Christmas – Feast of the Incarnation
In celebrating Christmas, we celebrate the Mystery that the Son of God “for us men and for our salvation came down from Heaven. And He became flesh by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary: and was made man” (Nicene Creed).
He was born in Bethlehem, a name which means the House of Bread.
His Mother laid him in a manger, which is a feeding trough for beasts.
It is there that Mary, Joseph, and the angels adored Him as all creation rejoiced.
It is there that the shepherds, representing the humble and faithful remnant of Israel, rendered Him homage. And later the wise men, representing all the gentile nations, bent the knee before Him in worship and honored Him with their precious gifts.
As St. Paul explains, we have “a confidence in the entering into the holies by the Blood of Christ; a new and living way which He hath dedicated for us through the veil, that is to say, His Flesh” (Hebrews 10:19-20)
Our Lord Did Not Speak Figuratively Regarding the Eucharist
The Lord plainly said to His disciples: “Take ye and eat. This is My body” (Matthew 26:26). We do this when we receive Our Lord in Holy Communion. And He was also clear when He taught the Jews in the sixth chapter of the Gospel according to St. John that He would give His actual Flesh and Blood to souls. Father Michael Müller, the author of “The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass,” comments on this reality throughout his work:
“Did our Savior wish the Jews to understand Him in this manner? Most certainly He did. Our Lord saw that the Jews understood Him to speak of eating His real Flesh and drinking His real Blood. Instead of contradicting that opinion, He confirmed it again and again, in the strongest and most unmistakable terms.”
Father Mueller goes on to explain that if it had been Our Lord’s intention to give His Flesh and Blood to eat in a figurative manner only, He immediately would have corrected the misunderstanding of the Jews and clarified His statement. We see an example of this earlier in the same Gospel when Our Lord is once again addressing the matter of salvation and eternal life. Nicodemus misunderstands Him. Nicodemus mistakenly thinks Our Lord is saying ‘born again’ means a grown man must enter his mother’s womb. And so Christ promptly dispels the error, “born again of water and the Holy Ghost” (see John 3:3-5).
Thus, in the discourse on the Bread of Life, it would have been Our Lord’s most solemn duty to explain beyond any doubt the meaning of His words. Jesus would have explicitly told the Jews that He was not giving them His real Flesh and Blood, but only a figure of His Flesh and Blood. Father Mueller continues:
“But instead of speaking thus, and correcting the Jews, on the contrary, He confirms what He has said. He repeats at least five times that He will really give us His Flesh to eat. And as Our Lord foresaw that there would be many who would refuse to eat His Flesh and drink His Blood, He solemnly threatens eternal damnation to all those that refuse.”
We can only imagine how saddened Our Lord must have felt, in His humanity, at this moment when so many walked away for refusing to believe His words. Christ desires with a great desire to share His Flesh and Blood with men. This is the very reason He assumed a human nature, why He came down from Heaven and was born of Mary, and why He was willing to suffer terrible tortures and die upon the Cross for us. Yet when He reveals the depths of His love to men, they reject Him and walk away. (This also reminds us of His words to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque as He revealed His Sacred Heart to her.)
Thus, Our Lord’s words to His apostles, after the Jews walk away, further affirms unquestionably that He was not speaking figuratively. Father Mueller states:
“Whenever Jesus Christ had spoken figuratively in public, He always explained Himself in private to His disciples. But here He speaks in private as in public, to show us that He does not speak figuratively, that He wishes to be understood literally.”
Jesus turned to the twelve Apostles, and instead of giving them any new explanation or clarification, He asked them: “Will you also go away?” – meaning, “I have told you the truth. If you will not believe Me, you also may go.”
