Day 188: Christ’s Presence in the Eucharist (1373-1377)

• It’s Day 188!!

• THE PRESENCE OF CHRIST BY THE POWER OF HIS WORD AND THE HOLY SPIRIT

• We are talking about the REAL PRESENCE OF JESUS CHRIST IN THE EUCHARIST

• WHICH IS REMARKABLE!!

• Fr. Mike mentioned TRANSUBSTANTIATION early and gave us a sneak peak into what we are going to read today

• It is a MIRACLE that is akin to the Incarnation

• At EVERY MASS in EVERY TABERNACLE AROUND THE WORLD bread and wine TRULY, REALLY, AND SUBSTANTIALLY become the BODY, BLOOD, SOUL, AND DIVINITY of our Lord Jesus Christ 

• IT IS INCREDIBLE!!

• So let’s ask the Lord to help us to appreciate the depth of His love for us

• Let’s ask the Lord to help us understand that at EVERY MASS He transforms bread and wine into HIS BODY AND BLOOD

• TRULY!!

• REALLY!!

• SUBSTANTIALLY!!

• So let’s pray!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we give you praise and we thank you. We thank you for the gift of your Church, the gift of faith, hope, and love. We thank you for the gift of your Holy Spirit. We thank you for the gift of your Son. ‘For you so loved the world that you gave your only Son so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but might have eternal life.’ And you have given us your Son to be our food in this miraculous, mysterious, incredible way. Help us to recognize Him in the breaking of the bread. Help us to really truly see who Jesus is as He comes to us on a regular basis, on a daily basis in the Eucharist. And help us to fall in love with Him as you are in love with us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen”

• So there we have it!!

• Short paragraphs, right?

• AND YET…

• SO POWERFUL!!

• JUST INCREDIBLE!!

• We don’t want Fr. Mike to get lost…

• Paragraph 1373 says, “‘Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us,’ is present in many ways to his Church: in his Word, in his Church’s prayer, ‘where two or three are gathered in my name,’ in the poor, the sick, and the imprisoned, in the sacraments of which he is the author, in the sacrifice of the Mass, and in the person of the minister. But ‘he is present…most especially in the Eucharistic species.’”

• It is a UNIQUE presence

• Where do we get that kind of language that the Eucharist is the TRUE Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus?

• One of the paces is the Council of Trent, originally

• Paragraph 1374 says, “In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist ‘the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained.”

• This presence is called REAL because…

• (SQUIRREL!! 😉)

• All the other presences are REAL as well

• BUT…

• This is presence IN THE FULLEST SENSE

• It is a SUBSTANTIAL PRESENCE by which Christ, God and man, makes Himself WHOLLY AND ENTIRELY PRESENT

• This is something SO BEYOND OUR IMAGINATIONS

• It is BEYOND OUR UNDERSTANDING that Jesus Christ, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity is truly present in the Eucharist

• These words are important for us that Jesus is TRULY, REALLY, AND SUBSTANTIALLY contained

• Sometimes we will talk about Christ’s PHYSICAL PRESENCE

• It’s not wrong to talk about Christ’s physical presence

• Because the Eucharist is physically there, right?

• We RECEIVE the Eucharist

• We ADORE the Eucharist

• We get to CONSUME the Eucharist

• Jesus says, “Take and eat, take and drink.”

• These are physical actions

• IN FACT…

• In John Ch 6 when Jesus uses the term “for flesh,” HIS OWN FLESH, at one point He actually uses the term “SARX” which means a PHYSICAL PRESENCE

• “That truly is ME.”

• “That is MY Body, and Blood, Soul, and Divinity.”

• At the same time, a more precise language that doesn’t lead to some mistakes is that THE WHOLE CHRIST is TRULY, REALLY, AND SUBSTANTIALLY contained

• Because we recognize that THIS IS NOT CANNIBALISM

• Right?

• We are not eating the PHYSICAL FLESH of Jesus

• BUT…

• IT TRULY IS…

• IT REALLY IS…

• IT SUBSTANTIALLY IS…

• THE BODY, BLOOD, SOUL, AND DIVINITY OF JESUS!!

