Eucharist: Real Food & Real Drink — Understood Through the Instrumentality & Language of the Body

Common Complaint of Those Leaving the Church: I’m Not Being Fed!

Of those Church members raised in the Church from childhood, a Pew Forum Study (Faith in Flux) found only about 2/3 (68%) of “Cradle Catholics” remain. Of the 1/3 who leave the Church, about half leave and become Protestants and about half leave and remain unaffiliated with any religion. … Of those who left the Church and became Protestant, 71% gave as a reason that their spiritual needs were not being met. … among all former Catholics who are now Protestant (evangelical or main-line), 71% say that now their faith is ‘very strong![1]

• We receive Sanctifying grace.
• It is the source and summit of the Church.
• We become one body with Christ (in the Mystical Body sense).

There is a twofold principle of love: for love can come about by passion or by the judgment of reason: out of passion when a man does not even know how to live without the thing he loves, and by reason insofar as he loves as reason dictates. He says therefore that he loves with his whole heart who loves with his flesh, and he loves with his soul who loves by the judgment of reason. And we ought to love God in both ways: with our flesh as the heart is moved with feeling for God in our flesh, whence it says in Psalm 83:3: “My heart and my flesh have exulted in the living God.”[8]

The love of the heart is one thing, the love of the soul another. The love of the heart is in some sense carnal, that we should love God even carnally, which we cannot do unless we draw apart from the love of worldly things. Therefore, the love of the heart is felt in the heart. The love of the soul, however, is not felt, but understood, since it consists in the judgment of the soul.[9]

Theology and Instrumentality of the Body

1) the body and it alone can bring the invisible into the visible;

2) the body is essential for expressing love in the physical world; and,

3) the language of the spirit must be expressed into the visible world through an adequate language of the body.

Why is it Important to Know the Thirty-four Scientific Mysteries of Biology Hidden in Scripture

Between 1979 and 1984, Pope St. John Paul II delivered a series of Wednesday audiences that eventually became known as the Theology of the Body (TOB). This profound teaching offered what St. John Paul called an “adequate anthropology” [i.e., scientific and theological explanation of humanity] — an examination of what it means to be human, made in God’s image and likeness, and how that reality is made visible through the human body, giving a Sacramental View of Reality [emphasis SML].

Of all the strengths of God’s creation, Man’s is most profound, made in a wondrous way with great glory from the dust of the earth and so entangled with the strengths of the rest of creation that he can never be separated from them; for the elements of the world, created for Man’s service, wait on him, and Man, enthroned as it were in their midst, by divine disposition presides over them, as David says, inspired by Me [God]:

“Thou hast crowned him with glory and worship, and given him dominion over all the works of Thy hands” [Psalms 8:6–7]. Which is to say: You, O God, Who have marvellously [sic] made all things, have crowned Man with the gold and purple crown of intellect and with the sublime garment [Flesh] of visible beauty, thus placing him like a prince above the height of Your perfect works, which You have distributed justly and rightly among Your creatures. Before all Your other creatures You have conferred on Man great and wonderful dignities.[13]

[Jesus] has loved us all with a human heart. For this reason, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pierced by our sins and for our salvation [cf. Jn 19:34],” is quite rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that … love with which the divine Redeemer continually loves the eternal Father and all human beings” without exception [Pius XII, encyclical, Haurietis aquas (1956): DS 3924; cf. DS 3812.].[14]

The Spiritual Soul

Sometimes the soul is distinguished from the spirit: St. Paul for instance prays that God may sanctify his people “wholly”, with “spirit and soul and body” kept sound and blameless at the Lord’s coming [1 Thess. 5:23]. The Church teaches that this distinction does not introduce a duality [SML] into the soul [cf. Council of Constantinople IV (870): DS 657]. “Spirit” signifies that from creation, man is ordered to a supernatural end and that his soul can gratuitously be raised beyond all it deserves to communion with God [cf. Vatican Council I, Dei Filius: DS 3005; Gaudium et Spes 22 § 5; Humani Generis: DS 3891].[15]

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart [i.e., the human spirit — SML], and with all your soul [that which controls the body], and with all your mind [the intellect]. This is the great and first commandment” (Mt 22:36-38).

