Why Bread and Wine?

 

The unique thing about the Catholic Church is the taking of Jesus’ words at the Last Supper, consecrating the bread and wine, as literal.  He said they DID become His body and blood.  This week I heard a radio program mention something I had not heard before.  While the Gospel of John, Chapter 6, is most vehement that the consecrated bread and wine becomes Jesus’ body and blood of which we can partake, I was not aware that St. Ignatius was a student of St. John.  About 30 years after St. John’s death St. Ignatius wrote a letter to one of the faith communities and stressed very strongly how the Eucharist is the food of life, because it is Life itself, and he also described it as the heart of the Catholic faith.  It is a clear indication that early Church believers DID believe the words of Jesus (or St. John) were literal and how they worshipped the Eucharist as being Jesus truly present, even as I do each day.

As Catholic, I believe the words Jesus spoke, and then bread and wine became His Body and Blood --- and still does, which is why I am called to spend time in the Adoration Chapel each evening, talking to Him, because He is there.  But, as I was recently reminded, the essence of life is bread and water, as was given to the Jews in the desert to keep them alive.  These are usually described as the basic foods of life.  So, why did Jesus consecrate bread and wine to be His Body and Blood instead of bread and water?

The answer, I was recently reminded, can be found in the wedding feast at Cana.  Jesus provided a huge amount of wine, made from water.  Wine isn’t a basic food of life as water is, but wine is used in a celebration of life. That’s what Jesus was giving us in the Eucharist, something to celebrate.  He/God is not just some basic person, He is one to be celebrated in love, and when we see Him that way in the Eucharistic bread we have truly found Him, and so it is right to worship Him there.  

I’ve written before about Eucharistic miracles and the scientific tests proving it was true heart flesh and true blood, but that is just science proving what I believed.  Seeing how the earliest Church members all believed this is Jesus’ Body and Blood is a re-enforcement for me; this is not just some recent interpretation.  It was this way from the beginning of the Church.  And that is something to be celebrated.

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You know I don’t believe in coincidences, so I thought I’d document a couple of recent events.

A Bible study group met last night, and we were talking about how to grow in faith, making it a real relationship with Jesus, not just a Sunday event (or some texts we study in a Bible study group).  And I showed them a book I had just minutes before found in my mail.  It was sent to me by the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, Fr. Benedict Groeschel’s order, which I’ve supported for years.  Those monks live in the poorest neighborhoods of the Bronx and London where they try to help their neighbors grow in faith.  The book they sent me:  Habits for Holiness, by Fr. Mark-Mary Ames.  Not only was that the topic the one we were speaking about, but I noticed it was published by Ascension Press, which published the Bible Study text and videos we were using for that Bible study group.  I suspect that book might be very interesting.

I was tempted to sleep in, but I got up.  Then this Friday morning’s (Protestant) men’s bible study group found itself reflecting on Matthew 10:34, where Jesus says you must put Me first, putting all others aside.  And similar to the previous night’s conversation, they were asking:  how do you do that, get that close of a relationship?  I participated in that meeting via Zoom, and after it ended one of the men asked me to stay on to talk to him.  So, all the others left the Zoom meeting and we spoke.  The man used to be Catholic and found the faith didn’t seem relevant to his life.  Very intelligent, he became very rich, had high friends, and a beautiful wife.  He spent many hours at work and received many promotions.  Oh, and he went to church and found it entertaining.  He didn’t pay enough attention to her, and his wife left.  His jobs didn’t seem as satisfying to him, and he moved between companies.  And last night he told me he realized all those things of the world didn’t matter.  He offered his life to God, first, and he was now seeking His will.  He felt compelled to go to a Catholic mass last Sunday, and he told me he cried a lot.  “It was so beautiful; God was there with me.”  He is now looking to take steps so that he can marry his present girlfriend in the Catholic Church.  He didn’t want to speak to me because he knew I was the only Catholic in that Bible Study group; he saw something else:  that I would understand his journey because it was not too dissimilar from mine.   

I don’t preach my Catholic faith; I try to live it.  Others will see.  My Bible study friend wants to make God the key friend in his life.  He wants a closer relationship, giving up everything else.    I pray for him.

You could call all these events coincidences, if you wish.  I guess I have lots of them in my life.

The Battle to be Fought

 

The thought just came to me of the small band of men on that hijacked plane on 9-11.  In the air and aware they were destined for death and a major destruction in our country, those men had been able to secretly call one of their spouses, and after telling them of the situation they prayed together, said they loved them, but they must fight the hijackers.  And we next heard that the plane had crashed in the wilderness, killing those men and all aboard --- but no one else.  The fighters, who fought the fight they had to fight, did well.  They died, but their prayers were answered, and I’m sure they now live with Him who they prayed to.

The thoughts above arose in my mind because I have just finished listening to Fr. Mike Schmitz’s Bible in a Year, Day 63.  He reads Numbers 14, noting that the time is just after the Jews have fled from Egypt and God is telling them they must now fight to obtain the Promised Land, but despite the huge miracles they have just seen, and God’s great mercy in freeing them from slavery, they demur.  Fr. Mike then reads Deuteronomy 12, which is 38 years later, years of wandering in the desert.  Fr. Mike offers commentary that in Numbers the Jews refused to fight for the land God promised would be theirs; they refused to trust in His promise, and all of them ultimately died in the desert, and then their children had to go do the battle they had refused.  And, as we know, God gave their children victory, a victory which should have been theirs.

