Real or Symbol?

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

August 8, 2021

Readings (click here to read in full)
    Reading I: 1 Kgs 19:4-8
    Responsorial Psalm: Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
    Reading II:  Eph 4:30—5:2
    Gospel:  Jn 6:41-51

Word count: 583
Reading Speed

    Slow (100 wpm): 5.8 minutes
    Average (130 wpm): 4.5 minutes
    Fast (160 wpm): 3.6 minutes

In this continuation of the Bread of Life Discourse, the Jews blatantly expressed their rejection of Jesus' self-revelation as "Bread of Life", "the bread that came down from heaven". This was totally unacceptable to them. For them, Jesus only spoke metaphorically. They showed their ignorance and only looked at Jesus’ humble human origin by saying that they knew His parents. Yet, Jesus clarified to them that they could not accept Him because they were not drawn by the Father, because they refused to listen to the  Father. But those who listened and believed in Jesus’ gift of self, His being the Bread of Life, the "Living Bread" sent from heaven by the Father are given eternal life. "I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."

 

At this, Jesus explicitly reveals the great mystery of the Blessed Eucharist. When He said that He is the Bread of Life, He meant it literally and not figuratively, otherwise, this would make no sense at all. In the Holy Mass, what we receive in Holy Communion is not ordinary bread, it is the Bread of Life, His flesh given for the life of the world. However, this has to be accepted on faith.

 

In the Eucharistic Celebration, when the priest invokes the Father to send the Holy Spirit upon the bread and wine and prays in the Words of Christ at Consecration, the ordinary species of bread and wine are now transformed into the real Body and Blood of Christ. This is what we call Transubstantiation. Pope Paul VI explained this by saying,  

 

"For what now lies beneath the aforementioned species is not what was there before, but something completely different; and not just in the estimation of Church belief but in reality, since once the substance or nature of the bread and wine has been changed into the body and blood of Christ, nothing remains of the bread and the wine except for the species—beneath which Christ is present whole and entire in His physical "reality," corporeally present, although not in the manner in which bodies are in a place." (Mysterium Fidei 46)

 

Many people today, like the Jews in the Gospel, are scandalized by what Jesus said about Himself. In the face of their murmuring and rejection, Jesus did not back out of His words, instead, He intensified them by saying that the Bread of Life is His flesh and must be eaten. He said, "whoever eats this bread will live forever." Our salvation, therefore, lies in our firm belief that what we partake in Holy Communion is Jesus Himself, whole and entire.

With all these, I can say that those who come to Mass and firmly and lovingly believe that Jesus is truly, really present, His Body and Divinity, in the Sacred Host they receive in Holy Communion are the ones who listen to the Father. And those who think that the bread is just a symbol of Christ’s presence are the ones who do not listen to the Father. Now let us ask ourselves, do I believe that it is Jesus Himself? Or, do I think that it is just a symbol?

 

If it is just a symbol for you, then the salvation that it brings to those who believe shall not be yours. Jesus said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.”

 

Fr. Joel R. Lasutaz, SSS

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