Explaining the Faith - The Eucharist In Scripture

well welcome everybody coming and returning back to our explaining the faith series it's awesome to be back again with you i'm father chris aylar from here at the national shrine of the divine mercy and today we're going to be continuing our talk of taking you back to seminary and i love this because you guys i'm able i think to give you a great summary of what i learned in the seminary share my notes with you also everything i've learned since being a priest things from being taught by like father seraphim teaching me and others and you get to do that without having to go to class or pay tuition so so this is great and we're excited today the next two weeks are going to be i think uh next week's even better and so we hope that you'll join us next week it's funny because brother mark was uh was saying to me says boy i hope you bring a good a good presentation i said well next week's better so this week i'll just talk about next week's presentation so actually no next week is eucharistic miracles and there's some great stories some great photographs of these eucharistic miracles that's coming next week but today we're going to explain what many catholics are not able to answer fully or clearly and that is where is the eucharist in the bible where is it in scripture well jesus says john 6 eat my body and drink my blood but he was just talking symbolically figuratively and that's the end of the argument no there's a lot more to it so let's begin with a prayer in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen heavenly father we ask you send the holy spirit down upon us to open our minds and our hearts to receive the grace you wish to bestow give us that teaching in our hearts that we can live the the gift of your grace to be able to know the true presence of the eucharist and to be able to show our faith when we live it to those who do not believe and we ask all this through the intercession of our mother mary and through christ our lord amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen okay so you can see from the first slide today's topic is called the eucharist in scripture it really is leading up to next week's talk as i said on the miracles now jesus said that he will be with us until the end of time but then he ascended to the father so how would anybody who doesn't believe in the eucharist believe that jesus has remained with us he is remaining with us he when when you're with someone you're not just with them you know um symbolically you're with them physically and so when jesus says i will be with you the words of the original language were physically with you not just spiritually and so how does jesus remain physically with us the eucharist the body blood soul and divinity at the last supper christ instituted a memorial of the eucharist and entrusted it to the priest non-catholics will always point out there you go it's a memorial which just means that he did it once he'll never do it again and he shared the cedar meal with the apostles done with it he prepared his crucifixion and resurrection it's done now yes it's done but it's perpetually present and this is what we have to learn from our faith the eucharist is a memorial in the sense that it makes present the actual sacrifice that jesus offered to the father on the cross but not two thousand years ago for all eternity the son stands or sits i should say to the right hand of the father perpetually showing him his wounds think about this for a minute perpetually jesus christ is sitting there present to the father showing his wounds on behalf of us reminding the father showing the father that the sacrifice he made is perpetual it goes on forever so on behalf of all of mankind he is perpetually showing those wounds it's not a reenactment when we come to mass we participate in that sacrifice so the eucharist and the cross are one the sacrifice and the cross and the sacrifice of the eucharist are one in the same sacrifice the priest and the victim are the same jesus was the one being offered and the one offering now the priest stands in his place as the one being offered at that altar in persona christie the only manner of offering that is different is it's bloody versus unbloody with christ he went through the bloody so that we don't have to go through the bloody but the meaning of the sacrifice is the same the priesthood and the eucharist were established both at the last supper father how do you mean the priesthood was established at the last supper well remember in the old testament the aeronautic priesthood was always the ordination was always done by washing the feet when jesus washed the feet of the apostles in the last supper he was ordaining them priests this is this is an actual event and then the eucharist was given by him for us now the eucharist was foreshadowed in the old testament passover all right now the meal was we all know this unleavened bread for leaving out of egypt with haste so the eucharist is foreshadowing this in israel then the passover lamb that was sacrificed had to be eaten if the passover lamb was not eaten the sacrifice was invalid and christ is now that lamb the wedding feast of the lamb you've all heard me talk about this the wedding feast of the lamb is the mass the mass is heaven on earth what we are receiving in the mass is a foretaste of heaven and as you've heard me say when we come up as the bride christ is the groom the church is the bride who's the church we are and when you come up you are united with your groom as i always say the groom enters into the bride and it's united and so this here is union with our true spouse in the eucharist in the eucharist the sacrifice of christ becomes the sacrifice also of the members of his body we share in that sacrifice so at mass when that priest raises the chalice and the patent and this is the high point of the mass the concluding doxology and i'm going to talk about that in a minute but you should join in that sacrifice on that patent just don't sit in the back of church looking at your watch put on that patent your joys your sorrows your hopes your dreams your pleasures your sorrows your pains everything your suffering your whole life put it on that patent and so this is the offering of christ for all the living and the dead in reparation for our sins and the sins of the whole world as we pray in the chaplet that's why the chaplet is offering sacrifice and by virtue of your baptism you share in the offices of jesus the church fathers tell us this priest prophet and king in fact scripture tells us this and so you are a priest and when you pray i offer you eternal father i offer you the body blood soul and divinity of your dearly beloved son our lord jesus christ this is the prayer of the chaplet you're exercising your common priesthood and a priest offers sacrifice so this is amazing so let's look at our next slide brother mark will put up and that is transubstantiation you've probably heard the term but do we know what it fully means all right this means trans means to change substantiation means of substance so the whole substance of bread and wine is changed completely the substance of bread and wine is gone not the accidents they remain it looks like bread it feels like bread tastes like bread but the substance of what it is becomes the body and blood of christ and the wine becomes the blood of christ now when i was a little kid i would go to mass and my father we you know i was only five years old and i would try to kneel and stand with the congregation pretend i knew what i was doing and and we would be kneeling every sunday at the moment of consecration my father would lean over to me and he would say now that's when jesus enters the host now actually that's incorrect but you got to give a dad a big old kudos for saying and doing that for his child actually jesus doesn't enter the host the host becomes body and blood he doesn't enter in the host and shear the bread with it he it becomes his body and blood there's no substance left except christ's body and blood now the accidents remain so it like i said it has the mole or it looks like the molecules of bread and wine and these are the species so we have two species if you hear do you want to receive under one species or two species that's the precious blood is one species holy communion is the other species the body the blood those are the two species now this is it so in these two species as i said the accidents remain bread and wine but the substance changes the presence of christ continues in the eucharist for how long this is a