This little catechism is a real gem. I highly recommend everything in it. It gives not only the teaching of the Church, but also many helpful and edifying details to drive the lesson home.
Keep the Faith!
THE HOLY EUCHARIST.
Institution and Nature of the Holy Eucharist.
Our Lord promised the Jews at Capharnaum that He would give them His flesh to eat and His blood to drink (John vi.).
After the miraculous multiplication of the loaves and fishes the people went in search of Christ, and found Him in the synagogue at Capharnaum. They wanted Him to give them bread again; but He promised to give them the bread of immortality. When they asked Him for it, He answered: “The bread that I will give is My flesh.” And when they refused to believe His words, He added: “Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood, hath everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the Last Day. For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed” (John vi. 52-56).
Our Lord fulfilled this promise at the Last Supper; He changed the bread into His body, and the wine into His blood and gave it to the apostles (Matt. xxvi. 28).
The apostles did not, however, see the body of Christ under the appearance of flesh, for the accidents of the bread remained, i.e., its color, taste, smell, weight. Nor did they see His blood otherwise than as wine, because the accidents of the wine were retained; the substance only was changed. So the shell of an egg remains the same while what is contained within it is changed into a living bird.
1. The body of Christ under the appearance of bread, and the blood of Christ under the appearance of wine, is called the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Here again we find the three essentials of a sacrament. The visible sign is the form of bread and of wine, the audible sign is the words of Christ; the invisible grace is the reception of the body and blood of Christ; the institution of this sacrament took place at the Last Supper. The visible form portrays the invisible grace: the bread prepared with water and the flour of wheat, and baked with fire, represents the body of Christ which was subjected to cruel suffering; the wine, the juice pressed from the grape, represents the blood of Christ, which flowed from the wounds of His sacred body.
The bread is unleavened, to denote the purity of Christ’s body; it is round in shape, because it conceals Him Who is without beginning and without end (Heb. vii. 3). Water is mixed with the wine, to signify the intimate union of the Godhead and manhood in His person. Bread and wine being the principal means of nourishment for the body, signify that the body and blood of Christ are the chief sustenance of the soul. This Sacrament is called the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, because the change of substance takes place upon the altar; it is called the Blessed Sacrament, because in it not only are the graces of the Sacrament received, but the Author and Giver of all grace; and it is besides the most exalted and sublime of all the sacraments. It is called the Bread of heaven, the Bread of angels, because Our Lord comes down from heaven to be our food, a food which makes men like to angels.
We speak of this Sacrament as the Sacrament of the Altar, because the priest, standing at the altar, does the same by Christ’s command which He Himself did at the Last Supper.
Our Lord commanded the apostles: “Do this for a commemoration of Me” (Luke xxii. 19). On this account the priest pronounces exactly the same words over the bread and wine which Our Lord uttered at the Last Supper, thereby changing the bread into the body, and the wine into the blood of Christ.
The Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar is reserved in the tabernacle in every parish church.
The tabernacle, which stands in the middle of the high altar, is made of wood, marble or brass, gilt inside, and lined with white silk curtains. In earlier times it was situated beside, not above the altar. The name of tabernacle, or tent, is given to it, from the sacred tent of the Israelites; and the mysterious cloud that accompanied them on their journey, was a type of the tabernacle of God in which He dwells with men (Apoc. xxi. 3). A lamp is kept burning continually in the sanctuary before the tabernacle, to indicate the place where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved, and also to symbolize the Light of the world. It is, besides, emblematic of the perpetual adoration the angels pay to the God present upon the altar. In the Temple at Jerusalem there was a candlestick with seven branches in which lights burned continually. Our divine Lord is thus ever present with mortal men; as He Himself declares: “I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world” (Matt, xxviii. 20). He is as truly present with us as with the saints in heaven; the only difference is that they behold Him face to face, whereas He is hidden from our sight beneath the eucharistic veils. The manna preserved in the ark was a type of the hidden God present in our tabernacles (Exod. xvi. 33).
2. The presence of the body and blood of Christ under the appearance of bread and wine is a mystery, because our feeble reason cannot comprehend it.
Our Lord conceals Himself under the appearance of bread and wine in order to test our faith, whether we believe His words rather than the testimony of our senses. If we saw what we believe, faith would have no merit. Moreover, if we were to behold Our Lord in all the majesty of His glorified body, radiant with light, we should be struck with alarm, and dazzled, as those are dazzled who look with the naked eye on the noonday sun. Even the apostles could not bear the unveiled brilliance of the glorified body at Our Lord’s transfiguration, for they fell to the ground upon their faces. And Moses covered his face, when God appeared to him in the burning bush. We cannot trust our senses even in natural things, for they often deceive us. For instance, an oar half in the water looks as if it were broken; objects seen from a distance appear quite small. Faith teaches us to believe that as the food we eat is assimilated to our body, as the moisture of the earth is changed into the sap of the vine and the juice of the grape, even so, and far more, by the power of His word, can Christ change bread into the substance of His body, and wine into His blood. He, Who by His almighty power can create things out of nothing, can surely effect a change in what already exists. He Who can cause the earth to bring forth bread, can change that bread into His own body. Many different heretics have contested the truth of this doctrine of the real presence of Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar, and endeavored to attach a different meaning to Our Lord’s words: “This is My body.” But in the course of centuries almighty God has worked many striking miracles in confirmation of the truth. Consecrated Hosts have remained unconsumed in the midst of fire; they have remained suspended in the air without support; the place where they were concealed has been disclosed by a bright light hovering around it; blood has flowed from the sacred Host during Mass; Our Lord has appeared in it in the form of an infant, etc.
It has been the firm belief of Christians in all ages that the bread and wine are converted into the body and blood of Christ.
St. Augustine says: “Our Lord held Himself in His own hands, when He gave His body to the disciples.” St. Cyril: “If Christ changed water into wine on one occasion. He can also change wine into His blood.” And when He asserts that it is His body, who shall dare to gainsay it? It was a calumny commonly brought against Christians by the heathen that they killed and ate the flesh of a child at their ceremonies.
Thank you for this .