Even though the Eucharist is the core of Catholic Faith many Catholics I know seem shocked that I actually believe the host and wine after the consecration are actually the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. I am shocked that those denying the Real Presence of Jesus after the consecration consider themselves Catholics.
Newsflash!! It is not optional to believe the host and wine after the consecration are actually the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. You are required to believe this if you are a Catholic. It is Dogma!
Now let's examine what happened at the Last Supper. Was Jesus speaking literally or are Catholics committing the sin of idolatry by worshipping mere bread and wine?In the Greek language the words of Jesus, "This is my Body", are rendered "Touto estin to soma mou." Linguistic experts tell us that the verb "estin" can mean "actually is" or "figuratively is". Naturally, as Catholics accepting the authority of our Church, we accept the teaching of the Church that Christ meant these words to be taken literally.
Many Catholics when discussing the Real Presence and trying to show that Jesus meant His words to be taken literally often toss out the word "Transubstantiation" without explaining what the word means. Transubstantiation is the Catholic belief that at the consecration the bread and wine while retaining the appearances of bread and wine "actually is" and has become the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ.
For those not accepting the teaching authority of the Catholic Church there are other Scriptures to use which supports our viewpoint on what the words of Jesus actually meant. John 6:48-66 will bring out what Jesus meant at the Last Supper. I will give you a quick synopsis of these verses. This passage starts out with Jesus telling His disciples that He is the bread of life and that if people eat His flesh that, unlike their ancestors who ate manna and died, they would live for ever. This statement upsets many of His disciples because of the words used by Jesus in John's Gospel. For the word “eat” Jesus used “phago” which means to literally eat, chew or consume. For the word “flesh” Jesus used "sarx" which can only be translated or mean literal flesh. Many began questioning each other saying; "How can this be possible? "Who could accept such a teaching?" To end any confusion they might have, Jesus becomes more emphatic as he continues to preach. Now when He makes any statements pertaining to eating His flesh (starting with verse 54) He uses the word “trogo” which means to “gnaw or crunch with your teeth.” As he finishes He asks, "Does this upset you?" Many of His disciples began to leave but Jesus didn't call them back and say, Wait, you are misunderstanding me. He didn't grab anyone and say, Please stop. He didn't say, I meant that statement only figuratively not literally. He doesn’t do that because the words he used made it perfectly clear what he meant. Someday His disciples would literally eat His flesh.Many today are asking basically the same things that the disciples who left Jesus asked. Today many ask me, "Are you nuts or something? Do you honestly believe that the consecrated host is actually Jesus? How can millions of hosts throughout the world all be Jesus?" My reply is, "How can you believe Jesus hears all the prayers of millions of people all praying at the same time in many different languages?" or "How can Jesus be with every group of two or more believers all over the world who gather in His name as He promised?" There is only one answer to each of these questions; with God all things are possible.
In Corinthians Paul states that anyone who eats the bread or drinks the wine unworthily is behaving unworthily towards the Body and Blood of the Lord. He goes on to say that the person who eats the bread and drinks the wine not discerning that it is the actually the Lord's Body and Blood is bringing condemnation or damnation to himself.
1 Corinthians 11:26-29 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
If it were only bread and wine, how could taking it unworthily bring condemnation? The only way the above verses would make any sense would be if the bread and wine were actually the Body and Blood of Jesus. This is what I contend is taught by the Bible and the Catholic Church.
Before I close this article I wish to restate that the above teaching is something we as Catholics must accept as Dogma. It is not something we can reject or accept according to our individual whims. Many Catholics claim and profess this Dogma as true with their mouths yet their actions contradict the statements they make. Would we, if we truly believed the Eucharist to be actually Jesus, sit in the back of the Church? Wouldn't we want to get as close to the altar as possible? Would we leave Mass early as Judas did if we really believed Christ present? Wouldn't we sit and wait for others to leave so that we could be alone and converse one to one with our Saviour? What strange creatures we are. We not only have the words of Jesus in the Scriptures but many Eucharistic miracles throughout the centuries have occurred proving the Real Presence. There have been miracles of hosts bleeding, of a host turning to flesh at the consecration and many more miracles authenticated by the Church and Science yet the Churches remain only partially filled. Many non Catholics mock our belief in the Eucharist being actually Christ’s Body and Blood. We are criticized by Fundamentalists for taking the words of Christ as literally. In other words we are criticized by Fundamentalists for being too fundamental on this subject. Many fundamentalists tell us that the Apostles and members of the early Church thought the Eucharist was only a remembrance. Now let’s read what the teachers and members of the early Church actually taught and believed. I will leave it to you decide for yourself if they thought the Eucharist was actually Christ’s Body and Blood or only a remembrance.
