An excerpt from The Joy of Being Catholic by Mitch Finley:
There seems to be considerable misunderstanding of the eucharist among Catholics in our time. To say that the eucharistic bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ is not a mere analogy or metaphor. The Catechism of the Catholic Church could not be more clear: “At the heart of the eucharistic celebration are the bread and wine that, by the word of Christ and the invocation of the Holy Spirit, become Christ’s Body and Blood. . . . The signs of bread and wine become, in a way surpassing understanding, the Body and Blood of Christ. . .” (No. 1333).
This is the ancient faith of the church, the faith of the followers of Christ since the earliest days of the Christian community. In his First Letter to the Corinthians, which scholars date to about A.D. 54, St. Paul reminds his readers: “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?” (10:16).
We should not be too hard on Catholics who do not believe that the eucharistic bread and wine become the actual “body and blood, soul and divinity” of Christ. Perhaps not only they, but all of us, are not as well informed about the eucharist as we could be. Perhaps Catholics who do not accept the conventional description of the eucharist simply want to be honest, and the conventional formula no longer “works” for them. Perhaps those of us who do accept the conventional formula about the bread and wine becoming the “body and blood” of Christ sometimes wonder what this actually means. As eucharistic ministers, it is especially important for us to seek as complete and accurate an understanding of the eucharist as we can.
It is possible that by simply repeating the phrase “body and blood” over and over, insisting that this is what the bread and wine become, we have lost touch with the deeper truth of the eucharist. Like all religious language, “body and blood of Christ” is an attempt to put into human words a mystery the human intellect can never fully grasp. Perhaps it will be helpful if we take two steps back, look at what we are talking about, and see if we can spark some new life in the old words.
Gradually, we may find ourselves faced with a Great Mystery, and appropriately so. It is important to understand that “body and blood” is a Semitic phrase that means “the whole person.” When we say that the bread and wine of the Mass become the “body and blood” of Christ, we say that the bread and wine become the “whole person” of Christ. Catholicism insists that following the consecration the whole person of Christ is present in both the bread and the wine. Only a sacramental simple-mindedness will view the bread as Christ’s body, the wine as his blood, and never the twain shall meet.
This is why for many generations Catholics received Communion only in the form of bread while the priest alone drank from the chalice. This is why, even today, in certain instances a person may receive Communion only from the cup--someone whose illness prevents him or her from swallowing a consecrated host, for example. Also, it is still not unusual for many Catholics to receive only the host at Communion, even when the consecrated wine is available. In both cases, though receiving only the bread, or only the wine, the person really and truly receives the “whole person” of Christ--”body and blood, soul and divinity”--in Communion.
Perhaps those who say they do not believe that the bread and wine become the “body and blood” of Christ are trying to say that they no longer find meaning in the phrase “body and blood.” Perhaps they think they have no choice but to take this phrase literally, in a physical sense that borders on the gruesome. Our era has been so heavily shaped by the human sciences, including psychology, that perhaps the phrase “whole person” will make more sense, and be more acceptable, to more people. If we explain that “body and blood” means “whole person,” perhaps that will help clarify the meaning of the eucharistic presence of Christ.
We need to remind ourselves, as well, that in the eucharist we do not receive the historical, flesh-and-blood Jesus. Continually repeating the “body and blood” phrase, without explanation, may not only mislead some people, it may also reinforce the misconception that the Christ we receive in Communion, in the consecrated bread and wine, is Jesus as he walked the dusty roads of Palestine, or Jesus as he hung on the cross. This simply is not true.
The Christ we receive in the eucharist is, indeed, the one who lived, taught, and died in first-century Palestine. But the Christ we receive in the consecrated bread and wine is much more than that. The Christ we receive is the risen Christ who is with us now, alive and active in the church and in the world. It is the “body and blood, soul and divinity,” the “whole person” of the risen Christ that we receive in Holy Communion.
With this realization we find ourselves smack in the middle of an overwhelmingly profound mystery, an experience of transcendent holiness, a sacred event of awesome dimensions. When we receive Communion, and when we as eucharistic ministers give Communion to others, if we have even an inkling of what we are about, we may be inclined to fall on our faces in wonder and worship.
