Does bread and wine become the Blood and Body of Jesus at Mass?
Geo George - October 2021
Is there really a miracle in the blessing of the bread and wine at Mass?
As Catholics, we believe that at every single mass, the bread and wine offered on the altar, are transformed into the body and blood of Christ-the sacrament of the Eucharist. It takes a remarkable faith to believe that because it still looks like bread and wine. It still tastes like bread and wine.
We use the philosophical term, "transubstantiation" to philosophically explain what happens. That the essence of what it is has been transformed into the body and blood of Jesus, the externals remain the same.
Obviously, no one can prove the truth of the Eucharist. A scientist won’t be able to analyze it and see a difference. It comes down to faith. It comes down to a remarkable faith. Yet, when we look at the scriptures, at the Last Supper, Jesus says, "This is my body. This is my blood. " It doesn’t say "this is a symbol of my body, this is a representation of my blood." He says that it’s fully, Himself being offered to us in every experience of the Eucharist.
That matters tremendously for us because it means that the same living Christ who was born in Bethlehem, walked the streets of Galilee, performed his miracles and preaching and died on the cross and rose from the dead, abides in our churches, lives in the tabernacle.
Not to remain in the tabernacle, but to enter our hearts and into our lives. Every time I'm blessed to distribute communion, I never cease to be moved. I think about the fact that Jesus travelled this infinite distance from heaven, to come down upon our altar, in the form of the Eucharist.
Every person coming forward for communion has moved from the moment of his or her conception, even onto this time and place. I'm privileged and I'm blessed to hand Jesus over to each one of them. So we call that moment holy communion.
That we're in the living communion which is Jesus Christ and that we receive His body and blood into us. We become part of him. Hard to believe, may be it almost seems too good to believe, but if we believe and understand it, where else could we want to be, except at the table of the Lord, receiving that fullness of life.
As Jesus says in John, chapter 6, "I am the bread of life and he who; feeds on me will live forever." The Eucharist is our antidote to eternal death. It is our eternal fountain of youth because it renews within us that vitality of Christ, His saving presence, His paschal mystery, His love for us.
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