Beating Around ... the Eucha-What!

His Holiness holding Holiness Himself. Happy Corpus Christi

Hello Everyone!! It has been a while but I have just accepted that for now my blog posts are going to be sporadic because well…life is CA-RAZY! I recently joined an organization called FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) and will be doing ministry at the University of Tennessee next year. I am currently at a 5 week training in Champaign, Illinois with 150 first year young adults who are totally on fire for God and want to see the world transformed from a culture of despair to a culture of joy. I will write about that and post pictures later because it is AMAZING!! But we have bigger and more amazing fish to fry because today my friends is the feast of CORPUS  CHRISTI or for those of us who don’t speak Latin… a celebration and reminder that Christ is still among us in the form of the Eucharist(I’ll try to keep this brief)

First Communion early 90's style

So if you were raised Catholic in the least bit, you made your first communion. If you were anything like me (just strange) you were SUPER EXCITED about it because you FINALLY got to receive that little white bread that your parents receive. Yes that is right, no more crossed armed blessings for me Father Priest, I’ll have the real stuff! Note: I thought that the “real stuff” would taste like candy… I was wrong and so were you!

Maybe not everyone was as creepily excited as I was but I would imagine that many of us at least made somewhat of an ordeal about our first communion. We practiced, got white dresses and little suits as well as rosary gifts and prayer books (where were the first communion transformers or Lego sets?). As second graders, this is a big deal to our parents and to us. So my question is… what happened?

Why is it that we have no reverence at all for the white wafer, which we eat, and the wine, which we drink. There must be a disconnect when 80% of Catholic church goers don’t actually believe that the Eucharist is really the physical and spiritual presence of Jesus but the people that run our faith (oh you know the Pope and the Magesterium and yes they are smarter than you) call that white wafer the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ as well as the “source and summit” the Christian life ( Blessed J. P. II). So the Church tells us that it is EVERYTHING because body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ together linked with the source and summit of life is pretty all-inclusive. But the majority of the church treats it as nothing. So what is the big deal about the Eucharist and are we peasants correct or is it the authority of the Church?

Before I give my feeble explanation, I just want to say that I am no apologist, I just want to share with you all (my inta-net friends) the challenges that lead me to literally “stake my life” on the fact that Jesus Christ my Savior is physically present in the Eucharist, becoming one with me every week at mass (and who says God doesn’t create modern day miracles). This is not some grand argument… I will leave that to church fathers, this is just food for thought.

Without further ado let’s just go to our destination…

John 6: 28- 29 “ Then they asked him, “ What must we do to do the works that God requires” Jesus answered, “ The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent”.   

Three words. PIECE. OF. CAKE. Just believe in Jesus.

Or is it…

Most Christians (whether they know it or not) agree that it is faith IN Jesus Christ that will be our ticket to heaven as opposed our white knuckled moral discipline. Most Christians also believe that good works are an expression of salvation and that while our good works will not save us, if tangible effort is not present in one’s life…others will wonder if that person is actually saved.  What we miss sometimes however is that faith is not belief THAT something is real, it is believing IN something. Trusting that something will do what it was made to do.

James 2:19 “ You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe and shudder”.

So Jesus said in order to do what God requires, we must believe in Him. This means that we must believe that He is able to do what He is intended to do. And so if He says He is God in the flesh (which He does… A LOT) then if I believe IN Him, I am jumping on that train. If He tells me that He came to die and rise again and I believe IN Him, then I am also going to jump on that train. Faith IN Jesus means that if He said it… I am in on it. As Andy Stanley said it “ If Jesus Christ ACTUALLY rose from the dead, no matter what he is about… I am with that guy” and so let’s quote some Jesus words.

John 6: 50-51“ But here is the bread that came down from Heaven, which man may eat and not die. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread IS my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world"

Ok. Yes, this is super weird and I don’t think any one is denying that, but will we deny the power of God for the sake of normalcy? There is almost nothing conventional about any of Salvation history so if we can believe in all of these other fantastical miracles…why exclude this one. I mean we happily claim that this Godman rose from the dead without really blinking an eye… why can’t He choose to give His true physical presence in the bread and wine in order to physically become one with us… He did create the universe in the physical and spiritual realms, to trust In Him means to trust that He makes the rules and we might not understand them.

If we read on, in the very next sentence, the Jews begin to argue sharply among themselves saying “ How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’” and Jesus replies “ No guys, total misunderstanding… you know I speak in crazy parable language… I mean that bread and grape juice only symbolize my flesh and blood as the redemption of the world… creepy cannibals!”

Convert to the Faith First Communion. Unbelievable

Oh Wait… NO HE DIDN’T say that!!!

He said “ Truly, truly I tell you, UNLESS you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is REAL food and my blood is REAL drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I IN HIM!”

I actually don’t understand where the idea that the Eucharist is the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ got lost because our Lord is clear about it. If belief IN Him is the very “simple” requirement for salvation then should we not believe that what He tells us is true?

In fact… the father of the Reformation Martin Luther agrees, "Who, but the devil, has granted such license of wresting the words of the holy Scripture? Who ever read in the Scriptures, that 'my body' is the same as 'the sign of my body'? or, that 'is' is the same as 'it signifies'? What language in the world ever spoke so? It is only then the devil, that imposes upon us by these fanatical men. Not one of the Fathers of the Church, though so numerous, ever spoke as the Sacramentarians: not one of them ever said, It is only bread and wine; or, the body and blood of Christ is not there present.”

My friends, if you are Catholic, I am asking you to realize the unending depth of the mass. Jesus Christ is THERE every Sunday becoming part of us and we don’t even care. I would imagine that it is a lot like a normal middle eastern man walking around Jerusalem claiming to be God, many people didn't care. Oh how humanity doesn’t change at all! 

But let’s change this! I triple dog dare us to even try to fathom a God that loves us little screw ups SO MUCH that he humbled himself down to fit in our hand, became small enough to physically enter into us and transform our mess into His glory. If you are a Catholic friend of mine… I challenge you to read these links! Good Explanation of the Eucharist, The Fouth Cup.If you are an amazing on fire Protestant friend of mine, I challenge you to ask yourself… could this be? And if it is… what does it mean?

The white wafer that we as second graders got so excited to finally receive is the salvation of the world. The Jews were right, this IS a hard teaching, but let’s not walk away, let’s give God His due glory and choose to have faith IN His word because it can and it will transform us. WE ONLY HAVE TO ALLOW IT!

"If I really believed that was God up there, I would crawl on my belly down the aisle to receive Him." – Rocking Protestant Man (somebody help me out)