On Christ in the Eucharist

A couple of years ago I posted this and am reminded of it today, hearing the Corpus Christi homily.

After dinner last night, my husband and I along with our 14 year old son were talking in the family room.

I was telling them about a Catholic friend, a convert, who told me that her RCIA hadn't led her to understand certain truths about the Eucharist and Precious Blood. She noted that another friend told her that in the Latin Mass the congregation does not drink the Precious Blood. Perhaps she thought they were only receiving the Body of Christ and not His Precious Blood...and she wondered why was it different in this form of the Mass?

(Baltimore Catechsim question 351. Is Jesus Christ whole and entire both under the appearances of bread and under the appearances of wine?
Jesus Christ is whole and entire both under the appearances of bread and under the appearances of wine.)

I shared my response to her and took a teaching moment with our son to affirm that Our Lord was present Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the host AS WELL AS in the Precious Blood and that He could be received entirely in one or the other. It occured to my husband and I and also to my eldest that the Novus Ordo Mass, by offering both substances may have confused a generation.

While it is not "wrong" to receive both under both species, the "new" way might lead one to think that the Host is His Body and the Wine is His Blood...separately...

Which lead me to relate this story to our son....I wish every Christian would consider this...

Bishop Samonas of Gaza had come to Jerusalem with a group of pilgrims. A man of another faith asked him there, before a large crowd of people, to answer some questions regarding the Blessed Sacrament. When the bishop consented to his request, this man asked:

"How is it possible for bread and wine to become the Body and Blood of Christ?"

To this question the bishop replied, "You have not always been as tall as you are now. You have grown since childhood and today you have more flesh and blood than you had then." He continued: "What is the reason for this? Your body changed the food you ate into flesh and blood. Now if the human body changes food and drink into flesh and blood, then indeed, God can do it also."

Satisfied with this reply, the questioner continued: "But how is it possible for Christ to be present in His entirety in the little Host."

"The landscape that you see before you with the blue sky above it," responded the bishop, "is something immense while on the other hand your eye is very small. Yet your tiny eye contains in itself the whole gigantic picture of the landscape. When you consider this, it will not seem impossible for Christ to be present in His entirety in the little host."

The man put another question to the bishop: "How is it possible, then, for the same body to be simultaneously present in all your churches?"

"To God nothing is impossible," answered the bishop. "This answer alone should be sufficient. I will, however, show you something similar in everyday life. When I speak to a single individual, he hears me and takes to himself what I say. If I should address the same words to a thousand people, they would all hear the same thing. Or, look into a large mirror. You see your image reflected in it only once. Yet, when you break the mirror into a hundred pieces, you see the same image of yourself in each of the hundred fragments of glass. If such phenomena occur in everyday life, how should it be impossible for the Body of Our Lord to be present in many places at the same time?"

Astonished at this remarkable analogy, the man made no reply, but went on his way, deeply engaged in thought...

Christians, this God whom you believe created the universe and all things, the One you pray to for miracles because of this power, can you not see that He too can even more easily BE THE EUCHARIST? Scripture supports it. <--visit this link for the Scripture and the Eucharistic miracle of Lanciano.