The Eucharist is the real, authentic Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Before the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, they are only simple bread and wine. However, in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, at the moment of consecration, the bread and wine are transformed into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. The appearances of ordinary bread and wine remain, but their essence is Jesus Christ. This change is accomplished at every Mass. Christ is not made to suffer again at every Mass, for His Passion happened once and will only happen once – it is infinitely sufficient. However, the Mass is the re-presentation (not representation) or presenting once again of Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross, only in an “unbloodied” manner, but no less real, for us to physically and spiritually partake in. An imperfect analogy of the Eucharist is petrified wood. It appears to be wood, but its substance is rock. Its substance was once wood, but is now rock, even though it still appears to be wood.
The matter of the Most Holy Sacrament is bread and wine, the form are the words of institution (Hoc Est Enim Corpus Meum (“This is My Body”) and Hic Est Enim Calix Sanguinis Mei (“This is the Chalice of My Blood”), and the minister is a priest. The priest, through the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, stands in persona Christi (in the Person of Christ) and so by the priest’s actions God truly makes Himself physically present for us to receive.
We know the Eucharist is not a sham because Christ said the bread and wine were His true flesh and blood. At the Last Supper, taking bread, He said to His disciples: “Take, eat; this is my body” (Mt 26:26). He then took “a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins’” (Mt 26:27-28). These words are not metaphorical. There are multiple reasons why it is clear that this is not the case. In John 6, Christ proclaims the Doctrine of His Real Presence in the Eucharist to crowds of His disciples at Capernaum. “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him” (Jn 6:56). “For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed” (Jn 6:55). “Eat” and “flesh” are vivid words, which do not suggest that Jesus is using metaphors. Furthermore, many of His disciples leave Him when He preaches this teaching: “After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him” (Jn 6:66). Consuming bread that is supposed to symbolize God is not that astonishing. But eating His actual flesh and blood is earth-shattering – hence why so many abandoned Christ when He taught the Eucharist.
Additionally, in the Old Testament, our Lord gives many foreshadowings of New Testament realities (these foreshadowings are often called “types”). The New Testament fulfillment of a type is always greater than the Old Testament “original.” This is often how God has worked in Salvation History. The manna God gave the Israelites is a type of the Eucharist. The manna was miraculous and came from Heaven. However, miraculous as the manna was, the Eucharist, the new bread given to nourish us, must be greater than it. But if Christ is not truly present in the Eucharist, the Eucharist is just ordinary, symbolic bread. There is nothing special about It. But the manna the Israelites consumed rained down from Heaven. Therefore, the typology between the manna and the Eucharist would be inconsistent with every other type, which does not make any sense. Christ does not just give us ordinary bread and wine in the Eucharist, but His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. He makes It available in every Holy Sacrifice of the Mass celebrated in the world. He does not only feed our bodies, but feeds our souls. This nourishment is not ordinary food, but is the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ.
Right after Christ established His Church, the Church’s members believed in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. In the Book of Acts, we read how new converts “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2:42). The separation of “the breaking of the bread,” even from “the prayers,” shows how important the Eucharist was to the newborn Church. From the Gospel of Luke, we see how Christ’s disciples at Emmaus recognized Him “in the breaking of the bread” (Lk 24:35). (The use of “bread” in these instances is poetic. For example, Jesus refers to Himself as the “bread of life” (Jn 6:48).) Again, we read: “the cup of blessing which we bless is…a participation in the blood of Christ [and] the bread which we break, is…a participation in the body of Christ” (1 Cor 10:16). We see, therefore, that from the beginning, Christians believed the truth of Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist.
Additionally, every single one of the Church Fathers believed this teaching, from St. Justin Martyr to St. Augustine, from St. Ambrose to St. John Damascene. Furthermore, there were many heresies in the early Church, including Arianism, Gnosticism, Apollinarianism, and Docetism which still held that Christ was truly present in the Eucharist. The first person to publicly profess that Christ was not truly present in the Eucharist on any kind of large scale was Berengarius of Tours, who did so in the 11th century. However, he later denounced this opinion publicly and reconciled with the Church. The next people to deny the Real Presence on a large scale were the Protestant reformers. The early heresies most frequently attacked the Divinity of Christ. When they died out one by one, heresies began to target the Real Presence. The Early Church was the Catholic Church. She professed the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist from the beginning. The Eucharist is God’s greatest gift to mankind. St. Thomas Aquinas says that “the Mass has the same value as the death of Jesus on the Cross.” St. Augustine says that “God in his omnipotence could not give more, in His wisdom He knew not how to give more, in His riches He had not more to give, than the Eucharist.” Thus, he concludes that “we do not sin when we adore Christ in the Eucharist; we do sin when we do not adore Christ in the Eucharist.” St. Cyril says of the words of institution (“This is My Body/This is My Blood”): “Do not doubt whether this is true, but rather receive the words of the Savior in faith, for since he is the truth, he cannot lie.” (In Luc. 22, 19: PG 72, 912). Christ is our salvation, and He and all united to Him alone do not pass away. Let us go to Holy Mass and visit Him in a Church as often as we can.
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Eucharistic Devotion
For millennia in the Western Church, the norm was to receive Holy Communion on the tongue and kneeling. Receiving our Lord kneeling is an outward sign of reverence, as is receiving Him on the tongue. However, since the 1960s, the Church has given a dispensation allowing for Catholics to receive the Blessed Sacrament (Holy Eucharist) on the hand and standing because some Catholics were disobeying the Church by receiving our Lord in this manner. However, the Church still prefers Catholics receive the Eucharist on the tongue and kneeling, and this manner of reception is still officially considered the norm.
In addition to being more symbolically reverential toward our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament, receiving our Lord on the tongue also reduces the chance that a particle of the host will fall on the ground and be desecrated. It is a dogma (infallible teaching) of the Catholic Faith that Christ is wholly present in His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in every particle of the Host, whether the whole Host or a particle of It. Receiving our Lord on the tongue is the optimal manner of reception and, according to common charity, we ought to receive Him in this manner whenever possible.
If we do receive Him on the hand, we should let the Host only touch one of our hands, touching our mouth to the palm of the hand where the Host is, receiving the Host directly from that palm. Then, we should keep that hand flat, checking for any particles of the Host left over. If there are particles, we must consume them, for that is Jesus Christ.
Eucharistic Adoration has also been a popular practice for the past several hundred years, and among the greatest of all devotions because it is purely contemplative adoration of Christ Himself. The Host is usually exposed in a monstrance, where adorers can behold Christ in the Eucharist purely and simply. Frequent Eucharistic Adoration can make great saints – the Venerable Fulton Sheen used to spend at least one hour in prayer every day before the Blessed Sacrament.