good question how long does christ remain in that eucharist for as long as the species subsist or remain or exist so as long as the precious blood is really there so is jesus now soon as it's consumed or that it deteriorates like if you put it in water sometimes hosts that fall on the floor they'll put it in water and then it just dissolves and then it's disposed of in the ground that's proper that is okay to do that because christ is not present anymore after the dissolving of the species the substance and so this is important to understand now what about some other little kind of helpful information like how often are we supposed to receive holy communion all right the church tells us it recommends that we if we are in a state of grace receive holy communion at every mass now that doesn't mean you should if you're in a if you're in a state of sin mortal sin no but if you're in a state of grace which we all want to be we should receive at every mass now this isn't that hard because if we have graves in on our soul serious sin you go to confession or you make an act of spiritual uh or excuse me act of contrition as catechism 14 52 says if your church isn't open and you're forgiven as long as you have the intent to go back to the sacrament as soon as it's available okay now it's not hard because you go to confession for mortal sins and what about the venial sense you have to confess every single venial sin no because they're wiped away in the mass at the penitential right i confess to almighty god and to you my brothers and sisters then we lord have mercy christ have mercy lord have mercy you see there in that penitential rite venial sins are forgiven so at the mass you are spotless hopefully you haven't mortally sinned between the penitential rite and receiving holy communion right so keep your mind focused on the mass and that won't happen your mind you don't want your mind to run amok like a wild horse keep it controlled keep it focused on the mass and you will see you'll walk up and receive spotless because your grave sins are forgiven in the confessional and all your venials are wiped away at the penitential right so when you receive holy communion you're truly spotless this is beautiful all right now the church obliges us to receive holy communion at least once a year during easter so that's our minimum requirement okay can non-catholics receive holy communion everybody will say no actually the church teaches yes they can non-catholics can receive if it's a grave necessity such as like they are near death or you're in a remote place of the world where they may never see another priest or missionary again the rest of their lives but they believe in jesus um if they ask for it of their own free will they possess the required disposition so that they're not living a horrible state of sin and they give some kind of evidence believing that jesus is truly present in that eucharist they can receive holy communion even non-catholics so for catholics it's it should be something we desire like viaticum is received at the moment that we pass from this world to the next to our eternal father so it's basically the seed of eternal life holy communion is for us catholics at the end is called viaticum and it is the uses the grace that god gives us saint ignatius of antioch called it the medicine of immortality the antidote for death now what about i'm gonna give you a little bit of seminary before we get into the scripture passages and i think this is powerful all right in seminary we learn a lot about form and matter now this is going to be the only really technical thing i give you today but i think it's important what is form and matter it tells you the minimum that must be present to have a valid sacrament for confession or communion to be valid you have to have a minimum amount of form and matter what does that mean matter is just what it consists of the material the form are the words to be spoken so the minimum that is needed for the eucharist okay is form and matter now form is what is said by the priest to confect the eucharist and what is done so what is said and done well the matter so what's the matter is what is ever required to be present which is the bread and the wine all right so the matter is bread and wine and the form are the words the priest says of institution the consecration the priest says it exactly as christ does and so therefore the matter is the host or the matter of the host is the bread made from wheat this is why even the gluten-free hosts have a tiny tiny bit of wheat there's no such thing as a truly gluten holster it's not valid it's just a tiny sliver never enough to hurt anybody okay then it has to be grape wine with no sulfates so we don't use just table wine oh father you can have mass at my house i got some some wine in the in the refrigerator no because it's not supposed to have the sulfates it has some water now what are the words the minimum words that have to be spoken at every mass if the priest messes up any part of the mass there's something called the church provides called ecclesiae suplay that's latin for that the church supplies that means if i mess up the our father or the creed or inadvertently even maybe forget it yeah that's not good but the mass is still valid okay if i say something in the eucharistic prayer outside of the consecration that's incorrect you notice that your priest maybe adds a word or takes out a word it's still valid however the in the words of institution constitute the form of the eucharist and these words have to be said exactly take this all of you and eat of it for this is my body which will be given up for you those words are the words of institution they have to be said exactly if your priest doesn't say it exactly like that it's not valid please bring it to his attention the other parts of the mass he can mess up a little bit inadvertently now not intentionally and for the wine take this all of you and drink from it for this is the chalice of my blood the blood of the new and eternal covenant which will be poured out for you and for many that's actually the scripture readings for the forgiveness of sins do this in memory of me those words have to be exact no if ands or buts to have a valid eucharist so not all the words of the eucharistic prayer need to be exact but those do those are the words of institution all right so we have this all right now when considering the bread and the wine the words as those i just spoke have to be exact now what about intention what if there's a host laying on the floor and i do the consecration on the altar or you have a piece of host in your pew and you want it consecrated along with these hosts and you're hiding it so that you can take it home and do adoration nope the priest has a corporal that white cloth that's shaped of a square that he lays on the altar what is to be consecrated is only or what is actually consecrated is only what he has the intent to consecrate so if i put it on that corporal the ciborium the chalice the patent i had the intent to consecrate it if you bring a host and put it in your pocket thinking i want to put it up there with or hold it in my hand my father does the consecration so i can have this host at home it's not it's not consecrated so in addition to form and matter the intent of the priest matters now this is why we place it on the um on the corporal we the priest can he consecrate outside of mass no he can consecrate outside a church but it has to be within mass he can't consecrate outside of mass and he must do both species if a priest comes over to your hospital bed and only does the eucharist it's not valid we have to do both the precious blood and holy communion or the blessed sacrament now what about extraordinary ministers this is a touchy subject extraordinary ministers according to canon law can be used but only in the case where the priest cannot physically distribute due to practicality or maybe there's one priest giving a mass to a thousand people that would take 25 minutes 30 minutes to to distribute holy communion the church allows there to be some aspects of um help from the extraordinary the word is not eucharistic minister the priest is the eucharistic minister the word is extraordinary minister all right let's keep going let's look now at scripture all right this is awesome we're going to try to do our first slide on i'm going to break up the eucharist or holy communion in three readings today we're going to talk about cana where our lord brings us the precious blood we're going to talk about the multiplication of the loaves where the lord