The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 188: Christ’s Presence in the Eucharist (2024)

Episode Date: July 6, 2024

Together, with Fr. Mike, we explore the reality of Christ’s true presence in the Eucharist. Fr. Mike unpacks what actually happens during the celebration of the sacrifice of the Eucharist, specifically, transubstantiation. He explains that during the Consecration, the whole substance of bread and wine becomes the whole substance of the Body and Blood of Christ. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1373-1377. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism of the Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 188, we're reading paragraphs 1373 to 1377. As always, I am using the Ascension edition

of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations of Faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism with the Catholic Church. You can also download your own Catechism in a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y, and you can also click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates

and daily notifications. Cause today, as I said, it's day 188. We were reading paragraphs 1373 to 1377. We were talking about the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, which is remarkable. Not for, not only for its own sake, but also because, you know, I didn't read ahead yesterday, but I was talking about transubstantiation yesterday.

And so it gave you a little sneak peek, little heads up into what we're going to read today. It is a miracle that's akin, I don't know, I was going to say akin to the incarnation, but it really is that at every mass, in every tabernacle around the world, bread and wine become truly, really and substantially the body and blood, soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's incredible. And so as we talk about this holy thing, I made a little joke at the beginning, but as we talk about this holy thing, let's just ask the Lord to help us to appreciate the

beginning, to begin to appreciate the depth of his love for us, that at every mass He transforms bread and wine into His Body and Blood, truly, really and substantially. So let's pray now. Father in Heaven, we give you praise and we thank you. We thank you for the gift of your Church, the gift of faith, hope and love. We thank you for the gift of your Holy Spirit. We thank you for the gift of your Son, for you so loved the world that you gave your only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but might have eternal

life. And you've given us your Son to be our food in this miraculous, mysterious, incredible way. Help us to recognize Him in the breaking of the bread. Help us to really, truly see who Jesus is as He comes to us on a regular basis, daily basis in the Eucharist. and help us to fall in love with him as you are in love with us. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. It is day 188. We're reading paragraphs 1373 to 1377.

The presence of Christ by the power of His Word and the Holy Spirit. Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us, is present in many ways to His Church. In His Word, in His Church's prayer, where two or three are gathered in My name, in the poor, the sick, and the imprisoned, in the sacraments of which He is the Author, in the sacrifice of the Mass, and in the person of the Minister. But He is present most especially in the Eucharistic species. The mode of Christ's presence under the Eucharistic species is unique.

It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as the perfection of the spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments as the perfection of the spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments tend. 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. 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 holy and entirely present. It is by the conversion of the bread and wine into Christ's Body and Blood that Christ

becomes present in this sacrament. The Church Fathers strongly affirmed the faith of the Church in the efficacy of the Word of Christ and the action of the Holy Spirit to bring about this conversion. Thus St. John Chrysostom declares, It is not man that causes the things offered to become the body and blood of Christ, but he who was crucified for us, Christ Himself. The priest, in the role of Christ, pronounces these words, but their power and grace are God's. This is my body, he says.

This word transforms the things offered. And St. Ambrose says about this conversion, Be convinced that this is not what nature has formed, but what the blessing has consecrated. The power of the blessing prevails over that of nature because by the blessing nature itself is changed. Could not Christ's Word, which can make from nothing what did not exist, change existing things into what they were not before? It is no less a feat to give things their original nature than to change their nature.

The Council of Trent summarizes the Catholic faith by declaring, Because Christ our Redeemer said it was truly His body that He was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God. And this holy council now declares again, that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of wine into the substance of His blood. This change the Holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation. The Eucharistic presence of Christ begins at the moment of the consecration and endures

as long as the Eucharistic species subsist. Christ is present whole and entire in each of the species and whole and entire in each of their parts in such a way that the breaking of the bread does not divide Christ. Alright, there we have it, paragraphs 1373 to 1377. Short paragraphs, right? I think another six, five paragraphs here, and yet so powerful, just incredible. Let's highlight, let's just kind of go in order here because if we don't, I'm going

to get lost. I'm going to talk about everything that I want to begin to be able to talk about everything that I love about Jesus and the Eucharist, about how good God is for us. And so paragraph 1373 kicks off by saying that, okay, Jesus Christ is truly present in many ways. And he lists some of the ways, right? Christ is present to us in his word, right? When we hear the scriptures proclaimed and his church's prayer, when two or three are gathered in his name.

