The Real Presence

See first: The Eucharist.

The objections to the Eucharist come down to two: the real presence is not read in Scripture, bread and wine being only symbols; or the Mass and adoration offend the unique sacrifice of Christ. Each gives way as soon as one looks closely at what Jesus says and what he does.

“This is my body,” in the proper sense

It is objected that Christ’s words are an image, as when he calls himself the door or the vine: “this is my body” would mean “this represents my body.” But Scripture closes that way. At Capernaum, Jesus announces that he will give his flesh to eat, and his hearers take his words in the proper sense. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” John 6:52 Far from correcting what they take literally, he affirms it more strongly. “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” John 6:53 The verb he then uses is no longer merely to eat, but to gnaw, to chew: the Greek word trōgō (τρώγω) denotes the concrete act of grinding with the teeth. When he calls himself the door or the vine, no one is scandalised, because the image is understood of itself; here, the scandal costs him disciples. “From then on, many of his disciples drew back and no longer walked with him.” John 6:66 He lets them go, without a word that would reduce everything to a figure. On the evening of the Supper, he says at last how this flesh is eaten. “This is my body... This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, poured out for the multitude.” Matthew 26:26-28

“The flesh profits nothing”

It is objected that Jesus himself undoes the carnal sense of his words. “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.” John 6:63 But this sentence cannot mean the flesh of Christ, for he has just said that this flesh, given for the life of the world, procures eternal life. “The bread that I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world.” John 6:51 The flesh of Christ, delivered on the Cross, saves the whole world; it could not profit nothing. The Greek word rendered “flesh,” sarx (σάρξ), here denotes the carnal way of judging, that of the man who stops at what his eyes see and refuses what surpasses him. John uses it elsewhere in the same sense, on the lips of Christ addressing the Pharisees. “You judge according to the flesh.” John 8:15 “The Spirit who gives life” is the Holy Spirit, without whom the sacrament would remain without fruit. Far from reducing his words to an image, Christ warns that they must receive them in a spiritual understanding.

More than a remembrance

It is objected that Christ asked only for a memorial, “in memory of me,” and that there would be in it only a remembrance, not a presence. But the memorial, in Scripture, is not confined to recalling the past: the Passover that Israel ate made present, to each generation, the deliverance from Egypt. The Eucharist makes present what it recalls, and Paul attests it in terms that exclude the mere symbol. “Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 11:27 One does not profane a sign; one profanes a presence. So he warns the one who would approach without recognising this body. “He who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks his own condemnation.” 1 Corinthians 11:29 Paul goes further still. “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a communion in the body of Christ?” 1 Corinthians 10:16 The Greek word rendered “communion,” koinōnia (κοινωνία), means a real participation: the one who drinks takes part in the very blood of Christ, not in its image.

One single sacrifice, made present

It is objected that Christ offered himself once for all, and that the Mass, by claiming to offer him again, adds to a finished sacrifice. But the Mass does not repeat the Cross and adds nothing to it: it makes present the one sacrifice, offered a single time on Calvary. The victim is the same, the priest is the same, Christ; only the manner changes, bloody on the Cross, unbloody on the altar. Scripture foretold this offering spread among the nations. “In every place incense and a pure offering are presented to my name.” Malachi 1:11 And the letter to the Hebrews recognises that the Church has an altar of its own, distinct from the old worship. “We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.” Hebrews 13:10 The tabernacle is the sanctuary of the Old Covenant, the Tent where Israel rendered its worship. The Christian, for his part, has his altar. Now an altar is made for a sacrifice: the Mass is that one sacrifice, not another.

Adoring Christ, not the bread

It is objected at last that to adore the host is to adore bread, and to fall into idolatry. Everything depends on what the host is. If the bread remained bread, to adore it would indeed be idolatry; but if Christ is really present in it, body, blood, soul and divinity, the adoration does not go to the bread, it goes to him. The question of idolatry therefore comes down to that of the real presence, already settled by his words. Before him present, to refuse adoration would be the only fault. One does not adore the sign, but the one it makes present.