…After discussing the other Sacraments, it is important to take a longer look at the Eucharist. This is because of its importance in our faith, and also because there is an alarming and catastrophic failure of most Catholics to understand it.
The “Real Presence” of Jesus Christ exists in the Eucharist. This concept is the primary claim of the Catholic Church. However, according to a 2019 Pew Research Survey, they found that only one-third of Catholics believe in this “real presence” concept, and virtually no one outside of the Catholic Church does.
This is a problem. For if the Eucharist is reduced to a symbol or just another part of our faith, or thrown away altogether, we are pulling on the loose string of a garment that will soon unravel all of our Christian faith.
We have reached a pivot point here as to whether you want to continue with any interest in the Catholic faith. Catholics that go to Mass and don’t believe in the Real Presence are simply not practicing Catholicism.
How did we get to this point? There are myriad causes for this abandonment of belief in the Eucharist. There are major, negative cultural influences not to mention a very poor catechesis that has caused this failure of belief, but there is now a strong effort on the part of the Church, various ministries, and the laity to bring the Eucharist back to the central teaching of the Catholic Church.
The argument made for this central claim of The Real Presence has to start with scripture, and that is where the majority of this topic will focus on. Get ready, there is a good chance that most of what you will now read you haven’t heard before, and then you can decide for yourself if you want to continue with an exploration of the Catholic faith.
The “Word”
We’re going to discuss first a very clear concept that exists throughout the whole Bible– God SPEAKS things into being. Let’s just examine two of the most important passages in the Bible, starting with a passage from Genesis Chapter 1. You can follow the link, but what you want to notice is the pattern where God “said” and then there was creation.
Next, let’s go to the magnificent prologue to John’s Gospel:
In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
Through Him all things came into being, not one thing came into being except through Him.
What has come into being in Him was life, life that was the light of men;
and light shines in darkness, and darkness could not overpower it.
John 1:1-5
Now, let’s put a pin in this but remember the important point: WHAT GOD SAYS “IS”. God “speaks” creation into being, and as John points out, Jesus was there from the beginning and is the Word.
We will be getting back to this point after we address how the Bible consistently talks about the source of life by using the analog of “bread”, possibly the most important food source for most of the time when the Bible was written.
The Importance of “Bread” and the Bible
The word “bread” was put into quotes because before we begin to speak about why the Bible holds it as so important might seem a bit odd. You have to put yourself in the time and place of the stories that you read in both the Old and New Testaments. To us, bread is something that we eat now and then. To the people in the stories in the Bible, bread was synonymous with “food”. And taken further, it was their source of life. So as you continue reading, don’t think the Biblical authors are talking about bread like they are saying “cheeseburgers.” “Bread,” to them, is what kept them alive.
Bread holds three important purposes in the Bible: 1) it provides real nourishment, 2) It draws us into fellowship through the sharing of bread with others and, 3) It brings us into a covenant relationship with God. Let’s review just three examples in the Old Testament that foreshadows Christ and the Eucharist.
Abraham, Melchizedek, and the Eucharist
Abraham (called Abram at the time) encounters a pagan “king and priest” named Melchizedek. Also, who is mentioned specifically in the Gospels as a “king and priest”? Jesus. The name Melchizedek means “king of justice”. Also mentioned in this way: is Jesus. Melchizedek is the king of the city of Salem- later to be called Jerusalem. Jesus, when in Jerusalem was mocked as the “King of the Jews”. Now, from Genesis:
Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was a priest of God Most High.
Genesis 14:18
Let’s now go to Hebrews Chapter 7.
This “Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High,” “met Abraham as he returned from his defeat of the kings” and “blessed him.”
And Abraham apportioned to him “a tenth of everything.” His name first means righteous king, and he was also “king of Salem,” that is, king of peace.
Without father, mother, or ancestry, without beginning of days or end of life, thus made to resemble the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.
