When I was a young altar server, I once overheard two very different comments about the Eucharist. One person asked, "Is Father
distributing the bread or the wine?" Later, another asked, "Can you go get Jesus from the tabernacle?" Same parish, same Mass, but
two very different ways of speaking. I pondered: So, is it bread that we pretend is Jesus? Or is Jesus a tiny white thing in a box? I was
utterly confused.
This Feast of Corpus Christi is an excellent time to think about how we should speak about the Eucharist. In today's Gospel, Jesus
declares: "My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink." (John 6:55) His words scandalized his listeners, who feared cannibalism,
and even today puzzle many, who reduce them to metaphor. Both miss the truth.
The Church gives us better words that honor Jesus' words in the Gospel. After the consecration, we do not call it "bread" or "wine."
Nor do we say, "a piece of Jesus" or even "Jesus." We say: the Eucharist. We say: the Body and Blood of Christ. We say: the Real
Presence. We say: the Most Blessed Sacrament. These words safeguard the astonishing reality that Christ himself is truly present, whole and entire, under the appearances of bread and wine.
If we speak well about the Eucharist, we will think more clearly and believe more deeply. And if we believe more deeply, we will adore
more truly the On
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