The Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist // Bishop Barron at 2020 Religious Education Congress

thanks very much well thank you very much for that and good morning to everybody always always a joy to be here in the arena first started coming to this Congress back in 1997 I'm becoming a very old man and it's always a joy to come back it's one of the great events as you know in the whole year of the Catholic Church so thanks for coming and thanks for coming for this specific talk you know I wasn't intending to speak on my topic today so even a few months ago I had some other topic of mine which frankly I forget and then that Pew Forum study came out that told us that 70% of Catholics don't believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist seventy percent of Catholics mind you not not the general population but Catholics say that Jesus is only symbolically present in the bread and the wine well when I read that survey I called my assistant and said call the Congress right away tell them I'm changing my topic I'm speaking on the real presence so thank you see here's the thing everybody one of the you know two or three most famous one-liners of Vatican two is that the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life right I mean one of the great lines of the Second Vatican Council it's the beginning in the end there's a be-all and end-all quality to the Eucharist it's where it all comes from where it's all tending and if now what 50 some years after the end of the council 70 percent of our own people don't understand the meaning of the Eucharist well Anaheim we have a problem as I'm addressing this giant arena full of teachers and preachers and evangelists and catechists something everybody has gone off the rails here so that's why I wanted to address this issue today with you and you know just in the brief time we have I'll do a little sketch first of all a couple of images for you this is all maybe 10 years ago or so I was in Rome for Easter and I went down to st. Peter's to celebrate the great papal Mass so I thought this would be a little better organized I was you know distributing communion to this huge crowd I thought they'd say one out you go you know right there and you stand I remember the who is sort of standing with the ciborium and the emcee went like this okay just go so so off I sort of waded into this great crowd and I had the Blessed Sacrament and as I'm distributing you know body of Christ I think I was paying Corpus Christi because all the different languages Corpus Christi Corpus Christi the hands began to stretch out to me and people began to shout you know Pilate a pedophile or a pet five or a par today please please now I'll grant you some of this is Italian melodrama I mean it's no accident that the Opera began in Italy right but nevertheless I was always struck that that gesture in that style is entirely appropriate if we're just dealing with a bland symbol who cares but somehow those good people from all over the world sensed there's something here of crucial significance there is a food here that I can't get anywhere else and so please please like a starving person that strikes me is an appropriate reaction to the Eucharist here's the second image from Ronald Knox the great 20th century of theologian and apologist Knox said something which has always struck me he said let's face it 99% of Jesus commands are obeyed at best in the in the breach right so love your neighbor love your enemy pray for those who curse you turn the other cheek I mean let's face it most of us disobey Jesus commands most of the time but Ronald Knox said strangely there is one command of Jesus that has been massively followed up and down the centuries despite our sin despite our stupidity despite all of our weakness and failure somehow of a command do this in memory of me has been followed hasn't it it's as though Christ Himself realized that I just have to intervene and make sure these people do this you know but this is so central to what it means to be a disciple of mine do this in memory of me despite everything we do it and a third little vignette or a little image and I'm sure by now everyone knows the story one of my great heroes Flannery O'Connor I think the greatest Catholic fiction writer of the last century when she's a very young woman is out for dinner with Mary McCarthy and other big-time New York writers and she was a young woman shy by Nature and she felt totally overwhelmed by this company she said I felt like a dog who knows one trick but had forgotten it so the conversation is going on and Mary McCarthy who was a lapsed Catholic but she was trying to draw O'Connor into the conversation she knew she was a Catholic she said to her you know I think the Eucharist is them is a wonderful symbol to which Flannery O'Connor responded as you well know if it's only a symbol I say to hell with it and that qualifies her in my judgment as one of the great Eucharistic theologians of the 20th century now mind you sometimes you'll hear people say oh you know people that say things like that don't understand the power of symbolism not in her case are you kidding Flannery O'Connor one of the great symbolic masters of the 20th century read a good man is hard to find read Parker's back read revelation read all that rises must converge all her great novels and stories she fully knows the power and import of symbolic language she knows how to create symbols how to use them she knows the effects they have she knew all about symbolism and yet she says if that's all it is to hell with her she gives voice there everybody to something which is absolutely Universal in our great tradition across space and across time there's something more in the Eucharist than the merely symbolic and so the 70% of people of Catholics in our Pew Forum study we got a problem if we're not teaching this truth okay so here's what I propose to do in the brief time we have I want to kind of walk us that'll be a quick enough walk through some main points in our great tradition to try to show you that there is a golden thread that runs from the Bible up to our time affirming the reality of Jesus presence in the Eucharist I'm going to start as I think all theology should start with the Bible John chapter 6 I'm very gonna move forward to a a very brief look at some of the church fathers from the second to the fifth centuries but I'm gonna skip to the 11th century and the debate around Baron garius I'll get there it's very important to understand