Was He Kidding Or What?

Foreward:

There is no work as onerous as reinventing something that has already been invented, found to be useful and still does the job.  What follows is a reprise of a blog entry made several years ago on the Feast of Corpus Christi.  I was writing with passion that day and except for the addition of a comma here and an article there, I am reproducing it here.  Sometimes, and this is one of those occasions, I can't find anything to fix.  Praise to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.  Corpus Christi 2017  Michael

For fifteen hundred years there was no conflict when it came to the Holy Eucharist.  The Church believed that it was the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ. Some of the "reformers" took issue with this, notably not the prototype heretic Luther who maintained that it was a sacramental union between Jesus and man.  Other reformers such as Calvin, Knox, and others believed it was only a symbolic memorial.

The Council of Trent at that time confirmed what everyone up until that time believed:

 Christ “instituted this Sacrament, in which He poured forth as it were the riches of divine love towards man” so that the Eucharist would be:

a remembrance, “to venerate His memory” and “show forth His death until He comes to judge the world.”

the “spiritual food of souls, whereby” He feeds and strengthens “those who live with His life.”

an “antidote, whereby we may be freed from daily faults [venial sins] and be preserved from mortal sins.”

a “pledge of our glory to come, and everlasting happiness”

a “symbol of that one body whereof He is the head, and to which He would fain have us as members be united by the closest bond of faith, hope, and charity…   Source: Laura McAlister

The Council of Trent like many councils was a reactionary council called to combat issues that came to because of the rebellion of Luther and the others.  Contrary to what some critics of the Church say the Council of Trent did not invent transubstantiation but rather codified what up until that time had been believed by everyone, everywhere.  I can see why today's Protestants would have trouble with the concepts codified by Trent.  The Council rightly defined the Eucharist as the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ.  This position taken to its logical end proves the Catholic point and thus was bitterly contested by the "reformers."  But for the sake of this blog let us suspend the tenants of the Council of Trent and go to what the "reformers" claim is the only source of Christian Doctrine, the Bible itself.  Let us also restrict ourselves to what the founder of the Catholic Church, Jesus, Himself said about the Eucharist.  (Please supply quotation marks where you think they should go,,,)

While they were at supper, Jesus took bread, and blessed and broke it, and gave to his disciples and said; Take and eat. This is My Body And taking the chalice, He gave thanks, and gave to them saying: Take and drink this.  For this is My Blood of the New Testament which shall be shed for many unto the remission of sins.  (John 26: 26-28)

Amen, Amen, I say to you; Moses gave you not bread from Heaven, but my Father gives you the true Bread from Heaven.  For the Bread of God is that which comes down from Heaven and gives life to the world.

John 6:32, 33

I Am the Bread of life: He that comes to me shall not hunger and he that believes in Me shall never thirst.

John 6:35

I Am the Bread of Life. Your fathers did eat manna in the desert and are dead. This is the Bread which comes down from Heaven; that if any man eats of it, he may not die.  I Am the living bread which came down from Heaven.  If any man eats of this bread he shall live forever, and the Bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world.

John 6: 48 - 52

Amen, Amen I say unto you: Unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of man and drink His Blood, you shall not have life in you.  He that eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has everlasting life: and I will raise him up on the last day.

John 6: 54-55

For my Flesh is food indeed and my Blood is drink indeed.  He that eats my Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me and I in Him.  As the living Father has sent Me, and I live by the Father; so he that eats me, the same shall live by Me. This is the Bread that came down from Heaven. Not as your Fathers did eat manna and are dead. He that eats this Bread, shall live for ever.

John 6:56-59

If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word and My Father will love him and We will come to him and will make Our abode with him.

John 14:23

From the above, we can see that Jesus considered the gift of His Body and Blood essential to salvation. The Doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is a hard thing for some people to believe. It was hard for the people in the time of Jesus.  In John chapter 6 verse 60 we read: " After hearing it, many of his followers said, 'This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?' Jesus does not say that He is only kidding, or what he said before should be taken as a symbol.  When he refuses to compromise or place a spin on what he said, the saddest moment of His life up until that time occurred because the people turned away and John says " After this, many of his disciples went away and accompanied him no more."  (John 6: 66) This too is what the "reformers" did or caused to happen among the poor souls that the clawed away from the Church.  They rejected the great gift of Jesus and just walked away, 

So, there you have it. The Blessed Sacrament is a gift that is misunderstood by some, laughed at by others, seen as a symbol, seen as a rite of passage, seen as something "you do."  The Blessed Sacrament is the union of Jesus and the recipient. You cannot get closer to God in this life than by receiving Him, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity into yourself.  If God can create the world in seven days from nothing, can He not also give us Himself in the form which appears to our senses as being bread and wine?  Does He not have the power and the will to do this?  If you say no then your God is too small.

