Given today’s feast, I would ask all of you simply one question: Do you believe our bread and wine changes into the Body and Blood of Christ? This seems like a straight-forward question, but if you approach it with a false understanding of how faith works you could become quite upset with your answer.
You see, it would be a mistake to assume that faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is like a light switch… either the light is on or its off. Either you believe or you don’t believe. Rather, faith is an organic reality; it is something that grows. Faith is like a tiny mustard seed that under the right conditions can grow into something quite beautiful. Faith has to be nourished and cared for so its roots can spread out and its branches reach up.
Nobody goes to bed one night and simply wakes up believing in the Real Presence. We grow into this belief through our ongoing intentional relationship with Jesus Christ; a relationship forged by our intentional discipleship. The question to ask yourself then is not, “Do I believe the bread and wine changes into the Body and Blood of Christ?” The question to ask is, “Where on the continuum of belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist do I find myself?” I believe there are five thresholds of faith in the Real Presence.
Threshold #1: The surface threshold is that starting place where people just don’t believe it. Although they may profess that God creates everything from nothing; and that Jesus Christ is fully human and fully divine; and Jesus himself did miracles of healing and controlling nature; somehow THIS “thing” Jesus says he does is impossible. At this surface level faith is like the seed thrown on to the path, that if left there, gets eaten by the birds.
Threshold #2: The next threshold takes us to a deeper place of faith where one may believe something is going on when the priest consecrates the bread and wine, but it is only symbolic. The actions of Jesus at the Last Supper and the Church at this supper only symbolically represent a hunger or longing we have… Conveniently, only believing what we do at our altar is symbolic relieves me of any need to respond. Acknowledgement that we have hungers or longings is all that is needed, not follow through or action on my part. This can become a comfortable place to stay.
Threshold #3: Yet, should my faith be nurtured, should a relationship with Jesus Christ through prayer, praise, and service be pursued, I can grow into the next threshold of belief where I recognize that the bread and wine do change. It becomes understandable to me that while keeping the characteristics of taste, texture, color, smell, and all the other “accidentals” of bread and wine (to use the philosophy terms), their “substance” (the bread’s “breadness" and the wine’s “wineness”) are replaced by God the Father with His Son Jesus. This “transubstantiation” cannot be scientifically proven; I can still say “no” to believing it which gives value to my “yes.” But should I say “yes” (should we say, “Amen”) one enters a depth of belief where we encounter our Savior in bread changed into his Body and wine changed into his sacrificial Blood.
Now some would believe that this is the deepest level of belief, that once we get here we are done. But in truth we are only halfway there. There is more…
Threshold #4: If our faith in Real Presence is to stay alive we must pass through the next threshold where I come to understand the deep love with which Jesus comes to me in communion. “For on the night he was betrayed…” As Jesus teaches it is conceivable that someone would lay down his life for a friend, but when one lays down his life for an enemy! This is deep love! At this fourth threshold of belief I come to know the compassionate God who chose to become one like me, took on my frailties and sin, suffered and died and then rose just so I could have a chance to live eternally with God in heaven. More than just believing that the bread and wine change, at this threshold I understand in my bones why.
Threshold #5: Finally, if my faith grows its deepest roots and I both understand that the bread and wine change, and why it changes, then I can get to a place where in faith I want to respond to God’s love in kind. I want to die to self and live for others. I want to so imitate Christ that his passion becomes my passion, his foot washing becomes my foot washing, his mission becomes my mission, his love becomes my love. At this fullest level of belief in Real Presence I become Eucharist for others just as Jesus became Eucharist for me. When our faith grows to the point that I will die to myself so as to live for my enemy, then faith the the Real Presence has reached its core, its essence.
Our faith journey is a quest; a quest to come to love as Jesus loved. It is a quest that depends on the intentionality we each, in our freedom, bring to our relationship with Jesus Christ. It is a quest we take together from our altar into our relationships and then into our world.
Where on the continuum of belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist do you find yourself today? Where do you want to be?
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