The Real Presence: Why Do We Ignore It?

He is present. Yet we ignore Him.

So often people say, "if Jesus came down from heaven and showed himself, everyone would believe." I disagree and often rebuttal with he is already present. He is present in the sacrament of the Eucharist, yet very little Catholics partake in the sacrament of adoration. You don't need to have an apparition or miracle to see God and have a one-on-one conversation with him. All you have to do is look up you parish adoration schedule and attend.

But it seems like the problem isn't a lack of knowledge of when parishes have adoration. It sees that the problem is most Catholics do not believe and/or understand transubstantiation. According to a Pew Research Poll, only 31% of Catholics believe that "during Catholic Mass, the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus." That is a very scary number. That means that 69% of Catholics either don't believe anything happens or that the Eucharist is just a symbol. And that is why so many Catholics ignore him. They literally don't believe its him, rather just a symbol of the actual thing. And if it were just a symbol then no one should attend adoration, because you would be worshipping a symbol. But it isn't a symbol, it is actually Christ.

So what happens at mass? What makes the simple bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus Christ? As Catholics we believe in transubstantiation, which involves the ideas of both matter and form, as discussed by Aristotle. In essence, everything has a matter and form, where the matter is the physical things that make up the particular object and the form is the essence or the substance. There are also two types of changes, substantial and accidental. Substantial changes are changes in substance or form, where accidental changes are changes in accidents or in matter. The unleavened bread experiences a substantial change during transubstantiation, meaning that the matter remains the same, but the form or essence of that thing changes. That is why the Eucharist looks the same during the words of consecration, when in fact, the substance, the form has completely changed. It is no longer bread, it is a living person, it is Jesus Christ. If Catholics actually understood what was happening during the mass I am confident more people would spend time with him.

But another dilemma arises. There are those that believe in transubstantiation and still don't spend time with him, including myself. I often find myself thinking that I could go to adoration much more often than I do. So why don't I? There really isn't an excuse. We need to put our excuses in the trash, because, when we are face-to-face with the Lord, there are no excuses. We cannot lie and we cannot hide in the face of God. So let us just be honest. When we don't spend time in adoration, we made a simple decision to prioritize other things over Jesus Christ.

Let's stop acting like there are other things just as important as him, because there isn't. Let's stop acting like the paper, report, or file that needs to be done is just as important as him, because they aren't. Let's stop acting like our kid's sports practices are more important than our relationships with Jesus, because they aren't.

Jesus wasn't afraid to prioritize the father above all else. He wasn't afraid to stir up controversy in the face of persectution. So why don't we. Why don't we be the focus of change in our world.

Let us adore him.