Do You Doubt God's Power?

 One day when one of my grandchildren and I were walking around the church, I happened to point out the Tabernacle.  When I said that God was in there, the response was, "In a box?"

I didn't know how to respond.  How to explain "sacramentally," "spiritually," "accidents/substance," to a preschooler?  Adults grapple with the idea of God being in the Eucharist!  

Karl Keating says it bests when he says that if God can create the universe, then why couldn't He make bread and wine into His own Body and Blood?  He says He does in John 6: 55. Does Jesus lie?

But it still looks like bread and wine.  Yes, like I still look like me even when inside I've changed to a me that's in love, to a me that's been traumatized, to a me that's dying of sickness.  I may look the same but I'm not.

Don't limit God's Word to our limited human understanding.

Hindsight

 When I place myself in Jesus' time, I know that there is no way I would have followed Him.  I don't have that confidence.  I know that I'm not that smart so I would have obeyed my betters in what to believe.  If they had said something shocking, I would have looked to those in authority above those whom I followed.

I would never have followed Someone Who told me to devour their flesh, even emphasize and reinforce the eating of His flesh and drinking His Blood.  No way! Jesus was telling me to reject the Mosaic covenant.

Thanks be to God, that He placed me here and now in these times.  I can read the biblical prohibitions against eating and drinking blood. Now I am taught that the Mosaic laws were not intended to last forever.  Indeed, Jeremiah foretold that a new covenant would fulfill the old one Jer 31: 31-34 and Ezek 36: 24-28. And Luke explains that Jesus' time had come to establish a new covenant in blood   Luke 22:20.

We do not carnally eat Jesus' flesh and drink His blood, rather we eat of the risen and glorified Body and Blood under the sacramental species of bread and wine.

I guess God really does know what He's doing.  Since my intelligence is limited.  I'll just follow His directions: 

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...For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.  He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.  John 6: 52-56.

Genesis of the Liturgy

 In the beginning of the Bible, we have the story of Adam and Eve.  God told them they could eat any and all of the trees, except one.  (The one they chose.)  Included among all the others, however, is the Tree of Life.  (Gen. 2:9)  Note!  God chose to name it.  

We know the story.  Adam and Eve made the wrong choice.  They failed to live forever because of their mistake.  Guess who fixes that mistake.

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Cor 15: 20-22)

Christ brings us to life in the Liturgy of the Mass.  We are nourished by eating the Body and Blood of Jesus. "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.  For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." (John 6: 54-55)

If Adam and Eve had eaten from the Tree of Life, they would have lived forever.  In John 6: 58, Jesus tells us that what Adam and Eve rejected is now available to us because we choose to "eat and live forever"--the Bread come down from heaven. (John 6: 50).

The Institution of the Priesthood

Catholics believe that Jesus' command to do this in remembrance of Him was instructions for His priests.  Well not only John 6: 53-56, but include Leviticus 16, where the High Priest would go to the Holy of Holies.  Jesus was following the instructions in Leviticus 16.  He removed His outer garments, then tied a towel around His waist.  He then proceeded to wash the feet of His disciples.  See the High Priest would go to the Holy of Holies, remove his outer garments to bathe before he offered sacrifice as a priest, on behalf of the people.

Jesus didn't wash His own feet.  No, He washed His priests'.  He was ordaining them and at the Last Supper instituted the Holy Eucharist with the instructions, "Do this in remembrance of me."

The Eucharist and the institution of the priesthood, and the continuance of  Apostolic Succession, all began on Holy Thursday.  We Catholics follow these traditions just as Christ instituted them.

Example Meditation

May 01 2020

Friday of the Third Week of Easter  John 6: 52-59

This is a hard teaching.  Even many Catholics don’t believe in the True Presence of the Eucharist. If God can become man in a woman’s womb, why couldn’t God become flesh in bread?  God’s ways are mysterious.  I sometimes wonder why some church going Catholics do not believe in the True Presence. Why are they in church, then?

Could they hope to believe, one day? I don’t think they are just being stubborn and refuse to believe. They are trying to be good Catholics. Maybe they believe what Jesus says, “This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.” but intellectually they just can’t accept Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood…  Is it like your mother telling you not to touch the hot stove, and you believe her without actual experience?

I think the answer is divine grace.  Divine grace is divine influence to help us understand.  This is what many don’t seem to have.  They need to pray for it.  They need to be open and humble and ask for the grace of wisdom and understanding that the Eucharist is truly the Flesh and Blood of Jesus.

We, ourselvles, also need to pray, Lord, I believe.  Help my unbelief.