What did the Early Church Fathers teach about the Eucharist?
Ignatius of Antioch - 110 A.D. (Letter to the Smyrnaeans 6:2-7:1)
"Take note of those who hold heterodox opinions on the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us, and see how contrary their opinions are to the mind of God. . . . They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, flesh which suffered for our sins and which that Father, in his goodness, raised up again. They who deny the gift of God are perishing in their disputes"Justin Martyr - 151A.D. (First Apology 66)
"We call this food Eucharist, and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true and who has been washed in the washing which is for the remission of sins and for regeneration [i.e., has received baptism] and is thereby living as Christ enjoined. For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nurtured, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus".Irenaeus of Lyons - 189 A.D. (Against Heresies 4:32-33)
"If the Lord were from other than the Father [and thus capable of performing miracles], how could he rightly take bread, which is of the same creation as our own, and confess it to be his body and affirm that the mixture in the cup is his blood?".Irenaeus of Lyons (ibid., 5:2).
"He has declared the cup, a part of creation, to be his own blood, from which he causes our blood to flow; and the bread, a part of creation, he has established as his own body, from which he gives increase unto our bodies. When, therefore, the mixed cup [wine and water] and the baked bread receives the Word of God and becomes the Eucharist, the body of Christ, and from these the substance of our flesh is increased and supported, how can they say that the flesh is not capable of receiving the gift of God, which is eternal life - flesh which is nourished by the body and blood of the Lord, and is in fact a member of him?"Clement of Alexandria - (The Instructor of Children 1:6:43:3 [A.D. 191]).
“Eat my flesh,” [Jesus] says, “and drink my blood.” The Lord supplies us with these intimate nutrients, He delivers over his flesh and pours out his blood, and nothing is lacking for the growth of his children"Tertullian
"[T]here is not a soul that can at all procure salvation, except it believe whilst it is in the flesh, so true is it that the flesh is the very condition on which salvation hinges. And since the soul is, in consequence of its salvation, chosen to the service of God, it is the flesh which actually renders it capable of such service. The flesh, indeed, is washed [in baptism], in order that the soul may be cleansed . . . the flesh is shadowed with the imposition of hands [in confirmation] , that the soul also maybe illuminated by the Spirit; the flesh feeds [in the Eucharist] on the body and blood of Christ, that the soul likewise may be filled with God" (The Resurrection of the Dead 8 [A.D. 210]).Hippolytus
"'And she [Wisdom] has furnished her table' [Prov. 9:1] . . . refers to His [Christ's] honored and undefiled body and blood, which day by day are administered and offered sacrificially at the spiritual divine table, as a memorial of that first and ever-memorable table of the spiritual divine supper [i.e., the Last Supper]" (Fragment from Commentary on Proverbs [A.D. 217]).Origin
"Formerly there was baptism in an obscure way . . . now, however, in full view, there is regeneration in water and in the Holy Spirit. Formerly, in an obscure way, there was manna for food; now, however, in full view, there is the true food, the flesh of the Word of God, as he himself says: 'My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink' [John 6:56]" (Homilies on Numbers 7:2 [A.D. 248]).Cyprian of Carthage
"He [Paul] threatens, moreover, the stubborn and forward, and denounces them, saying, 'Whosoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily, is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord' [1 Cor. 11:27]. All these warnings being scorned and contemned-- [lapsed Christians will often take communion] before their sin is expiated, before confession has been made of their crime, before their conscience has been purged by sacrifice and by the hand of the priest, before the offense of an angry and threatening Lord has been appeased, [and so] violence is done to His body and blood; and they sin now against their Lord more with their hand and mouth than when they denied their Lord" (The Lapsed 15-16 [A.D. 251]).Council of Nicaea I
