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HEAVEN HAS NOTHING
GREATER!
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Jesus said: “Whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst” (Jn 6:35). THE HOLY BIBLE: THE MOST AWESOME STATEMENTS EVER MADE Of all the books ever written—in the history of the world—it is most probable that the only statement of a truth ever mentioned nine (9) consecutive times is found in the Holy Bible, St. John’s Gospel, the sixth chapter, verses 48-58: (verse 48): “I am the bread of life.” (verse 49): “Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die.” (verse 51): “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” (verse 53): “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.” (verse 54): “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (verse 55): “My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.” (verse 56): “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” (verse 57): “Just as the living father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.” (verse 58): “This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.” (verse 6l): “Does this shock you?” No words Our Lord spoke were ever more relevant than “Does this shock you?” THE FOUR EVANGELISTS The Four Evangelists quote Christ’s Divine authority on this matter and they not only affirm what He said, they actually equate His body and blood in the Holy Eucharist with His body and blood offered on the cross! They, therefore, are both literally true or they are both symbolic! (Mk l4:24): “This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many.” (Lk 22:l9): “This is my body, which will be given for you.” (Mt 26:28): “This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Jn 6:5l): “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” History proves Christ did offer his real flesh and blood on the cross—therefore His real flesh and blood are available to us in Holy Communion. FOOD THAT ENDURES Recall Christ’s words: “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for that which endures unto life everlasting which the Son of Man will give” (Jn 6:27). Only a Catholic priest, by the power of the Holy Spirit, can give us the Bread “which endures unto life everlasting,” by changing bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ—the Sacred Host, the Holy Eucharist, the Blessed Sacrament. The bread and wine at Mass, “By the words of Christ and the invocation of the Holy Spirit, become Christ’s Body and Blood” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1333). JESUS CHRIST, MARTIN LUTHER OR HULDREICH ZWINGLI? Behind the high altar of the Benedictine Church of Ottobeuren in Swabia, Germany, there is a painting representing Christ, whose countenance radiates heavenly calm and divine majesty. On one side of Him is Luther and on the o ther Zwingli. Beneath the picture is written: “Christ says, this is my Body; Luther says, this will become my body; Zwingli says, this represents my body.” Which of the three is correct: Jesus Christ, Martin Luther, or Huldreich Zwingli? SYMBOL? “When you look at the crucifix, you understand how much Jesus loved you. When you look at the Sacred Host you understand how much Jesus loves you now” (Mother Teresa of Calcutta). Protestant denominations claim that at the Last Supper, in His last will and testament, Jesus Christ, God and man, who said “I am with you all days, even unto the consummation of the world” (Mt 28-20), meant He was going to leave us a symbol of Himself—but not literally Himself! Who can possibly conceive of a dying father, whose only surviving family members are a daughter and a son, in his last will and testament, presenting a picture of his multi-million dollar home to his daughter and saying: “Sweetheart, here is a picture of my beautiful home. I leave this picture to you as a remembrance of me.” And, to the son, presenting a picture of his lucrative family business and saying: “Son, here is an aerial photograph of my huge multi-million dollar business. I leave this picture to you as a remembrance of me.” THE CHALLENGE St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (l774-l82l), Foundress of the Sisters of Charity, and a convert, offers all Protestants this challenge: “The words of our Lord are clear enough when taking bread He blessed it, broke it, and gave it to His disciples and said: “Take and eat: this is my Body . . .” I defy Protestants to produce the authority of any of the Fathers of the first four centuries (whom they often quote as good authorities to prove religious truth), in support of their opinion that the words of Jesus Christ in the institution of this sacrament are to be taken in a figurative sense.” St. Justin Martyr, an Early Church Father, explains: “We do not receive this food as ordinary bread and as ordinary drink; but just as Jesus Christ, our Savior, become flesh through the word of God and assumed flesh through the word of God and assumed flesh and blood for our salvation, so too we are taught that the food over which the Eucharistic prayer is said, the food which nourishes our flesh and blood by assimilation, is the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ.” THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE “You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to