This weekend our Catholic Church universal celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. It is a celebration of something magnificent and something nothing less than the REAL presence of Christ Jesus in the sacramental form of bread and wine, which once consecrated becomes the real, true and divine presence of Christ.
I know that for many?even Catholics who go to Mass regularly?this is something difficult to grasp. It is hard to believe that mere bread and wine becomes the flesh and blood of Christ?especially when we receive Holy Communion and it still looks like a bread wafer and tastes less than succulent wine. The question of "how" does this happen is where the "rubber meets the road." How can I believe this? After all, many of my intelligent friends find this hard to believe, and especially those of the Christian denominations or unbelievers-at-large and consider it antiquated and even "Neanderthalish."
We could consider the theological understanding of Transubstantiation. But that might be more than one could explain well in a few lines or that one could absorb in eight minutes of a homily on Sunday morning. We could get into the essence and the material objects; we could consider two unique and Roman Catholic understandings of the Eucharist: (1) as a propitiatory sacrifice and (2) the presence of Christ in the sacrifice (two areas where the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church are building unity). But I believe there is another way to consider this serious and vitally important sacrament:
First, we must begin with faith. It is faith, a gift from God, that brings us regularly to Mass and to our participation in the Christian life. Second, we must posit that in this faith we possess in God the Creator, God the Redeemer, and God the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, and in doing so we attribute to God the creative powers and magnificence of being the sole maker of the world and all that it contains. That ?s a pretty powerful statement.
And if we attribute this power and grandeur to God?the creation of the world, of you, and all that the world contains?then how difficult would it be for this same God to send His Love into the bread and wine upon the altar and transform it into a source of nourishment for our souls? How hard would it be for the all-powerful, all-loving God to do this? Pretty simple, I?d say. Therefore, is it a question of "how does He do this?" or one of "why does He do this?" He does it out of Love, of which He is the source,