• That’s a key distinction we need to make here

• In some ways it’s a distraction to get away from the fact that Jesus, the whole Christ, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, is truly, really, and substantially contained

• That is the heart of this

• When did Christians start believing this?

• Well, we know that in John Ch 6 when Jesus made it CLEAR that He was going to give us His flesh and blood as food and drink, that many disciples said, “This saying is hard. Who can accept it?”

• AND THEY WALKED AWAY!!

• John 6:66 says, “Many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.” (Notice anything about the chapter and verse number?? 🤯 🤯 🤯)

• FROM THE BEGINNING, IT WAS CLEAR!!

• Well…

• Not clear in the sense that we understand how He’s doing this or what’s really happening

• BUT…

• It was clear that there is something UNIQUE about the Eucharist

• Something that is SO CHALLENGING TO US that it was recognized from the beginning

• BUT…

• We also have the Church Fathers

• Now we are looking at St. John Chrysostom and St. Ambrose

• They were a couple of centuries into Christianity

• BUT…

• If you want to go ALL THE WAY BACK you can go to St. Ignatius of Antioch in the year 107 AD talking about the Eucharist TRULY IS THE TRUE FLESH AND BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST OUR SAVIOR

• St. John Chrysostom says in Paragraph 1375, “It is not man that causes the things offered to become the Body and Blood of Christ, but he who was crucified for us, Christ himself. The priest, in the role of Christ, pronounces these words, but their power and grace are God’s. This is my body, he says. This word transforms the things offered.”

• This is placed under the OFFICE OF PRIESTHOOD

• There are people who may come to the conclusion that yes Jesus was very serious when He said in John Ch 6, “My flesh is true food, my blood is true drink.”

• Jesus was being literal when He said at the Last Supper, “This is my Body. This is my Blood.”

• And they STILL miss out on partaking in the Eucharist because they don’t have the priesthood

• When we have abandoned apostolic succession, when we have abandoned the priesthood, then we no longer have the ABILITY to confect the Eucharist 

• Because even from the beginning, St. John Chrysostom says that it is the PRIEST IN THE ROLE OF CHRIST who pronounces these words and the power and grace COME FROM GOD

• So there is an intrinsic connection between the REALITY of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist and the ministry, the role, and the action of the PRIEST

• St. Ambrose says…

• (SQUIRREL!! 😉)

• This is one of those situations where Fr. Mike likes to show how to demonstrate or point out how strange it is that we would say the same God who made everything out of nothing YET HOW COULD GOD POSSIBLY DO THIS??

• We remember in the beginning God said, “Let there be light.”

• AND THERE WAS LIGHT!!

• The God who can create EVERYTHING OUT OF NOTHING with a word, He can’t transform one thing into another????

• St. Ambrose says in Paragraph 1375 says, “It is no less a feat to give things their original nature than to change their nature.”

• St. Ambrose also says in Paragraph 1375, “Could not Christ’s word, which can make from nothing what did not exist, change existing things into what they were not before?”

• YES!!

• THIS IS TRUE!!

• Paragraph 1376 highlights what is actually happening

• TRANSUBSTANTIATION!!

• The accidents remain the same…

• BUT…

• THE SUBSTANCE CHANGES!!

• The accidents are what the appearance is

• What the look, the vision, the smell, the taste, the sound, all of those things, the touch, those accidental properties remain the same

• BUT…

• The substance of the thing, the “what it isness” of the thing CHANGES

• There are some Christians who say CONSUBSTANTIATION in the sense that it is BOTH bread and wine AND the Body and Blood of Christ

• The Church has been definitive in saying that it is the WHOLE substance of bread and wine has become the WHOLE substance of Christ’s Body and Blood

• TRANSUBSTANTIATION!!

• Paragraph 1376 says, “This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation.”

• The form doesn’t change but the substance does

• Paragraph 1377 says, “The Eucharistic presence of Christ begins at the moment of the consecration and endures as long as the Eucharistic species subsist.”

• So what does that mean?

• As long as the bread is recognizable ad bread and as long as the chalice of Christ’s Blood is recognizable as wine, it REMAINS THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST

• So long as the Eucharistic species exist, it is STILL THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST

• BUT…

• Once digestion happens, that ceases to be under the appearance of bread and wine

• Therefore, it ceases to be the Body and Blood of Christ

• Does that make sense?

