Archbishop's web site Denver Catholic Register Parishes Catholic Pastoral Center
August 9, 2000
Jesus is the living bread come down from Heaven
Editor's Note: This is the first in a five-part catechesis by Russell Shaw leading up to the Sept. 17, 2000, Eucharistic Congress.
By Russell Shaw
After telling his disciples to announce the Good News to the entire world, the risen Jesus promises not to abandon them. "I am with you always, to the end of the age," he says (Mt 28.20). He has kept this promise and goes on keeping it. Jesus is with us today.
His presence takes several forms. He is present in the Church, which is his body (Rom 12.4-5, 1 Cor 12.27, Eph 1.23). He is present in Sacred Scripture. He is present in the poor, the needy, those in prison, the marginalized and excluded (Mt 25.31-46). He is present "where two or three are gathered" in his name (Mt 18.20). He is present and acting in the sacraments, in the Holy Mass, in his ministers.
One form of Christ's presence is, however, so extraordinary that it, and it alone, is called the Real Presence. This is his presence in the Eucharist. Jesus' other ways of being present also are real, but his presence in the Blessed Sacrament goes beyond the rest.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, quoting the Council of Trent, states the faith of the Church concerning the Real Presence in these words:
"The mode of Christ's presence under the Eucharistic species is unique....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'" (1374).
What Jesus Says About the Eucharist
The three synoptic Gospels — Matthew, Mark, and Luke — contain accounts of the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. The Gospel of John gives us something else — the most explicit and theologically developed statement of the Real Presence in any of the gospels.
Jesus' Eucharistic discourse is found in the sixth chapter of the Gospel (John 6.25-69). It comes after his miracle multiplying five barley loaves and two fishes to feed a crowd of five thousand.
Confronting him soon afterwards in a synagogue in the town of Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee, the people are still marveling at the miracle. Jesus tells them to raise their sights to something greater than ordinary, everyday bread: "The bread of God is that which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world."
"Lord, give us this bread always," the people plead.
Sensing that a critical moment is at hand, Jesus goes directly to the point: "I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst."
But this is considerably more than his listeners bargained for, and the Gospel says they "murmured" at hearing these words.
"Do not murmur among yourselves," Jesus tells them. "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.
"Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh."
Now the people are nonplused: How can that possibly be? And at this crucial juncture, rather than explain away his words as a mere figure of speech, Jesus insists on their literal truth.
"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed."
St. John says even many of his disciples found this a "hard saying" and walked with him no more. Saddened, Jesus asks the Twelve: "Will you also go away?" Simon Peter, first among the Twelve, gives a response of faith: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."
Over the centuries since then, Jesus' followers have said essentially the same. The famous eucharistic hymn Adoro Te Devote, attributed to St. Thomas Aquinas, puts it like this: "I believe whatever the Son of God has said; there is nothing truer than this word of Truth."
Shedding Light on the Mystery
Christ's Real Presence in the Eucharist is, in the strict sense, a mystery — a truth of God's revelation so brimming with meaning that the human mind cannot comprehend it. There is no way to `explain' the Real Presence or to demonstrate how it `works.'
Still, some things can be excluded. For example, this is not ordinary presence — Jesus is not `inside' the host or something like that — but a unique way of being present best described as sacramental. Nor is it only symbolic — it is real. The appearances of bread and wine remain, but the reality is the body and blood of Christ.
Prayer, study, and reflection give us some limited positive insight into the mystery. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is a help.
For example, quoting St. John Chrysostom: "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."
And again, quoting the Council of Trent: "It has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again, that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation."
Holy Communion
The Real Presence is a dynamic reality. That is especially the case when we receive the Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion. Pope John Paul says Jesus makes himself "the bread which is broken so that everyone can be nourished by his very life" (homily for Corpus Christi, June 22, 2000).
When we receive the body of the Lord, we are incorporated into Christ. This communion is both spiritual and also something else — real, bodily union with the risen Jesus.
The Eucharist is a source of eternal life for us because in it we participate in Christ's risen, bodily life. As St. Irenaeus of Lyons, one of the Fathers of the Church, says: "For as the bread...is no longer common bread but the Eucharist, consisting of two realities, earthly and heavenly, so also our bodies, when they receive the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, having the hope of the resurrection to eternity."
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