A real transformation #2

Picture: Bloomberg

In yesterday’s blog, I wrote about the transformation that takes place in the Mass. Scripture and the early Patristic writings –  the testimony of the great teachers of the Church in the centuries following the Resurrection of our Lord –  clearly affirm this reality. In harmony with the Bible and with Catholic tradition, we give our intellectual assent to this essential teaching of the faith.

Yet there is another, inseparable dimension to this transformation: what happens when you and I receive the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and are ourselves drawn into that mystery. In a sense, we can speak of two movements. In the first, the bread and wine truly become the Body and Blood of Christ. In the second, we are meant to be transformed by what we receive.

Through the worthy reception of the Eucharist, we are united more deeply to Christ and, by grace, become sharers in His divine life. Our lives are then called to give visible witness to that transformation. However, it is entirely possible for many of us to receive Holy Communion in a routine manner, perhaps with diminished awareness or devotion. Habit, distraction, or lukewarmness can lessen our openness and dispose us poorly to receive the full fruits of this magnificent gift.

At heart, this is a question of faith, hope, and love. We must believe – not only intellectually, but with a living faith – and we must put into practice all that we have heard in the Word of God proclaimed during the Mass. Only then can the Eucharist shape our hearts, our choices, and our relationships.

In this way, we become living witnesses to the real and transformative presence of Christ in the Bread of Life – broken and given for a world starving for truth, meaning, and freedom. Intellectual assent to a core doctrine of our Catholic faith, important as it is, is not enough. We must allow what takes place on the altar to become evident in our lives.

This is why, at the end of every Mass, we are sent forth: so that the transformation begun at the altar might extend into the marketplaces of the world, carried there by us.