Today in our “More than enough” homily series on the Holy Eucharist and the Bread of Life Discourse, I want to zero in on that question the crowd asks Jesus in today’s gospel:

The Lord first says to them: “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.”

And this claim prompts a REALLY good question… Perhaps it’s a question YOU’VE asked before:

“How can Jesus give us his flesh to eat?”

And we should ask this question. Saint Paul in our second reading told us: “Do not continue in ignorance, but try to understand what is the will of the Lord.”

We should try to understand (as much as we can) this great mystery of the Holy Eucharist. And when we do so, we will find that there’s MORE THAN ENOUGH to know, and study, and understand… we will discover that there’s MORE THAN ENOUGH to satisfy us… even intellectually!

There are literally millions of pages of theology on the subject of the Eucharist. Our doctrine concerning this Source and Summit of the Christian life is… robust. Our Catholic belief is NOT irrational or unreasonable. Some of the greatest minds ever to think have exerted all of their intellectual efforts to working out how the Mystery of the Eucharist makes sense…How Jesus can give us His Body and His Blood.

Perhaps THE greatest of these minds is St. Thomas Aquinas.

Thomas Aquinas provided us with one of the most classic ways to understand how Jesus gives us His Body and Blood at every Mass:

We call this the doctrine of Transubstantiation.

In order to explain this doctrine, St. Thomas borrows two terms from the philosopher Aristotle:

“Substance” and “accidents.”

A “substance” is the “what-it-isness” of a thing. 

The “accidents” are the properties …or variables of that thing. 

For example, a chair is a chair….that’s the SUBSTANCE of the thing. But a particular chair could be made out of wood. Or metal. Or plastic. Those are only the “accidents.” The accidents can be swapped out but it’s always gonna be a “chair.” 

Well, in the Celebration of the Holy Eucharist, we believe something supernatural takes place to the “what-it-isness” of the bread and wine. We believe that when we bring the substances of bread and wine to the altar, and an ordained priest prays in Persona Christi those words of institution over them, then the Holy Spirit actually CHANGES the substances while leaving the accidents intact. 

This is “Transubstantiation.”

…The “what-it-isness” of bread and wine no longer exist. The substance is now Jesus — Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.

The accidents — the appearances, the variables — are still there: It all still looks, tastes, and smells like ordinary bread and wine.

And yet after the consecration every crumb. Every particle. Every drop.

…Is now Jesus.

One time while distributing Communion back at St. Bede in Williamsburg, I noticed as I placed the host onto a man’s hand that a single little tiny crumb had broken off, and was still on his open palm. As he turned to walk away, I called out, trying to get his attention. He didn’t hear me I guess, and so he kept walking away. Then suddenly, he stopped, turned around, and came back to me.

I pointed right at the tiny little crumb on his hand and said:

“That… is Jesus.”

He looked down at the little white speck, and then back at me. The look in his eyes was one of profound wonder and awe. He then reverently took the crumb and ate it right in front of me.

Immediately after mass, he came to me with tears in his eyes and told me what a huge impact that little exchange had on him.

Praise Jesus!!!

“My flesh is true food. And my blood is true drink.”

Here’s another analogy to help us intellectually understand how Jesus gives us His Flesh to eat and His Blood to drink…

Monsignor Ronald Knox gives us this image:

When you want to play a song, you use sheet music. A composer first drafted that sheet music, and in a certain sense — whenever you play that song, it’s a “continuation” of what the original composer first wrote. 

Well, Monsignor Knox says, something analogous happens in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Christ first composed the Mass at the Last Supper — that first time He spoke those words: “Take this, all of you, and eat: This is My Body. Take this, drink — This is the chalice of my Blood.” 

Jesus then gives his apostles a command: “Do this in memory of me.” 

…Continue this action. 

And so every Mass is a continuation of Christ’s original work.

It’s the same song… continued and renewed. It’s a participation in the original sheet music — the ongoing mission of Jesus.

But even this analogy falls short. 

Because what we are doing here at Mass is NOT just a performance of what Jesus did on the Cross for us. We’re not just playing a song again… reenacting the Passion again…

No… this IS the Passion.

The Mass is the actual Cross.

The Mass is the actual Once-For-All Sacrifice of Jesus.

The Mass IS the Last Supper.

What happened there and then…is happening here and now on this altar.

It’s the same event.
The same Jesus. 

As Archbishop Fulton Sheen says: “The Sacrifice of the Cross is not something which happened 2,000 years ago. It is not something past like the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It is still happening. Calvary belongs to all times and to all places. Calvary is one with the Mass, and the Mass is one with Calvary.”

Time is being split open here at the Mass…

We’re being transported back 2,000 years ago — Or perhaps 2,000 years ago is being transported to RIGHT NOW.

Either way, what difference does it make? 

…Jesus is here.