Christ is present in the poor, the sick and the imprisoned, in the sacraments of which he is the author, essentially all of the sacraments. Christ is present in the sacrifice of the mass and in the person of the minister right in the person that priest the bishop but he is present most especially in the Eucharistic species that it is it is a unique presence and I just this is Beautiful, you know always always I'll talk about the Eucharist as being the true body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus. Where do you get that kind of language? Well, one of the places we get that kind of language is from the Council of Trent originally and here expressed to us in paragraph

1374 where it says, 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 Jesus Christ and therefore the whole Christ is truly really and substantially contained. Now this present is called real because all the other presences are real as well but this is presence in the fullest sense. That is to say it's a substantial presence by which Christ God and man makes himself holy and entirely present. This is something so beyond our imaginations. It's beyond our understanding that Jesus Christ, body, blood, soul and divinity is truly present in the Eucharist. Now these words are important for us, truly, really and substantially contained, that He's

present in truly, really and substantially. Sometimes we will talk about Christ's physical presence and that is not, it's not wrong to talk about Christ's physical presence because here's the Eucharist that is physically there, right? We receive the Eucharist, we adore the Eucharist, we get to consume the Eucharist. There is, he says, take and eat, take and drink, those are physical actions. In fact, in John chapter 6, when Jesus uses the term for flesh, his own flesh, at one point he actually uses the term Sarx, right? Talking about like a physical presence that truly is me. That's my body and blood, the term sarks, right? He's talking about like a physical presence

that truly is me. That's my body and blood, soul and divinity, okay? At the same time, a more precise language, I think, a more precise language that doesn't lead to it being mistaken, doesn't lead to some mistakes, is that Christ is, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained. Because we recognize that this is not cannibalism, right?

We're not eating the physical flesh of Jesus, but it truly is, really is and substantially is the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus. And that's kind of a key distinction that we would like to maybe like to make here. Now moving past that, because that's a distraction. I think in some ways it's a distraction to get away from the fact that Jesus,

the whole Christ, body, blood, soul, divinity is truly, really and substantially contained. That's the heart of this. Now going on, we recognize that when is it that Christians started believing this? Well, from the beginning, we know that in John chapter 6, when Jesus made it clear that he was going to give us his flesh and blood as food and drink that Many disciples said this saying is hard who can accept it and they walked away in John chapter 6 verse 66 Many of the disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied it from the beginning from the beginning It was clear what you will not clear in the sense that we understand how he's doing this or what's really happening But it was clear that there's something unique about the Eucharist, something that is so

challenging to us that was recognized from the beginning. But we also have the Church Fathers. Now we're looking at St. John Chrysostom and St. Ambrose, and they're a couple centuries into Christianity. But if you want to go all the way back, you can go all the way back to St. Ignatius of Antioch in the year 107 talking about that Jesus Christ, the Eucharist truly is, is the true flesh and blood of Jesus Christ our Savior. But here we have St. John Chrysostom and talks about this and he says, it is not man that

causes the things offered to become the body and blood of Christ, but he who is crucified for us. Christ himself does this. Yes, the priest in the role of Christ pronounces these words, but their power and grace are God's. This is my body, he says, and this word transforms the things offered. Remember, this is placed under the office of the priesthood.

And we mentioned the other day that there are people who can come to the conclusion that yes, Jesus was very serious when he said in John 6, that my flesh is true food, my blood is true drink. Jesus was being literal when he said at the last supper, this is my body, this is my blood. And they can still miss out on the heart of the Eucharist, not the heart of the Eucharist. They can still miss out on participating in the Eucharist because they don't have the priesthood. When we've abandoned the apostolic succession,

when we abandoned priesthood, then we no longer have the ability to confect the Eucharist because even from the beginning, here is St. John Chrysostom writing in the first couple centuries and He's saying that it's the priest in the role of Christ who pronounces these words and the power and grace come from God And so that's there's a there's a connection and an intrinsic connection Between the reality of Christ's presence in the Eucharist and the ministry the role the action of the priest now going on St. Ambrose, Ken talks about this. And this is one of those situations where I always like to, not maybe make a joke, but kind of like show

how to demonstrate or at least point out how strange it is that we would say the same God who made everything out of nothing, that he can, yes, he can make one thing into another. But if you were to say, I don't know how God could possibly do this. Well, okay. But we remember from the beginning that in the beginning, God just said, let there be light and all of a sudden there was light. That the God who can create everything out of nothing with a word, that he can't transform one

thing to another. Here's what St. Ambrose says, it is no less a feat to give things their original nature than to change their nature. Could not Christ's word, which can make from nothing what And then, in the last two paragraphs here, because this is just, man, in 1376, it highlights what is actually happening. It's the fancy word that I mentioned the other day, the word transubstantiation, right? That here's the accidents that remain the same, but the substance changes. And this is the accidents are what the appearance is, what the look, the vision, the smell, taste, sound, all of those things, the touch, those accidental properties, those remain the same, but the substance of the thing, the what-it-is-ness of the thing changes and

doesn't share the thing. So there are some Christians would say consubstantiation in the sense that, okay, so it is both bread and wine and the body and blood of Christ. And the church has been definitive of this in saying this. Church has said that it's the whole substance of bread and wine has become the whole substance of Christ's body and blood.

