(Editor’s note: The following is a submission to The Recorder’s weekly column titled “Faith Matters.” Each Saturday, a different faith leader in Franklin County offers a personal religious perspective in this space. For information on becoming part of this series, email religion@recorder.com or call 413-772-0261, ext. 265.)
By Rev. Charles Di Mascola
Pastor, Our Lady of CzÄstochowa
When I was asked to contribute to this column in The Recorder, I asked of a number of our parishioners what they thought I should write about. Overwhelmingly, they responded, “Holy Communion!” Since this loving Sacrament is the source and summit of our Roman Catholic Faith, I agreed. I think that many people really don’t understand what Holy Communion means and actually many find it, in some ways, a disturbing doctrine. In fact, Jesus Himself, in the Bible, after He describes Holy Communion, even says, “Does this shock you?” (St. John 6:61) In the Gospel of St. John 6:48-58, Jesus does boldly teach a shocking truth — a truth that He means literally and completely! No waffling, just the whole truth and nothing but the truth — disturbing, shocking and yet beautiful and comforting! Read this carefully and check your Bible and wonder why no one has ever told you this before:
Jesus says in verse 48: “I am the Bread of Life” and then in verse 49 He begins to explain what this means when He says: “Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the Bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die.” I don’t know about you but that got my attention! “Bread from Heaven” – and a Bread that will give me eternal life?!?
Then in verse 51 Jesus makes a very startling statement. He says: “I am the Living Bread that came down from Heaven; whoever eats this Bread will live forever; and the Bread I will give is My flesh for the life of the world.” In verses 53 and 54 He becomes very urgent by saying: “Amen, Amen, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood remains in Me and I in him.”
OK, is Jesus speaking symbolically or poetically? – because this is sounding pretty scary. In fact, the crowd listening to Jesus gets very restless and one by one they begin to leave Him. But if we continue to read, Jesus makes it very clear what He means when, in verse 55, He bluntly says: “My Flesh is real food and my Blood is real drink.”
The people are not at all happy about these “hard sayings,” but Jesus just goes on in verse 56 to 58 and tells us that “whoever eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood remains in Me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent Me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on Me will have life because of Me. This is the Bread that came down from Heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this Bread will live forever.”
Jesus then ends this teaching by asking, in verse 61, “Does this shock you?” Well, yes, it does shock the crowd and many leave Jesus, never to come back to Him. When the crowd leaves Jesus, He turns to the Apostles and asks if they will leave Him too? (Verse 67). The reply of Peter is “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed and come to know that you are the Holy One of God.” (Verses 68 & 69) St. Peter stays with Jesus!
Then, at the Last Supper, so that we might have Eternal Life, Jesus gives us this most powerful, loving and life-giving miracle of His Body and Blood, when He says over the bread and wine “This is My Body” – “This is My Blood.” We don’t understand the total mystery of this great Sacrament but the Roman Catholic Church, the truly Bible-believing Church, totally accepts the Gospels and so the miracle of this life-giving food echoes from that Last Supper, uninterrupted, through the centuries to every Roman Catholic Mass in every time and in every place! “In the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch.” (Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests, Pope Paul VI, 1965)
The Apostle Paul wrote to the Church in Corinth, “Therefore whosoever shall eat this Bread, or drink the Chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the Body and of the Blood of the Lord.” (1 Cor. 11:27)
The early Church Fathers also interpreted these passages literally.
Ignatius of Antioch: “I have no taste for corruptible food nor for the pleasures of this life. I desire the Bread of God, which is the Flesh of Jesus Christ, Who was of the seed of David; and for drink I desire His Blood, which is love incorruptible” (Letter to the Romans 7:3 [A.D. 110]).
Justin Martyr: “We call this food Eucharist, and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true and who has been washed in the washing which is for the remission of sins and for regeneration [i.e., has received baptism] and is thereby living as Christ enjoined. For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by Him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nurtured, is both the Flesh and the Blood of that incarnated Jesus” (First Apology 66 [A.D. 151]).
St. Cyril of Jerusalem: “Since Christ Himself has said, ‘This is My Body’ who shall dare to doubt that It is His Body?” [A.D. 350]
In the Holy Mass, the Roman Catholic Church, following the command of Jesus Christ, has for almost 2,000 years, given us His actual and living Body and Blood so that we might always be with Him, here and into eternity. And so by the Eucharistic celebration (the Mass) we already unite ourselves with the heavenly liturgy and anticipate eternal life, when God will be all in all. (Cf. 1 Cor. 15:28)
Our Lady of CzÄstochowa Church is often called “The Gem of Franklin County” because of the unique artistic beauty of the church and the strong feeling of family the parishioners share — a feeling which reminds one of how the pagans of ancient Rome described the early Christians as “A peculiar people – See how they love each other.” We are located at 80 K Street and our schedule of Masses (in which we literally follow the Biblical command of Jesus Christ to share in His living Body and Blood) is as follows: Monday – 8 a.m., Tuesday through Friday – 5:30 p.m., Saturday – 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., Sunday – 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Confessions are heard every day, one-half-hour before every Mass including Sunday.