Reflections on the Liturgy Of the Hours.
From the Jerusalem Catecheses:
The bread of Heaven and the cup of salvation
On the night he was betrayed our Lord Jesus Christ took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples and said: “Take, eat: this is my body.” He took the cup, gave thanks and said: “Take, drink: this is my blood.” Since Christ himself has declared the bread to be his body, who can have any further doubt? Since he himself has said quite categorically, This is my blood, who would dare to question it and say that it is not his blood?
Therefore, it is with complete assurance that we receive the bread and wine as the body and blood of Christ. His body is given to us under the symbol of bread, and his blood is given to us under the symbol of wine, in order to make us by receiving them one body and blood with him. Having his body and blood in our members, we become bearers of Christ and sharers, as Saint Peter says, in the divine nature.
Once, when speaking to the Jews, Christ said: Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you shall have no life in you. This horrified them and they left him. Not understanding his words in a spiritual way, they thought the Saviour wished them to practise cannibalism.
Under the old covenant there was showbread, but it came to an end with the old dispensation to which it belonged. Under the new covenant there is bread from heaven and the cup of salvation. These sanctify both soul and body, the bread being adapted to the sanctification of the body, the Word, to the sanctification of the soul.
Do not, then, regard the eucharistic elements as ordinary bread and wine: they are in fact the body and blood of the Lord, as he himself has declared. Whatever your senses may tell you, be strong in faith.
You have been taught and you are firmly convinced that what looks and tastes like bread and wine is not bread and wine but the body and the blood of Christ. You know also how David referred to this long ago when he sang: Bread gives strength to man’s heart and makes his face shine with the oil of gladness. Strengthen your heart, then, by receiving this bread as spiritual bread, and bring joy to the face of your soul.
May purity of conscience remove the veil from the face of your soul so that by contemplating the glory of the Lord, as in a mirror, you may be transformed from glory to glory in Christ Jesus our Lord. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen
The Jerusalem catecheses is a document from the Early Church attributed to St. Cyril of Jerusalem . In today's Office of Readings we are offered a study of the doctrine of transubstantiation, and in it a comparison between the showbread of the old covenant and the bread of heaven in the new. Jesus taught a similar comparison in the sixth chapter of John. Quoting the John 6 dialogue the catechist teaches what the Church and its Holy Apostles have always believed...that in the Mass the Eucharist is truly the real body and real blood of Jesus. Jesus himself had no qualms about it, niether should we.
Being a Catholic "revert" myself, having studied theology as a Protestant and as a Catholic,there is a beauty in taking God's word as it is. Many of the disciples left Jesus because of transubstantiation. Thank God for St. Peter. Jesus asked the apostles " Will you also go away?" Lord grant that we should also say with Peter, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we have come to know that you are the Holy One of God."
And again I say, Amen.
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