Corpus Christi
By Mike Lambrecht
Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. This great solemnity focuses on the gift of himself that Jesus has entrusted to the Church in the Eucharist. Jesus promised us that, "I will be with you always, until the end of the age."1 The Church teaches us that, in the Eucharist, "the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained."2 We call this change of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ transubstantiation.
The importance of this teaching can not be overemphasized. Since the beginning, some people have always had a problem believing this. In Jesus' own time, he taught:
Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink."3
Jesus would have a hard time putting it any more plainly that he literally means what he is saying. However, most protestants will answer that Jesus was speaking symbolically here. This is somewhat humorous when many mainstream protestants take a very literal approach to the Bible everywhere else. Nonetheless, if we keep reading a little further, we can clearly see that, "As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him."4 It would make sense that if Jesus were only speaking symbolically here, he would have told them so, and asked them not to go. Nevertheless, Jesus allows them to leave. As such, the only conclusion that can be drawn is that Jesus was, indeed, speaking literally.
Saint Paul agrees, "The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?"5 This belief in the real presence is the reason that we are able to worship Jesus in Eucharistic adoration. If Christ were not truly present, we would be guilty of the sin of idolatry when doing so.
You may have heard the polls out there that claim that as many as 70% of Catholics don't believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. I have taken the liberty of looking further into the this statistic. The good news is that this is simply not true. According to Jimmy Akins, a well known Catholic apologist, "It can safely be said that a sizeable majority of active, catechized American Catholics believe in transubstantiation and that the over-whelming majority believe in the Real Presence."5 He made this conclusion after examining in-depth the results of a Gallup poll which took place from December 10, 1991, to January 19, 1992.
While the average Catholic's understanding of Transubstantiation may be skewed, it does not mean that they don't believe that Christ is truly present. What is needed, therefore, is for good catechists to educate the young, good priests to preach from the pulpit to the faithful, good Catholics to witness to this truth by their example in prayerful adoration. If we do this, we will see the new evangelization take place in the Church that Pope John Paul II called for. We will see the grace of this sacrament bear fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.
1 Matthew 28:20
2 CCC 1374
3 John 6:53-55
4 John 6:66
5 1 Corinthians 10:16
6 Taken from: http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/1999/9910qq.asp