brings us the eucharist and then we're going to talk about the bread of life discourse where jesus says that's me so that's we're going to look at today so today i want to start with cana let's look at our first slide this is the wedding feast at cana it is the only miracle excuse me the first miracle what am i saying the first miracle that jesus does the other one will be the only miracle in all four gospels that's the multiplication of the loaves now let's talk about cana this is jesus's first public miracle now he might have done others when he was younger but this is his first public miracle the one i'm going to be using is john chapter 2 verse 1 through 11. and sorry due to time i was going to read all these but i'm already way behind so what happens at cana our lord is with his mother mary and his apostles at a wedding in cana of galilee and weddings back then lasted an entire week and all of a sudden something that would be of the most embarrassing proportions to a young couple and that is they ran out of wine now mary is aware of this and she goes to jesus but notice she doesn't tell him what to do she just makes him aware of the situation and says we have no wine or they have no wine jesus orders that it is filled with water and he says what what's the matter the water what's the form he prays over it and changes it into wine that wine will become the precious blood of our sacrifice of the mass now jesus here at cana sanctifies the covenant of marriage and makes it a sacrament of love love is about giving and receiving it's not just about receiving it's about giving and receiving and so this is very important now when we do that we become empty we give of ourselves so much that we empty of ourselves so that we can receive so that there's room in our hearts to receive pour out your heart for your loved ones so that there's room for you to receive and return to be saved our faith teaches in the catholic faith that we must be empty so that we can receive all the graces from god if we are filled with the riches of the world or what the world defines as riches like sex money or power then god can't fill us with the riches of the world to come these are false riches of the world now they can bring some happiness you know but i can pay my bills if i have money i have happiness but they don't bring joy joy comes from god's grace now being empty is what the wedding feast at cana is all about is what the wedding feast is mary then once she sees this emptiness of the jars which are symbolized in our emptying of ourselves mary says this she doesn't expose the couple to shame by publicizing their empty jars look they ran out of wine we all know those we have relatives and friends or even ourselves who do stuff like that now in the same way mary brings our emptiness our lack our misery to jesus quietly she doesn't announce to the world look the whole world how father chris is broken look at his emptiness look at his misery look at his struggles she doesn't she brings it to jesus quietly now satan is the opposite satan will point out our misery satan will point it out as our cause to despair look at you you're empty you ain't got nothing your misery he doesn't bring it to jesus he shouts it out to the world for our embarrassment and despair mary did the opposite she quietly goes to jesus now satan would point out our lack or our misery and say give up you have no good in you you're empty you've got no good in you but you know jesus can use even satan god can use even satan to accomplish his tasks because that's what jesus wants us to be empty so that we recognize the need for his mercy he told this to saint faustina saint faustina said jesus i've given you everything he says no you haven't she says yes i have he he says no you haven't he says yes i have what haven't i given you and jesus says your misery empty yourself out be miserables not in the sense that i want you sad all the time she was joyful saint faustina was always joyful but i want you to empty yourself out so that you receive and you have room to receive my graces when you see your misery of your emptiness aka your empty jar of cana you then recognize i need divine mercy aka the wine of the holy spirit jesus fill me with that wine so that emptiness is filled with the divine wine which is the holy spirit now at cana mary didn't say to jesus how to do it god bless these grandmas i see them come from the shrine from new york city and they're giving all the directions to me as the priests god bless them i love them and they're telling me father you need to do this and you need to do this and you need to do this and i just smile i laugh i think it's endearing but mary didn't do that she didn't do that she went to jesus and didn't say she waited she told them the problem but she didn't tell him how to fix it this is her example to us in life our trust our obedience our patients are necessary and mary gives us the example of that you want to get to heaven you need grace and you want grace you need a vessel jesus said trust is the only vessel by which all grace is received so you hear that you want to get to heaven yes you need grace yes trust is the vessel the container the jar of cana that all grace is received what is that grace the wine of the holy spirit this is amazing now cana is a sign that our emptiness will be filled as long as we have that trust that vessel to capture that's what trust is a living faith i can have faith that god exists but i don't do anything with it it's not a living faith if i don't love my neighbor and and and practice my faith i'm not doing it that faith is not living i just did a video recently called faith alone no we need works of love and so this is important we have to have a living faith so mary was an advocate at cana and she will be for you too all right and then jesus comes into her what does jesus say gee thanks mother i love you he goes woman what does this have to do with me and non-catholics will always point out look at even jesus just recognizes her as just another human being no way all right woman there is actually a very endearing term referring back to genesis it is very important that he said woman because why mary is now about to be a part of salvation history even more now she was of course at the annunciation her fiat her yes but it in her immaculate conception is the greatest i guess but now she's going in she's entering into the game into a full amount she's already been but she's really now going in because it's a reversal of genesis 3. in genesis 3 eve prompted adam to defy the lord and fall into sin at cana now the new eve mary prompts the new adam jesus to begin the mission of salvation to undo this this is incredible does mary say how no she says do what he tells you do you know these are mary's final words in the new testament jesus's first public miracle are mary's last words do what he tells you so let's look at our slide our next slide is an example of what's going on there notice they're filling the jars jesus is doing what he's doing his miracle but who's right there mary the attendants are filling it and not just filling it but to the brim with water they're probably sitting there thinking what a waste of time how many times have you done something the church has told us to do like fasting and you've probably said you know this is a waste of time i have but it's not it's not useless we see the fruit here shortly because jesus is going to make it wine and the disciples it says came to believe in him this is huge and so i want to show a quick video right now of my good friend jonathan roomie if you've seen the show the chosen which has become extremely popular jonathan rooney and i are very good friends and i always thought this scene at cana was very powerful there's not a lot of dialogue it's just look at jesus in this video as he moves and makes this water become wine it's only less than a couple minutes please step outside [Music] just for a moment [Music] [Music] ah once you make that first cut into the stone it can't be undone [Music] it sets emotionally a series of choices what used to be a shapeless block of limestone or granite begins its long journey of transformation it will never be the same i'm ready [Music] [Music] [Music] go draw some out and serve it to the master of the banquet okay so very powerful there and as my friend jonathan ruby plays jesus he told me that was one of his favorite scenes and there's more to it you can see how he looks at mary if you watch that full episode it's beautiful so anyway at cana we have the first of jesus signs again this is chapter 