The Power of Faith Tested by the Eucharist

By Thomas McKenna, Catholic Action for Faith & Family

“This saying is hard; who can accept it?” was the complaint of the first disciples to hear Jesus pronounce the immortal words, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven…the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (Jn 6:51). It was a decisive moment. A schism formed in the group of disciples, and some of them walked away, scandalized by the Eucharistic teaching.

It has always been so. The Church’s fidelity to the truth of the Eucharist – that the Blessed Sacrament is the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ Himself – has been the dividing line for believers in all ages. The phrase, “This saying is hard,” echoes through the centuries…because it is hard!

“Apparently,” notes Msgr. Romano Guardini in his book, Meditations Before Mass, “there is no genuine belief without battle.” He is right: the Eucharist is a truth for which we must fight.

Let’s face it. Our belief that this consecrated bread and wine is actually God Himself…well, even for many sincere believers that’s a bridge too far. The history of heretical alterations of that teaching and outright rejections of it is clear evidence that it needs to be defended in every day and age.

However, our faith will grow strong only to the extent that we hold fast to this divine teaching. It is eternal truth.

Msgr. Guardini says that “revealed truth is neither a continuation nor a new dimension of earthly truth; it’s something that completely overthrows earthly truth.” That is why Jesus didn’t alter His words in the slightest when the disciples grumbled. He didn’t call the defectors back when they abandoned Him.

Rather, He forced them to make an either-or decision. Either what this man says is true or it isn’t. Either I surrender to it or I reject it. There is no middle ground, “only a hard, pure demand for a decision,” says Guardini.

The Apostles didn’t understand the full mystery any more than we do, but they surrendered to it and were strengthened by God’s grace when they did. Their faith was tested by the Eucharist, and, Msgr. Guardini adds that “it was to such rigorously tested men that Jesus entrusted the mystery of the Holy Eucharist.”

We must also go through this trial by fire. To have faith in what the Church believes about the Eucharist means you and I must fight for it. We must engage in battle, sometimes with those closest to us, who may walk away shaking their heads like many of the first hearers of the teaching.

This is not a theoretical possibility in today’s world. Because of the general loss of faith, it may require us to gently correct those who presume to receive the Eucharist when they are living in contradiction to the truth and/or in a state of unrepentant mortal sin. True believers cannot stand by idly and let this hypocrisy take root in their hearts!

We may be ridiculed by the growing number of militant atheists in our society or challenged to explain how we can be so silly as to believe in a God who sacrificed His Son in such a scandalous way. In the face of such a challenge, we will be forced to take up arms.

So be it. That is the burden of the true believer: “There is no genuine belief without battle.” The scandal of the Eucharist continues to this day, and we are its tested warriors.

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Thomas J. McKenna is Founder and President of Catholic Action for Faith & Family and Executive Director of the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy. He spent numerous years as a Custodian of the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue accompanying the statue in missions around the world. This article on the Bread of Life is part of Catholic Action’s Faithful Echoes of the Eucharist program.