Eat His Body and Drink His Blood?!

Homily for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Times

Given at St. Jude, August 18, 2024

By Deacon Ken Steponaitis

Readings: 20th Sunday in Ordinary Times

As we continue to read chapter 6 of the Gospel of John, I can’t help but think about the way my parents raised me.

I am not sure how your parents were when you grew up, but often my parents would tell me to do something, and my natural inclination was to ask, “why?” Now maybe there are parents out there who are willing to oblige their kids and give them a reason, but many times I would hear especially from my father, “because I said so!”

What I came to find out as I grew up, often when I would ask “why,” there would have been no way that my parents could have explained to me with any adequacy, the real reason they asked me to do something. Underlying their dictates, was an implication that they simply wanted me to trust them, that they knew what they were talking about.

As a person who used to be an atheist, as I began a journey back to the faith, what I struggled with most was what is known as the "real presence" of Jesus in the Eucharist. I struggled to believe that once consecrated the bread and wine is the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus himself.

Aside from some big questions like, why God, do you allow bad things to happen to good people, I asked God, why am I being asked to believe in something that does not seem possible? Why do you say, “that unless I eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his drink His blood, I do not have life within me?" Why is it so important that I eat your flesh and drink your blood? Isn’t that cannibalism? Why do You teach something that is so difficult for me to accept?

As I was searching for my faith home, I thought the protestants had it right when it comes to this issue. That the bread and wine are simply symbols of Jesus’ body and blood. And yet as I looked deeper into Catholicism, I realized that there was no equivocation. The Church does not now, nor has She never questioned that teaching. There were certainly questions of how and why this is the truth, but never a question of whether it was truth.

Even St. Paul, who didn’t believe that Jesus was who He claimed to be, and later became a follower and taught the faith, asked the Corinthians, when discussing idolatry, “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?”

As time went on, theologians tried to understand this teaching and wanted to understand it. In the 12th century, an attempt at the explanation of how bread and wine become Jesus’ body and blood began to be taught using the term transubstantiation.

As I started to study this teaching, it led me to discover a philosophy known as metaphysics. In the study of metaphysics, there were two terms that helped me to understand at a very basic level what transubstantiation was all about. Those two terms were “substance” and “accidents.”

Now in our colloquial language, I think if you asked, “what is substance?” Most people would answer, it is something we can feel and touch. A lectern has substance to it because it is physically made of something like wood. Yet we call it a lectern. And metaphysically it is a lectern because we say it is. We don’t call it that piece of wood that the deacon or priest standing behind. In metaphysics, substance is not necessarily something that is physical. In Metaphysics, substance is what a thing is. For example, we are humans, metaphysically speaking, because humans have certain attributes that make us human. We have a body and a soul, intelligence and an ability to love and be aware of our own existence. There are many things we can point to besides our physicality that determines we are human. But metaphysics also says an angel is a substance. Angels too, have intellect, an ability to love and be aware of their own existence, but they don’t have bodies like we do. Yet metaphysically their substance is an angel.

The term, “accidents,” might be defined in our colloquial language as something that happened by chance. A person who crashes a car is said to have had an accident. But in metaphysics, accidents are not that, they are what we perceive. The color of something, or the taste or texture of something, in metaphysics … those are accidents. While this lectern is substantively a lectern, according to metaphysics, some of its accidents are the texture of wood, and the color of the wood.

I tell you all this because for those of us who are trying to understand how it is possible for a priest, to consecrate bread and wine into the Body of Christ, this doctrine of transubstantiation, if understood can help us believe … at least it helped me to believe.

The very word transubstantiation means to transform the substance of something from what it was to what it will become. That is, the substance of the bread and wine become the substance of Jesus. Why? Because Jesus said so! “This is my Body … This is my blood.” However, the accidents of Eucharist remain the same as before the transformation. The accidents of this lectern are still wood, nevertheless, it is a lectern, because we say it is.

The bread and wine consecrated have the accidents of bread and wine, but nevertheless are the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ. I can sort of wrap my head around that, even if I don’t fully understand it. Even the Church says: "Jesus is really, truly and substantially present."

Our faith is not irrational. But we cannot always rationalize the teachings from God. Some teachings are what are known as suprarational. That is, the teaching is beyond rationality. It is beyond something we can fully rationalize. It does not mean it can’t happen, or that it’s not the truth. It only means that there is a reality that in our humanity we can never fully understand. Just like we can never fully understand how God can create everything out of nothing. And yet there isn’t any Christian worth his or her salt who doesn’t believe that all the Cosmos has been created out of nothing by an intelligent and loving God.

And that, to me, seems more difficult to come to grips with than Jesus saying, this is my body, this is my blood, now come and eat and drink and you will have eternal life ... life in you!

When my parents said to do something because, “I said so,” they were working from wisdom. They knew at that point in my life I could not rationalize why they were asking to do what they asked. And even if they could explain it, I would not be able to understand. It’s a kind of wisdom that must come from experience and knowledge.

If we look at our first reading today, it’s a bit cryptic, but what it is talking about is, Lady Wisdom asking us to marry her. To join her in her house, to eat good meats and drink good wines. If we do, and forsake the foolishness of not trusting in God, then we live!

When we take up the invitation to live with and dine with wisdom, it’s like a marriage between us and God. The more we take in God, and the wisdom that God has to offer and teach us, the more we live!

Isn’t that kind of what Jesus is saying when he says, “whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life?”

Even Paul in our second reading talks about this. “Watch carefully how you live, not as foolish persons but as wise.” Paul recognizes that when we live in and with Christ, it takes us away from evil and debauchery which is sin and corruption. When we take in Jesus, when we take in His Body and Blood, our bodies and blood become what we consume, not just in a physical sense, but in a real and substantive sense. In a metaphysical sense. We become Christ’s to the world! We gain eternal life! We become like God, which is exactly what God wants of us.

This is why Jesus insists that we eat his flesh and drink his blood. Without doing that, we cannot fully become what it is that God wills us to become … little Jesus’ with all that comes with being Jesus and that includes resurrection. That includes our bodies and souls united forever in eternity in blissful love … in heaven.

There is one other thing I think is so important regarding Eucharist. I had a dinner to thank a group of people who have helped me go through an Institute of Homiletics. For the past 2 years they have been helping me to become a better preacher. During the dinner, we talked about what I was going to discuss in this homily. In our discussion, one of the ladies in the group, Carol, told me that she came to know a Nun named, Sister Briege McKenna of the order of St. Clare. Sr Briege, an Irish nun.

At the age of twenty-four, sister Briege was miraculously and instantaneously healed during the celebration of the Eucharist and sometime later received, in prayer, the gift of healing. Sr. Briege is known for going around the world and teaching about healing and there are even stories that she has brought Jesus’ miracle of healing to others.  

Carol recently had a surgery, and before the surgery she called Sr. Biege and asked for her prayers. Sister Briege obliged her. And before they hung up, Sr. Briege said there is one thing else I need to tell you, because I feel Jesus has called me to tell everyone … Jesus told me to tell you, "I am a person." Jesus is not just a host in the tabernacle. Jesus is real. Jesus is a person who loves us and wants us to love Him.

God does not always give us the capacity to understand all the truths that He teaches. We can certainly ask "why?", or even ask how these things are possible. But when it comes to the Eucharist, when it comes to trying to rationalize why Jesus tells us to eat his body and drink his blood, it may be better to just leave it at … because he told us so.

Today, when the priest elevates the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ, look at the host, and say to Jesus, I know you are a person who loves me. I may not fully understand why you ask me to eat of your body and blood, but I know when I receive You, and take You in, we can go out and be part of the Body of Christ to the world!