This week in preparation for the celebration of the Feast of the Body and Blood of Jesus, my reflections will be on the Eucharist. It is sad to say that only a third of Catholics in the United States profess that the Eucharist is the real Body and Blood of Jesus under the appearance of bread and wine. The theological term is transubstantiation. Unfortunately, many believe that is a symbol, representing the Body and Blood of Jesus. What do you believe?

 

 

The Church’s teaching is based on the words of Jesus in the 6th chapter of John. Jesus clearly says that he would give us his Body and Blood to eat and drink. At the Last Supper narratives of Matthew, Mark and Luke, he confirms this. Later Paul will reaffirm this teaching in his First Letter to the Corinthians. This has been the consistent teaching of the Church over the centuries.

 

This is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says:

 

“The essential signs of the Eucharistic sacrament are wheat bread and grape wine, on which the blessing of the Holy Spirit is invoked and the priest pronounces the words of consecration spoken by Jesus during the Last Supper: "This is my body which will be given up for you. . . This is the cup of my blood. . .

 

 

“By the consecration the transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ is brought about. Under the consecrated species of bread and wine Christ himself, living and glorious, is present in a true, real, and substantial manner: his Body and his Blood, with his soul and his divinity” (CCC 1412-1413).