14 June 2020
Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ
This past weekend marked the first anniversary of my priestly ordination. In looking back of my first year of ordination, I think that the “honeymoon” period of my young priestly life was over in early August, 2019, when I heard the shocking news that 70 % of the self-described Catholics do not believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
The Pew Research Center, which published the survey, found that 70 % of Catholics in the US believe that the bread and wine used in Communion are merely symbols of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
My late Jesuit mentor, Father James V. Schall, wrote one of his last essays on the issue of the real presence. Father Schall referred to St. Paul who stated that we must receive the sacraments worthily (1 Corinthians 11: 26-29). Father Schall pointed out that the early Church did not invite unbelievers to participate in the Eucharist because to receive the Eucharist worthily, we had to know and believe what it was. The understanding of Eucharistic presence is closely related to the sense of worship. The distinctiveness of Christianity is that God gives to man the proper form of divine worship. The liturgy and the Sacraments are God’s way of instructing us how to worship properly. Thus, “God was worshipped when the sacrament was received as it was understood.”
As usual, Fr. Schall relied on the classical tradition to make a case for the real presence. But he did not refer to Aristotle to explain the real presence, instead he referred to Plato’s Laws. In Laws, Plato understood that human affairs in general were not particularly serious because God’s affairs are the only serious ones. Based on the reading of Plato, Fr. Schall argued that any themes, activities, and reactions prefiguring the liturgy are revealed to us as the true way to worship God. So, the Eucharistic presence is real because it is the truth revealed to us by Christ instead of mere human invention.
Fr. Schall reminded us that “the Church was designed as the mediator between man and God.” Thus, the Holy Eucharist is to be administered through the Church’s authority. The Mass is part of the mediation between God and man. It presupposes the same Sacrifice that Christ Endured. It is conceived on the altar and requires priests who are authorized to make the Sacrifice. Almost 95 % of Catholics were deprived of the Eucharist during the lockdown. The question lingers, how will they respond and think when the Church reopens? Will they see more clearly the intrinsic role of a priest as the mediator between God and man, especially in offering the Holy Sacrifice? Hopefully the lockdown will teach us all the importance of a priest to offer the Holy Sacrifice. Let us pray that the lockdown will not bring a negative impact to the sacramental life of the Church, that people will not set their own rules, that they will not select their own leaders to offer a eucharist and not depend priests. Let us pray that the 70 % may come to their senses about the real presence and pray also for the 30 % group so that they do not drift away after the reopening of the Church.