Editor’s Note: Due to the pandemic, we were unable to hold weekly classes for 22 tenth-grade Confirmation students, so we prepared a series of 14 lessons on the material, along with some questions to answer. If these lessons are of value to you, put them to whatever use you can. We will continue to welcome your questions for the column as well, so please send them along, either to the postal mailing address or the email address below, and we will interrupt this series to answer them.
Special Course On Catholicism And Life — XI
The Holy Eucharist was foreshadowed by a special bread called manna that God sent from Heaven to feed Moses and the Israelites in the desert (cf. Exodus, chapter 12). Some 1,200 years later, Jesus fed more than five thousand people with only five loaves of bread and two fish. He told them the next day that their ancestors had eaten manna in the desert, but that He would give them a new bread from Heaven that was actually His Body. “I am the bread of life,” Jesus said. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day” (John 6:54).
Some people thought that Jesus was crazy and walked away. But Jesus did not stop them and say that He really didn’t mean it, that His Body was just a symbol. No, He let them walk away and repeated that “my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink” (John 6:55). That’s what we believe today.
One year later, at the Last Supper, Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to the apostles, saying, “This is my body, which will be given for you. Do this in memory of me” (Luke 22:19). This was the first Mass and the first distribution of Holy Communion. Jesus will give us that same Holy Communion (His Body) after the priest at Mass says the same words, “This is my body….Do this in memory of me.” We do not receive bread at Mass, but rather the Body of Christ; we do not receive wine at Mass, but rather the Blood of Christ.
That’s why when the priest or minister of Communion holds up the Host and the Chalice in front of us at Mass and says, “The Body of Christ” or “The Blood of Christ,” we say “Amen.” That means, “Yes, I believe that what looks and tastes like bread and wine is really Jesus.” The word that describes the changing of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of the Lord is transubstantiation. This means that the substance of bread and wine has been replaced by the substance of Jesus’ Body and Blood.
Interestingly, Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem, which name means “house of bread.”
Because Holy Communion is Jesus Himself, we must be worthy to receive Him, that is, we must be free from all sin. If not, then we should go to Confession before we go to Communion so as not to receive Jesus while we are in a state of sin. St. Paul said that “whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily sins against the Body and Blood of the Lord” and brings judgment on himself (1 Cor. 11:27).
The other two conditions to receive Communion worthily are to fast from food and drink (water and medicine are okay) for one hour before receiving Communion and to have the right intention, that is, to want to unite ourselves with Jesus and not because everyone else is doing it or to impress other people or because we would be embarrassed to stay in our bench. Better to stay in your bench if you are conscious of unforgiven sin than to sin even further by receiving Jesus unworthily.
That’s why the Church refuses to give Communion to Catholic politicians who are for abortion and same-sex marriage. It is not to bring politics into the situation, but to protect the holiness of the Eucharist and to prevent the politician from committing a further sin of sacrilege, which means abusing something that is holy.
Holy Communion is important because it increases God’s life in us so we can get to Heaven.
List Of Answers
BETHLEHEM
BLOOD
BODY
BREAD
DRINK
FAST
FIVE
FOOD
HEAVEN
INTENTION
LAST SUPPER
MANNA
MEMORY
PAUL
SIN
SACRILEGE
Quiz:
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