our own time then I'll skip forward two more centuries to st. Thomas Aquinas and his account of the Eucharist then a brief look three centuries later at the Council of Trent and then finally I'll go to the 20th century to st. Pope Paul the six and his ringing affirmation of the real presence that took place during the last session of the Second Vatican Council and then at the very end what I'll do having seen the steadiness of this teaching try to give you a framework for understanding it okay now as you can sense from this we're gonna do a little intellectual work this morning and you know what catechists and teachers and preachers we need to do some intellectual work on this thing there are a lot of reasons for this 70% tragedy there are but at least one of them is we have not been very effective at explaining laying out this great teaching so let's do a little a little work this morning if there's water there is good okay let's start with the Bible the great text it seems to me in the New Testament on our issue is John chapter 6 John chapter 6 as you know is a kind of masterpiece within the masterpiece just as for example Luke 24 I think is a matte little gem within the overall masterpiece of Luke's Gospel so the sixth chapter of John I think has that quality what do we hear first we hear of the compelling and magnetic power of the presence of Jesus listen Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee a large crowd followed him because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick bothered a bit of authority please we please give me the body and blood of Christ there's something everybody always compelling about the authentic Christ and we see it here what comes next Jesus goes up on a mountaintop now any biblically alert person knows when we're talking about mountains we're talking about a place of intense encounter right where we go up God comes down the mountain is the meeting place of divinity and humanity what's being described here at the beginning of John 6 but the mass that placed the most intense encounter between us in the Lord Jesus on the holy mountain sits down and his disciples gather around him sitting in the ancient world was the posture of a teacher wasn't it so we think of a teacher standing at a podium like this but in the ancient world the teacher would sit and the students would literally be at his feet that's where that comes from so Jesus sitting on the holy mountain is Jesus now teaching when does this happen every time we gather for the Liturgy of the word is Jesus the teacher once again gathering his disciples at his feet and teaching them but what comes next we hear that Jesus looks up and he sees this great hungry crowd and so he asked the disciples famously you know what do you have and they bring this little pittance forward and then Jesus multiplies it unto the feeding of that giant crowd what's this put the Liturgy of the Eucharist Jesus wants to teach us yes indeed but more profoundly he wants to feed us how's he do it beautifully by taking a little pittance that we have think of the gifts coming up at the offertory right his little tiny bit if you set that in front of someone as physical food it would maybe be a light meal for one person but yet when that little pittance is given to him he can elevate it and multiply it under the spiritual feeding of the world there's the Liturgy of the Eucharist Jesus feeding us with his body and blood amen as we know beautifully the twelve baskets of fragments left over the 12 tribes of Israel the 12 months of the year 12 is a number of fulfilment of completion this is the food that will satisfy the hunger of the world that's the point and also the gathering up of the fragments is reminiscent of the liturgical celebration so beautifully laid out kind of icon of the mass the Liturgy of the word the Liturgy of the Eucharist Jesus then walks on the water we could say a lot more about that but he comes to the town of Capernaum enters the synagogue there and the people come after him because they were so taken by the multiplication of the loaves and then he begins to teach again about the meaning of this spiritual food what do we find he says don't hunger for these passing loaves of bread from yesterday but rather hunger for the food that lasts for eternal life it's John 627 echoing of course two chapters previous in John four the story of the woman at the well you come to this well every day you drink and you get thirsty I want to give you water bubbling up in you to eternal life so it's echoed here in John 6 hunger for the bread of eternal life then this John 6:35 I am the bread of life those who come to me will never be hungry those who believe in me will never be thirsty and then making it even more explicit listen now everybody I am The Living bread come down from heaven if you eat this bread you will live forever the bread that I will give you is my flesh for the life of the world the bread that I will give you is my flesh for the life of the world now now lest you think controversy about the Eucharist is a new thing right away the crowd box at this language listen how can this man give us his flesh to eat now my new there's good reason for balking at this teaching if you're a first century Jew because scattered throughout the Old Testament I can show you numerous texts our prohibitions against the eating of an animal's flesh with blood right blood is life and so you don't eat the flesh with blood it was strictly verboten it's strictly forbidden and and this man is saying eat my flesh and my blood and this is not only gross it's theologically objectionable to the highest degree and hence they bog given therefore every opportunity to soften his teaching to propose a more symbolic or metaphorical reading what does Jesus say amen amen I say to you so in other words don't miss this amen amen I say to you this is serious stuff coming unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you and then just to rub it in for my flesh is real food my blood is real drink now the scholars point out to us something really interesting about this the usual Greek for the way human beings eat is is fought gain means to eat like the way you'd rather around a table to eat Jesus doesn't use that verb now remember he's been challenged people say this is gross what you're saying it's objectionable he's got every opportunity to soften the language but instead he turns up the heat unless you and the verb he uses is TRO gain you know TRO gain means in Greek therefore no pro