2 verse 1 through 11. now why wine why does the church make such a big deal here of wine why didn't we use fruit juice wine was the staple of the meal of the family then and wine is a symbol of joy the joy of love and so it really was what they used at a wedding because the wine symbolized the joy of love and why we use it at the mass the mass is a wedding the mass is a wedding feast of the lamb so it makes sense we're celebrating the joy of love at the mass we use wine but god takes it to a new level it also alludes to the blood that jesus will pour out in love at the end of his life to seal that nuptial covenant marital covenant with humanity again he's the groom the church is the bride this this is so incredible and all the church fathers talked about this way before there was any other religion besides catholicism there was only catholicism for 1500 years this is why we're catholic so nevertheless the pride yeah we are messed up we're human beings we make mistakes we're sinful we're in constant need of purification you know all this talk and people can say like well father then how do you explain the sinfulness and oh yeah judas betrayed jesus one of his inner circle all right so we are in need of purification so mary does not ask anything of jesus all she says to him is they have no wine john 2 verse 3. she doesn't ask for anything specific she doesn't say jesus perform a miracle much less to jesus to go ahead and make some big spectacular event out of this that may be one of the reasons he asked him to leave the room in that particular scene of cana she simply hands the matter over to jesus and leaves it to him to decide what to do with the problem this is the biggest mistake we make in prayer when we take a problem to jesus we always tell them how to fix it we always say jesus um i i'm really struggling with this um here's what needs to happen and even if we don't use those words we we we do in our heart we think we we're we're praying to jesus to do what we want know how you pray is you give it to jesus and let him fix it you just bring it to him that's true prayer so mary leaves everything to the judgment of her son she doesn't tell him how to fix it this is how she teaches us to pray to bring it to god to let him decide what he intends to do or how to do it so from mary we can learn patience trust readiness to help but we can also learn humility the queen virtue as mary teaches us what to do to accept god's will we should have constant hope that whatever god decides to do it will be the best for us that's the key all right her maternal readiness to help appears here for the first time in scripture she actually is stepping into the game it's a fulfillment i believe of the queen mother in the old testament now jesus comes from the line of david in the davidic kingdom from which jesus came we have david and his son solomon and all of these now in that kingdom there were many wives the king had many many wives but who was the queen then i always say the first wife prettiest wife smartest wife it was the mother and the mother was the queen this is first kings chapter 2 verse 19. and she had the function of counselor to the king mary fulfills this role if jesus comes from the line of david why would jesus change that the mother serves as his counselor the king always had his mother as his counselor his the advocate for the people she interceded for the people to the king why would jesus change that well i'm going to come from the line of david but i'm going to cut my mother out it's not about her at all it's only it's only about me yes it is only about him but that's why he chooses to involve his mother now this counselor to the king was very important how do we know this father you're making this up no proverbs 31 second chronicles chapter 22 verse 2 through 4 and if the queen was the king's mother back in those days and jesus comes from that line who does that make the queen today mary you know we don't like the way that jesus says woman but we have to understand well why doesn't he say mother much more endearing if i went home after football practice when i was in high school and my mom i love her to death she'd always have a beautiful meal for me after practice if i walked in and my dad was always getting home from work at the same time and i said woman what's to eat i'd have to to really be addressed by that no i would say mom or mother why didn't jesus do that the reason is he links the two of both mother and woman he links the two this title is important because he expresses mary's role here now i told you before she's the woman of genesis the new eve now it points to the future where he's going to be crucified and when he's on the cross he will say woman behold your son son behold your mother so now he brings woman and mother together while he's on the cross jesus's last words so we have mary's last words at cana and we have jesus last words on the cross saying bring them together the woman is our mother and he gives us all our mother this is amazing and so this is what it's all about it anticipates the hour will he will make her the woman this woman the mother of us all so the title woman recalls the account of creation of eve and and here's the thing in her adam finds a companion that he long for and he gives her the name woman she shall be called woman and in john's gospel mary represents that new woman because the companion of the new adam jesus is the new eve mary this is a powerful our mother remember satan didn't overthrow just adam satan didn't overthrow just eve satan overthrew both adam and eve so if adam if if satan overthrew both sexes the male and the female it does have to take both sexes to liberate humanity back from satan if satan overthrew both adam and eve it's going to take a man or a man and a woman satan overthrew a man and a woman is going to take a man and a woman to liberate it both a new adam and a new eve who's the new adam jesus of course who's the new eve mary now that doesn't mean the grace comes from her the grace only comes from god but it goes through her her fiat this is amazing so the name which seems like a lack of affection woman actually expresses mary's mission and and in his words woman what what do i have to do with you my hour has not yet come it's not a dismissal it shows her intercessory power because jesus ends up doing it and his father stephen shire used to say the trinity cannot say no to mary get her on your side if the trinity can't say no to her and she's defending you god will accept that that's the whole story of steven shire getting killed going before the judgment throne of god and mary interceded and god's mercy was given amazing all right so he does this miracle and he is it's anticipating the hour that's coming up the hour of the eucharist where he will come to us why because he's preparing the wine to be his precious blood this most critical miracle it's greater than any healing is done through the intercession of mary he wasn't going to do it at least not yet now jesus has now given us the wine which will be used to become his blood the blood of life so this is then we set the stage for john now in the foreshadowing of the eucharist so now jesus has prepared the precious blood now we're going to talk about the eucharist let's go to our next slide that is the wedding or excuse me the multiplication of the loaves john chapter 6 verse 1 through 15. in this and again i wanted to read it but i can summarize it i think well for you what happens now this miracle what we call feeding of the five thousand there were two others called feeding of the four thousand which were different miracles six times appear in the bible in fact this is the only miracle other than the resurrection that appears in all four gospels now it it's amazing okay what happens all right they're all out jesus is preaching right kind of like liturgy of the word and then after he's preaching the people are hungry they want to eat like liturgy of the eucharist the eucharist is a meal and a sacrifice it's meant to be a meal so as we as we see jesus doing this they say the apostles say well geez these people are hungry now uh rabbi it's uh it's getting late we got no food it would take us a ton of money to go buy the food send them home and what does jesus do he says no he says don't send them home what do we have now it's different accounts in different gospel passages but in one account there's a boy and he has five barley loaves of bread and two fish and what does jesus do he feeds the entire five thousand and that is just the men not including women and