Hebrews 7:1-3
So, we have Melchizedek, a person that very clearly foreshadows Jesus, and what is his action toward Abram, the patriarch of God’s Holy People? He offers him bread and wine. Remember that, and let’s continue.
Passover and The Eucharist
Passover commemorates the Exodus when God spared the firstborn children of Israel and permitted Moses to lead his people out of slavery in Egypt and into the Promised Land. The experience was reformulated by Jesus in the New Testament.
The Passover supper features unleavened bread, wine, some herbs, and an unblemished lamb during the time that Jesus would have observed this feast. The cup and the bread would have been blessed (berakah) as part of their ritual.
The Last Supper of Jesus was a Passover meal. The lamb, however, is nowhere to be found, and during that time it surely would have been. Instead, we know that Jesus is the “Lamb of God” (as called by John the Baptist), the spotless Passover lamb who is taken to slaughter in its place. Jesus changed the significance of the Passover. The Eucharist (the Last Supper) “accomplishes the Jewish Passover”. A transition from enslavement to sin to ultimate liberation in humanity’s resurrection is made possible through Christ’s suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension.
Let’s review the similarities between Passover and the Eucharist (at the Last Supper):
Passover: Bread and wine (Ex 12:15, Nm 9:11–12)
Eucharist: Jesus shared bread and wine with his disciples (Mt Lk 22:19–20)
Passover: Unblemished Lamb (Ex 12:4–5)
Eucharist: Jesus is the Paschal Lamb, the Lamb of God (Jn 19:36, 1 Cor 5:7, 1 Pt 1:19)
Passover: None of the lamb’s bones should be broken (Nm 9:12)
Eucharist: The soldiers did not break Jesus’ bones on the Cross (Jn 19:33, 36)
Passover: Berekah (“blessing”)
Eucharist: Jesus took the bread and said a blessing (Mt 26:26, Mk 14:22, Lk 22:19–20)
Passover: Celebrates the Hebrews passing from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land (Ex 12)
Eucharist: Celebrates the passing from slavery to sin to freedom in the Resurrection, from death to new life (1 Cor 5:7–8)
Passover: Moses poured blood on the people at the establishment of the Covenant (Ex 24:8, Zec 9:11)
Eucharist: Jesus poured out his blood at the establishment of the New Covenant (Jer 31:31, Lk 22:20).
Manna and the Eucharist
So now we move into an explicit bridge between the Old Testament and the New Testament as we enter into some specific dialogue with Jesus. We’ll begin with Manna. God miraculously provided the Israelites with manna—heavenly bread—to sustain them during their 40-year ordeal of wandering. (Also, remember how long Jesus wandered in the desert being tempted? 40 days.) The bread, called the manna emerged after the dew in the morning and disappeared with the sun.
Some interesting scriptural notes on Manna to ponder: According to Wisdom 16:20, the Lord even customized the taste for each person. Given that it maintained them healthy for 40 years, it must have been nutritionally balanced. Except for the Sabbath, when they were to gather enough for two days, the Israelites were only to gather what they needed for the day; any extra would spoil.
Manna will be further discussed later in our discussion about John Chapter 6, but it is good to stop here and mention a pattern: 1) The Jews in Exodus complained against God and were given Manna, or the bread from heaven. 2) Compare that to when Jesus spoke in John 6, as the Jews “murmured” when he told them: “I am the bread that came down from heaven” and finally the chief complaint of the Reformation and at issue, today within the Catholic faith is the complaint (murmuring) about the Eucharist. As you can see, Old Testament, New Testament, the Reformation, and Today – there is complaining and defiance, even when God couldn’t be more clear.
Bread is discussed in the Old Testament much more than covered here, but this should give you an idea of how, all along, God was leading us to the Eucharist.
Recommended Reading: Check out the excellent “Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist: Unlocking the Secrets of the Last Supper” by Brant Pitre for a full breakdown of the Catholic belief in the Eucharist
Nativity Story and the Eucharist
Now let’s take a careful look at the Nativity Story, which is loaded with foreshadowing of the Eucharist, but which has been glossed over for decades in our Catholic education.
