I the privilege last week of speaking at
the Atlanta Eucharistic Congress which
is one of the really great events in the
Catholic year about 30,000 people
descend upon this arena outside the
Atlanta Airport and the whole purpose is
to honor the Eucharist so they hear
talks about the Eucharist and the the
Congress begins in an extraordinary way
this giant arena in the course of an
hour is gradually filled by thousands
and thousands of people who march in
they represent the various parishes and
institutions of the archdiocese and they
come behind their banners and it takes
as I say a full hour to fill the place
and there's festive music gospel music
all sorts of things going on and then
toward the end some Aztec dancers came
in and a lot of Hispanics in the Atlanta
Catholic Church and they were dancing
and then you hear the Aztec drums and
then the the music fall silent and all
you hear the drums and then comes
Archbishop Gregory Wilton Gregory who is
carrying the host this huge host at a
large monstrance and he comes up then to
the altar he places the Eucharist there
then the drums fall silent and everyone
just for a few minutes silently worships
the bus's sacrament the inclusion of
that we sang one of the classic
Eucharistic hymns the church that go
back to the Middle Ages it was a very
moving very powerful beginning to this
Eucharistic Congress and it struck me as
a particularly striking way to represent
the church's belief in the real presence
we say the Eucharist is not simply a
sign or a symbol it is Jesus really
truly and substantially present under
the Eucharistic signs of bread and wine
well how can we begin to explain this
doctrine which can strike a lot of
people as is odd I go back to the sixth
chapter of John's Gospel that's still
breathtaking discourse of Jesus
they're in the Capernaum synagogue I was
privileged a couple years ago when we
were filming for our Catholicism series
to give a little presentation right
there
it's the ruins of a synagogue that goes
not quite back to Jesus time but not
long after he gives a discourse there
and the people had come because of the
multiplication of the loaves and fishes
me they were fascinated by Jesus he says
to them don't search for bread that
perishes but look for the bread that
lasts unto eternal life he specifies
then I myself and the Living bread come
down from heaven eat my flesh and drink
my blood at which point the crowd box is
very important now to understand why for
a first century Jew it's hard to imagine
something more theologically problematic
and frankly more disgusting than what
Jesus just said there because sprinkled
throughout the Old Testament are all
sorts of prohibitions against the eating
of animals flesh with its blood see his
blood was seen as life it belonged to
God and so it was strictly forbidden for
Jew to eat flesh with blood well here's
Jesus now speaking to a Jewish audience
and he suggests not just eating animals
flesh with his blood but his own human
flesh
with blood so you see why John tells us
that the crowd just bought they quarrel
then said well how could he possibly
give us his flesh to eat so Jesus here
is given every opportunity to explain
his words well it's a metaphor as for
example he does with Nicodemus remember
he says Nicodemus unless you're born
again you know you cannot have eternal
life and Nicodemus as well how can I go
back in my mother's womb and Jesus don't
say oh that's what you need to do is go
back in your mom's womb he he clarifies
no he means this in a spiritual way so
here he's given the opportunity to
present this in a metaphorical or
symbolic way instead he intensifies his
language he says amen amen I say to you
that's of course biblical code for what
I'm saying is
really important amen amen I say to you
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of
Man and drink his blood you have no life
within you and he intensifies by saying
my flesh is real food my blood is real
drink and the the greek verb behind
unless you eat the flesh of the son of
man is not as you'd expect the verb
again which means to eat in the normal
human sense the way human beings would
eat the verb used there is tro gain and
tro gain has the sense of knowing or or
munching the way an animal eats so
they're blocking at the realism of his
language he intensifies it unless you
know on the flesh of the son of man and
drink his blood you have no life within
you that is the biblical ground it seems
to me to this ancient Catholic belief
that Christ is really truly and
substantially present under the forms of
bread and wine now if you're still
puzzled wondering well how could this be
consider the power of words for a second
our words our puny human words can be
enormous ly powerful words can describe
so I can describe what's going on in
this room but words can also affect
reality and not just describe it if a
beloved figure a coach or teacher or
parent says something to you you know
that praises you or encourages you that
can change your whole life we can all go
back to the power of words spoken by
someone that that has enormous authority
for us or flip it around someone
critiques you someone attacks you
someone undermines your confidence that
can change your whole life it can I know
eighty-five year olds who are still
reeling from the effects of language
that was spoken than when they were kids
right so our words can change people's
attitudes hearts or something as simple
as a policeman saying you're under
arrest
right now if I said to you you're under
arrest
I'd be telling you a joke or you think I
lost my mind and we have no effect but
if a properly deputized officer of the
law says to you you're under arrest
whether you like it or not you are in
fact under arrest because his words have
the authority to change reality or like
the umpire in a baseball game you're out
well whether you like it or not the
umpires saying you're out means you're
out and the course the game changes okay
so our little words cannot just describe
but they can actually change reality now
think about the Divine Word the Bible
says that God speaks the word into being
now don't literal eyes that but it's
getting in a very important theological
point that God says let there be light
and there was light God says let the
earth come forth and the earth came
forth meaning that God doesn't just
describe things God makes things by his
word by his intelligent expression now
one more step who is Jesus not just one
teacher among many not just one more in
a long line of prophets if that's all he
were then all he could do is engage in
the kind of transformative speech that
we engage in but the claim of the church
is the central claim of the New
Testament is that Jesus is the Word made
flesh that means the same word by which
God makes the universe now becomes
personally present in Jesus which is why
in the Gospels consistently what Jesus
says is right little girl get up he says
to the the daughter of gyruss who had
died how beautiful the Gospels of
remember the Aramaic holly thought cool
me he says to her little girl get up and
by God she got up because the words
aren't just describing they're affecting
reality Lazarus come out and the dead
man came out because the word of Jesus
transforms reality my son your sins are
forgiven and by god they're forgiven
because of the one who speaks now the
night before he died
Jesus sat down at a Passover supper he
took the ordinary unleavened bread of
the Passover meal but he said over it
take this all of you and eat it this is
my body then over the cup of blessing
which was the cup of wine after the
Passover meal he said take this all of
you and drink from it this is the cup of
My Blood now if I said something like
that
I could be engaging in at best sort of
high poetic or metaphorical speech you
know this represents my life or this
represents my love for your whatever but
see when Jesus says it because of who he
is his words have the power to transform
reality at the most fundamental level
and that's the claim of the church that
the substance of the bread and wine the
deepest reality of the bread and wine
change into the substance of the body
and blood of Jesus
that's the church's claim the ground of
it is John chapter 6 the explanation of
it I think is the power of the Divine
Word President Jesus know when the
priest at Mass affects the Eucharistic
change what's going on he's not speaking
his own puny words but rather at the
consecration the priest speaks in
Persona Christi in the very person of
Christ he recounts what Jesus did but
then he moves into that first person
discourse take this all of you and eat
it this is my body he speaks with the
full authority of Christ which is why
his words have the power to change the
elements and see that's why for
Catholics and we saw it in Atlanta
that's why for Catholics the only proper
response when you're in the presence of
those transformed elements is to bow
down an abortion