gun is the way an animal eats no unrest from naw on the front or front of man and drink his blood you've got no life in you and my flesh is real food my blood is real drink hiyee his serious stuff here huh this is something really strange going on now you're a first century Jew you're aware of the great scriptural tradition what are you aware of symbolic talk there's symbolic talk all through the Scriptures right in the Psalms and in the prophets think even of the symbolic actions of the prophets you know when God tells is the key allure Hosea or Jeremiah to do some funny thing and then he then he explains the spiritual meaning of right they knew all about symbolism so if all he's saying here is well you know yeah just have you taken bread and wine so you kind of take in my teaching or you take in my inspiration it's like that it's a symbol I mean who wouldn't get that who wouldn't find that you know easy to understand but when he lays this thing out the way he does what are we here because of this many of Jesus followers turn back and would not go with him anymore and then that moment I think it's something almost frightening to me about this moment so he asked the twelve and you would you also like to leave this is a kind of standing and falling point isn't it this teaching is like a watershed it has been from John's fix until the Pew Forum study a stumbling block a point of division a kind of either you're with me or against me moment isn't it now as many point out is this just a weird coincidence or a strange bit of Providence what verse is that but I just read it's john 6:66 it's John chapter 6 verse 66 again you know we didn't have chapter verse when this thing was written but that's the way it worked out my point is if this was just simple talk I don't see why anybody would be all that upset about it why they'd why they'd storm away in protest but speed Jesus doesn't compromise or soften it or give in he says yeah okay are you gonna leave me too that's John's fix I think everybody along a course with the institution narratives it's the great ground for the Catholic insistence upon what we call the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist this is not some later invention the roots of it are right here in the Gospel of John okay so from the first century let's do a very very rapid just a few minutes I'm gonna present to you a little series of tax from the church fathers lest we're tempted to say oh you know this real present stuff that's later or medieval you know theology but but the early church people didn't believe that take a look at Saint Ignatius of Antioch of course very early figure born around near 35 died in 108 so here's someone that knew the Apostles the earliest level here's what he says in his letter to the smyrnaeans the DOS fetus abstained from the Eucharist and from prayer because they do not admit that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ the flesh which suffered for our sins and which the father in his graciousness raised from the dead I don't never get any clearer than that how about Saint Justin the martyr just a little bit later he dies in the year 165 and I've got kind of a longer kuo I'll just read a little bit of it Justin says for not as common bread nor a common drink do we receive these the Eucharistic elements but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the Word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation so that as we have been taught the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer and by the change in which our blood and flesh is nurtured both the flesh and blood of that incarnated Jesus are present now I'll grant you that's not a really elegantly formulated fence but you get the idea of the dense reality of the Eucharistic change let me skip to origin of Alexandria so we're now in the early 3rd century and that lovely quote from his homily on the book of Exodus he says you're accustomed to take part in the divine mysteries so you know how when you've received the body of the Lord you reverently exercise every care lest a particle of it fall unless anything of this consecrated gift perish I mean why would someone treat a mere symbol with that kind of attention Emily you might show respect to a symbolic object but that kind of almost obsessive care about the particular of Krum falling from the Eucharistic species that's someone that believes in the reality of the presence how about this now from the great Gregory of Nyssa the bread again is that first common bread but when the mystery sanctifies it it is called and actually becomes the body of Christ how about this from st. John Chrysostom what is the bread but the body of Christ what do they become who partake of it the body of Christ not many bodies but one body now that's the Buell thing everybody in all the Church Fathers you can see it the Eucharist is the means by which we are Krista fide and they mean that look in both of both a body and soul sense I mean our our minds and hearts and souls Krista fide yes but our bodies our Krista fide our lowly bodies are prepared for heaven by our contact with the reality of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist okay best just a little little tiny glance at the church fathers to show you that what commences in John 6 is borne by the early church in an unambiguous way okay with that I'm gonna leap forward now a few more centuries to the 11th century I'm now moving into France and specifically the town of tour central France kind of southwest of Paris I want to look at this figure Baron garius of tour and that a household name but yet trust me when I tell you 70% of our own Catholic brothers and sisters interviewed by that to form study were basically hanging on to a barren garyun understanding of the Eucharist so it's important for us to go back and take a look at this view Baron garius was the head of the Cathedral School of tour so if the great Cathedral schools of Paris and charge and tour and other places were the root of most of the medieval universities we're now in the early stage of the Middle Ages and Baron Darius is the director of this of this prominent school tore like a lot of his medieval colleagues Baron Darius is very interested in questions of language and logic and rhetoric so you see this coming up through people like Thomas Aquinas later is a hyper concern for getting the language right and again we shouldn't despise that that's part of our great tradition as people are reflecting intellectually on the implications