The Flesh and Blood of Eternal Life
Lent Day 13
“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life…”
— John 6:54—
When I was coming into the Church, a friend of mine asked me a question about the Church’s teaching on Mary. I told him,
“I’m not sure about that, but if the teaching on the Eucharist being the actual body and blood of Jesus is true, then I can’t imagine why someone would go to any other church.”
Many Christians get hung up on the issue of the Church’s “infallibility” or Marian dogmas, confession, etc. But suppose, for the sake of argument, we set those doctrines aside for a moment and assumed that the Catholic Church was just as capable of error as the rest of the denominations. With one exception, they were 100% correct about their dogmas about the Eucharist. Mainly,
Having passed from the world to the Father, Christ gives us in the Eucharist the pledge of glory with him. Participation in the Holy Sacrifice identifies us with his Heart, sustains our strength along the pilgrimage of this life, makes us long for eternal life, and unites us even now to the Chruch in heaven, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and all the saints.
CCC. 1419.
Now, it is true that God is present to us in a myriad of ways. He is omnipresent, present in the poor, present in prayer, etc. I know many Christians who still believe this, but also have a deep desire to be in the presence of Christ as the disciples were in those early years of the Church. This is one of the main reasons Protestants visit the Holy Land. It is because they want the spiritual experience of being in the places where Jesus walked, to touch the dirt that touched the Son of God.
But what if Jesus really meant what he said, “I am the bread of life”? This would mean that his incarnation has continued on Earth, and you could be in the very presence of God just by being a Catholic, or by visiting an adoration chapel.
Now, be honest. Would you really be concerned about the dogmas around Mary being assumed into heaven if by becoming Catholic you could actually be united to Christ or sit in his presence right now? Would it really matter if you didn’t understand the “Mary stuff”, but knew that Jesus was truly and substantially present, body, blood, soul, and divinity in the Eucharist? The teaching of the Church, as well as the Church Fathers, testify to this very fact; Jesus never left us.
When I read the Catechism’s teaching on the Eucharist, I thought to myself “If this is true, then there is no reason to be in any other Church.” What was particularly shocking was discovering the early Church Fathers and their teachings on the matter. I was convinced that the Eucharistic teaching was something that came later, but this is not true. Here are just three very early sources that say the Eucharist is the body and blood of Jesus.
The History of the Eucharist
St. Ignatius of Antioch was writing around 110 A.D., and he had actually heard John, the man who penned the words “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life…” St. Ignatius says,
I desire the bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ; who was the seed of David; and for drink I desire his blood, which is love incorruptible.
— Letter to the Romans 7 (A.D. 110).
St. Justin Martyr was writing around A.D. 151. He is the patron saint of apologists, as he was the most important apologist of his day. In other words, he was arguing for the truth of the Christian faith in the 100-150 A.D. He writes,
We call this food 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 tuaght, the food that 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 nurtured, is both the flesh and blood of that incarnated Jesus.
— First Apology 66 (A.D. 151).
Finally, St. Augustine of Hippo, one of the most famous Church Fathers, and a favorite among sola scriptura Protestants says,
“The bread you see on the altar, having been sanctified by the word of God, is the body of Christ. The chalice, or rather what is in the chalice, having been sanctified by the word of God, is the blood of Christ.”
— Sermons 227 (A.D. 411).
The teaching on the Eucharist is Biblical, it is historical, and it has been taught for over 2000 years. Now, we must ask ourselves the question, “Is Jesus a liar?”
Is Jesus a Liar?
Multiple times Jesus doubles down to emphasize his point to the crowds. When they start to question him, Jesus says emphatically, “Amen, amen I say to you…” the “amens” emphasize the seriousness with which Christ speaks. He is either deceiving them or telling them a hard truth.
If Protestants want to say that Jesus is speaking metaphorically here, that’s an odd take. First, we would accuse any other human being of lying if they said, “No seriously, I’m going to travel out West…No, seriously, seriously. I’m going.” If we later found out that this speaker meant, “I did go out west. I went two feet towards California, so I went West.” We would rightly call him a liar, deceiver, lunatic, or just a “not-so-great” person.