Our Lord’s Own Words Spoken in Aramaic Were Literal
Father Mueller insightfully comments on how Our Lord’s own native language had forty-six words meaning ‘to signify’ or ‘to represent,’ but He never used any of them – despite foreseeing that men would dispute and quarrel about the meaning of His words. If Jesus wished to give us only a figure of His body, He would have said: “This represents My Body” instead of “’This is My Body.”[1]
Father Mueller then immediately adds the following, deduced from a basic understanding of the Greek language in which the New Testament was written:
“To say that our Savior spoke figuratively is false, for Our Lord does not say: ‘This bread is My Body,’ but He says: ‘This is.’ Now in Greek, the language in which the Apostles wrote, the demonstrative pronoun ‘This’ is neuter and cannot agree with the word ‘bread,’ which is masculine; but with the word ‘body,’ which is neuter. It is the same as if our Savior said: ‘My body is this.’ Now that which is Our Lord’s Body cannot at the same time be a piece of bread.”
John Henry Cardinal Newman once aptly remarked, “To know history is to cease to be Protestant.” In a similar vein, one can assert that to know the Biblical languages is also to cease to be Protestant.
Our Lord unequivocally referred to the Holy Eucharist as His actual Body and His actual Blood. He was not misunderstood by the Jews who walked away. He was not misunderstood by His Apostles, who remained with Him and accepted His words on Faith. And He was not misunderstood by the early Christians.
Early Christians Believed in the Literal Presence of Christ in the Eucharist
The Real Presence is likewise affirmed in the actions of the early Church. St. Ignatius of Antioch, who lived during the time of the Apostles, remarks, “The Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ which suffered for our sins, which the Father raised up by His goodness.” St. Cyril of Jerusalem succinctly remarks on these words: “Since Christ Himself has said, ‘This is My Body’ who shall dare to doubt that It is His Body?” St. Augustine likewise declares: “Christ held Himself in His hands when He gave His Body to His disciples saying: ‘This is My Body.’ No one partakes of this Flesh before he has adored It.”
That the Eucharist is God is attested to by the Scripture, the Apostles, and the entire early Church. To claim the contrary is to believe in a complete fabrication that has no basis in Christianity. Father Mueller poses the following questions that refute the idea that Jesus Christ left us His Body only in figure – i.e., as a piece of bread:
- “Why did He use so many precautionary measures in order to persuade us?
- Why did He insist so much upon the necessity of faith?
- For faith is to believe in something that we do not see …why did He tell us that it [this piece of bread] is far superior to manna?
- Why did He tell us in so many formal and affirmative propositions that He would really give us His flesh to eat?
- If He intended only to give us a piece of bread, what need was there to appeal to the great miracle of His Ascension?
- If He intended to give us His Body only in figure, why did He suffer the Jews and His own disciples even to go away without modifying a single word of His oft-repeated assertion that He would really give us His flesh to eat?”
Conclusion
May we, like St. Peter, believe and respond to Our Lord’s promise: “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we have believed and have known that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God” (John 6:68-69). May all who are baptized Catholic and receive Our Lord in Holy Communion never leave the bosom of the Catholic Church or lapse from the practice of the Faith instituted by the same Lord Who feeds us with His true Flesh and Blood.
ENDNOTE:
[1] “Protestants assert that Our Lord spoke only figuratively. Now I would ask them: Did not Jesus Christ foresee that men would dispute and quarrel about the meaning of His words? Assuredly He did, for He is Infinite Wisdom. Did He not will to tell us the truth? Undoubtedly, He did, for He is Truth itself. Was He not able to tell us the truth? Most certainly He was, for He is almighty. Why then, if He wished to give us only a figure of His Body, if He wished to give us bread and wine simply, did He not say so? Why did He say: ‘This is My Body’? Why did He not rather say: ‘This represents My Body’? There are in the Syro-Chaldaic, the language our Savior spoke, at least forty-five words which mean, ‘to signify’, ‘to represent.’ Why did He not use one of those words? Why did He say, ‘This is’? The opinion that Our Lord spoke only figuratively at the Last Supper is false, absurd, and blasphemous.”