The occasion for the following commentary is a recent Pew research poll reporting that a majority of U.S. Catholics do not believe church teaching about the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. It may be, as reported in the National Catholic Reporter by Timothy Brunk, associate professor of theology at Villanova University of Pennsylvania, that "it's very difficult to determine from this survey how much of the disappointing results are a function of the phrasing of the question and how much is a function of what people really do or do not understand about transubstantiation and Real Presence."
A comprehensive commentary on the Real Presence and Justice follows. Father Jeffrey Jeffrey D. VonLehmen, pastor of St. Pius X Church in Edgewood, Kentucky, has written extensively on the subject of the Real Presence.
This commentary presents a view many can identify with.
The Real Presence and Justice
He’d told them ahead of time what he was going to do: "...the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh....Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you....Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them" (Jn 6:51-56).
So when he actually did it, he carried out a prophetic sign. Such actions that have deeper significance were familiar to the disciples who had heard of God’s Word in Jeremiah and the images of the almond tree and cauldron as concrete messages about God’s ever-watching presence and the threat of invasion due to their misplaced alliances with nations who drew Israel into covenant infidelity, and thus relationships that were not right—the basis definition of injustice. They knew of the symbolic actions of Jeremiah as he gave the Temple Sermon (Jer. 7 -8, 3) within which they imagined him cutting off his hair (Jer. 7, 29) as a witness to the dichotomy between their copious acts of worship (Jer. 7: 21 – 23) and incompassionate spirit (Jer. 7, 24) in hardness of heart.
Can’t you just imagine the shock and awe with which those people were struck as they saw him getting up, laying aside his outer garments, in effect striping down to his underwear and washing their feet?
Like the prophets, Jesus does the action first, and only then ties it to a message. (John 13, 12b – 30).
After Jesus finished washing the feet of his disciples, he gets dressed again, and joins them again at the table, with the message,
"Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me 'teacher' and 'master,' and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do. Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it. I am not speaking of all of you. I know those whom I have chosen.
And immediately, John has him using a psalm with a theme of right relationship which begins with a blessing for those who are concerned about the poor “Happy those concerned for the lowly and poor; when misfortune strikes, the LORD delivers them” (Ps 40, 1) as he makes a connection between this call to imitation and the miscarriage of justice contained in the betrayal of a friend
But so that the scripture might be fulfilled, ‘The one who ate my food has raised his heel against me.’ From now on I am telling you before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe that I AM.
as well as the intimate connection between himself and the disciple
“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me."
Mk 14, 22 - 25
While they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, and said, "Take it; this is my body."
Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it. He said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many. Amen, I say to you, I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
Lk 22, 19 – 20
Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me."
And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you.
I Cor 5, 7-8, 18-20
Clear out the old yeast, so that you may become a fresh batch of dough, inasmuch as you are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed.
Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
I am speaking as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I am saying.
I Cor 6, 7b – 9, 18 – 20
Why not put up with injustice instead? Why not let yourselves be cheated?
Instead, you inflict injustice and cheat, and this to brothers.
Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God?
But whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
Avoid immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the immoral person sins against his own body. 7
Do you not know that your body is a temple 8 of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.
I Cor. 10, 16-33
The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?
Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.
Look at Israel according to the flesh; are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?
So what am I saying? That meat sacrificed to idols is anything? Or that an idol is anything?
No, I mean that what they sacrifice, (they sacrifice) to demons, 8 not to God, and I do not want you to become participants with demons.
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and also the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons.
Or are we provoking the Lord to jealous anger? Are we stronger than he?
9 "Everything is lawful," but not everything is beneficial. 10 "Everything is lawful," but not everything builds up.
No one should seek his own advantage, but that of his neighbor.
Eat anything sold in the market, without raising questions on grounds of conscience,
for "the earth and its fullness are the Lord's."
If an unbeliever invites you and you want to go, eat whatever is placed before you, without raising questions on grounds of conscience.
But if someone says to you, "This was offered in sacrifice," do not eat it on account of the one who called attention to it and on account of conscience;
I mean not your own conscience, but the other's. For why should my freedom be determined by someone else's conscience?
If I partake thankfully, why am I reviled for that over which I give thanks?
So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.
Avoid giving offense, whether to Jews or Greeks or the church of God,
just as I try to please everyone in every way, not seeking my own benefit but that of the many, that they may be saved.
I Cor. 11, 24b - 30
. . .This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me."
In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.
Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord.
A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup.
For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.
That is why many among you are ill and infirm, and a considerable number are dying.
Commentary on I Cor 11: 12 [27] It follows that the only proper way to celebrate the Eucharist is one that corresponds to Jesus' intention, which fits with the meaning of his command to reproduce his action in the proper spirit. If the Corinthians eat and drink unworthily, i.e., without having grasped and internalized the meaning of his death for them, they will have to answer for the body and blood, i.e., will be guilty of a sin against the Lord himself (cf 1 Cor 8:12).
13 [28] Examine himself: the Greek word is similar to that for "approved" in 1 Cor 11:19, which means "having been tested and found true." The self-testing required for proper eating involves discerning the body (1 Cor 11:29), which, from the context, must mean understanding the sense of Jesus' death (1 Cor 11:26), perceiving the imperative to unity that follows from the fact that Jesus gives himself to all and requires us to repeat his sacrifice in the same spirit (1 Cor 11:18-25).
14 [29-32] Judgment: there is a series of wordplays in these verses that would be awkward to translate literally into English; it includes all the references to judgment (krima, 1 Cor 11:29, 34; krino, 1 Cor 11:31,32) discernment (diakrino, 1 Cor 11:29, 31), and condemnation (katakrino, 1 Cor 11:32). The judgment is concretely described as the illness, infirmity, and death that have visited the community. These are signs that the power of Jesus' death is not yet completely recognized and experienced. Yet even the judgment incurred is an expression of God's concern; it is a medicinal measure meant to rescue us from condemnation with God's enemies.
CONCLUSION
We cannot have reverence for the body and blood of Christ—the person of Christ—if we knock down those for whom he died out of love. For this reason, people are the Body of Christ. Scripture always says it so well: "Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me" (Mt 25:45). "Those who say, 'I love God,' and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars..." (1 Jn 4:20). In speaking of the condemnation of the unjust steward, Matthew's Gospel says, "So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart" (Mt 18:35).
It is simple: We must have reverence for one another. Can a man say he loves his wife if he abuses their children? Are not the children part of her? We cannot abuse one another, cannot help but want a community of compassion, mercy, peace and justice, if we recognize that we all come from the same womb of God, the love of God poured out into our hearts through the outpouring of the Spirit; signed and sealed in the body-and-blood relationship we have in Christ.
—Jeffrey D. VonLehmen is pastor of St. Pius X Church in Edgewood, Kentucky.
Source:: Originally found st http://www.americancatholic.org/Newsletters/CU/ac0996.asp
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