Bread from Heaven

A few years ago, the results of a survey were release that indicated that one-third of US Catholics (around 69%) did not believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. At the time many, bishops were alarmed.  The reality is that the survey was flawed, but it still might be true that many Catholics are unclear about this.

Belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is truly fundamental to Catholics.  If we do believe that large numbers of Catholics are unclear about this belief, what would be the best approach to help change this situation?

At the end of our Gospel reading today, Jesus reveals himself using Eucharistic language as the bread of life. When the crowds listening to Jesus hear him say “the bread that came down from heaven (Jn 6:41), they think of the Manna which fed the Israelites in the desert.

Jesus is not, however, the bread of life which has come down from heaven, but the bread of life who has come down from heaven. Nor is Jesus merely ordinary bread. The kind of bread, which feeds human hunger, but instead the bread Jesus will offer, is imperishable food that endures to eternal life.

As the bread of life, Jesus reveals something essential about his nature and mission in the world, but this revelation proves difficult for the crowds to understand and accept. A few verses latter in 6:41 the crowds murmur, and complain that this is difficult to accept. In a certain sense, this is exactly like our modern situation. We are also surrounded by people who need to be persuaded that Jesus truly the bread of life.

What can we do about this? Many people think that all we need to do is give people better teaching and this will solve everything.

Another approach would be to say that all we need to do is have people experience the mystery and beauty of the liturgy and they will come to believe. The Catechism has an interesting note about this.

Quoting Second Vatican Council the Catechism notes, “The sacred liturgy does not exhaust the entire activity of the Church”: [SC 9] it must be preceded by evangelization, faith, and conversion. It can then produce its fruits in the lives of the faithful.” (CCC 1072).

But what does it mean to be evangelized and converted?

Our US bishops define conversion as, “the acceptance of a personal relationship with Christ, a sincere adherence to him, and a willingness to conform one's life to his. (National Directory of Catechesis, p. 48).

To put it more simply “Conversion to Christ involves making a genuine commitment to him and a personal decision to follow him as his disciple” (NDC, p. 48).

Perhaps our Gospel for this Sunday, gives us a model for how Jesus handled the lack of belief among the crowds who followed him? The end goal is to inspire belief both in his divine person, and in his Eucharistic presence.

This section of John (John 6:24–35) is actual a series of three questions, each with a response by Jesus.

If you have been following along in what is now our second Sunday on John 6, our Gospel actually skips ahead in the narrative. At the end of last week’s Gospel, the crowds try to make Jesus king by force, and he withdraws alone. The crowds also observe that the disciples get into a boat and leave without Jesus.

In a section skipped by the lectionary at this point, Jesus joins the disciples in the boat by walking on the water. This explains the surprised question that opens our Gospel. “Rabbi, when did you come here?” (Jn 6:25).

Jesus begins with the immediate questions of the crowd. The crowd is curious about Jesus.  Jesus has already created some sense of connection and initial trust with the crowds through his feeding of the 5000.

Instead of simply answering their question directly, Jesus challenges them saying, “you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled” (Jn 6:26). Jesus is using this dialogue to move the crowd a bit closer to the truth. Clearly, he senses that they now have some initial curiosity and openness to his message. Jesus actually draws their attention to the miraculous sign that has just taken place in the feeding of the 5000.

Sometimes people act as if miracles are a kind of concession. Some might even suggest that it would be more high minded to believe in Jesus without miracles. In John’s Gospel, however, provided the miraculous “signs” lead to Jesus, they are good. They help people to move forward in the journey of faith.

In fact, Jesus acknowledges that the crowds gather to listen and to seek him because of the signs, yet seeking and listening do not always lead the crowd to immediately believe or understand.

Jesus points out that the crowds were still primarily seek their own comfort. They are mostly still following him to satisfy their human hunger. In the feeding of the 5000 in last Sunday’s Gospel, it was very clear that Jesus provided an abundance of food. We certainly do not get the impression that Jesus does not want to feed crowds, or that he does so grudgingly or by way of concession.

Yet Jesus contrasts seeking him because of the ‘signs’ which would be good, with seeking him “because you ate your fill of the loaves” (Jn 6:26).  The food meets a human need, while the signs point to the true reality of who Jesus is.

Jesus tells them, “Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life” Jn 6:27.