Fig Tree and the Gardener

This Sunday we heard the parable of the barren fig tree as our Gospel reading. 

Okay, here is what I know about figs and fig trees. I know that Fig Newtons are a favorite cookie of mine and I know that cheap knock - offs of this tasty Nabisco treat feature more seeds than fruit.  Other than that I remember as a kid being kind of surprised that they grew on trees just as I was surprised about mustard growing on trees as well.  I could just imagine plastic containers of mustard raining down on some poor sod who was taking shelter under a mustard tree during a storm. But, lets return to the fig.

Back in the day of Jesus the one thing that the people of Israel had plenty of was figs. The Romans complained that at times during the year they would have to walk instep deep in fig juice. I am sure that is somewhat of an exaggeration. But figs were a staple food product and in our story we see a man going into his vineyard, fig trees often were planted in vineyards. The master of the house had a hankering for a nice juicy fig fresh from the tree. He walked over to the tree that he had lovingly planted three years ago and alas, no figs! 

He called his chief gardener over and told him to cut down the tree.  It had been nurtured for three years and was sapping the nutrients from the soil and giving nothing back. As a good businessman the boss saw no reason for this tree to remain.  The gardener interceded for the tree. He was not a businessman but he felt in his heart that he could coax fruit out of the stubborn tree. He thought that all it would take was a bit of tender loving care. You cam almost hear the conversation, the boss reasoning with the gardener and the gardener reasoning with the boss. In this case the gardener won. He would carefully tend the tree, work the soil around it, fertilize it and perhaps next season it would bear much fruit.  The boss walked away entrusting the fig tree to the care of the gardener. 

This story is often interpreted as God the Father getting upset that Israel had produced so little fruit in the time that Jesus had been teaching. The gardener is Jesus who is asking for more time to tend to Israel, fertilizing it with the Word of God, teaching it through example. And God the Father entrusted Israel to God the Son. 

I think we can bring it down a notch. Jesus works in our life through Word and Sacrament and is looking for us to bear fruit. There is a time limit we have, the time between birth and death, to do the work and bear the fruit that is expected of us. Each of us has a job to help bring the kingdom of God into fruition. The job is always something we have the talent, time, and treasure to complete. We may in fact need the help of Jesus the gardener at times and He will always be there lovingly tending to us and our needs.  It is the will of God that we succeed in our mission and it is only our timid nature, our fear that we will fail, that keeps us from success. Also, we cannot see with the eyes of eternity. Sometimes what appears to us as an abject failure is a success in disguise. The effects of our work for the kingdom are most often unseen. This is okay because we need to trust the gardener to do His job. The figs that later appear are none of our concern. He will distribute them as they are needed. 

Our job, therefore, is to be open to the graces that God provides. To not be timid or afraid at the job we are tasked with.  The work will be hard, we may not see results in our lifetime but in the end we will hear those words all of us long to hear; "Well done good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Master. " 

May the light of Christ guide you this week and may you be led ever closer to the Gardener and his garden. 

The Body and Blood of Christ

Today is the feast of Corpus Christi, or in English, The Body of Christ.  I've already written about the Eucharist in a previous blog page but today is a special day and I have to take a moment and express my love for the Precious Body and Blood of Jesus that we receive in a real way in Holy Communion.  


The Catholic Church, in fact the whole world up until the 1500's acknowledged that Jesus was present in the Eucharist in a real way and that the Mass was where Christians would gather and unite with the Lord in a very intimate and special way.  


Where do we get the idea that Jesus is really present in the sacred species?  We get it from John who wrote down the very word of Jesus:

"I am the bread of life; whoever

comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will

never thirst."

Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless

you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do

not have life within you.

 Whoever eats  my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal

life, and I will raise him on the last day.

 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.

 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me

and I in him.

The words of Jesus convey the necessity of eating His Body and drinking His Blood as a requirement for having His life within you, He could not have made it any clearer. 

The Christ of the Eucharist is the Resurrected, Triumphant Christ who will reign forever.  In greatest humility, I thank the Lord for becoming bread for me so that I might have his life within me.  At the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, when we Catholics sing that age old song;

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,

Heaven and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the highest.

A veil is removed and we actually sing with the Angels and Saints as they glorify God, in effect, heaven comes to earth and we, through the Blessed Sacrament are One in Christ - we offer true worship, that is, worship in spirit and truth. 

Praise God from whom all blessing flow!