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June 25, 2022Last weekend, we celebrated the beautiful Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ as we were gifted to receive and take into our bodies, Our Lord at every Mass we attend. We give thanks for this great gift. We receive the Eucharist which means “Thanksgiving” and take into our own earthly bodies the Real Presence of Our Lord. Receiving the Lord Himself is why we all celebrate each Mass as a sacred meal.
We, as Catholics, more fully understand the real presence of Jesus in what we receive. Our children and youth, however, do not necessarily join a Catholic faithful that believe in what we all know – that just as declared by Christ Himself at the Last Supper and as documented by St. Matthew above, and is proclaimed by what our Catholic Church teaches, that the Eucharist is Jesus’s body and blood and is the “source and summit of the Christian life” (Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC 1324]).
Approximately seven years ago, Catholic Online reported a poll that showed that “more than 60 percent of American Catholics say they do not believe in the Real Presence-that Jesus Christ is bodily present in the Eucharist.” The news reporter begged the question, “What does this mean? Are U.S. Catholics lacking in faith or poorly catechized, or are there more basic flaws in our current understanding of the Real Presence?” Perhaps Catholics understand the term Real Presence too narrowly. Pope Francis acknowledged that some in the crowd, when Jesus walked the earth, were shocked and even scandalized by the Lord’s words: “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life” (John 5:51-54). But he said the Lord’s teaching is clear: The Eucharist is neither a symbol nor even a thing, but rather a Divine Person who desires that we live in intimate communion with Him.
According to the teachings of the Church: “In the most blessed Sacrament of 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. This presence is called 'real' . . . because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and [human], makes himself wholly and entirely present." (CCC, 1374)
Pope Francis reminds all Catholics of the Church’s teaching on the Real Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, stressing that at the Holy Mass, the Sacred Host is “really his Body given for us” and the chalice of what has the appearance of wine “is really his Blood poured out for us.”
As an Easter people, a people who greet the Risen Lord deeply with our minds, hearts, and souls, we therefore celebrate with the Pope and more than a billion Catholics worldwide and our parish families “The Holy Eucharist is Jesus Christ, who is in the Blessed Sacrament both as reality and presence. He is in the Eucharist as reality because the Eucharist is Jesus.”
This year’s celebration of the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) also marks the inauguration of a three-year National Eucharistic Revival called for by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The goal of the Eucharistic Revival is to renew the Church by enkindling a living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and His Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist. To commemorate this inaugural revival, the special Vatican International Exhibition: Miracles of the Eucharist Across the World devised and planned by Blessed Carlo Acutis was here for your reflection and prayer time. For more info go to: http://www.Eucharisticrevival.org http://www.miracolieucaristici.org
A beautiful and very informative presentation of selected Eucharistic Miracles was displayed by Mary Cygan, our Communications Director. It will be displayed again on special occasions in the Basilica.
Yours in the Divine Gift that gives us life and offers us pure joy,
Fr. John