"It has come to the knowledge of the holy and great Synod that, in some districts and cities, the deacons administer the Eucharist to the presbyters [i.e., priests], whereas neither canon nor custom permits that they who have no right to offer [the Eucharistic sacrifice] should give the Body of Christ to them that do offer [it]. And this also has been made known, that certain deacons now touch the Eucharist even before the bishops. Let all such practices be utterly done away, and let the deacons remain within their own bounds, knowing that they are the ministers of the bishop and the inferiors of the presbyters. Let them receive the Eucharist according to their order, after the presbyters, and let either the bishop or the presbyter administer to them" (canon 18 [A.D. 325]).Aphraahat the Persian Sage
"After having spoken thus [at the Last Supper], the Lord rose up from the place where he had made the Passover and had given his Body as food and his Blood as drink, and he went with his disciples to the place where he was to be arrested. But he ate of his own Body and drank of his own Blood, while he was pondering on the dead. With his own hands the Lord presented his own Body to be eaten, and before he was crucified he gave his Blood as drink" (Treatises 12:6 [A.D. 340]).Cyril of Jerusalem
"The bread and the wine of the Eucharist before the holy invocation of the adorable Trinity were simple bread and wine, but the invocation having been made, the bread becomes the body of Christ and the wine the blood of Christ" (Catechetical Lectures 19:7 [A.D. 350]).Cyril of Jerusalem
"Do not, therefore, regard the bread and wine as simply that; for they are, according to the Master's declaration, the body and blood of Christ. Even though the senses suggest to you the other, let faith make you firm. Do not judge in this matter by taste, but be fully assured by the faith, not doubting that you have been deemed worthy of the body and blood of Christ. . . . [Since you are] fully convinced that the apparent bread is not bread, even though it is sensible to the taste, but the body of Christ, and that the apparent wine is not wine, even though the taste would have it so, ... partake of that bread as something spiritual, and put a cheerful face on your soul" (ibid., 22:6, 9).Ambrose of Milan
"Perhaps you may be saying, 'I see something else; how can you assure me that I am receiving the body of Christ?' It but remains for us to prove it. And how many are the examples we might use! . . . Christ is in that sacrament, because it is the body of Christ" (The Mysteries 9:50, 58 [A.D. 390]).Theodore of Mopsuestia
"When [Christ] gave the bread he did not say, 'This is the symbol of my body,' but, 'This is my body.' In the same way, when he gave the cup of his blood he did not say, 'This is the symbol of my blood,' but, 'This is my blood'; for he wanted us to look upon the [Eucharistic elements] after their reception of grace and the coming of the Holy Spirit not according to their nature, but receive them as they are, the body and blood of our Lord. We ought . . . not regard [the elements] merely as bread and cup, but as the body and blood of the Lord, into which they were transformed by the descent of the Holy Spirit" (Catechetical Homilies 5:1 [A.D. 405]).Augustine
"Christ was carried in his own hands when, referring to his own Body, he said, 'This is my Body' [Matt. 26:26]. For he carried that body in his hands" (Explanations of the Psalms 33:1:10 [A.D. 405]).Augustine
"I promised you [new Christians], who have now been baptized, a sermon in which I would explain the sacrament of the Lord's Table, which you now look upon and of which you last night were made participants. You ought to know that you have received, what you are going to receive, and what you ought to receive daily. That bread which you see on the altar, having been sanctified by the word of God, is the Body of Christ. That chalice, or rather, what is in that chalice, having been sanctified by the word of God, is the Blood of Christ" (Sermons 227 [A.D. 411]).Augustine
"What you see is the bread and the chalice; that is what your own eyes report to you. But what your faith obliges you to accept is that the bread is the Body of Christ and the chalice is the Blood of Christ. This has been said very briefly, which may perhaps be sufficient for faith; yet faith does not desire instruction" (ibid., 272).Council of Ephesus
"We will necessarily add this also. Proclaiming the death, according to the flesh, of the Only-begotten Son of God, that is Jesus Christ, confessing his resurrection from the dead, and his ascension into heaven, we offer the unbloody Sacrifice in the churches, and so go on to the mystical thanksgivings, and are sanctified, having received his Holy Flesh and the Precious Blood of Christ the Savior of us all. And not as common flesh do we receive it; God forbid: nor as of a man sanctified and associated with the Word according to the unity of worth, or as having a divine indwelling, but as truly the Life-giving and very flesh of the Word himself. For he is the Life according to his nature as God, and when he became united to his Flesh, he made it also to be Life-giving" (Letter of Cyril to Nestorius [A.D. 431]).