Real versus actual:
The Body and Blood of Christ Sunday
June 11, 2023
www.johnpredmoresj.com | predmore.blogspot.com
predmoresj@yahoo.com | 617.510.9673
Deuteronomy 8: 2-16; Psalm 147; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; John 6:51-58
The Eucharist is the central act of our faith, and this feast that highlights the origins of our worship helps us to understand the real food that is our communion. The bishops in the U.S. have been stressing the need for people to understand the real presence within our common meal, and I’m not sure how successful their efforts have been. The PEW Research study released in 2019 showed that one-third of church-goers believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Bishops and priests to counter this belief have established weekly adoration so that people would know Christ is truly present. This needs a bit of unpacking.
The PEW study asked about the “actual” presence of Jesus in the bread and wine compared to the bread and wine being (mere) symbol of that presence. The word “actual” is different from “real.” If the question had been asked about the “real” presence in the Eucharist, different results would have emerged. The term “actual” point to men “factually present as proven by empirical observation,” while “real” means that the belief results because of one’s faith. It is by faith that we believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, just as John’s Gospel points out.
This debate began in the 12th century when Thomas Aquinas and the Scholastics looked for the actual, not the real, Christ particle in the bread and wine that became the Body and Blood. So much emphasis was on what happened to the physical elements at Mass, which was a worthwhile investigation, that they left behind the other real essential elements of our communion. During Mass, when our gifts are offered to God and we ask the Holy Spirit to transform them, then it is the community that is simultaneously transformed, and that is the real mystery of the Mass. We are the ones who are transformed; we are the ones brought into communion; we are the ones who bring our gifts, and it is the gift-bearers who are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ. Today, as some people focus upon adoration and exposition, they neglect the communion that happens as we collectively offer our gifts.
Jesus never said, “Worship me,” and some people want to sit before the consecrated host presented in a monstrance to worship Jesus. Jesus said, “follow me. Be my disciple.” “Live as I live, choose as I choose, discern as I discern.” We are called to follow Jesus in the reign of God and to live in fellowship and communion. This is the point of our Eucharistic celebration. We are to eat together, to drink the common cup, to be in communion with each other. We never do this as individuals as we are always connected through our liturgy to others. And as we eat, we begin to understand the importance of Jesus’s words: This is my Body. This is my Blood. As we eat and drink, we remember the life of Jesus, the life he has called us to live more fully, and together, we find greater communion, and because of that, we are transformed into his real Body, his real Blood. This is the mystery of faith..
Scripture for Daily Mass
Monday: (2 Corinthians 1) For as Christ's sufferings overflow to us, so through Christ does our encouragement also overflow. If we are afflicted, it is for your encouragement and salvation; if we are encouraged, it is for your encouragement, which enables you to endure the same sufferings that we suffer.
Tuesday: (2 Corinthians 1) For however many are the promises of God, their Yes is in him; therefore, the Amen from us also goes through him to God for glory. But the one who gives us security with you in Christ and who anointed us is God.
Wednesday: (2 Corinthians 3) Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, was so glorious that the children of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses
because of its glory that was going to fade, how much more will the ministry of the Spirit be glorious?
Thursday: (2 Corinthians 3) To this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over the hearts of the children of Israel, but whenever a person turns to the Lord the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
Friday (Deuteronomy 7) You are a people sacred to the LORD, your God; he has chosen you from all the nations on the face of the earth to be a people peculiarly his own. It was not because you are the largest of all nations that the LORD set his heart on you and chose you, for you are really the smallest of all nations.
Saturday (2 Corinthians 5) The love of Christ impels us, once we have come to the conviction that one died for all; therefore, all have died. He indeed died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
Gospel:
Monday: (Matthew 5) Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the land.
Tuesday: (Matthew 5) You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.
Wednesday (Matthew 5) Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.
Thursday (Matthew 5) I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.
Friday (Matthew 11) I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to little ones. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
Saturday (Luke 2) Each year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom. After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it.
Saints of the Week
June 11: Barnabas, apostle (d. 61), was a Jew from Cyprus who joined the early Christians in Jerusalem to build up the church. His name means "son of encouragement." He accepted Paul into his community and worked alongside him for many years to convert the Gentiles. He was stoned to death in his native Cyprus. He was a towering authority to the early church.
June 13: Anthony of Padua, priest and doctor (1195-1231), became a biblical scholar who eventually joined the Franciscans. Francis sent him to preach in northern Italy, first in Bologna and then Padua. He very especially beloved because of his pastoral care, but he died at age 36.
Friday: The Sacred Heart of Jesus is set on the Friday following Corpus Christi. The heart of Jesus is adored as a symbol of divine, spiritual, and human love. Its devotion grew during the Middle Ages and was transformed in the 17th century when Mary Margaret Alocoque and her Jesuit spiritual director, Claude La Colombiere, reinvigorated the devotion.
Saturday: The Immaculate Heart of Mary began as a devotion in the 17th century. In 1944, the feast was extended to the Western Church. Her heart signifies her sanctity and love as the Mother of God.
This Week in Jesuit History
- June 11, 1742. The Chinese and Malabar Rites were forbidden by Pope Benedict XIV; persecution broke out at once in China.
- June 12, 1928. Fr. General Ledochowski responded negatively to the idea of intercollegiate sports at Jesuit colleges because he feared the loss of study time and the amount of travel involved.
- June 13, 1557. The death of King John III of Portugal, at whose request Francis Xavier and others were sent to India.
- June 14, 1596. By his brief Romanus Pontifex, Pope Clement VIII forbade to members of the Society of Jesus the use or privilege of the Bulla Cruciata as to the choice of confessors and the obtaining of absolution from reserved cases.
- June 15, 1871. P W Couzins, a female law student, graduated from Saint Louis University Law School, the first law school in the country to admit women.
- June 16, 1675. St Margaret Mary Alacoque received her great revelation about devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
- June 17, 1900. The martyrdom at Wuyi, China, of Blesseds Modeste Andlauer and Remy Asore, slain during the Boxer Rebellion.
No comments:
Post a Comment