Just a quick overview:
The great king of the Old Testament, David was born in a little town called Bethlehem. As we know, Jesus was born in that same town. What does “Bethlehem” mean literally? House of Bread.
Now let’s go to the line in Luke that details where he was born:
and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Luke 2:7
Let’s look at the passage above and the actual translations of two important words, “manger” and “inn”.
Let’s start with “inn.” This was not some sort of hotel. In fact, what is mentioned here is the same room where Jesus had his Last Supper and instituted the Eucharist!
The word used here in Greek is “katalyma.” This means a sort of “guest room” that would be inside of someone’s home. There is one other place where an “inn” in our translations is mentioned in the Gospels, and that is in the story of the Good Samaritan, where he drops off the injured man at an “inn.” Here the word katalyma is NOT used, but the standard word for “inn” in Greek.
And now let’s go to when Jesus tells his disciples to get a guest room for the Last Supper:
and say to the master of the house, ‘The teacher says to you, “Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”’
Luke 22:11
Here now, you see the words “guest room.” This is the exact same word used in the earlier mention of the Nativity where it is read as “the inn.” And note, these are the only two places in which that particular word is used in the Gospels.
So let’s put these two passages together: At first, there is no space for him in the katalyma, the type of place where he will conduct his Last Supper and create the Eucharist, offering his body and blood. But, when born, he essentially is not ready for this moment. So, while in the katalyma later, during the Last Supper, Jesus says:
Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me.”
Luke 22:19
In traditional houses in Bethlehem, they would have had a normal living area, and then a katalyma for guests… hosting people was a deeply rooted part of Jewish culture at the time. They would also then have a separate area for their animals that they would bring in at night to protect them from predators and thieves.
Because there was no room in the katalyma (their guest room in their home), the only place for Mary to place the child is to put it in the phatnē, or the Manger. The “Manger” is literally the trough where the animals ate.
Let’s round up all of these points… Jesus is born in the place called the “House of Bread” (Bethlehem). There is no space for him in the “guest room” which is the term that is used only one other time in the Gospels when talking about the “guest room” that is used for the Last Supper (the Eucharist). In short, he is not ready for that part of his mission. As there is no room in the guest room in someone’s house, they can only put him in the feeding trough… a foretelling of John 6 where Jesus tells us that we must consume his flesh.
This sort of “close, but not ready” scene is common when applied to the Old Testament. Here, Jesus is not “ready” for his final act where he gives his body to us in the Last Supper. Similarly, we can look at the story of Abraham and the Binding of Isaac. Abraham, the father, had Isaac, his son, carry wood up a hill where he is to be sacrificed. Sound familiar? – Jesus carrying the cross up the hill to Calvary to die?- But the death of Isaac was not carried out, as it was not the time for the father to send his son for sacrifice. So, too, we can see a clear indication of what is to come for the newborn Jesus.
John 6 and the Eucharist
Besides the Last Supper itself, John 6 is where the nuts and bolts of the concept of the Eucharist are established. Before we begin diving into John 6, let’s first talk about Jesus in terms of what He is and how He speaks.
Jesus is 100% human and 100% God. This means, that, although He is divine, He also is in space and time and a part of His current culture. It is very clear as you read the Gospels that He has a certain way of speaking and teaching. Not only does He often teach in parables, but He also uses “hyperbole” to make a point. For instance, do you see a lot of Christians walking around without an eye or hand as per Jesus’ instructions in Matthew Chapter 5? Of course not, He was being hyperbolic.
Let’s first start with two examples in the Gospel of John where Jesus is using hyperbole and then clarifies His message. Here He is speaking to Nicodemus about being born again, and Nicodemus is puzzled, and Jesus clarifies what this means spiritually:
Jesus answered and said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”
Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a person once grown old be born again? Surely he cannot reenter his mother’s womb and be born again, can he?”