• Sometimes someone will maybe drop a Consecrated Host aka The Body of Christ into dirt or something

• So what do you do there?

• Well, a person could consume the Eucharist in that case

• BUT…

• There are times when that would not be proper

• So the Host will be taken very carefully and placed in some water and placed in a very safe place until the Consecrated Host dissolves in the water 

• So it is no longer recognizable as bread in which case it is no longer the presence of Jesus Christ

• I think this is the perfect place to talk about Eucharistic Miracles!! Check out this link to learn about Blessed Carlo Acutis and his study of Eucharistic Miracles: 😃 😃 😃 http://www.miracolieucaristici.org/en/Liste/list.html 

• The same thing happens when it comes to linens 

• The PURIFICATOR is the white cloth that is used to wipe the rim of the chalice when we receive the Precious Blood

• There are typically stains of the Precious Blood on that white cloth

• In order to clean them, there is a procedure

• They get soaked in water for 24 hours so that what APPEARS to be wine breaks down 

• It is no longer wine

• Then that gets poured into a holy place and then the linens are washed normally

• Jesus Christ is TRULY PRESENT as long as the Eucharistic species subsist

• Paragraph 1377 continues, “Christ is present whole and entire in each of the species and whole and entire in each of their parts, in such a way that the breaking of the bread does not divide Christ.”

• What does that mean?

• That means if you went to Mass and received just the Body of Christ, THAT IS THE WHOLE CHRIST

• You don’t get “more” Jesus if you receive the Body AND the Blood

• In a similar way, if they ran out of Consecrated Hosts, and the priest or extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion begin fracturing the Host into smaller pieces 

• The Church would say be assured that Christ is present WHOLE AND ENTIRE IN EACH OF THE SPECIES, in the Body and/or the Blood, and WHOLE AND ENTIRE IN EACH OF THEIR PARTS

• So if you only had a small sip of Jesus verses a large gulp of the Precious Blood, you receive the FULL CHRIST

• If you only had a crumb or small piece of the Consecrated Host or the big presider’s Host, you receive the WHOLE CHRIST regardless

• CHRIST IS NOT BEING DIVIDED

• IT IS THE WHOLE CHRIST!!

• It is one thing to talk about God

• It’s another thing to pray to God

• Right?

• It’s another thing to just ruminate and learn data about who God is

• It’s another thing to be in relationship with God

• It’s one thing to say Jesus Christ is TRULY PRESENT in the Eucharist

• It’s another thing to go and visit Him

• It’s another thing to go to Mass

• We are going to talk about this tomorrow when it comes to EUCHARISTIC ADORATION

• When it comes to the worship of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist and visiting the Tabernacle where the presence of Christ abides

• STOKE YOUR HEARTS!!

• Today, if you can, stop by a church and recognize that when you see that red candle burning, Jesus Christ is truly present WAITING FOR YOU!!

• Get the love and fire of your hearts stoked so that we can say we don’t just want to HEAR about Jesus

• WE WANT TO SEE HIM!!

• We don’t just want to hear about how great it is to have a relationship with God who makes Himself present to us

• WE WANT TO HAVE THAT RELATIONSHIP!!

• WE WANT TO LIVE IN THAT RELATIONSHIP!!

• We don’t just want to talk about how amazing it is that the presence of Christ abides in this unique way in the Eucharist

• WE WANT TO VISIT HIM!!

• TODAY!!

• If you can’t, just let your heart reach out through space to that Tabernacle and say, “Jesus, let me abide in you.” 

• Psalm 84:10 says, “Lord, to dwell in the doorway of your temple is better than 1,000 days anywhere else.”

• ONE DAY…

• One day in the outskirts of the temple is better than 1,000 ANYWHERE ELSE

• The same thing is even more true when it comes to the Catholic Church

• Just walk by a Catholic Church and know that Church is like a giant Tabernacle around the small Tabernacle in which is the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

• AMAZING!!

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!

• I cannot WAIT to see you tomorrow!!

• GO VISIT JESUS TODAY IF YOU CAN!!

• I AM GOING RIGHT NOW AFTER I POST THIS!!