Instrumentality in Light of Our Spiritual Soul

The body, in fact, and it alone is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and divine. It was created to transfer into the visible reality of the world, the mystery hidden since time immemorial in God.[20]

Now we have it on the authority of Scripture that “God made man right” (Eccles. 7:30), which rightness, as Augustine says (De Civ. Dei, xiv, 11), consists in the perfect subjection of the body [i.e., salt/dust of DNA] to the soul.”[26]

Subjection of the body to the soul and of the lower powers to reason, was not from nature; otherwise it would have remained after sin … Hence it is clear that also the primitive subjection by virtue of which reason was subject to God, was not a merely natural gift, but a supernatural endowment of grace.[27]

The [biological and spiritual] heart is the life and structure of our entire organism. It contains the whole body. Within it, our thoughts are arranged and our will is brought to maturity.[27-B]

Sources Discussing the Instrumental Use of the Body by the Holy Spirit

From the swaddling clothes of his birth to the vinegar of his Passion and the shroud of his Resurrection, everything in Jesus’ life was a sign of his mystery [Cf. Lk 2:7; Mt 27:48; Jn 20:7]. His deeds, miracles, and words all revealed that “in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily [Cf. Col 2:9].” His humanity appeared as “sacrament,” that is, the sign and instrument, of his divinity and of the salvation he brings: what was visible in his earthly life leads to the invisible mystery of his divine sonship and redemptive mission.[30]

The body … [and it] alone is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and divine. It was created to transfer into the visible reality of the world, the mystery hidden since time immemorial in God.[31]

The body speaks not merely with the whole external expression of masculinity and femininity, but also with the internal structures of the organism, of the somatic [the entire body and its aggregate parts such as the heart of flesh] and psychosomatic [relating to the mind/mental] reaction.[32]

Examples of the Holy Spirit’s Instrumental Use of Organic Life (e.g., Man’s Functioning DNA)

Elijah’s bones

So Eli′sha died, and they buried him. Now bands of Moabites used to invade the land in the spring of the year. And as a man was being buried, lo, a marauding band was seen and the man was cast into the grave of Eli′sha; and as soon as the [dead] man touched the bones of Eli′sha, he revived, and stood on his feet (2 Kgs. 13:20-21).

Moses staff

The Hemorrhagic Woman

She said, “If I touch even his garments, I shall be made well.” And immediately the hemorrhage ceased; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone forth from him, immediately turned about in the crowd, and said, “Who touched my garments?” (Mk. 5:28-30).

Incorruptibles

Sheepskin mantle

The Human Body Is Made to Express Grace

1) the words of Jesus as relayed by St. Faustina;

2) the words of Scripture;

3) the words of Archbishop Fulton Sheen; and,

4) Pope St. JP II.

1). Jesus tells St. Faustina, “I am Love and Mercy itself. When a soul approaches Me with trust, I fill it with such an abundance of graces that it cannot contain them within itself, but radiates them to other souls.”[35] Let us recall our previous discussion on the spirit versus the soul. The upper powers of the spiritual soul (i.e., spirit/inner heart) cannot be kept separate from the lower powers (those lower powers of the spiritual soul responsible for the accidents and the functioning of the physical body). Therefore, grace will affect both body and spirit. This effect is true whether it be Sanctifying and/or Actual grace given.

2). In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells us, “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart [believers heart in this passage would correspond to Jesus saying approaches with trust in his conversation with Faustina] shall flow rivers of living water’” (Jn 7:37-38). This living water is the grace of the Holy Spirit, and it is a river flowing out from the believer’s spirit/heart within the spiritual soul. Additionally, St. Paul writes, “Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for edifying, as fits the occasion, that it may impart grace to those who hear [emphasis SML].” (Eph 4:29-30);

3). St. Paul wrote, “For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure [recall the heart-treasure links in Scripture] in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Cor. 4:6-7). Fulton Sheen viewed himself entirely as a frail earthen vessel that he titled his autobiography Treasure in Clay. In Sheen’s book, The Mystical Body of Christ, he wrote, “The graces of God are communicated through ‘frail vessels [emphasis SML].’”[36]

The body is the frail vessel, not the spiritual soul. Remember the phrase: The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Did Sheen equate the frailty of the earthen vessel with the human body? Later in the book, he wrote, “The Mystical Christ of Pentecost, like the physical Christ of Bethlehem, was small, and delicate, and frail like any new-born thing [the newly breathed spiritual soul is sinless and, therefore, not weak]. Its members were small; its organs were in the process of formation.”[37] This is why the Church is considered the “Prolongation of the Incarnation through space and time.”[38] This understanding will take on even greater significance when we talk about the meaning of the mouth in Scripture and;

4). According to JP II:

Just as a sacrament is an outward sign of an inward (and unseen) reality of grace, the body itself enters into the “definition of a sacrament” (loosely speaking). This is so because it is a visible sign of an invisible reality. Not only is the body a sign of grace received, but it also visibly expresses that which it has received (not possible without the body) and does so efficaciously for self and others. Furthermore, the body not only expresses grace but, as we shall see later, produces it. Thus, the body contributes to grace becoming part of man.[39]

The Human Heart of Jesus — And All Man

O Most Sacred [Human] Heart, Fount of Mercy from which gush forth rays of inconceivable graces upon the entire human race, I beg of You light for poor sinners.[40]

I am Love and Mercy itself. When a soul approaches Me [in the Eucharist, for example — SML] with trust, I fill it with such an abundance of graces that it cannot contain them within itself, but radiates them to other souls.[41]

I will sprinkle clean water upon you … A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh [in which the Holy Spirit dwells].” (Ez 36:25-27).

Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? But those things which proceed out of the mouth [the overflow of the spiritual heart — SML] come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the thing which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man (Mt 15:11-20).

At the time of death, the [spiritual] soul only is reproved, but, at the General Judgment, the soul is reproved together with the body, because the body has been the companion and instrument of the soul — to do good and evil according as the free-will pleased. Every work, good or bad, is done by means of the body. And, therefore, justly, My daughter, glory and infinite good are rendered to My elect ones with their glorified body, rewarding them for the toils they bore for Me, together with the soul. And to the perverse ones will be rendered eternal pains by means of their body, because their body was the instrument of evil. … [The just will experience] generosity and mercy shining in the blessed ones, who receive the fruit of the Blood of the Lamb, the pains that they have borne remaining as ornaments on their bodies, like the dye upon the cloth, not by virtue of the body but only out of the fulness of the [spiritual] soul.[43]

The Biology of The Human Heart: An Efficacious Instrument of Grace

1). Neurologically (using the nervous system);[44]

2). Biochemically (e.g., hormones);[45]

3). Biophysically (e.g., pulse waves — as from the beating heart);[46]

Does The Beating Sacred Heart of Jesus Produce Both Biological and Spiritual Changes?

Upon a visitation by St. John, the beloved Apostle, Saint Gertrude the Great was taken up in spirit to the Last Supper, during which John rested his head upon the bosom of Jesus. John placed Gertrude on Jesus’ right. John placed himself on the left. Then they both laid their heads on Jesus’ chest. Pointing reverently to the bosom of Jesus, John exclaimed:

Behold, this is the Saint of saints, who draws to Himself all that is good in Heaven and on earth!” … as [St. Gertrude] felt the constant pulsations of the Divine Heart, and rejoiced exceedingly thereat, she said to St. John: “Beloved of God, didst not thou feel those pulsations when thou wert lying on the Lord’s breast at the Last Supper?” “Yes,” he replied; “and this with such plenitude, that liquid does not enter more rapidly into bread than the sweetness of those pleasures penetrated my soul [remember, what affects the spiritual soul, affects spirit and overflows to the soul, which then affects the body — equally — SML], so that my spirit became more ardent than water under the action of a glowing fire.” “And why,” she inquired, “have you neither said nor written anything of this for our edification?” He [said], … “I deferred speaking of these Divine pulsations until later ages, that the world might be aroused from its torpor, and animated, when it had grown cold, by hearing of these things.”[47]

Clearly, the pulsating physical Sacred Heart of Jesus profoundly affected the two saints via both Sanctifying and Actual Graces.

4). The last means through which the biological heart communicates with the entire body is, Energetically (e.g., electromagnetic radiation).[48]

The heart is the most potent electromagnetic energy generator in the human body.[49] This cardioelectromagnetic energy not only envelops every cell in the human body, but the magnetic field generated extends outward several feet or more in all directions from the body.[50] The electromagnetic field produced by the heart is 5,000 times stronger than the brain’s.[51]

Rather than turn this article into a scientific dissertation about the biology of the human heart, I will link to an article that provides the option to explore the biological sciences a little more deeply.[52]

Miracles of the Eucharist & the Human Heart of Flesh

Miracles Involving the Holy Spirit and the Human Spirit of the Spiritual Soul:

St. Phillip Neri:

[St. Phillip Neri] kept the longest vigils and received the most abundant consolations. In this catacomb, a few days before Pentecost in 1544, the well-known miracle of his heart took place. Bacci describes it thus: “While he was with the greatest earnestness asking of the Holy [Spirit] His gifts, there appeared to him a globe of fire, which entered into his mouth [symbolizing his scriptural mouth, the body – SML] and lodged in his breast; and thereupon he was suddenly surprised with such a fire of love, that, unable to bear it, he threw himself on the ground, and, like one trying to cool himself, bared his breast to temper in some measure the flame which he felt .... all his body began to shake with a violent tremour; and putting his hand to his bosom, he felt by the side of his heart, a swelling about as big as a man’s fist ... The cause of this swelling was discovered by the doctors who examined his body after death. The saint’s heart had been dilated [expanded – SML] under the sudden impulse of love, and in order that it might have sufficient room to move, two ribs had been broken, and curved in the form of an arch. From the time of the miracle till his death, his heart would palpitate (beat-SML) violently whenever he performed any spiritual action [emphasis SML].”[55]

