0
0
This Sunday is the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ.
As Catholics, we need to accept the fact that several of our teachings are kinda out there. From the outside, it seems weird. Hell, from the inside, it seems weird.
We eat flesh and drink blood.
We need to be okay with people thinking that’s weird. It’s a perfectly normal reaction. This isn’t something most people do. In fact, outside of the Mass, eating human flesh and drinking human blood is wrong.
Actually, if you’ve never thought it was weird or gross, even as a Catholic, then maybe you haven’t really thought about what we believe about Communion.
Because we believe it’s actually Jesus’ Blood and actually Jesus’ Body. It’s not a symbol. It doesn’t represent Jesus. It IS Jesus.
There are those, especially in Protestant faiths, that will argue that it is a symbol, that when Jesus was talking about eating His flesh and drinking His blood, that He was being metaphorical, as He often does with parables and such. But Jesus was pretty explicit when He’d talk about it.
Check out John 6:53-68 – feel free to grab your own Bible or follow along:
“Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.” These things He said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. Then many of His disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” Since Jesus knew that His disciples were murmuring about this, He said to them, “Does this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? It is the Spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray Him. And He said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father.” As a result of this, many [of] His disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied Him. Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
Jesus doesn’t mince words. And the thing that always just makes it clear to me that He is being literal, is that He lets His disciples leave. And I think it’s important that the author included that in there. Jesus doesn’t try to explain the situation to the disciples or to the Twelve. He doesn’t try to say, “Hey I don’t mean my real flesh, guys, c’mon, that’s just weird.”
Jesus watches them walk away, then He turns to the Twelve and questions them to see if they can accept that teaching.
If you’re not willing to believe that the Eucharist is the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul & Divinity of Jesus Christ, then you should take some serious time to pray and ask God for the graces to believe it. It is one of the foundations of our Catholic faith. The Mass is the most highest and important form of prayer that we have. And at the climax of the Mass is the Source & Summit of our faith. And that Source & Summit is the Eucharist – the Body and Blood of Jesus.
I’m not saying it’s easy to believe. After all, the senses will tell us that it is bread and wine. What makes it challenging is that it still tastes, smells, feels, and looks like bread and wine. But what it actually is is the Body and Blood. The substance is what changes.
If it actually tasted, smelled, felt, and looked like flesh and blood, the Truth might be easier to accept, but that doesn’t make it easier to swallow.