of faith they they make these distinctions and clarifications so we shouldn't assume that as though that's something wrong Farren Darius is trying to be clear about the Eucharist so here's the position he lays out there is a difference he says between the historical body of Jesus born of the virgin and now reigning in heaven and the body that appears sacramentally in the Eucharist the latter must be a sort of symbol or figure of the former okay pretty clear huh there's the body of Jesus born of Mary crucified died risen from the dead ascended now in heaven there's that body then there's this body that appears Eucharistic Li and it's best construed as a symbol a sign or a figure of the heavenly body of Jesus yeah clearer that's there's something always attractive about it because it's kind of common that experiences what's his scriptural warrant it's Paul's claim in second Corinthians quote even if we have known Christ according to the flesh henceforth we know him no more so all right way back when people knew him in the flesh in his body and I guess now in heaven maybe the Angels know him in his body but we don't know him that way anymore we have signs and symbols of his presence hence Berengaria says when the priest pheasant masked hawk as a tempore pused Mayim you know this indeed is my body the hawk in question the this remains the bread and something is added to it namely a sort of spiritual or symbolic significance making it a sign of Jesus body okay yep clear I get that that's that's clear symbolic sort of talk one can say Baron garius goes on that Christ is really present because I just mean he's spiritually present now this view was propagated by Baron Darius it was much debated many people joined him but there was a fellow who opposed him again not a household name his name was no fall of Beck now L'Enfant was the teacher of someone who is a household name namely st. endzone so you see the period were in sonal phone as a teacher of an stone-like and film he was Archbishop of Canterbury at the end of his life anyway no fall listened to Baron Darius and he said no no that's not enough that's not a sufficient account grounded as he was of the father's grounded as he was in John chapter 6 golf ball avec said no no no that's not an adequate account of the Eucharistic presence and so there were a series of councils and gatherings the debate went on and finally in 10:59 by the way Berengaria says Levenstein tree born about ten ten dies to 88 just to give you the time period in 10:59 a council was held Berenguer eases view is condemned and he's made to swear this oath here's part of it the bread and wine which are placed on the altar are after the consecration not only a sack but the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ so barren Gary's himself is made to swear that oath this everybody is is a neuralgic coin and it's it's a point of demarcation in this great debate what are we talking about after the consecration as we look at the elements on the altar what are we talking about here this experience you go to a parish and people are the ministers are taking this Tabora and saying I'm gonna go to bread station four III got wine station three that's what Berengaria could have said this is bread and wine but now with an added symbolic significance but listen again to the oath the bread and wine which are placed on the altar are after the consecration not only a sacrament but the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ there's something else they've changed at a level so fundamental that it's no longer proper to call them bread and wine you know many years ago when I was in the parish I distributed communion I was back in my chair my eyes Paislee closed in prayer and I hear this voice it was the it was the 12 year old server saying father there's a lot of blood over there what that's not been cut someone and what he meant was there were a lot of chalices of consecrated wine and so after the mast I congratulated him on his very healthy Catholic sensibility he was absolutely right it's not correct to refer to the consecrated species as wine but indeed father there's a lot of blood over there that goes right back to the barren garius oath here's something else from Berengaria see his opponent who won the day insisted there's something more going on in the Eucharist then in the other sacraments and against not to denigrate anyway the other sacraments but the claim here is that very and Gary's his account might make sense of the other sacraments Baptism Confirmation and so on when a spiritual virtuous or power is added to material elements but I don't say when I put oil on the forehead of a kid at confirmation I don't say this is no longer oil right or when I pour the water on that child at baptism I don't say afterwards oh this is no longer water but I do say that in regard to the Eucharistic elements this is no longer bread no longer wine something has changed okay so first century John 6 2nd to 5th century those fathers I looked at 11th century the church says no to berenguer ian's now let's go to centuries after that to the 13th century and to my great intellectual hero st. Thomas Aquinas we can overstate Thomas's importance he's one voice among many not more than that nevertheless he's called by the church the doctor communist the common doctor like the doctor we all have in common because there's something about the depth and breadth of Thomas's reflection that is a permanent importance in the life of the church and so it's important for us to pause and look at Thomas's text on the Eucharist first though maybe a word about his personal relationship to the Eucharist which was profound and intense they say Thomas would typically celebrate two masses a day so the first one he'd preside at it the second one his assistant presiding and Thomas assisted but they say that he he hardly ever got through mass without shedding copious tears now you're not going to sense that from Thomas's text that can seem very dry and Scholastic right but he had this vividly personal relationship to the Eucharist I've always loved this his assistant at his canonization proceedings some decades after his death said that Thomas benefited far more from prayer than from study when it came to writing his theology and he said that Thomas would frequently go into a chapel and he would rest his head against the tabernacle begging for inspiration and then of course I took my motto was a bishop from this the famous scene toward the end of his