THE REAL PRESENCE

The REAL PRESENCE of Christ among us is not only one of the Great Mysteries of Christianity, but It is also one of the great dividing factors among the various Christian, (Ecclesial) communities!

With regard to the Eucharist, there are some who believe in what they call; “transignification”, meaning that the “SIGNIFICANCE” of the bread and wine are somehow changed. In this modality of thinking, the bread and wine remain the same and if so, the very words of our Lord could not be fulfilled, “I will be with you until the end of time”. If it is just a matter of “how” we look at the bread and wine, then the Sacrament of THE REAL PRESENCE is reduced to mere semantics!
Others speak of “Impanation” meaning that somehow Jesus is there in the bread and wine, that He is “among” the elements, thus making them, (the bread and wine), a catalyst, (a “means”), for the transmission of some spiritual presence. Such a “spiritual” presence can be had by simply gathering together “in His Name”, as Sacred Scripture points out so clearly.

Actually the Doctrine held on to continuously throughout the centuries by The Church is called; “TRANSUBSTANTIATION” which means that the actual “SUBSTANCE” is CHANGED INTO THE BODY, BLOOD, SOUL AND DIVINITY OF THE LIVING LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST! Thus, after the Priest utters the Words of Consecration, there is no bread; there is no wine on the Altar of Sacrifice, but rather ONLY The Real Living Presence of our Lord and Savior!

In the very Gospel, we see that the followers of Jesus heard Him correctly, when He promised to give them His FLESH to eat and His BLOOD to drink saying that it was “intolerable language” asking themselves how “anyone could accept it!”. JN 6:60 well, that question has been “intolerable” for so many Christians since the great Protestant rebellion when so many individuals left The Church to form communities that would be able to “stomach” a lesser interpretation of those Sacred words.
But, the “intolerability” of the words, our Lord and Savior spoke to His followers back then, would lead many into another great error!

Once the bread and wine became mere symbols of the Lord’s presence they had to re-examine the role of the Priesthood itself, once that was put into doubt, of course “how could a mere man forgive sins?!” In one fell swoop the two great SACRAMENTS OF MERCY were obliterated. The Holy Eucharist became symbolic and Confession was seen as no longer necessary, in fact it was considered an abomination to even consider going to a man for the forgiveness of sins, exactly what the leaders of Israel felt about Jesus Himself!! Even though Christ clearly gave His Priesthood the power to forgive sins when He said “RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT, WHOSE SINS YOU FORGIVE WILL BE FORGIVEN THEM, WHOSE SINS YOU DO NOT FOGIVE, WILL NOT BE FORGIVEN”

Once The Holy Eucharist and The Sacrament of Reconciliation were either reduced in stature to being pure symbol or completely unnecessary, it was a natural consequence that any and all Devotion to The Blessed Virgin Mary would be seen as a threat to such teaching. I say that because by understanding Mary as “The Mother of God”, one stresses both the HUMANITY AND DIVINITY of CHRIST, which is exactly what is PRESENT in the Great Gift of THE EUCHARIST! When Jesus used the word; “I” in saying that He would be with us always, He referred to Himself as He was then, is now and forever will be; in other words His very being, GOD AND MAN. “Unless you eat the flesh of The Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you”. Serious words, especially when they come from God Himself! This was no mere “gesture” on the part of Jesus to “think of Him” rather a mandate, “DO THIS” preceded by AMEN, AMEN, which meant LISTEN UP AND GET IT STRAIGHT!

Thousands left Him on that day solely because those words were just too difficult to handle, What Jesus was asking was not only Faith in Him, but Faith in His POWER to give His very Self, for the life of the world! With Christ Jesus, there can be no half measures, it is all or nothing!

As Roman Catholic Christians, we MUST not only be knowledgeable of our FAITH, but we have an obligation before God to be APOSTLES of our Faith! The world needs us to be proactive in the transmission of those truths taught by Christ. Not only is it our duty, it is also our Privilege to witness to the world all that we have received!
The divisions among Christians in the modern world are a scandal to those who know not the Teachings of Christ. It is only by uniting in the Fullness of Faith that will be able to bring to Christ all the various religions of the world. For this to be done it will take courage and great sacrifice among the People of God. Already the battle lines are being drawn, anti Christian rhetoric has increased to a fever pitch, non Christian religions are growing and imposing their beliefs upon so many societies by intimidation and fear and even in our own country it seems to have become ILLEGAL for CHRISTIANS to even mention God in public places!

Perhaps it’s time for all who call themselves Christian to stand up, throw political correctness out the window, trampling the ways of the world underfoot and take a good hard look at The Work of the Holy Spirit throughout the 2,000 years of Christianity and finally, get together for a change! How about fighting the true threat among us of a Godless society, how about making Christ PRESENT by becoming the very Gift we receive each week in The Most Holy Eucharist. Let us unite into ONE BODY, THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST! As the ugliness of materialism, atheism, and secularism deteriorate the very moral fabric of our Country and society let us, The People of God BE, THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD, let us be as Christ, a REAL PRESENCE IN THE WORLD!

The Shadow Priest