Jesus’ talk of working for the food that leads to eternal life prompts the next question, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” The connection between “work” and “eternal life” makes this sound like a salvation question.

While it is not true that the ancient Jews of Jesus’ day believed that they earned their salvation through their works, it is a perennial danger of religious people in any age to try to gain God’s approval by doing things (CCC 2092).

On the other hand, our good works are important, but our works are always the fruit of what has taken place in our heart.  Jesus make this point clear, by immediately pointing the crowds back to the heart. “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (v.29).

This prompt the final questions. “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do? (v. 30). It is hard to know what to make of this response. The crowds seem to understand that belief in Jesus is central. They also notice that he told them to seek Jesus because of his signs, rather than for food (v. 28), but then the sign they ask of him is to make manna, the bread that God gave the Israelites in the desert (Ex 16:4–5; Nm 11:7–9; Ps 78:24). They say, “Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat’ ” (Jn 6:31).

Jesus does not get frustrated or push them away. He allows their religious experience in the narratives about Moses feeding the people with manna from heaven to be a bridge to a new understanding.

He points out that it was not Moses, but God the Father who provided bread or manna. Now God the Father has provided something new, “true bread from heaven” (v. 32) who (the true bread is now a person) gives life to the world (v. 33).

This appears to inspire some initial belief with the response, “Sir, give us this bread always.” (v34). Have some of them journeyed to a new threshold of conversion beyond merely being open and curious? Finally, Jesus summarizes, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst” (Jn 6:35).

While Jesus has clearly moved their hearts forward, this is not the end of their journey (or the end of the narrative in John 6), and some who follow Jesus have not yet come to belief. Not surprisingly, the journey to the fullness of conversion often occurs in stages.

Some important Catholic thinkers, such as Sherry Weddell [Forming Intentional Disciples: the Path to Knowing and Following Jesus (Our Sunday Visitor: 2012)] have proposed five thresholds of conversion: initial trust, spiritual curiosity, spiritual openness, spiritual seeking, and finally intentional discipleship (p. 129-130).

1. Initial Trust
2. Spiritual Curiosity
3. Spiritual Openness
4. Spiritual Seeking
5. Intentional Disciples

I think that we do observe Jesus in this dialogue with the crowd, moving people through the thresholds of conversion, until they begin to actively seek him with their whole hearts, and then make that decision to follow him, an put him at the center of their life. Obviously, people will be at different stages in this journey. It is not enough to simply declare the truth, “I am the bread of life” but once their hearts are ready, they will be transformed by it.

 

 EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B

A 'substantial quibble' with the Pew Research Institute

Share |

Dear Pew Research Institute,

While I generally enjoy reading your research, as Catholic, I think you are creating a highly inaccurate picture of all Catholics by making statements like those made by Aleksandra Sandstrom on your website. 

Sandstrom notes, "The church teaches that when the bread and wine are consecrated by an ordained priest, they become the actual body and blood of the risen Christ; a theological explanation for this process, known as transubstantiation, has been supported by official church teaching since the 16th century." [emphasis mine]

I don't think the Catholic Church has ever described the Eucharist as the actual body and blood. A search of the vatican website:

0 results have been found for "actual body"

The word 'actual' in common use means "existing in fact or reality" i.e. the things we see. The standard language of the Catholic Church for the Eucharist is normally the "Real Presence" or perhaps "true, real, substantial" presence but not actual since the Body and Blood are real but still seen and tasted by the senses under the form or appearances of bread and wine.

This may explain the responses of your 2019 survey which asked a sampling of Catholics the very confusing statement: “during Catholic Mass, the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus.” (my emphasis)


As the glossary to the Catechism notes (my emphasis):

BODY OF CHRIST: (1) The human body which the Son of God assumed through his conception in the womb of Mary and which is now glorified in heaven (467, 476, 645). (2) This same Body and Blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ are sacramentally present in the Eucharist under the appearances of bread and wine (1374). (3) The Church is called the (mystical) Body of Christ because of the intimate communion which Jesus shares with his disciples; the metaphor of a body, whose head is Christ and whose members are the faithful, provides an image which keeps in focus both the unity and the diversity of the Church (787, 790, 1396).

And

CONSECRATION: The dedication of a thing or person to divine service by a prayer or blessing. The consecration at Mass is that part of the Eucharistic Prayer during which the Lord’s words of institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper are recited by the priestly minister, making Christ’s Body and Blood—his sacrifice offered on the cross once for all—sacramentally present under the species of bread and wine (1352, 1353).

