Jesus is the human face of God. Jesus, shares in God’s nature and existed before he took human flesh. Who can understand? A mystery like the Incarnation and the Trinity are not questions to be answered, but realities to be explored. What do you think of paintings depicting the Trinity? Jesus, we are ok with. He has a beard, although the first images of Jesus in the catacombs depict his as beardless. Maybe he just got tired of shaving. He is a human male after all.Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Jn. 14:9
The Eucharist: A ‘who’ not a ‘what’The Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life.” “...For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch." CCC 1324
We have discussed metaphors as signs, symbols or typologies. Jesus’ statement is not a metaphor. Metaphor’s makes a comparison stronger, not weaker. Jesus the human and Jesus the Second Person of the Trinity is a greater reality than just common bread and wine or the manna Moses and the people ate in the desert. Bread, wine and manna are ‘whats’. A Human who is God is a ‘who’. Bread and wine might sustain life until death but, in and of themselves, cannot give eternal life. Jesus claims that his flesh and blood, the living bread, will give the recipient just that. Mohammed, Buddha and Joseph Smith never claimed any such thing, because they couldn’t, only God can. The Eucharist is not idol worship because God himself gave it to us as the bread from heaven. In the Exodus, the people had to trust God’s word when they spread the lamb’s blood around their door. The Eucharist is our experience of the same choice. When the Jews responded, ‘how can this guy give us his flesh to eat? Jesus doubled down…I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever." Jn. 6:51
Only God can do this; your mother, dad or spouse cannot. Jesus is either who he says he is, or this is crazy. The Resurrection is the bedrock of Eucharistic faith. We are not consuming the body, soul, humanity and divinity of a dead man, but the Son of God risen from the dead.Amen, Amen [so be it, so be it]...unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you; and my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.” Jn. 6:52-53
The Eucharist is heavenly bread. This is why in Chapters 4 and 5 of the Book of Revelation, St. John describes the heavenly liturgy. Our mass at St. Mark participates in Divine worship of the Trinity in heaven. We are fed from that heavenly altar. That is why in Eucharistic Prayer Number 1, the priest says“This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever." Jn. 6:51
It is why we pray for the dead and invoke the angels and saints at every mass. Heaven and Earth come together in Christ, the Eucharist and the Mass.In humble prayer we ask you, almighty God: command that these gifts be borne by the hands of your holy Angel to your altar on high in the sight of your divine majesty, so that all of us, who through this participation at the altar receive the most holy Body and Blood of your Son, (He stands upright again and signs himself with the Sign of the Cross), saying: may be filled with every grace and heavenly blessing.
The Greek word St. Paul used that we translate as participation or communion is koino ̄ nia. St. Paul talks about the sacrifices of Israel, and even the sacrifices of the pagans in the temple. When the Israelites offered sacrifice, they are communicants in the altar. He uses the same word koino ̄ nia. That is why you can’t eat meat sacrificed to idols because you participate in the demonic idol. St. Paul believes that the Eucharist is really Jesus’ body and blood, and is a real sacrifice, a real participation in Jesus's sacrifice on the cross of Calvary, when he gave his life for the salvation of the world.The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. 1 Cor. 10:16