Believing in the True Presence in the Eucharist
The Church’s belief in the Eucharist goes all the way back to Jesus and the Apostles. In fact, early Christians were sometimes accused of cannibalism because those around them understood just how literally they took Jesus’ words about eating His flesh and drinking His blood.
This belief has been at the heart of Christianity for nearly 2,000 years. Yet, despite the Church’s unchanged teaching, many people still struggle to believe in the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.
We may ask: How does bread become the Body of Christ? How does wine become His Blood? How can I truly come to believe this teaching?
However, the Eucharist may not be the best place to begin. We must first ask a more fundamental question: Is Jesus Christ truly God? Is He who He says He is?
If Jesus is not God, then there is no reason for us to give our lives to Him or even to be Christian. But if Jesus is God—if the Second Person of the Trinity truly became man, walked among us, suffered, died, and rose from the dead—then His words carry divine authority. They must be taken seriously and believed.
That is exactly what we see in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. Jesus tells the crowd that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood in order to have life, remain in Him, and receive eternal life.
His words shocked the people. Scripture tells us that they began quarreling and murmuring among themselves. They thought His teaching was impossible to accept.
Notice, however, what Jesus does not do. He does not step back and tell them that He was speaking only symbolically or metaphorically. Instead, He repeats the teaching again and again:
“My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”
“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, ou do not have life within you.”
“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”
Jesus repeats this teaching several times and doubles down within this short passage. Rather than softening His words, He makes it clear that He means exactly what He has said.
Because of this difficult teaching, many of His disciples leave Him. They walk away because they cannot accept what He is saying.
A teacher does not want students to leave simply because they struggle with a lesson. Yet there comes a point when the truth being taught is so essential that it cannot be changed or compromised. Jesus allows them to leave because this truth is too important to alter.
He then turns to the Twelve and asks, “Do you also want to leave?”
In other words, Jesus is not changing the teaching. He is asking whether His Apostles will trust Him even when they do not fully understand.
Peter responds with words that are essential to our faith: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
Peter does not claim to understand completely. Instead, he places his trust in Jesus because he knows who Jesus is. He knows that Christ has divine authority. In essence, Peter says, “I trust You because You are God.”
At the Last Supper, Jesus’ teaching begins to come together for the Apostles.
The Last Supper took place during the Passover, the sacred meal commemorating the Israelites’ deliverance from slavery in Egypt. The Israelites sacrificed an unblemished lamb and placed its blood upon their doorposts. When the angel of death passed through Egypt, the homes marked with the lamb’s blood were
spared.
During this Passover meal, Jesus takes bread and does something new. He says, “This is my body.” He then takes the cup and says, “This is my blood.”
Jesus reveals that He is the Lamb of God. He is the new Passover.
The Apostles begin to understand what He meant in John’s Gospel. The Eucharist is the new Passover meal that saves God’s people—not from the angel of death, but from the power of sin and eternal death.
It ultimately comes back to this: If Jesus is truly God—if He became man, died upon the Cross, and rose from the dead—then surely He can make Himself present under the appearances of bread and wine. Surely He can give Himself to us as the greatest gift we will ever receive.
Belief in the Eucharist ultimately flows from belief in Jesus Christ. If we trust who He is, then we must also trust what He says.
Do we fully understand how bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ? No. It remains a sacred mystery. But, like Peter, we can say:
“Lord, I believe because I know You are God. You have the words of eternal life, and I trust in Your word.”
Father James Schibi, Pastor