The Catechism itself notes,:

In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist “the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained.”202 “This presence is called ‘real’—by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they could not be ‘real’ too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present.”203 (CCC 1374)

It is 'actually' (if you will pardon my pun) very annoying to see Pew Associate Research Director, Gregory A. Smith repeatedly implying that Catholics don't know their faith when his presentation of what the Church believes is not accurate. Many Catholics may indeed not know enough about their faith, but I believe this survey was a flawed instrument to measure this.

In the Catholic understanding, there is no dichotomy between "real" and "symbol" as supposed. Saying "43% of Catholics believe that the bread and wine are symbolic" is not the same as saying they believe it is merely a symbol and therefore not real. Unless I am misunderstanding what you asked. At the very least, it is a very confusing question from a Catholic point of view.

Regarding signs and symbols (1333–1340) in the celebration of the liturgy, the Catechism notes that "a sacramental celebration is woven from signs and symbols" (1145). The Catechism further notes,

Since Pentecost, it is through the sacramental signs of his Church that the Holy Spirit carries on the work of sanctification. The sacraments of the Church do not abolish but purify and integrate all the richness of the signs and symbols of the cosmos and of social life. [emphasis mine] (CCC 1152) 

The sacraments can be both a symbol or symbolic and real without contradiction. Ultimately for Catholics the Eucharist is a mysterium fidei, a mystery which surpasses our understanding and can only be received in faith.

Examples of standard language:

St. John Paul II, 

Homily, Holy Thursday, 12 April 2001

This is the wonder which we priests touch every day with our hands during Holy Mass! The Church continues to repeat Jesus’ words and knows that she must do so until the end of the world. By virtue of those words a marvellous change takes place: the Eucharistic species remain, but the bread and wine become, in the felicitous expression of the Council of Trent, “truly, really and substantially” the Body and Blood of the Lord.

Homily Thursday, 30 May 2002

"...adore the Bread and the Wine become the true Body and true Blood of the Redeemer. "Signs not things are all we see", the Sequence stresses, but "here beneath these signs lie hidden priceless things".

Homily Thursday, 3 June 2010

" in contemplating and adoring the Most Holy Sacrament, recognizes in it the real and permanent presence of Jesus ...In the Last Supper, instead, Jesus transforms the bread and wine into his own Body and Blood so that the disciples may be nourished by him and live in close and real communion with him.

St. John Paul II, (his encyclical on the Eucharist)

ENCYCLICAL LETTER ECCLESIA DE EUCHARISTIA

15. The sacramental re-presentation of Christ's sacrifice, crowned by the resurrection, in the Mass involves a most special presence which – in the words of Paul VI – “is called 'real' not as a way of excluding all other types of presence as if they were 'not real', but because it is a presence in the fullest sense: a substantial presence whereby Christ, the God-Man, is wholly and entirely present”.²² This sets forth once more the perennially valid teaching of the Council of Trent: “the consecration of the bread and wine effects the change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord, and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. And the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called this change transubstantiation”.²³ Truly the Eucharist is a mysterium fidei, a mystery which surpasses our understanding and can only be received in faith, as is often brought out in the catechesis of the Church Fathers regarding this divine sacrament: “Do not see – Saint Cyril of Jerusalem exhorts – in the bread and wine merely natural elements, because the Lord has expressly said that they are his body and his blood: faith assures you of this, though your senses suggest otherwise”.²⁴ 

_____

²²Encyclical Letter Mysterium Fidei (3 September 1965): AAS 57 (1965), 764.

²³Session XIII, Decretum de ss. Eucharistia, Chapter 4: DS 1642.

²⁴Mystagogical Catecheses, IV, 6: SCh 126, 138.

Share |

SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B

What kind of test does Jesus have in mind?

During the next five weeks of Gospel readings, we will be focusing our thoughts on John chapter 6. Since our readings in the next five weeks will take us slowly through the entire chapter, we have the opportunity to think more deeply about each section. John chapter 6 opens with the words, “After this” which points back to the event in the previous chapter. Jesus entered into a conflict with the religious leaders of his day over the Sabbath. Not only is Jesus a “Sabbath breaker” but Jesus also dared to call “God his own father, making himself equal to God” (Jn 5:18).

