What does the Eucharist mean to me?

June 11, 2023

All three readings today, focus on the theme of bread - the manna bread received by the Israelites in the wilderness, and the living bread that Jesus brings to his disciples. And for Catholics this is one of the crucial texts that are applied to the Eucharist, and a proof that Jesus is “really” present in the bread and wine.  But as many may know, this issue of HOW Jesus is present in the Eucharist is one that has divided Christendom.  

The Catholic and the Orthodox Churches explain it by using the term, TRANSUBSTANTIATION, - which means the ‘transforming of the substance’ of the bread and wine.  Based on Greco-Roman thinking which of course influenced Christian theology significantly, all things were supposed to consist of a substance and many accidents.  So, for example, a human body just before dying and immediately after dying have exactly the same ‘accidents’ (attributes like skin, organs, etc) but the ‘substance’ (the “I”, as it were) of that human being has disappeared.  In the same way, Catholics are taught that the accidents of the bread and wine remain the same (they still have all the attributes like taste, look, etc of bread and wine) but the substance of the bread and wine has been transformed into Jesus himself - hence TRANS-SUBSTANTIATION.  Lutherans speak of CON-SUBSTANTIATION which effectively means that Jesus’s substance co-exists with the substance of the bread and wine, with of course no change in the ‘accidents’ of the bread and wine.   Other Christian denominations believe that the change is purely symbolic - and both the substance and accidents remain the same.  

While it may be important for the average Christian/Catholic to at least be aware of these different interpretations of the Eucharistic bread and wine, when I read these explanations, I am reminded of a story by Tony D’mello, called ‘The Guru’s Cat’ (in his book, The Song of the   Bird). However, I have adapted that story and share it below.

The guru was always trying to teach his disciples to be one with creation in its entirety, not just with human beings, - but also with animals and plants and even the earth and fire and water and air.

Now, it so happened that each time the guru sat for worship with his students, the ashram cat would come in, and this seemed to distract the disciples.  So the guru ordered them to tie the cat next to him when the ashram was at prayer.  After all, taught the guru, why should one of God’s creations be a distraction when we are trying to commune with God.  

After the guru died the cat continued to be tied at worship time. And when the cat expired, another cat was brought into the ashram to make sure that the guru’s orders were faithfully observed at worship time.

Centuries passed and learned treatises were written by the guru’s scholarly disciples on the liturgical significance of tying up a cat while worship is performed. But these scholarly discussions led to much dissension and gradually groups of disciples began to form separate denominations. There were those who believed that while the cat was only symbolic of all of creation, the presence of such a symbol (whether cat or dog or some other animal) was essential to the effectiveness of the ritual.  Others insisted that a live cat, and only a cat, was an essential element without which the ritual would not be effective or valid, while there were still others who felt that a statue of a cat was good enough in case there was no cat available, and so on and so forth.  

And so in a similar manner, I wonder whether we Christians have focussed on HOW the Eucharistic bread and wine can be considered as Jesus himself, rather than on the message that Jesus was trying to teach his disciples. Have we lost our way?  

For when I read the story of the Last Supper, I hear Jesus telling his disciples to remember to break bread and share with others, as a reminder to themselves to break themselves for others just like he would break his own body for others. And then I look at ‘practising’ Catholics who all ensure that they go for Mass and partake in the Eucharist (i.e. partake in the ritual of the breaking of bread) and with that action feel that they have fulfilled their essential duties as a Catholic.  But wasn’t that ‘ritual’, (whatever the reality or symbolism of Jesus’ presence about which we can argue endlessly), essentially meant to push us to break our bodies for others?  And isn’t the fulfilling of the ritual alone without the accompanying breaking of self really a travesty of what Jesus was trying to teach?  

Aren’t we then perhaps like the disciples of the guru who fought over the importance and meaning of having the cat present at their rituals - and forgot the essential lesson that the guru was trying to teach - about the need for them to be one with, and respect and safeguard the entirety of creation?

After all, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles,  the early Church did not get into these convoluted arguments about HOW Jesus is present, but “every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts”.  (Acts 2:46)

First Reading: Deuteronomy 8: 2-3, 14b-16a

Remember the long way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.  

Then do not forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid waste-land with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 10: 16-17

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

Gospel: John 6: 51-58

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live      forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, Very truly, I tell you unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”