Why the Real Presence Matters

Today we celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi, that is, the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. This is an especially important Mass, considering recent polls suggest that more than half of all Catholics don’t believe in the Real Presence.  (Yikes!  Right?!)  But even assuming one believes in the Real Presence, what difference does the Eucharist really make in every day life?

In today’s Gospel Jesus told the crowd, “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” (John 6: 53-54).  Notice the present tense of “has eternal life.”  Receiving Jesus in the Eucharist is not just a promise of future eternal life, it’s a participation in the Lord’s eternal life now.

How’s that?  Leviticus tells that “the life of the flesh is in the blood” (17:11).  Since the bread and wine truly become Jesus’ Body and Blood, and “the life…is in the blood,” we receive the life Jesus within us by consuming them (which is just another way of saying what Jesus said above).  But if you don’t believe in the Real Presence, then the Eucharist just becomes a symbol – and not a sharing of God’s eternal life within us.  It’s the difference between the Eucharist being a taste of Heaven versus a simple memorial!!  What a gift!!

Appreciating the Gift
Furthermore, the Eucharist is the continuation of the complete gift of self Jesus made while on earth.  On the Cross Jesus died for each of us (unquestionably a total gift of self!), yet that was not enough for Him.  Since the Cross was a once-for-all sacrifice never to be repeated, He wanted a way to express His love daily, concretely.  Why?  Because that’s how true love is – it gives and gives and then gives some more.  And that’s how Jesus is because He is love.

So just as on the Cross He gave Himself body and soul for our redemption, each day at Mass He gives Himself again to us body and soul for our sanctification.  In the Eucharist He truly holds nothing back, making a total gift of self.  Take a minute and really think about His great love: He not only died for us, but He continues to give all of Himself to us, and to renew His eternal life in us, as often as we go to Mass!

Returning the Gift
What kind of love is this that so desperately wants to be one with us that the King of Creation makes Himself into material sustenance so that we might receive His Body and Soul into our bodies and souls?  If we truly understand the Real Presence, we can only wonder at such love.  Especially since we are paupers, who could never repay Him.  Yet at the very least we can return his self-gift with a self-sacrifice of our own.  We can respond to His overwhelming love by making a gift our ourselves right back to Him.  We can let the life of Jesus, which we receive through the Eucharist, shape our hearts, minds and actions – basically everything in our lives.

May we all be completely transformed through Jesus’ Body and Blood!  And with the Lord Himself and His eternal life within us, may we live in His love and conform ourselves ever more perfectly to our King!

For a great related post, see Dr. Bergma’s “Eating the Flesh of the Messiah“

1 Comment

Other Links to this Post

1. A Deeper Understanding of the Mass — September 20, 2011 @ 10:41 am

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment