandment which looks akin to cannibalism, a practice forbidden by the law of Moses. Like our Catholic tradition, the Jews believed in the sanctity of human life due to our created image and likeness to God, and so eating a human person is forbidden. However, the Jews, while zealous for Godly things, were preoccupied with purity. They were forbidden to touch a diseased person, eat an animal found dead, nor drink the blood of animals, for all these things made them impure. Purity was important as it made a person more like God; purer your actions closer you related to God. Eating Jesus flesh and blood therefore would make them not only cannibals but impure.
Cannibalism, however, is not what is practiced in the Church. The Eucharist, while it is Christ’s body and blood, is not a physical and literal presence of Christ. Although it is the actual deified body of the Lord presented under the accidents of bread and wine, at the same time not a symbolic representation, even though the external appearance remains. To believe the miracle of the Eucharist is Christ requires, therefore, the eyes of faith to see.
In our modern world, doubters of the Eucharist exist, many being baptised and confirmed Catholics. This is unfortunate news because Catholics are required to believe in the real presence; there are no two ways about it. Before receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation, we prepare for our first reception of the Sacrament of the Eucharist, and in the preparatory stages, candidates are informed in what we believe as Catholics in the Eucharist and that they are required to believe it in order to receive this gift given to us from heaven.
Pope Benedict XVI, and like many before him,
have emphasised the doctrine of the transubstantiation of the Eucharist is
confirmed in the scriptures. For example, in today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us
that his body is “real” food, and his blood is “real” drink. This is the first
of the two references of the Eucharist. What Jesus means to say is that the
Eucharist is indeed not a symbol but truly his body. If he meant anything
else, he would have said this is “like” my body, or a “metaphor” for my body.
For this reason, the Church has always believed that the Eucharist is truly
Jesus Christ. Since many Catholics today lack grounding in scripture and
tradition, this doctrine has become difficult to accept and misunderstood.
Doubt surrounding the real presence of the Eucharist can be overcome by turning to what the church has taught and defended over the centuries. Controversy over the real presence is not recent; it’s been defended since the 1st century. The Didache, a 1st-century document, offers glimpses of what the early Church taught. Many people have died for this teaching. St Justin Martyr, an apologist and philosopher in the early to mid-2nd century, died, among many other Christians, for believing and defending in the real presence. His defense can be found in the 1st Apology, chapter 66. Today, people mock and threaten us for our belief. In more recent times, Richard Dawkins, a world-renowned English biologist, said once in an interview and also to a public crowd that atheists should mock and ridicule Catholics for professing in the real presence.
If Jesus did not mean what he meant about our participating in his body and blood in the Eucharist, he would have said so. God is neither a liar nor a deceiver, and so he has been very clear with his words, referring to the Eucharist as his own body and blood. He wants what is best for us, and that is our reunification with him in heaven. When we consume Jesus in the Eucharist, it signifies that reality of what is to come: life with God or communion with him.
We cannot return to God using our own strength; we need God’s strength to help us along the way. God, in a sacramental way, paves that way by giving us himself as Eucharistic food for the journey. What better nourishment is there to have then God himself in the Eucharist?
There is this saying: You are what you eat.
Since we are made in the image and likeness of God we become exactly that
through partaking in the Eucharist. God wants us, therefore, to be like him.
Let us ponder then where we are at in our spiritual journey in relation to Eucharist. What is my current belief and what do I need to do to increase my faith in Jesus in the Eucharist?
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