Jesus answered, “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.
John 3:3-5
And then again, in the story of the woman at the well (not going to paste the whole thing, it is long, but it is John 4:4-26), He states He has “living waters”, the woman asks for a drink, and He clarifies and tells her that He will quench spiritual thirst.
There is one more time that Jesus does this sort of clarification. And it is the strongest and clearest clarification in the Gospels, which caused many of His followers to leave Him (a very clear portend of the Protestant Reformation, and indeed, a collapse of belief within the Catholic Church). Let’s meet Jesus as He tells them, quite clearly, that they must consume His body, and then strongly reiterates it. Then watch what happens next.
First, He brings up the Manna:
Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:
‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
So Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
John 6:31-32
Next, He connects the Manna to Himself:
I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.
John 6:51
Now, the people there were incredulous at this statement, as we can see from the very next line in John:
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us [His] flesh to eat?”
John 6:52
And here He doubles and triples down and clarifies as clearly and strongly as He does anywhere in the Gospels:
Jesus said to them, “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.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”
John 6:53-58
A final note on this passage… the word in Greek that he uses for “eat” is not in any way the generic word used to just “eat”, it is the one in Greek used for “gnaw” or “chew”. Jesus is vehemently making a point here.
Now, there is more to this passage. He even continues on as he knows what He says is shocking:
Then many of his disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?
Since Jesus knew that His disciples were murmuring about this, He said to them, “Does this shock you?
John 6:60-61
As the story continues, many of his followers left Him (again, signs of Reformation and those in the Catholic Church that don’t believe in the Real Presence in the Eucharist). But, Peter, the rock of the Catholic Church does not fail Him when questioned by Jesus if he believes:
We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.
John 6:69
That’s our Peter! Let’s now go to the Last Supper and here Jesus speaks very clearly and directly to His Apostles:
Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me.”
And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you.
Luke 22:19-20
The non-believers that didn’t want anything to do with Jesus after his discussion of consuming His flesh left Him. Peter and the other Apostles, that affirmed their faith back in John 6 stay with Him. They don’t scoff at the very direct language.
And at the Last Supper, Jesus says, in reference to the sharing of the bread “This is my body”. THIS IS MY BODY. No fuzzy Greek here. Jesus is God, What God Says, Is.
Of course, John 6 ends with one of the Apostles that doesn’t believe any of this, and his name is Judas:
Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you twelve? Yet is not one of you a devil?”
He was referring to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot; it was he who would betray him, one of the Twelve.
John 6:70-71
The Powers of God’s Words
What is extremely confounding is how the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist has been abandoned by those that accept the rest of Jesus’ works in the Gospels, especially those that take scripture so literally such as in other forms of Christianity.
Jesus raises three people from the dead by speaking them into being. Jesus heals all throughout the Gospels. How does he do it? By speaking it so.
Christians believe that God became man. However, somehow, many don’t believe that He has turned Himself into bread (in a certain way) so that we might be saved. Even though He could not have been more clear on this topic.
The Passing on of the Practice of the Eucharist
The next question we have to ask, if we accept what Jesus said in John 6 and at the Last Supper, is whether it is only the Apostles that are then saved. He clearly states what needs to be done with the Eucharist and the consuming of the bread that is His body and the wine that is His blood. So if that is that, we can surmise that only the people at the Last Supper will be saved, right?
This is where we look at the countless examples of how Jesus gave His authority to his Apostles. Here we will account for how Jesus gave His Authority to the Church:
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20
“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I send you.” John 20:21
“He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.” Matthew 10:40
“He who hears you hears Me, and he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me.” Luke 10:16
“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build My Church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven.” Matthew 16:18-19
So we have Jesus granting authority to his Apostles, we have Him very clearly telling us that we need to consume His body and blood, and we then have Him at the Last Supper stating in very plain language that the bread and wine are His body and blood. Thankfully, Jesus Himself then makes it also very clear in the scripture, in His own words where He tells us to repeat the Eucharist from then on by stating “do this in memory of me.”:
Then He took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me.
