Friday of the Third Week of Easter
(Acts 9:1-20; John 6:52-59)
Bishops are worried today because most American Catholics do
not believe that Christ is really present in Holy Communion. According to professional polls, most
Catholics think that the bread and wine are only symbols for Christ. In today’s gospel Jesus refutes this mistaken
idea.
The Jews in the gospel question the doctrine of the
Church. They say, “’How can this man
give us his Flesh to eat?’” They
probably would have less trouble in thinking of the bread and wine as symbols
representing a spiritual communion with Christ.
This is what Calvinist Protestants have believed since the sixteenth
century. But the gospel is imminently
clear. It cites Jesus saying that to
have his life, one must eat his flesh and drink his blood.
Of course, accepting that the bread and wine become the Body
and Blood of Christ defies the senses. The
bread and wine still look like bread and wine after the consecration at
mass. The Church offers the doctrine of
transubstantiation to explain how the change takes place. Fine, we accept that. But we also something else. The Old Testament tells us that God’s ways
are not our ways. What God has revealed is
greater than our imaginations can conceive.
Saying that bread and wine become the body and blood of Jesus Christ
goes hand-in-hand with the other great truths of faith. That we take sustenance from his very body is
as consoling as God becoming human to accompany us on the sojourn of life. That we imbibe his very blood is as hopeful
as knowing that we are Jesus’ brothers and sisters destined like him to rise
from the dead.
