Last month we looked at the sacrificial nature of the Eucharistic mystery: the “what” of what Catholics believe about the Blessed Sacrament. This month we examine the “why.” 

 

Why do Catholics believe that holy Communion is truly and really the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ? 

 

The simple answer: because He said so. 

 

Jesus said in no uncertain terms, “This is my Body; this is my Blood,” (1 Corinthians 11: 23-25) as well as, “I am the Bread of Life” (John 6:35). 

 

Now, our objectors would say, “Sure, He said that, but He said all sorts of things. I am the vine, you are the branches. I am the Good Shepherd. I am the narrow gate. So obviously he’s merely being figurative, allegorical.”

 

We have some responses to our objectors. 

 

First, in the New Testament Greek, Jesus says, “I am the Bread of Life” more emphatically than the other phrases. It has an urgency, a dynamism to the phrasing, as if to imply He really means it. This is no allegory. 

 

Second, any good scholarship at all employs the principle of ubi et ubique: “always and everywhere.” If you want to know what the first Christians believed, don’t look at eighth-century France. Look at first-century France and Italy and Spain. Look at second-century Damascus … so on and so forth. 

 

What you’ll quickly discover is that Christians have always and everywhere believed that the bread is “Eucharisted” and becomes something different. That it is no longer bread, but truly Jesus. You’ll find that in any place at any time in the earliest days of the Church. 

 

St. John Henry Newman, who was an Anglican bishop in the 19th century and among the most prominent anglophone theologians in history, set out on a mission to study the earliest Christians to examine their thought and discover “pure Christianity” before Augustine and then medieval popes got in the way and obscured the purest and earliest forms with dogmas about the Blessed Virgin Mary, the role of the monarchical bishop, and such a heavy devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. 

 

He studied and learned languages so he could read the original texts and quickly found that Christians have always believed in the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist. On this same point, and to counter our objectors, you won’t find in any place or at any time a devotion to shepherds. There is no vineyard worship and no genuflecting before a gate. 

 

Third, we have to bring up what I like to call “the walker-awayers.” In John 6 (the Bread of Life Discourse) Jesus says, “I am the Bread of Life. Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you do not have life within you” (John 6:53). 

 

The Greek is even a bit gorier. Literally translated, Jesus says that unless you gnaw on my flesh and gulp my blood, you will not have life within you. 

 

After Jesus speaks these words, a group of people get up and choose not to follow Him any longer. They’ve been sitting at His feet all this time. He’s talking about crosses and heavenly perfection. He’s been telling them He’s their shepherd and they’re His sheep. 

 

But when He gets to this teaching, it’s too much. Too real. They’ve gotta split. This guy must be crazy because He actually believes that He is this bread and that we must eat His very flesh. 

 

Lastly, Jesus’ death occurs 17 hours after the Last Supper. These are His final moments with His most chosen few. He’s not going to waste His time with allegories and poetic language. He’s at his most emphatic. This is my Body. This is my Blood. 

 

All pretty good reasons to believe in the true presence of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament! Adoro Te Devote!