The late Monsignor John Meany, on reading Rose McKenna’s excerpt from Dave Hunt’s “A Woman rides the Beast!” would, I am sure, have gone to great length to locate and advise Dave Hunt exactly the process of transubstantiation!
Trust me, Hunt would have understood, and ceased to write such misguiding misconceptions, which he might do quite well; for sale of his prose, over the last/current twelve years only, outside of Biblical history or the Theology of God!
Clearly he makes no sense to the Christian, whose life is based on faith in the true teachings of Jesus Christ!! Having said the above, I have not read his book, nor will I.
Suffice it to say I was born Catholic, that, is to say, born into the Christian family. By virtue of my right to the Sacrament of Baptism, instituted by Jesus Christ, I was freed –“saved” if you will - from original sin, (that is to say the sin of our first parents, Adam & Eve, in disobeying the Will of God the Father) and initiated to the living, resurrected person of Jesus Christ, accepting from Him, GOD, His saving grace, His Divine Mercy, shed by His body and blood on the Cross, to forgive sin which humanity daily commits in our choices of free will in our daily reality of God, which we call life.
As I grow older, I realize how very little humanity, (which includes me) is capable to understand the reality of God. Yet, the reality of God is the very mystery of human life! God is mystery – something we will never fully comprehend – and in this mystery, indeed because we cannot fully understand, lies our intellectual need for logical explanation, - which of course being mystery, is not available -; thus, in our humanity we grow to a maturity called faith, to discover truth; to be ‘born again’ and believe. Transubstantiation is a reality, which took place at the Last Supper! Jesus took the bread; Jesus took the wine; He raised His hands and eyes to the Father in prayer, praise and thanksgiving, and making His sacrifice to the Father, He said to His disciples, “Take and eat, all of you, this IS my body… this is my blood which will be given up for you… do this in memory of ME!”
Then He fed, even the one He knew would betray Him. In the Catholic Church, the mass is the sacrifice we make to the Father, in obedience to Jesus’ request, “Do this in Memory of me”.
On behalf of, and together with the congregation, the priest prays to the Father asking HIM, GOD, to change the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, just as Jesus did. In communion, that is to say joined together as one in Christ, we pray the only prayer that Jesus taught us, the Our Father.
In prayer, we approach God as unworthy, and we ask Him to ‘say the word’ that each of us “shall be healed”, and made worthy by the grace of God, to receive Him - the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.
Just as it was at the Last Supper, Jesus offers His body and blood, and equally in obedience to Him we receive Him, as HE said, “unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you cannot have life within you!” Transubstantiation! God changed the bread and wine into His body and blood! Even the disciples had trouble to understand this, until He revealed Himself in the “breaking of the bread.”
So, we say, we don’t believe! It’s just a symbol, just a wafer! Just something we remember! Let me invite you on a trip, or two, or three or several if you wish to learn. Take a retreat to any of the many Holy Sites throughout the world.
These days this can be done quite cheaply via the internet! Do a search for Eucharistic Miracles! And let me invite you in particular to the miracle at Lanciano, Italy. Later, as there are several miracles, I can invite you to a place closer to home at Betania, just outside Caracas, Venezuela; to the retreat Land of Grace, of the now deceased Visionary Maria Esperanza, whom many will recall visited Cayman in 1998.
In Lanciano, in the 8th century, after the prayers of the Consecration during mass, the priest found himself with a strong temptation to doubt the Real Presence of Jesus. (That is to say he doubted transubstantiation.)
Suddenly there on the altar, he was more startled, as the Sacred Host, (yes the wafer as Dave Hunt calls it) changed before his own eyes, and became FLESH… the wine also changed; became the colour of blood and coagulated into five small clots. The bread and wine – now body and blood - was preserved by the church.
Then in 1713 a chapel was built to publicly expose the miracle which is still preserved there to this day, for everyone to visit, witness, see, question, doubt, venerate, worship and adore, Christ – the “un-bloody sacrifice” of bread and wine, now flesh and blood, right before our eyes! Transubstantiation!
As recent as the year 2004 with today’s modern day DNA technology and equipment etc., the Vatican has completed microscopic studies documented by the world’s top experts, mainly from the United States.
These studies show the Flesh is human flesh composed of heart tissue, and the clotted blood is type “AB”; the proteins in both the flesh and the blood belonging to the same male person, and there is no trace whatsoever of any preservatives.
I have had the priviledge of visiting this place in the company of a medical team, which included a heart surgeon and other specialists. I don’t propose to preach to anyone, but as Christians we are to defend the faith and spread the word. I was overwhelmed; I too doubted and had questions; wondered what kind of horrible hoax this could possibly be.
Then I thought, no, they can’t fool us for over 1200 years! Surely the church wouldn’t such a thing!!! God forgive me! I decided these doctors would know much more than me, and I observed in particular the heart surgeon… he would definitely know, I thought.
Before long Steve was in tears, and on his knees, me beside him as he explained the medical terminology to confirm all of the above to me. His life remains changed forever, and I write this letter still asking, why can’t we simply believe what Jesus said? “This is my body… this is my blood!”
In closing I’d like to share some wisdom from the great, beloved Pope John Paul II, and I quote from his Encyclical on the Eucharist: “The Sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice. It is the sacrifice of the Cross perpetuated down the ages.
The mass makes present the sacrifice of the Cross; it does not add to that sacrifice nor does it multiply it. What is repeated is the memorial celebration, its “commemorative representation” which makes Christ’s one, definitive sacrifice always present in time.
The sacrificial nature of the Eucharistic mystery cannot therefore be understood as something separate, independent of the Cross or only indirectly referring to the sacrifice at Calvary.” “The church draws her life from the Eucharist… In a variety of ways she joyfully experiences the constant fulfillment of the promise: “Lo, I am with you always to the close of the age”.
I think the above clarifies the excerpt from Dave Hunt’s writings and miscommunications. The Catholic Church is a vast fountain of The Theology of God. It is necessary to appropriately research, follow-up, question and learn the doctrine handed down by the Apostles.
Log on to www.vatican.va. You can find just about anything there! We never need rebuttal or great controversy of the truth. Quincy Brown does have it right… no fantasy!
Merle McGann-Burke (nee Whorms)
