About 30 years ago, I attended an Easter mass at my local college chapel. When I approached the priest to receive Jesus, I was surprised when he placed a torn piece of leavened bread in my hands. Puzzled, I nevertheless put it in my mouth…and it tasted and felt like the rye loaf that I’d recently become a fan of. In fact, I suspected I knew which bakery it came from…
After mass, I approached the priest and asked him what that was about. “Oh, you noticed, eh? I decided to make things more interesting. After all, HE IS RISEN!“
The know-nothing me of that day went, “Oh, haha, good one, Father!”
The older-and-slightly-wiser me of the now…just shudders in horror.
Honestly, the concept of transubstantiation still boggles my mind. I’ve bookmarked and re-read the liturgist Fr. Edward McNamara’s brief comments on the subject, and while I can accept it, I don’t understand it well enough to explain it to others who don’t share that point of view…
“You see, when the priest consecrates the host on the paten and the wine in the chalice, they become the Body and Blood of Christ, even though they still look and taste like bread and wine.”
“But, but, they still look and taste like bread and wine!”
“Well, yeah, that’s kinda the point.”
“Hey, what kind of bullcrap are you trying to sell me?!?! It looks like bread, and tastes like bread, but you’re telling me it’s human flesh?!?!”
“Nononono…well, it did become human flesh at least once that we know of, but…anyway…umm…”
(For a headache-inducing ride, start with the Transubstantiation Wikipedia article, and explore link after link. You have been warned.)
Even priests can have trouble believing this. I wasn’t kidding about the “became human flesh” incident I mentioned earlier: A monk in Lanciano doubted during consecration, and thus triggered the first (and some say the greatest) Eucharistic miracle on record. I’ve seen that Flesh and Blood with my own eyes, and the experience was both wondrous and troubling–“oh my God this really did happen!” followed almost immediately by “oh my God please don’t let that happen in my mouth!”
Little wonder, then, that more than a few of us might harbour grave doubts about transubstantiation, preferring instead to let the mouth utter the obligatory “Amen”, while the head goes “yeah, okay, no biggee, it’s just a host” and the heart goes…missing in action.
And even before that, as we kneel during the Eucharistic prayer, how often do our minds wander as the celebrant utters what to us are simply words of no import?
I too have been guilty of that, dear brothers and sisters, but I’ll testify here and now that when I do pay attention to the words and actions of consecration, when I listen carefully to the entire anaphora, from the Preface of the day to the great Doxology…something shifts deep within, and though my eyes continue to behold white bread, my heart catches a glimmer of the One who died to save us all.
On particularly good days, I cry to myself, quietly shedding a few tears on my knees. The sudden onset of unexplained warmth, of a nearby presence, of LOVE, can be too much to bear.
This is the evidence of one who still lives through it – trustworthy evidence, and he knows he speaks the truth – and he gives it so that you may believe as well.
(cf. John 19:35)
It’s easy to achieve in the midst of a solemn and prayerful anaphora, delivered at a measured pace and with careful attention to enunciation and tone. But this happens all too rarely, especially when the celebrant rushes through the consecration.
So I’m trying something new, and I urge you all to join me in this endeavour. Simply come to church a little earlier, pick up the missal in front of you about five minutes before mass, and read the text of any Eucharistic Prayer…slowly, deliberately, with empty mind and open heart. Imagine the celebrant uttering those same words, evolving in persona Christi into:
Take and eat, for this is My Body.
Not just a simple circle of wheat, but My True Body, broken and pierced as the price for your salvation.
Behold, believe…and be healed.
If we pledge to do this before every mass, carefully pondering the words we thought we understood (or didn’t really care much about), perhaps we can then bring ourselves to truly believe the doctrine of transubstantiation, all the way from our ruthlessly pragmatic brains down to our wounded and fearful hearts.
In that moment, with the sure knowledge that it truly is Jesus before our eyes and on our tongues, who can stand against us? (cf. Romans 8:31)
If you like this post, I encourage you to (re-)read my earlier reflection on how we may be profaning the Blessed Sacrament without careful thought. Indeed, that lack of careful thought (read: an examined conscience) is the crux of the issue.
If not…do leave a barbed comment. Thanks much!