Jesus is none of these things. Earlier in this discourse he said to his hearers that they would “be taught by God.” We the readers know that he is the one who is God and also is doing the teaching. So it would be quite scandalous for Christ to begin his emphatic “amens” to the people with this subtle nod to his divinity, and then proceed to tell them a riddle.
The other teachings, infallibility, Marian dogmas, moral teachings, etc., of the Church are difficult, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t true. But Christians who study scripture and read this passage, and then interpret Jesus in a way that would prevent all his followers from abandoning him, as they did in John 6:66, are ultimately taking the side of the apostates. Jesus is not speaking metaphorically here, otherwise, the Church’s founding was not just “kind of in error”, but for the majority of the Church’s life, it actually taught a lie.
In short, the evidence for the Church’s teaching about the Eucharist goes like this:
Scripture testifies to the fact that Christ offered his body and blood to believers.
History and the greatest Christian minds that ever lived also believed this and witnessed Christians dying for this belief.
The practice continues to this day. Masses are offered all over the world, and adoration chapels invite all Christians to sit in the presence of the Lord.
Belief is not enough for salvation. We must also obey. An obedience that believes submits to a doctrine that is knowable only by faith. As St. Thomas Aquinas wrote,
Down in adoration falling,
Lo! the sacred Host we hail;
Lo! o'er ancient forms departing,
newer rites of grace prevail;
faith for all defects supplying,
where the feeble senses fail.
To the everlasting Father,
and the Son who reigns on high,
with the Holy Ghost proceeding
forth from Each eternally,
be salvation, honor, blessing,
might and endless majesty.
Amen.
— DR
This, from your fellow Catholic A.M. Hickman here on Substack, is consistent with my experience of the Catholic Church in America:
If you start going to a Church and notice:
No one ever greets newcomers
There’s no regular after-Mass fellowship
There are basically no young people or families
Almost no one dresses decently
The Priest never makes himself available and the Parish office never calls back
The process to convert, baptize, or marry is insanely bureaucratic and the vibe is “this will be a hassle,” or even: “why are you bothering?”
The music, liturgy, and decor is all 70’s-era instead of traditional
There’s never a line for confession (or confession is barely ever offered)
You will start to realize why so many people look at you like you have two heads when you exhort them to become Catholic. Note that there are thousands of Churches that are exactly this way in America. Many of them are seeing their Parish enrollments decline, cancellations of Masses, and many of them will be shuttered in the next ten years or sooner.
But at the council meetings at these Churches, people will repeatedly say: “What are we doing wrong? Where are the young people? What a tragedy it is that so few people come to Mass these days!”
Faithful Catholics (or those who aim to convert) who are stuck going to Churches like these carry a huge, heavy burden — they are bearing the Cross of their faith alone, without the friendship of their fellow Christians. Their own Church treats them as an annoyance; they have no fellowship or support system for when the going gets tough.
And, after a long enough period of carrying this burden, they one day step into an SSPX Church, or an Orthodox Church, or an ICKSP, or even a Protestant Church and someone says “hello” to them on their first visit. The Priest goes out of his way to welcome them. The other young Christians invite the newcomers along to a potluck, or a Bible study. That sticks with them. I understand why.
Our duty as faithful Roman Catholics is to stare straight into this challenging time in the Church’s history and never balk or fold. We must fix these problems in our Parishes. The mess we’ve inherited is daunting to imagine fixing — but leaving it entirely should rightly be considered unthinkable and even nihilistic. On the 2,000-year time scale of Christ’s Church, the fruit has been immeasurably good. His Church will never die. It is our job to hold the line, as unenviable a task as this may seem. We must hold the line even if we are alone, scorned, maligned, and constantly encouraged by others to give up.
This is our generation’s Cross to bear. God help us.
Beautiful summary of Catholic teaching on the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. I’m going to share this with my family.