life Thomas had just written the great treatise on the Eucharist from the Summa and he felt even though it's it's a masterpiece Thomas felt it's not done justice to this great sacrament and so he dramatically places that text the text about the Eucharist at the foot of the cross and if you go to Naples they have his cell still there and they have the icon they think that he put the text in front of and then the wonderful story is that a voice came from the cross Toma been a script 60 Dame a Thomas you've written well of me Jesus speaking Latin of course to Thomas Aquinas Thomas you've written well of me what would you have as a reward and then what he responded to is what I took as my motto is a bishop non dzj dominate I'll have nothing except you Lord and that's Thomas's relationship to the Eucharistic Christ okay if you're looking for this treatise it's questions 73 through 83 of the third part of the Summa of acquaintances so you know the the first part of the Summa is about God and creation the second part is about the human being and our moral life and the third part is about the Incarnation Christ and the sacraments so Thomas never finished that third part one of the last things he wrote were these questions on the Eucharist 73 through 83 I'm gonna look just the two places in it for our purposes something from question 73 and stop me from question 75 okay in one of the Articles that question 73 Thomas asks is the Eucharist a sacrament and in his development of his answer he says some wonderful things first of all he says the Eucharist is best understood as Alimentum spiritually that means spiritual food remember fathered a pet Parvati remember that iconic photo of Bishop Deaconess when the people are reaching through the fence at the border at master reaching through like they they need this for life so Thomas says the Eucharist is best understood as Alimentum spirituality it's spiritual food and he says this just as baptism is generatio it's the generation of spiritual life as confirmation is augmentin that means growth in the spiritual life so the Eucharist is Alimentum food for the journey necessary uh-huh last time I checked food is necessary for physical life so this food necessary for the life of the soul I think spirits many years ago with a friend I did a bike trip from Paris to Rome I was younger in those days and we would do like 70 or 80 miles a day and on that trip I had my first experience of what they call hitting the wall I'd read about it but never experienced it that's when you're going and then it's not like you're just getting tired it's like you can't go on you're so depleted that you you you can't move and that happened to me is somewhere in the South of France and I I just had to stop until we always had these big French baguettes and the in the back of the bike there and I ate one of those and drank water and then was able to go on and that's always stayed vividly in my mind Alimentum of food for the body necessary soul alimentives spiritually necessary posit a pet 5ot for the life of the soul his next observation I think also good for catechists and for teachers as you present the Eucharist he says the Eucharist has three names depending upon its relationship to the dimensions of time if we look back in time the Eucharist is called sacrifice human sacrifice because that embodies the sacrifice of the cross you look around the present time Eucharist is called Camus neo because right now it's a communion with Christ and with each other members of the mystical body of Christ if we look to the future the Eucharist is called viatical because it's food that will take us on our final journey into heaven and then the great name he says is indeed eucharistia thanksgiving why because that's the whole life of heaven when we are totally kristef I'd in heaven all we will do is give thanks and praise so sacrifice communion vai että commuter is these great names beautiful stuff I love this isn't it convenient Thomas asks it's a favorite word of his by the way just means fitting is it fitting that Jesus established the Eucharist his answer of course is yes just as the Emperor he says leaves behind his imago in statues and on coins to remind the people of his presence even when he's absent so Jesus now in heaven in a way absent from us leaves behind his great imago his great image this great sign of his presence I love this too and I try to think of it actually whatever I say man Thomas says what someone says and does in the ultimate moments of his or her life is of tremendous power and significance let's say you're gathering with someone and they know they're gonna be executed the next day and you're gathering with this beloved friend who's who's facing death wouldn't you find written in your heart whatever that friend did instead that night so acquainted says we attend to everything Jesus said and did but with a very special intense attention we watch what he did and said the night before he died leaving us this imago of himself beautiful stuff now just a glance at question 75 and in some ways here everybody we're coming to the heart of the manner John 6 through the fathers the anti barren garyun position now Thomas Aquinas this great theological mind expressing the church's faith about the Eucharist here's the question he poses whether in this sacrament the body of Christ is according to truth or only according to figure or as an assign freeport now think Berengaria will go right back to john 6 and looked forward to Flannery O'Connor if it's only as symbol I say to hell with it listen requires again whether in this sacrament the body of Christ is there he says the Gundam very Tata according to truth or only according to figure or as in a sign his answer of course says he's there the Gundam very Tata he's there according to truth how do we explain it well here Thomas uses language that I think we shouldn't run from I think we should love and reverence he's borrowing it but he's adapting it like crazy but borrowing it from the Aristotelian philosophy whose time Thomas speaks here of transubstantiation I don't you any of Simpsons fans here there's a famous Simpsons episode where Homer becomes a Catholic briefly and remember he's in he's in catechism class and he's written on his arm it's like for the cheat sheet transubstantiation I've always appreciated it he also wrote by the way God good devil bad just he was clear on the basics you know but he also transubstantiation okay what substance can I just propose I think an altogether