The first and most fundamental question is; who is Jesus Christ? Jesus a mere man, but the very Son of God. Jesus declares “Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live” (Jn 5:25).  Jesus claims to be the Son of God and that the Father has testified in Scripture that this is so.

The purpose of Jesus time on earth was to bring us to eternal life. The “signs” Jesus performs in John’s Gospel draw people to him. John tells us, “a multitude follow [Jesus] because they saw the signs” (6:2). Nevertheless, salvation involves not just seeing and following, but hearing and believing in the Son. Jesus tells them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life” (Jn 5:24).

Eventually the fullness of conversion initiation will involve faith, repentance, baptism and reception of the Spirit. The Catechism notes that the essential elements of Christian initiation are: "proclamation of the Word, acceptance of the Gospel entailing conversion, profession of faith, Baptism itself, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and [then as a result] admission to Eucharistic communion." (CCC 1229). 

Jesus actions in feeding the 5000 are very deliberate. John tells us Jesus “knew what he would do” (6:6). Jesus wanted to put the faith of Phillip to the test. In a certain sense, he is testing all the apostles through this sign. We can see the very different responses of Phillip and Andrew to this sign.

The Greek word used for test means “to try to learn the nature or character of someone … thorough and extensive testing”^[1] 

The idea of God putting people's faith to the“test” is a common Old Testament theme. God tests Abraham (Gen 22:1) and Moses (Exod 15:25); and testing even involves the Manna from heaven (Exod 16:4) which we will hear more about later in the chapter. Eventually the whole nation of Israel is repeatedly tested by God (Exod 20:20).

In the New Testament, St. Paul also uses similar language; “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are holding to your faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! (2 Co 13:5, cf. 1 Peter 4:12).

What kind of test does Jesus have in mind?

Before anything else there needs to be an act of faith, which involves a surrender of the heart. There need to be a deliberate “yes” to Jesus that places Jesus at the center of our life. For those of us baptized as infants, and who grew up in the Church, we might see our faith as a kind of church bus that we have ridden on until it dropped us off at Confirmation. After that, we have arrived at our destination. We have everything we need for mature adult faith.

It is as if the message of Jesus was not “repent and believe in the Gospel,” or “hear and believe” but instead “study and learn.” Words like faith, repentance, and conversion focus much more on the heart than the head.  The word for “test” used in our Gospel has to do with a person’s essential nature or character.  It is not primarily about knowledge of learning.

Yet, clearly knowing about the faith is also important. In the parable of the sower, in one type of soil the seed failed because the one who heard the word of the kingdom “did not understand it.” Yet, there is a big difference between simply knowing something and truly believing something so that it transforms every aspect of your life.

If each of us examines or tests our own heart, we might ask, “Has there ever been a point in my life when I made a deliberate decision to follow Jesus and make him the center of my life?”

Is it enough to ride along on the Church bus and receive the sacraments? Does every young person who gets Confirmed make a deliberate personal decision to follow Jesus and make him the center of my life? Faith involves more than just being along for the ride.  Many youth have confided in me that they got Confirmed mostly because their mother wanted them to, or because everyone else was doing it at that time.

Faith is not a spectator sport. You need to get off the bench and into the game. The work of the Holy Spirit needs our willing cooperation. We might ask again, “Has there ever been a point in my life when I made a deliberate decision to follow Jesus and make him the center of my life?”

Some people have compared this decision by analogy to dating. Am only I occasionally dating Jesus, or do we see each other frequently? Are you and Jesus in a “committed relationship”? Are you promised to each other in engagement?  Finally have you exchanged vows in marriage promising to be faithful as long as we live? I believe that Jesus will joyfully join us in each step of this journey, but his desire is for our full commitment.

Again as St Paul said to the Corinthians, ““Examine yourselves, to see whether you are holding to your faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?  If you have been Baptized and have been joined to Christ in Holy Communion, and have been joined to him by the fullness Holy Spirit in Confirmation, then surely you must realize that Christ is in you.  

As each one of us examines our heart today, how will we respond to Jesus test? What kind of relationship do you want to have with Jesus?

Imagine what would happen in our families and in our parish today, if each one of us offer Jesus a “yes” to his call for deeper intimacy with us.

 

---

^[1] Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 331.