Truly Present 

A young woman I know is reading a book by Bishop Robert Barron entitled: This is My Body: A Call to Eucharistic Revival.  She has found the book helpful, but she noticed that Barron often describes the Eucharist as “the body, blood, soul, and divinity” of Jesus, and wondered what that was all about. We find that phrase in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (#1374) where it quotes the Council of Trent, which was the Catholic Church’s response to the Protestant Reformation five centuries ago. The Protestant Reformers had called into question the Church’s teaching about many things, including the Eucharist, so the Church needed to respond and clearly restate what the Church had believed from its earliest days. It did this, declaring: “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.” So, what does this mean? 

We remember that, at the Last Supper, Our Lord took the Passover bread and the cup of wine and told His disciples gathered with Him to take, eat and drink, “For this is my Body,” and “This is the Chalice of my Blood.” These are the words we hear the priest repeat at every Mass, and it’s at this moment the bread and wine become the Eucharist. But the Eucharist is not just the Body of Jesus and it’s not just His Blood.  If it were, then there would be no life in the Eucharist.  It would be dead flesh and lifeless blood. It would be the corpse of Christ. But we know that Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday and never died again. That means Christ Jesus, now risen from the dead, is alive – and if Jesus is alive, then the Eucharist must be alive! This could only be the case if His Eucharistic Body and Blood are united with the animating principle of every living human being, which is the Soul. Therefore, it must be the case that the Eucharist is Jesus’ Body, Blood, and Soul.  If all three weren’t present, it would call into question the reality of Jesus’ resurrection and His total victory over death. 

Finally, we believe that the Eucharist also contains Jesus’ divinity. This also must be true, since Jesus is both God and man.  With Our Lady’s consent to her role in the divine plan of salvation (announced to her by the Archangel Gabriel), God the Son, the Second Divine Person of the Most Holy Trinity, became man in her womb. We call this event the Incarnation – the moment when God and man were united in the Divine Person of Christ Jesus, who we say has both a divine nature and a human nature. The Son of God will never relinquish His humanity. Therefore, if the Eucharist contains His living humanity – Body, Blood, and Soul – it must also contain His Divinity. There is no division in Jesus, so there is no division in the Eucharist. He is entirely there. 

Bishop Barron’s book is intended to help people understand why the Church cares so much about the Eucharist. It is the most precious thing we have and the thing we should love the most, because it is truly the living flesh and blood of God. The Eucharist is Jesus. He made you, He knows you, and He loves you. He wants to help us to love Him, to love our neighbor, and to love ourselves more perfectly. Knowing this, we should approach the Eucharist with awe, never thoughtlessly or casually, and receive Communion with the greatest reverence and devotion. 

posted 10/14/23