children so there are thousands of people here and jesus feeds him but how does he feed him does jesus go feed them no he has the apostles just like the priest at the mass feeds the congregation well i only need jesus myself well jesus chose to feed those people and us through the church let's look at this you know it's funny because it seems like the apostles completely forgot cana already we already had canaan it looks like they forgot it because they could have said lord take care of the shortage like you did the wine at cana but they didn't instead the apostles asked where in this place remote area wilderness can anyone get enough bread to feed them well you know the israelites face the same lack in the wilderness right in the desert they face the same problem all right now there god gave them the manna he made the miracle and increased the bread for them to eat jesus himself will now do the same thing so i want to show you another quick two-minute video right now that kind of gives you a summary and it's a good little video i i go through dozens of these things to pick you what i feel is the best summary and i feel like i got a good one here that shows you what happened at the multiplication of the loaves let's watch this two minute video the early church loved this story because it prefigures the eucharist and it's not just prefiguring the last supper but it prefigures what the how the early church celebrated eucharist and even how we celebrate eucharist today let's break down the elements all the people are gathered to listen to jesus talk about the kingdom of heaven that's like the liturgy of the word when we come and we listen to scripture following the liturgy of the word we're all hungry now it's time for the liturgy of the eucharist jesus instructs the disciples to arrange the people into groups of 50 each 50 was a number that was symbolic for the church think pentecost is 50 days after resurrection even 50 ads when the council of jerusalem met and we began a new church at that moment 50 is a number that's symbolic of the church so essentially this large community is divided into little fifties little house churches and it's in these little churches the people are gonna have their fill little boxes made of ticky tacky little boxes on the hillside little boxes all the same so there are seven food items there are five loaves of bread and two fish seven on the seventh day is when we worship god the sabbath day the lord's day bread of course is symbolic of jesus jesus is the bread of life he talks about at the last supper this bread is me bread's clearly jesus what about the fish the fish was the symbol for the early church before we rebranded and made it the cross the fish was originally the symbol for christianity [Music] so essentially that number seven is saying with jesus and the church we will have our fill coming together to nourish it's a camaraderie jesus takes the loaves and the fish and he looks up to heaven and blesses and breaks them and gives them to the disciples to set before the crowd this is just like the eucharistic prayer it's interesting how the disciples are the ones carrying out the message of course that's what the early church was it was the disciples of jesus and the fragments left over in greek the word fragment there is actually the same greek word that referred to the eucharistic wafer okay so they have 12 baskets of leftovers 12 baskets of eucharistic waivers why 12 because it's the apostles that continue what jesus started it's the apostles that continue the holy eucharist okay and what else does the story have in common jesus is present and and today in the catholic church we believe jesus is present he was present to start this thing and he's still with us nourishing us now i i think that's a good summary because what i like about that video is it shows how the early church celebrated the eucharist he basically had a large gathering they listened to teaching the word then they were hungry and they shared the meal a meal now what's interesting is this was a big large community of followers over five thousand but in some of the gospel accounts jesus separates them into small groups these are like parishes we're all part of the larger church the universal church but we have our own life in our little parish this is how the church worshiped this is how jesus set it up he's the one who put him into the smaller groups this is jesus forming parishes it's amazing so jesus then feeds them through the church because he uses the disciples to distribute these are the priests so this miracle shows how christ rewards us if we just follow him you came here seeking jesus he will reward you with food the bread of life not just physical food spiritual we see that a disciple is basically helpless without jesus but do you also see that the lord in a way is helpless without his disciple now it's not because he doesn't have the power not to be it's because he chooses to work through those disciples remember when he said there was a lack of faith jesus couldn't work miracles in the particular town his own hometown now what about here he says come to me as you are bring me what little you have and i will use it what little they had was five loaves and two fish jesus didn't start from nothing it's like the sacraments people who don't have the sacraments don't understand why we use bread and wine it's because jesus always started with something he used something even god used mud to form adam he just didn't snap his finger he used him out of the dirt and this is how we were formed and to dust we will return now he needs people to give what they have no matter how small it is like this boy with five loaves of bread or one fish two fish or the widow with the two coins what little we got doesn't matter he needs people to whom he can give so in order that they may give to others and how does he give to us when we empty ourselves like cana you see how this all ties together when i'm sitting in scripture class learning all this i'm going oh my goodness and this is why i want to share it with all of you i want to share it with the world if we all catholics see this connection and see this power we would all be catholic instead of catholics not even celebrating our faith not only would catholics come back people who are not catholics would come to the church so god is saying this empty yourself i'll give it to you and then i want you to share it and we're going to talk about how that happens at the mass so what does he do he gives to others jesus says they have no need to go home you feed them you apostles disciples you feed these people he says this for our instruction so we will know what to do jesus gives to us so that we should go give to others especially those in need that's who the fifth five thousand represent now jesus gave thanks said the blessing broke the bread gave it to his disciples what does that sound like that's the mass that's the eucharistic prayer it's right there in the bible where's the mass in the bible right there and then it leads to the last supper first jesus provided the way wine at cana now he provides the bread jesus uses real things that we use every day and sanctifies them bread and wine are what they ate at all the meals and so he used that that's what the sacrament is the form and the matter the the matter is the bread and the wine the form is this is my body which will be given up for you now it's become his body the form and the matter the matter is the bread and the wine the form are the words to make it happen the words of the priest which were the words of jesus the priest didn't use his own words that's why the words of institution have to be exact now god normally takes these ordinary things that you know of our own lives and transforms them for his greater glory now jesus gave these to the disciples and the disciples gave them to the crowd this shows they were the first priests this shows that it is god's will that the heavenly food be distributed through the church powerful this prefigures what's coming up in the miracle of the eucharist given to the priests by jesus at the last supper wow and then the apostles will give it to others now what about the extra real quick the extra has significance here because it said there was extra over in one account to fill 12 wicker baskets this is because we should be content with what god gives us is sufficient and not to take more than we need let there be extra so they can be given away what god gives he gives abundantly more than we need so that extra we should share with others when jesus gets done with you