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August 18, 2024 Bulletin & News

By August 14, 2024August 29th, 2024No Comments
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My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”

(John 6:55)

What does it mean that the Eucharist is the body and blood of Christ, given to us as food?

In teaching on the Holy Eucharist, St. Thomas Aquinas addressed the real presence of Christ, the supernatural conversion of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ (called “transubstantiation”), and the miraculous suspension of the accidents (apparent properties) of bread and wine after the consecration. In his profound reflections, he also hones in on the Eucharist as spiritual food.

The Gospel of John teaches that Jesus’s flesh is “true food,” and spiritual food is true food, but not the same as material food. This is why one who receives the Holy Eucharist is not materially chewing the body of Christ. What is consumed is the accidents, i.e., the appearance of bread. Christ is truly present in the Eucharist, but not materially in a way subject to chewing and swallowing. Indeed, the body of Christ that is present on the altar is his glorified heavenly body, which is not possible to divide or harm. Thus, we eat the body of Christ spiritually under a sacramental sign, under the appearance of bread that is subject to material division and consumption. The appearance is not just a symbol of spiritual food, as many non-Catholic Christians interpret it, but a kind of vehicle that allows us to encounter the reality that is insensible. Just as the water of baptism isn’t just a bath but spiritual rebirth in God’s grace, the Eucharist has the appearances of bread and wine as a kind of medium that hides the true presence of Jesus.

The Eucharist as spiritual food is important exactly because it is not bound by the laws that govern material food. You eat material food in order to break it down into component parts that are assimilated to your body. It becomes part of you. But Jesus doesn’t become part of you in the Eucharist as much as he makes you part of him. This is why the Church has always called the Body of Christ ‘Communion’ – the love that binds us to him and one another. It is a profound mystery that none of us, not even brilliant St. Thomas could penetrate. Yet the fact that it can be contemplated endlessly does not mean there is no satisfaction, for indeed, the ability of true spiritual food to satisfy goes beyond anything this world can provide.

-Fr. Nate

San Pedro Comms

Author San Pedro Comms

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