And so that changed calling transubstantiation. It's fittingly properly called transubstantiation. Now, this is so full. This, this transformation, this jobs, sorry, that transformation, because the form doesn't change, but the substance does transubstantiation is so profound that it says this, the Eucharistic presence of Jesus Christ begins at the moment of the consecration and Endures as long as the Eucharistic species exists. So What's that mean?

well, that means as long as the bread is recognizable as bread as long as the the what's in the cup right the chalice of Christ blood is recognizable as wine that remains the body of Christ in the blood of Christ. So as long as the that remains the body of Christ and the blood of Christ. So as long as the Eucharistic species exist, it still is the body and blood of Christ. But once digestion happens, that ceases to be under the appearance of bread and wine, therefore it ceases to be the body and blood of Christ. Does that make sense?

And so, you know, one of the things that can happen at times is sometimes people will maybe drop a consecrated host, they'll drop the body of Christ and into the dirt or something. And so what do you do there? Well, a person could consume it, right? A person could consume the Eucharist in that case, but there are times when that wouldn't be proper. And so what someone will do is they'll take that host, that consecrated host very carefully and place it in some kind of water and place that water in a very safe place until the water dissolves the consecrated host so it's no longer recognizable as bread, in which case

it's no longer actually the presence of Jesus Christ, if that makes any sense. So if that ever happens, and the same thing happens when it comes to, so we have linens, the purificator is that white cloth that we use to wipe the rim of the chalice when we receive the precious blood. So there are typically stains of the precious blood on that white cloth. And so in order to clean them, there is a procedure to clean them. Basically they get soaked in water for over 24 hours so that what appears to be wine breaks down.

It's no longer wine. And then that gets poured into a holy place, and then the linens are washed like a normal way. That's one of the ways in which we recognize it, and that Jesus Christ is truly present as long as the eukaryotic species subsists. The last little note I just want to offer to everyone is it says, Christ is present whole and entire in each of the species, and whole and entire in each of their parts What's that mean? That means that if you went to mass and you receive simply the body of Christ, that's the whole Christ

You don't get more in a quote-unquote more Jesus if you receive the body and the blood in a similar way Maybe you've been in this case before where you've gone to mass and there's maybe they didn't plan it out very well and they ran out of hosts and so the priest or the and maybe they didn't plan it out very well and they ran out of hosts and so the priest or the extraordinary ministers of the Holy Communion began fracturing the host into smaller pieces and maybe I remember this as a kid saying, oh, I only got a little piece. We would say this, the church would say, be assured that Christ is present whole and entire in each of the species in the body and or the blood and whole and entire in each of their parts.

So if you only had a small sip of Jesus versus a large, I guess, for lack of a better term, gulp of the precious blood, you'd receive the full Christ. If you only had a crumb, you know, a small piece of the host or the whole, you know, the big priests, you know, presiders host, you would still receive the whole Christ regardless. So it's not like Christ is being divided. He's not being divided. It's the whole Christ. This is one of the things that just like

keeps coming back to the reality of just, it is one thing to talk about God. It's another thing to pray to God, right? It's another thing, one thing to just ruminate and learn data about who God is. It's another thing to be ruminate and learn data about who God is, it's another thing to be in relationship with this God. And similarly right now, it's one thing to say,

Jesus Christ is truly present in the Eucharist. It's amazing, and it is amazing. It's another thing to go and visit him. It's another thing to go to mass. It's another thing, we're gonna talk about this tomorrow, when it comes to adoration, when it comes to the worship of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist and

And the visiting of the tabernacle where the presence of Christ abides we'll talk about that tomorrow, but I Just stoke your hearts Stoke your hearts that sense of like why not today if you can Stop by a church And recognize when you see that candle burning, you realize, hey, this is Jesus Christ truly present waiting for me. We'll talk about that more tomorrow,

but just right now, get your hearts, get the love of your hearts, get the fire of your hearts stoked so that you and I can both say, okay, I don't just wanna hear about Jesus. I wanna see him. I don't just wanna hear about how great it is to have a relationship with the God

who makes Himself present to us. I want to have that relationship. I want to live in that relationship. I don't just want to talk about how amazing it is that the presence of Christ abides in this unique way in the Eucharist. I want to visit Him. And maybe I want to visit Him today.

And if you can't, just let your heart reach out through space to that Tabernacle and say, Jesus, let me abide in you. One of the Psalms says Lord to dwell in the doorway of your temple is better than a thousand days anywhere else. One day, one day in the outskirts of the temple is better than a thousand elsewhere. And the same thing is true even more, maybe even more true. Just like, let me just even just walk by the Catholic Church and know that that that that build church building is like a giant tabernacle around the small tabernacle in which is the

body, blood, soul and divinity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amazing, amazing. I'm praying for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amazing. Amazing. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.