The Unauthorized Homily

By Bill Dunn

A commentary on the Gospel reading from the Sunday Lectionary

(Scripture readings for Sunday, June 18th: Exodus 24:3-8; Hebrews 9:11-15; Mark 14:12-16, 22-26)

THE REAL PRESENCE OF THE BODY AND BLOOD

This week we celebrate the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. It’s been while since I’ve ticked off my Evangelical Protestant friends, so this seemed like as good a time as any to do it again.

In the gospel reading this week, Jesus instituted the sacrament of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. He took some bread, broke it, gave it to His disciples and said, “Take it; this is my body.” (Notice He did not say, “This symbolizes my body,” or “This represents my body.” He said, “This IS my body.”)

Then he took a cup filled with wine, gave it to them and said, “This is my blood…which will be shed for many.”

Earlier in His ministry, as recorded in John chapter 6, Jesus laid the groundwork for the sacrament He instituted at the Last Supper. While teaching a large crowd He 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. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.”

Many of my Evangelical friends tell me that Jesus was just speaking figuratively in John 6 and at the Last Supper. Jesus told us to “do this in remembrance of me,” so the bread and wine ritual is merely a remembrance ceremony and nothing more. Some of my Evangelical friends further try to explain to me that the Catholic Church invented the whole “real presence” thing out of the clear blue sky during the Middle Ages, over a thousand years after the Last Supper occurred.

They point out that the word used by Catholics to describe this so-called miracle, “transubstantiation,” had never been used before the year 1215 A.D. This is proof, they tell me, that the claim that bread and wine actually turns into the body and blood, soul and divinity of Christ is nothing more than an absurd Catholic invention.

Well, if that’s the case, why did St. Paul, writing way back in the 1st century, say this about the practice of celebrating the Lord’s Supper: “Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord”? How can someone sin against the Lord’s body and blood if it’s just plain old bread and wine? If it’s just a symbolic remembrance ceremony?

St. Paul then added, “For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.” If it’s just symbolic, what is Paul talking about when he says “recognizing the body of the Lord”?

Paul’s words are quite strange—if it’s just a figurative ritual. His words, however, make perfectly good sense—if Jesus’ body and blood truly become present during this ceremony.

(By the way, just in case you suspect I’m using some weird translation of Scripture where Paul’s word have been twisted toward a Catholic interpretation, these quotations from 1st Corinthians, chapter 11, are taken from the New International Version of the Bible. The NIV is one of the most popular Evangelical translations used in America. Personally, I like it a lot and read it often.)

And if the Catholic Church invented the concept of the Real Presence in the 13th century, why did the following early Christian leaders make the following statements:

• “[Heretics] abstain from the Eucharist…because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the Flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ.” – St. Ignatius of Antioch, 110 A.D.
   
• “We call this food Eucharist…not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these.…the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by Him…is both the Flesh and the Blood of that incarnated Jesus.” – St. Justin Martyr, 150 A.D.
   
• “[Jesus] has declared the cup, a part of creation, to be His own Blood…and the bread, a part of creation, He has established as His own Body.” – St. Irenaeus, 195 A.D.
   
• “Do not, therefore, regard the bread and wine as simply that; for they are, according to the Master’s declaration, the Body and Blood of Christ. Even though the senses suggest to you the other, let faith make you firm.” – St. Cyril of Jerusalem, 350 A.D.

I find it interesting that during all the recent “Da Vinci Code” hullabaloo, my Evangelical friends have used a very logical argument to refute one of author Dan Brown’s most offensive claims: that Jesus was declared to be divine in the year 325 A.D., which means no one considered Him to be divine until that time.

There is a wealth of historical evidence—including the New Testament documents, which were written during the 1st century; early church writings; and even secular historical records—proving beyond a doubt that from the very start Christians truly believed that Jesus was divine and worshipped Him as such. It is simply ludicrous to propose that Jesus’ divinity was a new concept that emerged three centuries after the fact.

My Evangelical friends correctly point out that in the early 4th century, at the Council of Nicea, the Christian leaders officially defined the doctrine of Jesus’ divinity, prompted in large part by heretical claims to the contrary. Just because they officially defined in the 4th century a long-standing belief does not at all mean they “invented” the idea at that point in time.

Well, the same logical argument applies with regard to the Eucharist. As the above quotes from the early church fathers clearly show, the concept of Jesus’ body and blood truly being present in the elements of bread and wine was believed and practiced from the very beginning. At the Fourth Lateran Council in the year 1215 A.D.—again, prompted in large part by heretical claims to the contrary—the Christian leaders officially defined a long-standing belief. In the process, they employed for the first time a very descriptive word: transubstantiation.

Just because the Church used a new descriptive word for the first time does not at all mean they “invented” the idea. I hate to say it, but the claim by my Evangelical friends that the Catholic Church “invented” the concept of the Real Presence in the 13th century makes about as much sense as Dan Brown’s claim that the Emperor Constantine “invented” the concept of Jesus’ divinity in the year 325 A.D.

OK, I suspect my friends are sufficiently ticked off at this point. Anyway, for my fellow Catholics, I urge you to contemplate the awesome mystery of the Eucharist this week. What a special gift the Lord gives us: His own body and blood!

And for my Evangelical friends (and I’m not using that term sarcastically, I do have a lot of dear brothers and sisters in Christ who are Evangelicals), I urge you to think about some of the points I’ve made here. Do not be content to think that the history of Christianity began with Martin Luther in the 16th century. (Martin Luther, by the way, believed in the Real Presence.) Christianity is 2,000 years old, and many key doctrines, such as the divinity of Christ and the Real Presence in the Eucharist, were believed and practiced from the very beginning.

©2006