by Fr. Victor Perez, Spiritual Director of the Houston Senatus
We just heard 70% of Catholics don’t believe that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist.
And 2/3 of weekly Massgoers believe that He is present. That means 1/3 of those in the pews do not believe.
This is hard to fathom.
But the Eucharist is truly our treasure. Jesus has done so much to show us He is really present. So many different Eucharistic Miracles.
Lanciano was even proven by science to truly be living flesh and living blood.
Santarem.
An angel appeared to the children at Fatima and taught them a special prayer to make reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences committed against the Eucharist.
They offered to the Father the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus present in all the tabernacles of the world in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges, and indifferences.
Jesus in his apparition to Margaret Mary of Aloquoque June 16, 1673 said this, ““Behold the Heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, in order to testify Its love; and in return, I receive from the greater part only ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrilege, and by the coldness and contempt they have for Me in this Sacrament of Love. But what I feel most keenly is that it is hearts which are consecrated to Me, that treat Me thus. Therefore, I ask of you that the Friday after the Octave of Corpus Christi be set apart for a special Feast to honor My Heart, by communicating on that day, and making reparation to It by a solemn act, in order to make amends for the indignities which It has received during the time It has been exposed on the altars.”
Jesus told St. Faustina, "When I come to a human heart in Holy Communion," He said, "My hands are full of all kinds of graces which I want to give to the soul. But souls do not even pay attention to Me; they leave Me to Myself and busy themselves with other things. ... They treat Me as a dead object" (
Diary of St. Faustina, 1385)
The Church teaches that at the moment of Consecration during the Mass, the bread and wine on the altar become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. In 1551, the Council of Trent condemned the opinion that Christ is present only in the elements as a sign, or that Christ is received only spiritually. In John 6: 48-51, Jesus says, "I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, but they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and never die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh."
The Real Presence After the Consecration, although the appearance remains, the bread and wine cease to exist. This change is called transubstantiation. While it is true God is everywhere spiritually, the Eucharistic presence of Christ — that is, that Christ is present Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, is called the True Presence or the Real Presence. When discussing the Real Presence, one can see from John, Chapter 6, that even at the time of Christ, there was disagreement and discussion, and many did not understand what He was saying. In verses 48-56, He speaks of being "the living bread which came down from Heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live forever," and He added, "for My flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." However, in verse 60, it is written that many of His disciples, when they heard Christ's words, remarked, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" And in verse 66, "After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with Him."
Do you believe? Do you really believe? Do you recognize Him in the tabernacle?
Do you ask for a deeper faith in the Eucharist? Let us increase in our respect and reverence for the Eucharist.