Various studies have shown that a large percentage of Catholics do not believe in the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, which is the source and summit of our faith, as I wrote about last week. Although most Catholics who attend Mass every week do believe in the Real Presence, it’s always beneficial to study the mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist. Why do we believe that the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Christ?
In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, “Truly, Truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh” (John 6:47-51). Jesus is pretty clear that the bread he will give is His flesh, and He gives the disciples bread at the Last Supper, and, giving it to the disciples, He said, “This is my body which is given for you” (Luke 22:19). The protestants say that He meant that figuratively, not literally. However, when the people questioned His teaching, Jesus didn’t explain that it was a figure of speech. Instead, he doubled down, saying, “Truly, Truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed” (John 6:53-55). In other places where His teaching is questioned Jesus explained what He meant. For example, when the Apostles asked about the Parable of the Weeds (Mt. 13:36), and when He taught Nicodemus about Baptism (Jn. 3:1-21), and when He talks to the woman at the well (Jn. 4:1-26).
At the Last Supper, the Lord also told the Apostles, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Lk 22:19), and they did. Early Christian life revolved around the celebration of the Eucharist, or, as it’s called in the New Testament, the Breaking of the Bread. After His Resurrection, the Lord revealed Himself to the disciples at Emmaus in the Breaking of the Bread (Lk 24:13-35). Even St. Paul witnesses to this in his First Letter to the Corinthians, “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Cor 10:16) St. Paul also said that eating the bread and drinking the cup unworthily is “profaning the body and blood of the Lord.” He said, “Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgement upon himself” (1 Cor 11:27-29).
The belief in the body and blood of the Lord passed down to the early Church, and it is clearly present in their writings. St. Justin the Martyr wrote a defense of Christianity around the year 155 A.D., in which he describes the Mass and says this about the Eucharist, “For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by Him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nourished, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus” (First Apology, 66).
Even earlier St. Ignatius of Antioch, who was martyred around the year 110 A.D., wrote, “I have no taste for corruptible food nor for the pleasures of this life. I desire the Bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David; and for drink I desire His blood, which is love incorruptible” (Letter to the Romans).