valid but maybe someone easier way to understand this distinction substance is the deepest and core reality of something when I speak of substance I mean the deepest and core reality of something what's something is that's the substantia right what stands under now what does it stand under it stands under what Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas call accidents just a fancy way of saying appearances that's why later we'll speak of the species same thing right species is like the word spectacle it means what you see so Thomas says in the great act of consecration the substance of the bread and wine that is to say their deepest and core reality change into the body and the blood of Jesus even as the appearances accidents species of the bread and wine remain so what are we talking about after the consecration not of bread and wine but we made a grammatical error a logical error if we refer them that way because their core reality has changed even as their appearances remain unchanged that's trans substantiation what I'm hoping we can all see here is that this is not some alien imposition but rather it's an attempt to articulate what was sensed from John 6 on the density and reality of what we're talking about here's a quick thing I'm gonna add here Thomas asked the question well isn't there deception involved in the Eucharist and it wouldn't this be unworthy of God to be deceiving us you say well heck it looks like bread and wine and tastes like bread and wine and reacts like bread and wine so isn't God deceiving us here his answer is no there's no deception whatsoever because the senses indeed take in what's there the accidents the species the sense are seeing correctly what's there but the senses have to be informed by a judgment shaped by faith now I'll get to some of this very end of my talk I'll try to explain how we can make sense of this but the point is the senses aren't deceived sometimes in my internet ministry when this issue comes up skeptics of the Catholic position will say look just take the Eucharistic take the host and put it under a microscope and see what you find out I mean has it changed into the into the flesh of a human being well anything that can be observed empirically is not what we're talking about here that's the level of the accidental or the of the appearance level the changes happen at the level of substance trans substantiation you know here's another image maybe think of the disciples in the road to Emmaus seeing the Risen Jesus taking him in listening to him indeed led by him revealing they know all the data about oh he's a prophet mighty weren't indeed and loved by the people the elders turned against him he was crucified some say he rose from the dead they're seeing everything but they're not getting it they're seeing what's there to be seen but they're not getting to the core reality of who he is it's only and of course how wonderful how wonderful that is in the breaking of the bread that they get they see who he is I can't want to talk about without quoting Bob Dylan Bob Dylan said all he believes are his eyes and his eyes they just tell him lies true sometimes if all we believe our eyes all we take in of reality that these species the appearance level often we don't get the core reality Eucharist operates there here's one to any Bob Dylan fans are super obscure a song by Bob Dylan but contains this little line I never could learn to drink that blood and call it wine think about that one for a second okay John six church fathers the church saying no to Baron Darius Thomas Aquinas giving a kind of Magisterial expression with his language of transubstantiation now go forward three more centuries to the sixteenth century the great century now of the Protestant Catholic debates right Martin Luther never liked the doctrine of transubstantiation didn't like Thomas Aquinas his approach to it Luther's fed the bread and wine our bread and wine after the consecration but the presence of Christ has been somehow added to them this is called more technically the IMP a nation or combination theory this means in the bread or with the bread right it somehow along with the bread has come the presence of Jesus that's why more conservative Lutheran's to this day will say oh no we we believe in the real presence they don't believe in transubstantiation do you know in this song it's not one of my favorite songs but in gatherers in there's a pearly Lutheran Eucharistic theology when the lion says the bread that is you remember that lion we're addressing the Lord and we save the bread that is you but see that's a Lutheran sensibility but she Catholics know we bought it that it's not bread it's changed it's not bread to which something has been added a significance has been added there's been a change of the most fundamental level think here along with Luther of Orleans vaguely one of the great of reforming figures vaguely goes right back to Baron Geary's it seems to me this Bingley says look we're dealing with with bread and wine which take on a symbolic significance and I think if you look at many of the Protestant churches to this day they'd follow more of that Bingley and Baron garyun approach to it so the Council of Trent gathers to address the issues raised by the Reformers and can I make a little firmer Ino in favor of the Council of Trent when I was coming of age you know vatican ii was the cool council and Trent was kind of the uncool council that's not helpful I spent many years teaching the council Trent when I was in the seminary work and is this marvelous text on originals Finn justification the sacraments the Eucharist and these are people who read the Reformers very carefully they knew Luther and Calvin and Zwingli and the other reformers and they really engaged them creatively so don't don't turn away from Trent well Trent gives us a very appointed teaching on the Eucharist and it's thumbed up in what they call 11 canons I'm just gonna look at two of them with you so these canons are kind of summary statements of the teaching of Trent on the Eucharist here's Canon one if anyone were to deny that the body blood soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ is contained very reality terror at substantiality terror truly really and substantially in the sack of the Most Holy Eucharist but is there only in sign or figure let him be condemned now I know we're post Vatika - we don't do things like let him be condemned but get to the part of the teaching I'll put in positive terms we are to say