Last weekend we had the “Mega Mass” here in San Diego, where the Bishop celebrated the Eucharistic liturgy with approximately 600 Young Adults. Since I now only occasionally go to a Roman Rite Mass, I did find it a little strange. Among the things which now seem a little alien to me, in particular, is receiving the Eucharist from someone other than a priest.
Although I didn’t receive Communion from a priest, I received from the next best thing, the SWAT commando of Catholics, my friend Artzell. Art has a way of bringing out the uber-Catholic in me. The first time we met, we ended up having a huge argument as to which of us had the more powerful patron Saint and which of us most desired martyrdom 🙂
So anyway, to mark the occasion, I created a meme parodying the Dos Equis adverts:
The third chapter of Dr. Barber’s book he discusses the relationship between the Book of Revelation and the Catholic Liturgy. It is a brief review of the the material covered in another excellent book by Dr. Hahn’s book, The Lamb’s Supper.
Familiar Imagery & Structure
Dr. Barber begins by noting that no other apocalyptic book of antiquity relies quite so heavily on liturgical imagery as the Book of Revelation. In John’s book we find many things extremely familiar to a Catholic who attends Mass: Sunday worship, priests, vestments, incense, chalices, angels, saints etc.
In fact, the book of Revelation has profoundly impacted Christian liturgy and architecture throughout the centuries. For example, the celebrant’s chair is symbolic of the throne of God, and the surrounding chairs like those of the “elders” (Revelation 4:4).
This final book of the Bible is even divided into three parts which each have parallels with the sequence of the Catholic liturgy:
1. Penitential Rite
The early section of Revelation concerns seven letters which call the Church to repentance.
2. Liturgy of the Word
Later, a book is opened which brings about judgement.
3. Liturgy of the Eucharist
The book ends with the Church being united to Christ in the supper of the Lamb.
But why use liturgical imagery? Revelation uses liturgical imagery because the Eucharistic celebration is the way the Lord comes to His Church. Dr. Barber points out that the Greek word “parousia” which is used to refer to the Lord’s “coming” actually has the primary meaning of “presence”. Upon hearing this fact, every Catholic immediately thinks of the Eucharist and Jesus’ real presence in the Sacrament.
“Every Eucharist is Parousia, the Lord’s coming” – Cardinal Ratzinger
Just in case you hadn’t heard, this Sunday on the Feast of Corpus Christi (June 2nd), Pope Francis will be presiding over an hour of Eucharistic Adoration in St. Peter’s and is inviting all Catholics around the world to do the same.
A few months ago we had “Mega Adoration” in San Diego when several hundred young adults attended Adoration together in one of San Diego’s larger churches. Clearly Pope Francis heard about this and decided to take it to the next level… 😉
St. Francis will be doing this at 5pm (Rome time), which works out at 4pm in England and in the USA it’ll be 11am on the East Coast and 8am on the West Coast.
So, join the Facebook Event, find yourself a chapel or church and go pray!
Today I’d like to talk a little bit about Jesus’ Real Presence in the Eucharist.
A little a while ago I was conversing via email with a non-Catholic called Gerry. We spoke briefly about the Eucharist and he graciously agreed to allow me to post some of our conversation here. Here’s what he said:
“And the mother of it all, in my opinion, is the Eucharist. Transubstantiation. Utterly abominable. Christ was a “victim” once and it was sufficient forever!
The mass is as unholy as a thing can be. We eat His flesh and drink His blood in the spiritual sense, not literal. And to think they even bow down and worship and kiss that cracker because it is (supposedly) Christ in the flesh. And God won’t judge these abominations?!” – Gerry, Email #2
I’m not going to offer a complete defense of the Eucharist here, many other more capable than I have done that already. Instead, today I’d just like to ask a couple of questions concerning one Scripture passage and then on Friday to take a brief look at Christian history.
Below is part of the “Bread of Life” discourse given by Jesus in John’s Gospel:
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh….Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. – John 6:51-54
There are two main questions I’d like to raise here:
1. How did Jesus’ audience understand Him?
After giving this sermon, many people who had been following Jesus left Him. Why did they leave? It’s because they took Him at His word! They believed that He was saying that they had to actually eat His flesh and drink His blood.They took his words literally!
Souls were lost that day because they assumed Jesus wasn’t speaking metaphorically. This begs the question: if Jesus was speaking figuratively, why did He allow so many to leave Him over a something that was just a misunderstanding? Would God really be that cruel?
2. What would He have had to say if He wanted to speak literally?
When speaking with people who interpret John 6 figuratively, I propose the following thought experiment. Firstly, I assume that they are correct in their interpretation of John 6. Jesus was speaking figuratively. However, I then offer the following challenge: if you wanted to go back and alter John 6 to make Jesus speak literally about His flesh, what would you change? Or, put another way, if Jesus had wanted to speak of his flesh literally, what could He have said to convince you that he was speaking literally and not figuratively? I mean, how could His language have been any more extreme than “my flesh is real food“?
There is no Bible study in the world that is good enough or stimulating enough or nutritious enough to substitute for the very Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. There’s no song moving enough to replace the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.
Upon falling in love with the chorus’ harmonies, I’ve pretty much had this song on a continuous loop for the last few days. Since Lent is a time for renewed dedication to prayer, and this song makes me want to go do a Holy Hour, I figured that I should post it now! Well, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it… 😉
I was going to post this video after my Lenten