Luke 22:19
To be clear, you do something in memory of somebody after they are gone.
Transubstantiation
The term “transubstantiation” first was used in the 11th or 12th century, but the use of this word comes directly from the source – Jesus Himself. In the Lord’s Prayer, given to us from Jesus, the translation we use of “daily bread” is actually from the Greek word “epiousios”. This is translated as “supersubstantial bread”. This term “epiousios” is used exactly twice in ancient Greek- only in the Gospels. The term “transubstantiation” is simply used to show how this supersubstantial bread takes its forms.
So, Transubstantiaion means that the “substances” of the bread and wine change into the body and blood of Christ during the celebration of the Eucharist. What remains of the bread and blood are the “accidents.” “Accidents” used in this sense mean the sort of obvious sensations of something. They still appear to be bread and wine. However, through transubstantiation, the deepest realities of both change.
The Eucharist, as prescribed by the Gospels, contains the real presence of Jesus Christ as His body and blood in bread and wine that takes on a changed, deeper reality, just as Jesus Himself stated.
Right from the start of Christianity, the Eucharist was celebrated. The Fractio Panis (Latin meaning “Breaking of Bread”) fresco in the Catacomb of Priscilla on the Via Salaria, from the second century, shows how early Christians celebrated the Eucharist. A cup of mixed red wine, two huge plates, and seven people—one of them is a woman—are seated or reclined at the table. Five loaves of bread are placed on one plate, and two fish are placed on the other, matching the quantities in the gospels’ multiplication miracle. A man (Bishop?) holding a tiny loaf is seated at the left end of the table. He is breaking the bread as Jesus did at the Last Supper and before He fed the five thousand and the four thousand by holding his arms out in front of him. There’s a two-handled cup next to the man.
We further know that early Christians celebrated the Eucharist by believing that the body of Christ was truly present, in how the Romans reacted to this belief. The Romans, upon hearing of the belief in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, broadly charged Christians with cannibalism. Athenagoras of Athens, in his Legatio Pro Christianis of about 176 AD had to defend the Christians against claims of cannibalism, a claim that was based on their misunderstanding of the Eucharist.
About 25 years prior to Athenagoras in about 150 AD, Justin Martyr tried to explain the Eucharist to the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius:
And this food is called among us Εὐχαριστία [the Eucharist]… For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Savior, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh. For the apostles, in the memoirs composed by them, which are called Gospels, have thus delivered unto us what was enjoined upon them; that Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, said, “This do in remembrance of Me, this is My body;” and that, after the same manner, having taken the cup and given thanks, He said, “This is My blood;” and gave it to them alone.
Justin Martyr, First Apology, Chapter 66
Catholicism, based on the scriptures states that the Eucharist is the Source and Summit of our faith. It is everything.
Note: Interested in getting involved in growing the understanding of the Eucharist within your Catholic Community? Check out the National Eucharistic Revival website to see how you can get involved.
Next up… some important words to know for the Catholic faith.
Next Topic >> Important Words for Catholics
Synopsis
The Eucharist, in a word, is “everything” to a Catholic. What is so disappointing and sad is that most Catholics simply don’t understand the Sacrament and don’t revere it as they should. The scriptures from start to finish lead us up to the Last Supper and the creation of the Eucharist.
Suggested Reading
“The Eucharist: Mystery of Presence, Sacrifice, and Communion” by Lawrence Feingold
“The Eucharist: Our Sanctification” by Raniero Cantalamessa
Top Image
What at first glance seems to be a straightforward still life was transformed by Francisco de Zurbarán into a potent representation of religious devotion. The body of Christ, referred to in the Gospel of John as the “Lamb of God,” who died in order to “take away the sins of the World,” is symbolized by an innocent lamb bound in readiness for sacrifice.