All of our BEST theology, all of our BEST apologetics…the most reasonable arguments and doctrines… They are all laughably limited compared to this simple yet profound statement:

Jesus is here in the Eucharist.

Even St. Thomas Aquinas himself, at the end of his life, cried out saying: “EVERYTHING I ever wrote… it’s all STAW!” It’s all WORTH NOTHING! — Compared to the divine realities, the eternal mysteries themselves:

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.

That’s the mystery of the Real Presence.

And in a world where nothing seems real anymore… where we don’t know what to believe or who to believe is telling us the truth… At a time where artificial intelligence can pretty much trick us into thinking anything is real… The Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist becomes all the more necessary.

Because there’s nothing fake about it.

It’s 100% authentic.

Here we come face to face with the REAL Jesus — FLESH AND BLOOD — and we experience His REAL love, His REAL mercy and goodness…

That is either true or false.

We are either on board, or we are off.

In communion, or out…

Jonathan Roumie — the guy who plays Jesus on the TV show, The Chosen — wore a really awesome t-shirt at the recent Eucharistic congress in Indianapolis just a few weeks ago. It had a quote by Flannery O’Connor across the front that said — “If it’s just a symbol, to hell with it.”

In other words:

If the Eucharist isn’t really Jesus — if it’s not His True Flesh and True Blood — if it’s just a nice ceremony that sort of reminds us of Jesus or makes us think about religious, spiritual stuff — then to hell with it.

That’s not enough.

And yet apparently some CATHOLICS — maybe even a LOT of Catholics — still don’t believe that the Eucharist really is Jesus’ Body and Blood.

Now this is staggering to me. Because if we’re wrong about this — then we’re wrong about everything.

If the Eucharist is not really Jesus — if this is not a reasonable and believable doctrine — then what we are doing week in and week out when we come to church on Sunday… 

IS THIS: WE ARE WORSHIPPING BREAD.

How lame — how irrational — would that be?!?!

But you know, I’ve noticed that whenever this topic of Catholics not believing in the Real Presence comes up, people usually say stuff like this: 

“Well that’s because Catholics were never taught what we should believe about the Eucharist! If only they had the RIGHT INFORMATION! If only they had better CATECHESIS!” 

Now, I’m not gonna get up here and argue that we don’t need more or better catechesis. We certainly always do.

But the fact of the matter is — ALL of that information… ALL of that catechesis… It is readily available for anyone who really wants to find it. There are COUNTLESS free YouTube videos, podcasts, blogs, and books for ANYONE who is the least bit curious about what the Catholic Church teaches on the Blessed Sacrament and why.

So the problem is NOT about access to information… The problem is not a scarcity of good, reasonable theology and apologetics.

Something much deeper is going on.

Cuz I could get up here and give the most inspirational, most theologically precise series of presentations on how Jesus gives us His Flesh as True Food and His Blood as True Drink… I could quote all the Church Fathers, I could give you all the amazing Jewish roots of the Eucharist, I could share ALL the rich symbolism that we have in the Sacred Liturgy.

I mean we could even go ALL out … We could invite the best of the best — Fr Mike Schmitz, Scott Hahn and Bishop Barron could all to come to our parish, and they could deliver the most AMAZING talks about the POWER and the BEAUTY and the RICHNESS of Jesus living in the Eucharist — 

…But if there is no faith in the hearts of the listeners…If there is no openness to faith… then all of that will fall on deaf ears.

Knowing information about God is great. But it is not a substitute for KNOWING HIM.

That’s faith.

At the end of the day, we need faith in the Eucharist… not just information ABOUT the Eucharist, as good and helpful as that is! There’s MORE THAN ENOUGH rock solid theology to satisfy any intellect…

But faith is always a free gift.

Conversion is always an undeserved grace from God. It’s always a miracle.

Last week, Jesus alluded to this in the gospel, saying: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him.”

No one can BELIEVE in Jesus…No one can BELIEVE in the Holy Eucharist… unless they are given supernatural grace from above!

People will ask: “HOW WILL HE GIVE US HIS FLESH TO EAT?”

GOOD. Ask that question…

But notice that when the people ask that REALLY good question, Jesus does not respond with a theological argument.

No, he simply responds: 

“Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life within you.”

What’s he doing here?

He’s inviting them to have FAITH. 

He is giving them a chance to STEP OUT and BELIEVE, to respond and place their trust in Him, even if they don’t yet understand precisely what he’s talking about.

We can always ask God for that kind of faith. We can ask, right now, for an increase in faith and trust…in the Most Holy Eucharist.

In fact, let’s do that to end this homily.

So repeat after me:

Jesus, give me true faith in the Holy Eucharist.

Jesus, in Your Name, I renounce the spirit of doubt.

Jesus, in Your Name, I renounce the spirit of skepticism.

Jesus, I declare the truth that the Blessed Sacrament is Your True Body and True Blood.

Jesus, give me more and more LIFE every time I receive Holy Communion.

AMEN.