The miracle above shows that the Divine Light of the Holy Spirit simultaneously produces a physical impact on the human heart of flesh (cf. Ez 36:25-27). Specifically, changes occurred in myocardial cell division, electron excitation of the heart cells (responsible for a beating heart), the generation of pulse waves, and an increase in the intensity of the electromagnetic radiation generated by the beating heart. Let us look at another miracle to preempt those who will try to dismiss this by falsely stating that it was all spiritual, not physical.

St. Gemma Galgani:

Like St. Philip Neri, the same miraculous phenomenon occurred with St. Gemma Galgani, but with a few notable differences.

According to Glenn Dallaire:

St. Galgani experienced an increasingly intense burning beginning in the center of her heart and then radiating outward. She describes the sensation as a hot poker penetrating her, so intense she needed ice to cool it. The pain and burning were not merely spiritual but also physical. The skin in the area of the heart was burned. When …a thermometer [was placed] on the skin, the mercury immediately ascended to the upper limit of the gauge. This type of manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s dwelling in the spiritual heart which then overflowed into the physical heart was experienced by St. Padre Pio (his skin temperature, especially during Mass, was over 120 degrees, the upper limit of the thermometer), and also St. Paul of the Cross. Galgani said that while this burning caused great pain to her body, she did not desire that excruciating pain to stop because of the sweetness it produced in the very depths of her soul [i.e., the mouth/body breathed in the Divine, causing the inner heart to overflow and be expressed via the body, especially the human heart — SML]. The palpitations of her physical heart during this phenomenon were so great that her chair and bed would shake, even though she remained quite calm. Like Phillip Neri, St. Gemma’s heart was also expanded.[56]

The above-described heat-related phenomenon is consistent with that which God revealed to St. Hildegard of Bingen (a Doctor of the Church) about our body-soul composite:

Because the soul has a fiery nature, we are warm-blooded creatures. Its paths are windy in nature. The soul inhales the breath of life into the body and then expels it. By inhaling, we dry out, which is good for us since our flesh remains healthy and flourishes as a result of the dryness. By exhaling, the fire of the organism is diminished and warmth is removed. Thus, the whole body is constructed with the greatest sensitivity so that we can be alive, so that we can control all five senses of the body with their cluster of functions. If that warmth were not discharged from the body, the fire of the soul might burn the body, just as a house might be completely destroyed by the heat of a fire.[57]

Divine light does not generate heat. For example, the burning bush in Ex 3:2 was not consumed by the heat generated by a “fire”. Heat capable of consuming a combustible material can only be generated by created light existing within created time. Heat is the result of discreet packets of energy (called photons) traveling in a sine waveform [think of a roller coaster] that interacts with the electrons of physical matter with which it comes into contact. An example of such combustible matter is flesh near the physical heart. This contact causes energy transference, which results in the generation of heat. The human heart generates photons. — a LOT of them. Since a sine-wave can only exist in created time, it cannot be Divine Light (which exists in the Eternal Now). This is so because Divine Light is not material (created) light and is outside time and space. A photon travelling in a sine-wave path is serial in nature, i.e., one peak after another peak after another peak and so on. There are no serial movements in the Eternal Now.[58]

Like Phillip Neri, St. Gemma’s heart was also expanded. So much so that three of her ribs were broken at almost right angles. When her body was exhumed, physicians found that decomposition of the body had begun … except for the heart [emphasis SML]. It was found incorrupt, full of blood, fresh, healthy, and flexible.[59]

The Physical Consequences of Eating Jesus

1). Healthy food will lead an unhealthy body to become increasingly and incrementally healthier.

2). Junk food will cause an unhealthy body to become even more so.

3). Food that is good for us will maintain a body that is already a picture of health.

4). Junk food will cause a healthy body to become increasingly unhealthy.

1). Many cancers are asymptomatic until later stages. For example, cancers such as Testicular, ovarian, pancreatic, cervical, and prostate, to name a few.

2). Hypertension. A silent killer.

3). Most feelings are the specific result of biochemical reactions to the presence of certain stimuli. As seen above, significant changes can occur within your body without triggering a response from the nervous or endocrine (i.e., hormone-producing) systems. In other words, without producing sensible feelings.

Endnotes: