3rd Week of Lent - The Promise Kept

"Blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it." St. Luke, 11:28.

A Protestant minister shared a seat on a train with a Franciscan mis­sionary. In the course of their conversation the minister remarked: "Father, as an intelligent man, do you really believe that God comes down and dwells in your Catholic tabernacle? Do you really believe that God is present in that little host?"

"Yes, I believe," the priest replied, "and the older I grow the stronger grows my faith. You give me credit for being intelligent. I appreciate that. But I do resent the suspicion that I might be insincere, that I might be saying I believe when I really do not. Let's look at it. Is our belief so unreasonable? You believe that Jesus Christ was God, don't you?"

The minister answered that he did.

"And you believe," the priest went on, "that Christ was born in a stable, a dingy barn, reeking with filth and the smell of manure, cold and barren?"

"Yes, Father, I believe that. The Bible says so."

"And do you believe," the padre continued, "that Christ died an insulting death on the cross, that He suffered and died like a criminal?"

Again the minister answered: "Yes, I believe that, because the Bible says so."

"Well, then," the priest pointed out, "can it be so hard to believe that Jesus becomes present again on the altar, on clean, white linens?"

Smiling, the minister admitted: "I never looked at it from that angle."

Believe the Bible and you believe in the Eucharist. Last week we heard Christ promise to give us His flesh to eat and His blood to drink. The night before His death He kept that promise. In an upper room we see the twelve Apostles around a table. At the place of honor sits the Master. He is serious. They are all serious. The Master is going to leave them.

But what is He doing, what is He saying? He takes bread, breaks it, looks up and gives thanks. Then slowly and solemnly He declares: "This is my body." Next He takes a cup of wine, and again His voice is certain, strong and solemn: "This is my blood." He tells them to take, to eat and drink. With continued solemnity He'commands: "Do this for a commemoration of me."

He has given the Apostles His flesh and blood and He wants them to con­tinue giving His flesh and blood to His followers of that day and of our day. The Catholic Church takes those words of Christ as they stand, takes them literally, takes them seriously, takes them in their only possible meaning. That is how the Apostles and the early Church understood our Lord's words. Surely they should and did know what our Lord meant.

Eighteen years after the Last Supper St. Paul wrote: "The cup of bless­
ing that we bless, is it not the sharing of the blood of Christ? And the bread that we break, is it not the partaking of the body of the Lord?" I Cor. 10:16. "For I myself have received from the Lord (what I also delivered to you) that the Lord Jesus, on the night in which he was betrayed, took bread, and giving thanks broke, and said, 'This is my body which shall be given up for you; do this in remembrance of me.' In like manner also the cup, after he had supped, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as you shall eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord, until he comes.'" I Cor. 11:23-26.

Over sixty Fathers and writers between the first and sixth century preach the Real Presence. Listen to St. Ignatius, a student of St. Peter himself, as he speaks of certain heretics: "They keep from the Eucharist and prayer, because they confess not that the Eucharist and prayer is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ."

The Discipline of the Secret proves our point. So sacred was the Blessed Sacrament that it was spoken of only in vague terms to those outside the faith.

One of many paintings in the catacombs shows a party of Christians at the Breaking of Bread. The pagans provide another proof. They accused the Christians of killing children, drinking their blood, and eating their flesh wrapped in bread. This was their twisted idea of the Eucharistic ban­quet, but it shows that the Christians taught they were actually receiving the body and blood of Christ.

Reason backs up our belief: Believe Christ was God, believe the Bible, and you must believe in the body and blood of Christ.

Truly blessed are they who hear and keep these words of Christ. Blessed are those of us who keep those words and believe those words and accept those words.

As those heavenly words, 'This is my body; this is my blood' are repeated at the consecration of every Mass, thank the good God that you have received the blessing, the thrilling, lifegiving blessing of taking Christ's words - just as He said them and meant them.

(For quotations from The Fathers see "Faith of Our Fathers" by Gibbons, p. 297)
____________________
Adapted from Talks on the Sacraments
by Fr. Arthur Tonne, 1947