as Catholics that the body blood soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ is contained truly very really realities here at substantially substantiality in the sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist is not only in sign or figure now Flannery O'Connor was saying exactly that right if it's only a sign or figure that's not what we're talking about real true and substantial here's canon - if anyone were to say that in the most holy sacrament of the eucharist the substance of the bread and wine remains with the body and blood of our lord jesus christ and would deny the marvelous and unique conversion of the entire substance of the bread into the body and of the entire substance of the wine into the blood the species of bread and wine nevertheless remaining a conversion that the Catholic Church most aptly calls transubstantiation an optimist - let him be condemned so again this should be familiar from Thomas Aquinas I'll state it positively Catholics must hold that the entire substance of the bread and wine are changed they don't remain you see what are they going after here but Luther's imp a nation or combination theory as though something is added to the bread and wine no the bread and wine are no longer there substantially they've been changed and it's Trent says Optus he made its most aptly called transubstantiation this change now mind you can we come up with another word for it yeah sure if some very clever theologian can find a way to express this idea okay but Trent says opti seemed a most aptly it's called transubstantiation okay now one more step in this little historical survey and then I'll get to just an attempt to understand what this is about first century John six two two five the fathers 11th Baron garius 13th Thomas Aquinas 16th Council of Trent now twentieth century and st. Pope Paul the sixth I think we privileged by the way during the youth in it I was over there for that of the canonization of Paul was fixed was a great thrill to be part of remember now were in the middle of the twentieth century were actually during Vatican Council - there was a very prominent theory at a time that was trying to explain the Eucharist in a way that was more accessible to modern people theologians began to speak of trans significant and trans finalization rather than trans of stance iation and what do I mean trans signification the significance of the bread and wine change so now they come to signify the body of what of Jesus trans finalization means their purpose changes their purpose is not now just to nourish the body their purpose is to show forth the presence of Jesus trans finalisation trans signification two very prominent theories in the 1950s and 60s Paul the sixth right during the Vatican Council said I got to say something about the Eucharist and he writes a letter called mysterium fides comes out by the way in the fall of 1965 so just as the final session of Attica - is underway somehow the great Topa Vatican's who felt reaffirming the great teaching of the church on this score was of great importance let me give you just one little insight from this letter Pope Paul talks about the various modes of Christ's presence to the church so first of all nodding vigorously towards the conciliar documents themselves Paul says quote Christ is present in his church when she prays since it is he who praised for us and praise in us and to whom we pray as our God beautiful whenever we gather to pray Christ is among us Christ is present to us wherever two or three are gathered a mine in my name there am I in the midst of them right so beautiful Christ is present to the church when it trays secondly he's present in the church as she performs her works of mercy because it's Christ performing those works through the church terrific when the church does his great work with the poor it's Christ who's present Christ who's active yes indeed more to it he's present in the church as she preaches since the gospel is preached through the authority of Christ I used to tell my students that at Mundelein the preacher is not someone talking about Christ that's the teacher maybe professor the preacher is someone who's become so conformed to Christ that Christ can now preach through him right right authentic preaching is Christ himself addressing his people quoting again in a manner still more sublime Christ as president in his church as she offers in his name the sacrifice of the mass and as she administers the sacrament right when the priest baptizes or the minister baptizes it's Christ who baptizes when the bishop confirms is Christ confirming the anointing of us think it's Christ who heals quite right and it ends the mass the mass Christ acting Christ speaking Christ sharing his life good but now listen to Pope Paul however there is a still higher more sublime and indeed unsurpassable manner in which Christ is present to his church this is the Eucharistic presence listen l this presence is called real right the real presence by which it is not intended to exclude all other types of presence as if they could not be real - but because it is present in the fullest sense that is to say it is a substantial presence by which Christ the god man is wholly an entirely present thank you on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ good now think about this for a second everybody this is I think a very helpful framework think of someone maybe who has read an article that I wrote 20 years ago that person is gonna sense my presence but in a very sort of mitigated way right they'll send something of what I was thinking about 20 years ago now think of someone who's listening to an audio of me giving a talk well that's a more intense sense of my presence now someone watches a video and they see an image of me as I talk that's an even more intense and then there's someone that comes in person and sees me talk now they're sensing the real presence of me right Here I am well so Pope Paul is saying we have these levels of intensity of Christ's presence but the unsurpassable one is the Eucharistic presence really truly and substantially present okay now I'm gonna close but you know I see everybody I wanted to lead us and I hope it wasn't too tedious a journey but my purpose in that was to show the consistency of this teaching from John 6 to Paul 6 right from the first century to the 20 century the consistency of this teaching of the real presence okay how can we begin to make sense of it and again I'll keep this brief I promise here's