Fr. Mike comments that some difficult battles God permits to happen to us, in our lives, we must fight.  God will be with us.  We need to trust in Him. He was talking about the words of Numbers, and I later thought of those actions of 9-11.  Battles in front of us are battles we sometimes CAN refuse to fight, He gave us freedom, but the battles will have to be fought.

You can make all the assumptions you want about what huge battles we, this country, and/or the world are facing right now, but without a sincere trust in God, those thoughts only lead to fear.  And we must trust that God is with us.  And then like the men on that plane, have faith in God and do what we can do, where we are.  We don’t know the results of the times we are living, and perhaps the only thing we can do is pray and fast, but to refuse to do anything and make believe the times will go away, is what the Jews did in Numbers.  Will a small number have to die, as in the plane crash, or hugely more because of our lack of faith?

Creating a Christian Flock

 

The Bible Study guys were discussing Matthew, Chapter 10:16, where it says how we are sent out as lambs among wolves.  A key point, I reflected, was that lambs and wolves are vastly different, and what do you do about that to begin communication?  We discussed ways of sharing the faith to the wolves out there, but also spoke about our children who face a culture totally unlike when we were young.  When we were their age, we were lambs among lambs, not hugely different.  Our Christian youth today have fewer lamb friends than we had, and schoolmates and teachers are largely wolves.  If a youth wants friends at school --- and all do --- most believe they must adapt to the wolves’ ways, but even if it is only play-acting at first, the repetitive effect of wolf-like actions soon become habits, and soon they become as atheist wolves, and then their family and the faith they started with becomes strange, and they choose friends over family, whom they now regard as simple as sheep.

The Gospel says if you are to follow Jesus you will have to choose Him over family, but our kids are choosing friends and culture over family or God.  They want to fit in, in the world they see around them every day.  “But what is the alternative” all Christian parents ask.

I see three alternatives for our young people.  First, they choose to ignore the world and classmates, live a cloistered life with only God (and family, if they are Christ-centered) as focus.  This is possible with God’s grace and large family support, but not an easy choice, although those intelligent enough to search for the meaning of life may get here.  Second is to choose to go with the majority, the culture, and let them define the truth or the meaning/purpose of life (even if that truth changes every day).  This is the alternative for those who put their personal happiness NOW above all else, a selfish option but one applauded by all around them (and sadly, often their parents).  And then there is a third option:  create a new world which is the focus of their need for community approval.  The first option is only God approval, the second only the world approval, and the third is the approval of a select community which they and their family have sought out, or created.  This “select community” is not a “church on Sunday” community, but rather a segment of the world which believes and acts and supports each other, a Christian faith community, and a faith community lived out in all ways --- with few exceptions --- which learns to love their enemies, but not do what they do.

Jesus started a faith community; it didn’t adapt to the world, but helped the world adapt to it, and it grew because the people could see in it a purpose for their lives, and it gave them happiness: “See how they love one another.”

For parents today, to help make this happen means to sacrifice for their kids.  It might mean Catholic schools or home-schooling.  It would mean supportive family prayer time, each day, and for a Christian focus in all activities and discussions --- the kids would need to see it lived out, happily.  It might mean supporting Christian charities, with family time and/or money.  It will take a strong will for parents to want to make their kids want to be different than the culture, and enjoy it --- and be an example others want to imitate.  For most parents, it would mean giving up a focus on self and focusing on family first.  It might mean initiating some Christian-focused activities if there are none around.  It’s about daily living out your faith in all things, so it becomes the faith happily lived out by your children. 

And all these things start with really knowing your faith.  There are many ways to begin --- if you have the will to save your children, and the country.  If you are now a “Sunday Catholic” it means beginning to live your faith each day, for your betterment, for your family’s betterment, for the world’s betterment.  Starting out, it may be as a lost lamb searching for a flock, but there are many lost sheep just like you.  You can create a flock. 

 

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The Apostolate of Example

There is no one who cannot contribute to the spiritual good of his neighbor by giving the example of a life which is integrally Christian.  … There would be no pagans if Christians were real Christians.

For a soul who seeks the truth, who seeks virtue, there is no difficulty in finding books and teachers who will present it in an attractive form, but there is much difficulty in finding persons whose lives give practical testimony to it. … Jesus taught us to act in such a way that our good works might be a silent encouragement toward good for those who see them: “So let your light shine before men that they might see your good works.”  “Let the actions be public, while the intention remains hidden” (St Gregory).

“O Lord, You teach me that I can help my neighbor if I fulfill my duty, … especially the law of love by which we teach goodness to those who offend us.  Good example has more influence on worldly people than miracles.  Help me, then, O Lord, to lead a holy life and to do good works, so that those who see me may praise Your Name (St John Chrysostom).

                                                                  --- Divine Intimacy, Meditation 327

 

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And as God so often does, I heard a related comment on these thoughts as I listened to the Bible in a Year podcast, where they spoke of Deuteronomy 6:4-9 as being the key texts of the Bible for the Jewish people.  They reference there only being one God, you must teach your children this, and your house should be as a temple for you, with these words written on your doorpost.  These words were given to the Jewish people as a recipe for how to succeed in living in a foreign land with strange gods --- kind of like Christians are now experiencing in America --- so those critical words for the Jewish people now apply to us, today also.