“Unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink of his blood, you do not have life within you.” We hear these words proclaimed in our Gospel for this feast of the Body and Blood of Christ.” (Jn 6: 51-58) When many Jewish listeners heard these words, many were scandalized—was this cannibalism? They walked away. The believers in John’s community were not scandalized because they understood that it was the risen Lord—with a risen body and blood—who was present at Eucharist. But later, during Reformation and Enlightenment times, in many Christian churches the belief in the presence of Christ in Eucharist was detached from belief his real bodily presence. Thus non-Catholic Christian churches often explain “real presence” by saying that it is the belief of those who are gathered together to pray which makes Christ present. But we Catholics can’t think of Christ’s spiritual presence apart from material presence! For us, in Eucharist there is a real (material/bodily/physical) presence of the Lord. His human as well as his divine nature abides in the matter of bread and wine just as it abided in the historical, material, and very touchable body of Jesus of Nazareth. During the time after Easter, we heard many Gospels about appearances of the risen Lord to his apostles and disciples. It was a “different” body but also the same: it had his wounds; it spoke with words they recognized; it broke bread and ate on the seashore and with the two disciples on their way to Emmaus. We don’t have good theological words to explain this, but clearly the body of Jesus of Nazareth was still alive and well in the risen Christ, whom the witnesses experienced after Jesus rose. In today’s Gospel, and in his Last Supper prayer in John’s Gospel, Jesus both clearly intended to be with us forever as food and instituted a way we should do that, through breaking bread and drinking wine. Thus it is not our belief, important as that is, that makes Him present in Eucharist. It is his forever continuing intention of unity with us, an intention living now within the Trinity, that makes the Lord present in Eucharist. The material of the bread and wine we consume is He who is touching us, so that we can stay in touch, literally, with Him. Many people keep mementoes of their loved dead—something that person touched, wore…as treasured physical relics. As long as we have material bodies, we need material touch! Thanks, Lord, for understanding that!
— Blog entry by Sister Mary Garascia
The post June 7, Body and Blood of Christ, In touch: a Sunday Scriptures blog first appeared on Sisters of the Precious Blood.