Refection on John 6:60-69

On the Memorial of Saint Athanasius 

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Saturday, May 2, 2020

Beloved in Christ, on this day that we celebrate the memorial of St. Athanasius and that I celebrate my birthday, today’s Gospel tells us that many disciples of Jesus left him because he had said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you do not have life within you.” They left because what Jesus said was difficult and tough to accept. In fact before leaving, they said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” 

As I said in my previous homily, the gift of the Eucharist, the precious Body and Blood of Jesus, the finest Bread of life, the Source and Summit of the Christian life and ministry, the Food for the journey, the Medicine of healing, from the onset has been a source of heated debate, controversy and contention. From the time of Jesus himself, all through the centuries and till date, Christians have continued to fight over it. Some see the Eucharist as a symbolic presence, a sign of Jesus. Recent polls show a widespread lack of understanding of the Eucharist. The Pew study, issued on August 5, 2019, showed that 69% percent of all self-identified Catholics said they do not believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, but believe  instead that the bread and wine are symbols of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. It is only 31% who believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist— that is, transubstantiation. As shocking as this may be, the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist has always divided believers, just as Jesus himself divided people: “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”  

Brothers and sisters, the Eucharist is not a symbol. It is not a sign. It is Jesus of Nazareth. The same Jesus who was born by Mary, who went about doing good, who was strongly opposed by the Pharisees and chief priests, the same Jesus who healed the sick, raised the dead, preached powerfully God’s love and plan for the human race, the same Jesus who was crucified, who died and is now risen is supremely present in the Eucharist. He is personally and actively present in what we receive at Mass. During consecration, the substance of the bread and wine changes and become the Body and Blood of the Lord. Believe this message not merely because I am saying it but because Jesus said so. As he laid out this new teaching, he was given multiple opportunities to pull back, to redefine, and say that he was speaking in a symbolic and metaphorical manner. Rather than do that, he doubled down. First, he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven” (Jn. 6:41). When the Jews complained that he said he came down from heaven, he insisted, “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (Jn. 6:47-51). Secondly, after the Jews quarreled furiously among themselves and said, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (Jn. 6:52), Jesus did not back away, rather he obstinately declared, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you” (Jn. 6:53). The Eucharist is the means by which we are Christified. In both body and soul, in both mind and heart, we are Christified by the Eucharist. Our lowly body is Christified and is prepared for heaven by our contact with the Reality of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist. If Jesus spoke symbolically, he would have said so. If what he meant in these passages I have lifted from Gospel was to be understood in a metaphorical sense, he would clarified himself. If the Eucharist were a mere sign or symbol of his Body and Blood, he would have explained it. When many of his disciples decided to leave him and return to their former way of life, he would have called them back and said something like, “The bread and wine I will give you will be signs and symbols of my Body and Blood.” But that is not what he said. 

You know, In the 11th century, there was a man named Berengarius of Tours in France. He was a monk and theologian. He was the head of the prominent Cathedral School of Tours. It was a great Cathedral School, which like other great Cathedral schools like Turin, Paris etc. were the root of most medieval universities. Like many of his medieval intellectual colleagues, Berengarius was interested in language, logic, and rhetoric. Much later, great figures like St. Thomas Aquinas will focus on these. Back then, there was a hyper concern on getting the language right. As people are reflecting intellectually on the great implications of faith, they wanted to make clear distinctions and clarifications. So, about the Eucharist, Berengarius wanted to be clear it. And this is what he said, “There is a difference 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 later must be a sort of symbol or figure of the former.”  

Berengarius is not a household name; however, what  69% of Catholics in the US believe about the Eucharist is a Berengarian theology of the Eucharist. What they express in the Pew research is a Berengarian understanding of the Eucharist that: there is the Body of Jesus who was crucified, died, risen from dead, and is now ascended into heaven; and then there is this Body that appears Eucharistically, and it is best understood as a symbol, a sign, or a figure of the heavenly Body of Jesus. This is clear. Isn’t it? Berengarian claim is that there is an essential difference between the historical body of Jesus, born of the Virgin and now reigning in heaven, and the “body” that appears sacramentally on the altar. He used the words of St. Paul, “Even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, henceforth we know him no more” (2 Cor. 5:16) to justify his position. Going further Berengarius averred, “the words of the Apostle stood as a refutation of anyone who says that the empirical bread consecrated on the altar is, after the consecration, truly the body of Christ that exists above.” Continuing he said that when the priest at Mass says, “hoc est enim corpus meum” (this indeed is my body,” the hoc (this) in question remains the bread, but a spiritual significance or power is added to it, making it an efficacious sign of the body of Christ. With that, one can say that the bread and wine are truly the body and blood of Christ in the sense that the risen Christ is offered spiritually to the recipient through them. 

The Berengarian theology of the Eucharist is an interesting one, but his teaching was immediately met with strong oppositions. One of his most articulate critics was Lanfranc of Bec, a Benedictine abbot and a mentor to St. Anselm of Canterbury. Relying on the Eucharistic Discourse of John 6 and on the consistent witness of the Church Fathers, Lanfranc insisted that Berengarius teaching was far too subjectivistic, far too casual about the reality of the Eucharistic change. In 1059, the Pope at the time, Nicolas II called a synod. At the end of the deliberations, the theology of Berengarius was condemned, and he was also asked to sign a recantation of his position and approval to burn his books. As part of his recantation, he swore an oat that says, “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.” The synod fathers recognized that at the consecration a dramatic and thorough change do occur and that it would be incorrect to refer to the elements afterwards as “bread and wine.” They also insisted that there is something “more” in the Eucharist than in the other sacraments. Berengarius symbolic explanation of the Eucharist did not account sufficiently for this radically objective transformation. His teaching on the Eucharist is at best a valid account of the presence of Jesus in the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, last anointing etc. in which a spiritual power is added to a physical element. 

Sisters and brothers, after consecration, what are we truly talking about? As we look at the elements on the altar, what are we talking about? After consecration, we are not talking about bread and wine. What we receive at Mass is not bread and wine but the true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Berengarius would say it is bread and wine. But the Church says it is Jesus’ true Body and Blood. After consecration, the bread and wine change at levels so fundamental that it is improper to call them bread and wine. Believe this with all your heart. From the time Jesus first laid out this teaching in all of its power, many of his disciples left him. Over the years and still today, many are still leaving the Lord. Some are physically leaving— meaning that they no longer come to church, no longer come to Mass. If only they knew and believed that at Mass and during the reception of the Eucharist, they meet and encounter Jesus himself, they will not leave. Some others are spiritually leaving— meaning that although they still come to Mass and receive the Eucharist, nevertheless, they do not believe in the Real Presence of the Lord. This group of Catholics honor the Lord with their lips but their hearts are far away from him. Scripture tells us that without faith, it is impossible to please God. If we refuse to believe that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist, we undermine his presence in our lives even though we receive the Eucharist. Throughout his ministry, Jesus taught and invited people to believe in him. In the Eucharistic Discourse of John 6, he urged his listeners time and time again to believe in him; to believe that he is the one that God has sent, that whoever believes in him will never thirst, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life. Jesus says that, “…whoever believes has eternal life” (Jn. 6:47). If whoever believes has eternal life, that shows us that whoever does not believe will not have eternal life. If that is true, that in itself is a walking away from the Lord of life. But let us with St. Peter say, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God” (Jn. 6:68-69).