From the hand and by the word of Our Lord, five loaves and two fish are enough to feed five thousand with twelve full baskets to spare. This is the only miracle of Jesus recorded by all four evangelists and it prefigures the gift of the Eucharist that Our Lord would give at the Last Supper on Holy Thursday. But Holy Thursday, overshadowed as it is by the somberness of Good Friday, prevents us from suitably expressing our joy at receiving this gift. So, the Church established today’s solemnity so that we might reflect more deeply on the significance of the Eucharist and render joyful homage to the Lord.
Today we also begin a three year long “Eucharistic Revival” called for by our bishops to rekindle our sense of Eucharistic amazement in light of studies that reveal that 7 in 10 US Catholics believe that the Eucharist is merely a symbol of Christ. Putting it another way, only 3 in 10 US Catholics believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. But Our Lord did not intend to leave us with a symbol of His presence—but his very Self—Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity—when at Mass the priest pronounces the words of Christ of the Last Supper.
The Church calls this wondrous change transubstantiation. This means that while the “accidents” of bread and wine—their color, weight, taste, and shape— remain the same, their substance is changed. The bread is no longer bread and the wine no longer wine but Jesus himself. Today’s Sequence reminds us: “This is the truth that each Christian learns, bread into his flesh he turns; to his precious blood the wine; Sight has failed, nor thought conceives, but a dauntless faith believes, resting on a power divine.”
Of all the possible ways Our Lord could devise to remain close to us so that we might know his infinite love, he chose the Eucharist, “a solution so sensational that only God could have conceived it, so miraculous that only God could do it.” (Leo Trese: Seventeen Steps to Heaven) The Eucharist is the center of our faith because Jesus is the center of our faith, and the Eucharist is Jesus! Throughout our history, Catholics have been persecuted and have died for their faith in the Eucharist. Consider the English martyrs who suffered and died for their love of the Sacrifice of the Mass. They would not have done so for a symbol. They understood that the Eucharist is not something, but Someone, the Person of Jesus Himself. There is also the powerful witness of the Vietnamese Cardinal Francois-Xavier Van Thuan who died in 2002.
Under communist rule he was imprisoned for 13 years, most of it in solitary confinement in a tiny dark cell without windows. He would speak about this experience without any sense of resentment, contempt, or bitterness. One day, a guard accidently left an ice pick nearby that the Cardinal could reach. With it he slowly made an inconspicuous hole in the wall to allow some fresh air to enter. But this also had an awful result. During the rainy season, water would pour in the narrow cell along with a few snakes.
After his release, the Cardinal was asked: “How did you survive such a terrible ordeal? Where did you find the strength? His immediate response was, “In the Eucharist.” These are his words:
“In 1975, when I was imprisoned, the most agonizing question that arose in me was, ‘Will I still be able to celebrate the Eucharist?’ And a little while later, when my fellow Christians had the opportunity to visit me, they asked me the same question: “Have you been able to celebrate Mass?’ They provided me with what was indispensable for the celebration of Mass.
When I was arrested, the police took me away immediately and I had to go with them empty-handed. But later, I was permitted to write to my Christians to ask for the most necessary things…clothes, soap, toothpaste, medicine. I wrote, “Please send me a little wine as medicine for my bad stomach.’ They understood and sent me a little bottle of wine for Holy Mass, labeled, “medicine for stomach aches” and within an anti-mosquito torch, they hid some hosts. When the guard brought me the package, already opened, he asked, ‘Do you suffer from stomach aches?” I replied, ‘Oh yes, for many years.’ He pointed to the bottle and said, ‘Here is some medicine for you.’
From that day on, I was able to celebrate Mass because my fellow Christians never allowed me to be without my ‘medicine for stomach aches.’ I would place three drops of wine in the palm of my left hand and added a drop of water. I held the host in my right hand and so I celebrated Holy Mass every day and felt as if I were in a Cathedral…my heart filled with joy. This attitude surprised the guards and when I could, I would tell them the story of Jesus. They listened and some converted. Jesus has given me such joy, and this was shared with guards who asked to become Christian. For this reason, the authorities changed the guards often. Oh, if we could understand the great gift that Jesus gave us in the Holy Eucharist!”
What a giant in faith…faith sustained by the Eucharist. Imagine what the Eucharist can accomplish for us! We all need the “medicine” of the Eucharist, the Sacrament that heals, strengthens, and comforts! May the Eucharistic Revival upon which we embark help us rekindle our sense of amazement, the amazement that filled the heart of Cardinal Van Thuan.