you'll have more than you'll ever need in grace you'll have much more than you began with it's like at the mass what happens you were fed at the mass you were fed the word like jesus feeds here in the wilderness with the five thousand you were fed the bread like jesus fed at the wilderness with five thousand you were fed the eucharist and at the mass what happens after you learn and you are fed the mass says go and announce the gospel to the lord it missed go the church is sending you what does that mean you have been given much now go share it this is powerful here the people were hungry for something more than just physical food they were given the spiritual so are we so it's the same with us when we when we when we are here we are hungry in our lives we are naturally hungry for the spiritual even people who don't come to church are naturally hungry for the spiritual you know i was given a a conference to some um high school kids for confirmation and and um this couple of the girls kept bringing up uh the the zombies and the um vampires and whatever thing i would talk about they seem to like three or four times bringing these zombies and vampires into this thing that we were working on and finally i stopped and i asked one of the girls what why do you think there's such a fascination with with your you know your friends and you with these vampires and and and zombies and everything she goes oh vampires are cool this is this is true i this blows me away she said to me vampires drink blood and live forever that's the mass you drink the precious blood you'll live forever you see we inherently have that need for the spiritual in our hearts and we're striving for it but it's right here we don't need to go to a zombie or a vampire it's right here so your grandchildren or whatever they're into that this is really where it's at my drink is true or my blood is true drink it will live you'll live forever sometimes god uses these miracles of our faith and and to show us that he can make us be given this grace amazing all right let's keep going um all right so jesus is pointing to himself as the bread right now i should mention that he also multiplies fish what are the meaning of the fish the fish to be fishers of men he wants to multiply the people coming back to him to the church more and more bring me more fish you be fishers of men now jesus is pointing to himself as the bread which gives us life and he will do this again at the last supper the miracle was not worked as i said from nothing but it was from a sharing of what the simple child had and what others may have had there jesus does not ask for what we don't have if he didn't give me a particular grace he's not going to ask me as a priest to do it he's not going to ask you either rather he makes us see that if each person offers the little bit that that of all the vast amount god has given them that's what tithing is tithing is just giving back a little bit what god gave you tithing 10 is like look i gave you a hundred percent just give back 10 to god that's what tithing is now he makes us see that if each person offers the little he has god can work a miracle all right god is capable of multiplying our smallest acts of love like the bread and making us sheer his in his greatest gifts the body of christ now indeed it is not the eucharistic food that is changed into us but rather we are transformed this is augustine or aquinas now the protestant view god bless our non-catholic brethren but they don't believe we are transformed martin luther used to describe us as a pile of dung which we are without god's grace and he said we are like snow-covered dunghills martin luther said the idea to him was that we're we're done but god's grace just covers us like a snow cover over a pile of dung it's still a pile of dung the catholic church believes that if you truly open your heart and you truly open yourself to the sacraments you will be transformed you will not remain that pile of dong you will become christ-like and enter into heaven there's no dong allowed in heaven how could we remain dung that would mean dung is in heaven no there's no dung in heaven we are transformed it's impossible for martin luther to be correct we can't stay dung and enter into heaven we have to be transformed by his grace that's how we're saved we are saved by that transformation grace and this is powerful stuff all right now okay so basically this is what god is doing he's working a miracle all right now protestant view as i said kind of is different from us now we need this food from heaven we need it daily i mean look at our father give us today our daily bread it's it's it's a daily we have to have this conversion is daily it's not a one-time thing i declared 16 years ago it's daily that's why that's why we receive the daily bread now in the old testament moses gave bread to the people the manna did you know he also changed water into wine you may not know that moses did now jesus is presented as the new moses let's look at our next slide this is the transfiguration that's a beautiful painting we see uh peter james and john they're lying on the ground who's with jesus on the left is moses see the law and on the right is elijah the prophets now at the transfiguration did you know that it was right after this miracle of feeding the five thousand jesus is transfigured now that's the reading in tomorrow's gospel interesting jesus meets moses on the mountain now let's look at this moses led the exodus passed through the red sea which was baptism and then provided miraculous bread in the wilderness that's the manna now jesus gives bread as well in the wilderness for the journey that those people are on a little different journey than the jews in the desert with a uh moses but we all go through this journey this is our daily daily task getting through life day at a time one day at a time now jesus is this new moses he's on a mountain with these 5 000 people like moses was on a mountain with his inner circle he has a shining face pretty much you would know that he would be shining as he was giving and helping these 5000 like he was on the mountain and he's ready to lead an exodus moses just like moses had a shining face and led an exodus out of egypt jesus has a shining face because of the transfiguration he is glorified so he was emitting light so he didn't have just a shining face at the 5000 he really has a shining face at the transfiguration so think about this for a minute moses was on a mountain he had a shining face he led an exodus jesus is now on the mountain of the transfiguration right mount tabor he has a shining face he's glowing he's in a glorified state and he's ready to lead in exodus what is the exodus away from sin wow the people saw this connection between jesus and moses how do i know that because they wanted to make him a king here's what's interesting the manna and the miraculous blood or the bread i should say the manna feeding like moses did and now jesus makes this miraculous blood they saw the connection then jesus took it farther those are things i kind of knew before seminary but this i did not know before seminary this is why i'm taking you to seminary class with me there are five books of moses called the torah or the pentateuch you know genesis uh leviticus exodus numbers okay these deuteronomy these are the five books of the pentateuch that's why jesus started with five loaves of bread because he's changing the law written in stone to the new covenant of love and the eucharist incredible he is transforming the mosaic law into something much greater and much more nourishing the eucharist we use the word multiplication jesus multiplied the bread but he actually do you know that the word multiplication never appears in the text here of john there's a theologian named frank sheed and listen to what he says the gospel i'm quoting him the gospel makes clear that the loaves themselves were not really multiplied at all well wait a minute father what the heck you've been telling us then there were five of them at the beginning and there were five of them at the end left over it ended up being the same there's no multiplication in the end they started with five they ended with five but what was the difference five thousand were now satisfied so she said quote it was their presence that was multiplied the presence and the number of parts of space they occupied at the same time here's what he said multi-location of loaves would actually be more accurate and you know why i love that quote and i read it because it explains to the non-catholics who tell us you