Me; and yet you refuse to come to Me that you may have life” (Jn 5:39). Would He who said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn l4:6) confuse? Would He who said “I came into the world, to testify to the truth” (Jn 18:37) lie? Would He who said “If I speak the truth, why do you not believe me” (Jn 8:46) deceive? “PILLAR AND MAINSTAY OF TRUTH” The Bible says the Church—not the Bible—is the “pillar and mainstay of truth” (l Tim 3:l5)! The ex-Satan worshipper Betty Brennan, in speaking to a Pentecostal prayer group, said of the Bible and the Church that gives us the Eucharist: “For years, for years, I have persecuted the church. When I left and went back to the church, I picked the Roman Catholic Church because every Satanic ritual is a take-off on the Roman Catholic Sacraments. They [Satanists] know what the Eucharist is . . . if everybody here, and everybody that came into the renewal, understood the Sacrament of the Eucharist—the Word enfleshed—they would not end up in a Pentecostal Church with a relationship with a book—how can you leave a Sacramental Church and go to another denomination following a word, a book? The word of Jesus Christ brings you to the Word enfleshed, the Eucharist! “Do you know that if there was a bona fide witch here, and you put out thirty hosts, or a thousand hosts, and only one was consecrated, they would know immediately which one was consecrated—because of the presence! And yet we will go to x amount of prayer meetings, x amount of time with our prayer partner, but we don’t have that desire to be one with the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ Himself!” THE HOLY EUCHARIST—JESUS WITH US—2,000 YEARS lst century: St. Paul gave witness to these words of Christ: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death unt il he comes ” (l Cor 11:26). Over the centuries, whenever the Real Presence of Jesus was questioned, the Church continued to affirm the truth that in the Sacrament of the most Holy Eucharist “the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1374; Council of Trent 1551: DS 1651). 20th century: “The Second Vatican Council rightly proclaimed that the Eucharistic sacrifice is ‘the source and summit of the Christian life.’ ‘For the most holy Eucharist contains the Church’s entire spiritual wealth: Christ himself, our passover and living bread. Through his own flesh, now made living and life-giving by the Holy Spirit, he offers life to men.’ Consequently the gaze of the Church is constantly turned to her Lord, present in the Sacrament of the Altar, in which she discovers the full manifestation of his boundless love” (Pope John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 1). TRUE WORSHIPERS: PERSONAL FRIENDS OF GOD “The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship Him” (Jn 4:23). When we come before the Holy Eucharist we worship God in “spirit and truth,” offering Him our adoration, thanks and praise. “The Eucharistic gift assumes even more awesome proportions when we reflect that . . . the total Eucharistic mystery [also] includes the presence of both the Father and the Holy Spirit” (Fr. Richard Foley, S.J.). “To be alone with Jesus in adoration and intimate union with Him is the greatest gift of love—the tender love of our Father in Heaven” (Mother Teresa of Calcutta). “Could you not watch one hour with Me?” (Mt 26:40). Jesus asked His disciples for their true friendship, to watch, wait and worship. Jesus watches and waits for us in the Holy Eucharist today, to heal, console and strengthen us. Jesus longs to be our True Friend, and fill us with His love, joy and peace. In our hour of Adoration, we enter into a personal relationship with God. Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen gave witness to the awesome movement of hundreds of thousands of souls, Catholic and non-Catholics, who were inspired to accept his challenge of making a daily Holy Hour. Over 100,000 Protestants, said Archbishop Sheen, pledged themselves to spending this daily “hour of power” with Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. THE GREATEST LOVE STORY OF ALL TIME! The noted English writer, J. R. R. Tolkien, loved his Catholic Faith. The heart and soul of his love was the Holy Eucharist, and Christ’s presence in the Mass. To him this was the graduate school of divine love. When his son, Michael, said that his faith was weakening, Tolkien wrote to him: “Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament . . . . There you will find romance, glory, honor, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves upon earth” (J. R. R. Tolkien). God can give no greater gift than Himself! “The greatest love story of all time is contained in a tiny white Host” (Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen). Every thing in the world pales into in significance when compared to the Holy Eucharist. This is why Church Father and Doctor St. Augustine could say “Although God is all-powerful, He is unable to give more; although supremely wise, He knows not how to give more; though vastly rich, He has not more to give,” and why St. Bernard could say “The Eucharist is that love which surpasses all loves in Heaven and on earth.” Heaven has nothing greater! |
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