a line from the council trend that I've always loved how does Christ become really present how the answer the verb or Oh trans Latin for by the power of the words by the power of the words words they can be descriptive so someone says to me tomorrow hey what was it like at the LA Congress always great I gave a talk in the arena there were you know I don't 5,000 people there and and this happened that happened my words there are just describing reality right reality is out there and it's impressing itself on me and now I'm describing it with my language however language can also be active and transformative right you're at a baseball game and the runner comes around second basins and slides headfirst into third and you're in the stands and you go safe well that's just you expressing your point of view right but there's an umpire in front of you on the field deputized by the National League who says you're out well like it or not that Runner is out right that language you're out was not just expressive or descriptive it was transformative it changed reality think of a parent who when you were a little kid said something that was so encouraging that it changed your whole life that reached into your heart in such a way that you started living your life differently because of that language that was not just descriptive language that was creative and transformative language right it changed your being or flip it around we've all had this someone said something so cruel to you so hurtful that it changed you in a negative way for years am i right that's not just descriptive that's deeply transformative language okay so our little language our little words can change reality they really can but now think of God's Word and V they're boring by the power of the words how does God make the world in the great symbolic language of the book of Genesis God makes the world through an act of speech let there be light and there was light let the earth come forth and so it happened let the let the land appear and so on so forth let that let a team with living things and so it happened God's Word is not descriptive it's creative God speaks the world into being now if you want to get a little more theologically exact about that it means that God imbues all the things with their intelligible structure God speaks them into being how's the prophet Isaiah expressed this as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return without watering the earth so my word goes forth from me and is not returned in vain God's Word changes it affects it makes happen now who's Jesus how important everybody to go back not to John's fix but John chapter 1 in the beginning was the word the word by which God makes all reality and that word becomes flesh therefore are we surprised that Jesus word has a transformative power how beautiful that story of the little girl get up the daughter of gyrus and that they they keep the Aramaic of Jesus I love that because they clearly remember that so vividly Holly takumi pal the otaku me little girl get up and she got up why why cuz what gods Fez is Lazarus come out and the dead man came out why because what God says is my son your sins are forgiven you how scandalous that was by the way right who's been think he is what God says is pick up your mat and walk and so what happened see everybody if Jesus is just one spiritual teacher among many he's one great religious figure okay fine fine but there's a thousand of those the claim of the church is he's not just one human figure among many but is the Word made flesh the very embodiment of God's transformative and creative word okay the night before he dies that Jesus took bread the Passover bread and said this is my body taking the cup later in the meal this is the chalice of my blood if that's a human being a great hero a philosopher or a social reformer saying it say all right great he's using symbolic talk but who's saying that the Word made flesh the word whose speech listen L constitutes reality the deepest level just as God spoke you into being so Jesus speaks his presence into being under the appearances of bread and wine Joseph Ratzinger put it this way the word ceases the bread and wine at the very root and core of their being and changes them into his body and blood here's an oozing moment now if priests in the room you know we can get too routine about the mass sometimes it's a very interesting thing that happens in the institution narratives the night before he died Jesus took bread etc right notice how we're in the third person we're describing what happened but then a transition takes place Jesus took bread broke it gave it to his disciples saying priest now listen we move in to his very identity at that point we now commence to speak in the first person saying take this all of you and eat of it for this is my body given for you we speak in Persona Christi we speak in the very words of Jesus which is why they have the transformative power that they have it was just you know I mean Robert Barron telling the story of Jesus from long ago who cares I mean who cares but now speaking the very words of Jesus as someone ordained to operate in Persona Christi that's why the church claims those words have the transformative power that they do okay I'm Rembrandt to a closed there's obviously you know an infinity more we could say about this great sacrament the the chief of the sacraments but maybe I'll give a final word to a philosopher I don't like but these something kind of cool namely a Ludwig Feuerbach the founder of modern atheism but 40 bucks said you are what you eat dementia east of us our East it's a little pun in German - the man is what he eats well that's true isn't it and the church fathers got this the church fathers that I mentioned got this in their bones if we are what we eat then as we eat and drink the body and blood of Jesus not just vague symbols of our own concoction if it's only that to hell with it but if we even drink the very body and blood of Jesus we become what we eat we become conformed to him we become Krista fide and that's why the doctrine of the real presence matters so much and why especially people in this room should make it a very high priority to teach it and teach it and teach it to the next generation listen god bless everybody thanks for listening today [Applause]

Channel: Bishop Robert Barron

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Id: UzCPu_lEhe8

Length: 72min 39sec (4359 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 27 2020