catholics are crazy you can't break up the body of jesus and this was an argument that went back centuries and you can't have jesus broken over there at saint mary's and 25 miles down the road jesus broken up and be there at saint peter's you catholics are nuts you can't break up the body of christ he's one this actually answers that because jesus did it he didn't multiply himself he brought himself to more people his presence was magnified so the more churches we have the more presence god is magnified jesus was not multiplied into many bodies at at the churches this is part of one body his presence is multiplied or multi-location this is unbelievable this is beautiful so you know i want to finish with this because this is a common argument i used to hear a lot some say that this is not a miracle but it was or i should say it's not a miracle jesus worked the true miracle was teaching selfish people to share that's funny isn't it the real miracle was teaching selfish people to share i'm surprised how common this is many people hold this view the people wanted to make him a king though if you want to make p this guy a king let me tell you this it's not because selfish people were sharing if you thought enough of this guy to make him a king it must be because he worked a miracle you know in the desert when when the manna was multiplied and god gave the the jews in the desert with moses manna they didn't share the israelites weren't hiding pieces of bread in their coats and in their tents and all sudden at one night all came out together and decided to lay it out on the ground because remember that's what happened in the old testament overnight they came out and the ground was filled with manna so were they hiding it and they went out and they started sharing it and they started taking it from their bags and saying you know what i better share this no god worked a miracle he gave him bread they didn't have they were starving and jesus just did the same thing no god performed the miracle and this in the desert people knew that and now they see it in jesus if he had just given a lesson on sharing the people would have went around petting each other on the back hey joe thanks for sharing with me bro no that's not what happened they didn't go wrong patting each other on the back they turned around and said we need to make this man jesus a king but in a minute i'll tell you why jesus didn't want that the the shearers would have been the heroes and the ones receiving the praise instead they praised jesus and wanted to make him a king these answers are are incredible if we know our catholic faith all right like the sacraments jesus used something bread and wine again and or should say sorry um water to turn into wine at cana and bread to turn into the eucharist or the wine will now be turned into the body the blood of christ but he uses the bread now to turn it into the eucharist so to feed many he does like he does with the sacraments he feeds many the physical sign of multiplying bread itself is a symbol pointing to the eucharist it led to this declaration of christ i am the bread of life john 6 35 right out of scripture so there was great shock now this is people don't understand great shock when jesus says unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood you have no life in you that's john 6 53 how how do we do this this is the bread of life discourse and before we go to our next slide this one we have to read because this one is where our whole faith and and i would have to tell you my favorite passage i think of the bible let's read john chapter 6 verse 48 to 58. you want to know why you're a catholic you want to know why i'm a catholic i'm going to show you why you're a catholic and why i'm a catholic and if you're not i'm going to show you why you should be catholic with a bunch of love not pointing fingers but if you hear the words of jesus we'll see all right i am the bread of life this is john 6 48-58 your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died this is the bread which comes down from heaven that a man may eat of it and not die if jesus was speaking symbolically he would have stopped here the reason that you repeated things in these ancient times was to emphasize the truth of them like when we say god is holy we say holy holy holy he's the holiest they don't have the superlative and so if god was speaking symbolically or jesus was speaking symbolically it would have ended here did he stop no he kept going this is the bread which comes down from heaven that a man may eat of it and not die does he stop no he keeps going i am the living bread which came down from heaven if anyone eats of this bread he will live forever and the bread which i shall give for the life of the world is my flesh whoa the jews then disputed among themselves saying how can this man give us his flesh to eat so jesus said to them truly truly i say to you not figuratively or symbolically unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood you have no life in you he who eats my flesh and i'm not repeating this i'm going on and on in the gospel he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and i will raise him up on the last day do you think jesus finally got his point across he still keeps on going for my flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and i in him as the living father sent me and i live because of the father so he who eats me will live because of me this is the bread which came down from heaven not such the fathers ate and died he who eats this bread will live forever jesus goes on and on and on there is nothing symbolic about this this is the true message and so this is what we are looking at and so the next slide i don't know if brother mark showed it let's look at slide number nine this is what we call the bread of life whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and i will raise him up on the last day for my flesh's true food this is the bread of life discourse so i'm glad that you could see that that is so important all right now this is john chapter 6 48-58 and you know what's interesting do you know when this was do you know when this happened i didn't the next day he fed the 5000 in john 6 verse 1 through 15. i think that's right john 6 1-15 now this is john 6 later in the chapter it's the very next day you don't think there's a connection oh yeah there's a connection this is it this is everything for us this verse is why we are catholic as i said jesus tells them not to search for perishable bread but the bread that endures for eternal life unless you eat it and drink his blood you have no life in you so this amazing statement was made because this would be something that christ knew would be problematic it was theologically problematic to the people but he didn't change it he didn't stop and say no i didn't mean it literally this is problematic for the jews at the time why because the old testament is filled with prohibitions against eating flesh with blood in it they could not eat the animal flesh with blood in it why because blood was the life of the being and only god could take that life they could not eat the blood that's why the jews eat koshered meals jesus is proposing not just the eating of that kind of flesh but now his own human flesh they're like are you a cannibal this is why he transforms it he keeps the substance or sorry the accident's the same bread and wine so you're eating those accidents but your substance is the body and blood of christ now in the original language the greek word because remember what were the gospels written in well originally they may have been written in hebrew or aramaic what we have now today the only copies of the originals that we have are greek and in the greek the verb for eat is not fagian which is normally what they would use for human eating the verb used is the verb tragon or tragen and that is a verb that designates the way animals eat if you ever saw me eating on racing to my next meeting you probably could could equate that but the problem is it literally means gnawing chewing with your teeth it literally means to chew to eat it means to that jesus was talking literally to eat not symbolically like feed my soul i'll eat it up we're talking literally to eat so jesus adds for my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink how does this happen how did it go from bread and wine to his flesh and blood how is this transformation possible it's transubstantiation it's done and from the wine the bread to wine and the body to blood or sorry i'm sorry the bread to one the bread and the wine become the body and blood sorry this is the whole source and summit of our faith jesus is the word of god all right so his words have the power to transform anything so when he speaks this is how god created the world he spoke and there was a transformation now god speaks and transforms a substance bread and wine into the body and blood now remember the matter is the bread and the wine the form the words when he speaks is the words of institution the consecration this is my body which will be given up for you this is why the ordinary bread and wine became the extraordinary body and blood of christ his very body and blood wow at the consecration now the priest pronounces the words of christ the words he used to make that transformation or that transubstantiation not the priest's own words that's why he can't change them and that's why a priest cannot change the words of consecration he acts not in his own person but in the person of christ in persona christi and hence he affects this transformation by using christ's own words that doesn't mean when he leaves the altar that he's perfectly jesus no he's going to sin mess up do dumb things but when he's at the altar christ steps in this is transubstantiation a change of substance this is why we need a priest i love this example i'm going to read you from saint faustina jesus told saint faustina let me pull this up in the diary number 442 all right so bear with me number 442 in the diary listen to what jesus says or st faustina once when my confessor father sepochko was saying mass i saw as usual the christ child on the altar from the time of the offertory however a moment before the elevation this is what we call the high point of the mass the concluding doxology where we raise the patent in the in the wine the bread and or the body and blood right the priest vanished from my sight and jesus alone remained when the moment of the elevation approached jesus took the host and the chalice in his little hands and raised them together looking up to heaven this is what's going on i always say at the mass when you raise it up this is god offering god to god that's why jesus stepped in it's him offering it that's why the mass is perfect it's god offering god to god jesus offering himself to the father through the power of the holy spirit here it is this is incredible and so what we have here is writing faustina's words i was he looked up to heaven and a moment later i again saw my confessor i asked the child jesus where the priest had been during the time i had not seen him and jesus answered in my heart are you kidding me wow all right we're wrapping up here stay with me this is powerful jesus reveals the meaning of this miracle god the father who had fed the israelites in the desert with manna now sends his son as the true bread that's what jesus just told us and the bread is his flesh and blood offered in sacrifice for us now he paid the penalty for sin by dying but now he triumphs that death he restores our life remember dying you destroyed our death rising you restored our life come lord jesus so the people and the disciples weren't getting this yet you know they were more happy over the physical miracles like like jesus healing people or making more bread but now he does the true miracle at the last supper and the disciples you know and the other crowds would be enthusiastic when he performed these physical miracles like making more fish or bread but there's a deeper meaning the multiplication of the loaves and the fish was a revelation to them that he was the messiah so the crowd would have liked to carry him away as a king they saw he did what moses did they thought he was a great man and proclaiming king but this is not what jesus wanted and i want to finish here with this bread of life discourse jesus basically squashes their enthusiasm basically takes it all away i'm not going to be your king there's something greater well he is but not the kind of king they wanted he doesn't tell them it is symbolic he tells them that they have to eat his body and drink his blood why to share in his sacrifice and then you're like oh man now i gotta share in a sacrifice that's the way to eternal life there's no resurrection easter sunday without good friday jesus affirms that he has been sent to offer his own life and he who wants to follow him must join in a deep personal way the participation in the sacrifice of love so last few sentences jesus went on to institute the sacrament of the eucharist at the last supper so that then the disciples as priests could share it with the world and that's exactly what happened this was crucial as one body is united with him and one more is added to him his presence spreads that's why every one of you who is watching today who has come back to the faith has come back to your church has come back to confession and communion has added to christ's presence in the world god bless you for that that's what being a marian helper is that's what being a catholic is and so this is it he extends this mystery of salvation to the whole world and you are part of that that's why my last two slides we're going to show right now so brother mark puts up christ gave the apostles and their successors the authority to govern in his place which is the church don't believe me luke 22 29-30 and to sanctify her through the sacraments especially the eucharist and there we have john 6 54 and first corinthians 11 24. let's go to our slide final slide in the blessed sacrament you will find romance ladies who out there isn't looking for romance we all are in the blessed sacrament we'll find romance glory honor fidelity and the true way of all your loves upon the earth god bless all of you for being with us and for sharing in this incredible idea of the eucharist in the scriptures and you know the meaning of the mass i couldn't get to fully here because it's so deep but if you would like to read more or hear more about that brother mark could you show our last slide i just finished writing this book it's called understanding divine mercy and i expand a lot deeper in a lot of things i talked about here today please consider getting it for you or a loved ones you can get it at shopmercy.org or 800-462-7426 and i tell you what i'm not just out to sell books i'm out to bring souls to christ you can't afford it send me an email i'll send you a free copy it's not about that it's it's what we can do to save souls help us spread this message i don't know what else to say other than we have everything in our catholic faith and god bless you because god's grace is actively working in you or you wouldn't be here today respond to that grace you want to be saved all it is is the grace of god that we cooperate with and may almighty god bless you the father the son and the holy spirit amen hi i'm father chris aylor and i'm excited to tell you about the completion of my newest project it's been a long time in the making it's called understanding divine mercy my new book from marion press that finally in one place i feel gives you the all the answers of everything you need to know about god's divine mercy in fact it answers what is divine mercy who is saint faustina and what message did god give her for the world how about the feast of divine mercy and what do you have to do to receive the graces that jesus promises on this one day of the year we talk about the meaning of the image and how to pray the naveena and how to understand the chaplet and what to do in the hour of mercy and much much more answering questions like why would a merciful god allow such suffering so please we hope that you'll pick up a copy of this book for you and your loved ones because if you get the understanding of what god's mercy is you will understand why jesus said it's mankind's last hope of salvation so please visit us at shopmercy.org or give us a call at 800-462-7426 thank you and may almighty god bless you you

Channel: Divine Mercy

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Keywords: Divine Mercy, Mercy, Jesus, Christ, Marian, priest, catholic teaching, spiritual, spirituality, grace, pray, prays, praying, chris alar, alar, fr. Chris, fr. alar, Catholic, Church, God, virus, closed church, sacrament, act of contrition, spiritual Communion, confession, fr. chris alar, sacraments, general confession, valid confession, Eucharist, blessed sacrament, precious blood, holy Communion, cana, wedding, multiplication of loaves, loaves and fish, miracle, John 6, bread of life, manna

Id: WTAYLLwEal4

Length: 88min 38sec (5318 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 27 2021