6.2.26 - Corpus Christi and Faith v Doubts II

Watch the class recording here.

Catholic Understanding & Biblical Defense Class 6/2/26

Every Tuesday, 7PM-8PM (EST), 🖥️Zoom ID: 861 1782 2081  🗝️Passcode: 406952

Join to receive notifications and study notes on Meetup: www.meetup.com/catholicbiblestudy

Past classes are posted on our Catholic Catacombs Website:  www.CatholicCatacombs.org 

House Rules and Catholic Resources…

1. RSVP Reminder: Please RSVP whether you are attending the meeting or just reading the Recaps afterwards. The more RSVPs, the more Meetup will give exposure to “Catholic Bible Study” – a good thing! 

2. Questions. We encourage questions although we ask that you keep them on topic and brief. You can ask during the meeting, or in the chat box, or if you prefer you can email us through Meetup.com, or Ron directly: ron@hallagan.net. 

3. Respectfulness. We will be discussing differences between Christian denominations and religions in general, and we seek to be respectful at all times. Protestants especially are our friends and brothers/sisters-in-Christ; in fact, I owe much of my return to Christianity to them. Therefore, any critique of our brethren is in loving pursuit of apostolic truth.    

4. No politics.  It would be easy for us to self-destruct, but that’s not our goal :). Our goal is to learn, understand, and apply the Bible and our faith to our everyday lives. 

5. Word on Fire. Bishop Robert Barron has reached millions through his 10 min Sunday homilies, podcasts, educational series and certifications, bibles, and other lectures and apologetics. www.wordonfire.org  

6. Hallow App. Daily prayers and reflections, especially for the high holyday seasons. www.alex@mail.hallow.com 

7. Catholic Answers – www.catholic.com. Best site for Catholic Apologetics there is. 

8. Dynamic Catholic. Interested in daily inspirations to grow closer to God and the Church, not to speak of the many educational resources? Sign up for Matthew Kelly’s powerful insights, quotes, and reflections at www.dynamiccatholic.com. 

9. “The Chosen” TV series.  All of us seek a relationship with Jesus Christ, which is not always easy. It can help if we have seen and heard Him. The Chosen series captures Jesus better than any show I have ever seen. Highly recommended.  

10. Cursillo. Interested in meeting with other men or women weekly over coffee to discuss God in your personal and professional life? Join Cursillo (cur-see-yo). Contact Jennifer Pence (Jennifer.pence@gmail.com) for more information.       

11. Online- Catholic Prayer & Fellowship. Are you interested in praying the rosary, etc. with other Catholics during the week?  Follow fellow member Jason Goldberg. Link: https://www.meetup.com/online-catholic-prayer-and-fellowship/

Bible Study Format

Our Bible Study is a combination of Exegesis and Apologetics.

Each meeting is (roughly) as follows:

15. min   Apologetic Reflection

16. min   Upcoming Gospel Reading

30 min   Weekly topic/theme

1 hour

Week 1:    Gospel Week – we study several Gospel stories, especially the tough ones.     

Week 2:    Bible Week – we are working our way through the Bible. We are studying the New Testament.  

Week 3:    Questions and Survey Topics chosen by Members:       

1. Prison Ministry Stories  2. Plenary Indulgences   3. Explanation of the Mass and Eucharist   4. Dead Sea Scrolls              5. Catholicism vs modern cosmology?   6. The 7 Gifts/Fruits of the HS, 7 Deadly Sins  7. How to experience the Love of God  8. The Communion of Saints  9. Comparative Religions   10. Catholic vs Protestant beliefs

     Week 4:    Apologetics:

1. Gen 1-3 (Creation Story, Adam & Eve, the Fall of Man, The Meaning of Eve/the Trees/Summary

2. Faith vs Doubt – does having doubts make us bad Christians?

• Don’t forget to RSVP. 

• Taylor will send a link to everyone with today’s notes.

• The class is recorded if you want to listen to it anytime.

• I will occasionally ask for volunteer readers… 

Opening Prayer  

Eucharistia (gratitude):  Thank you, Lord, I am grateful for your saving presence in my life.       

Kenosis (emptying self):  Lord, I will try to empty myself as you did, to be present to others.                       

Metanoia (change self): Today, every moment, Lord, I will turn my mind, my heart, and my world towards You. 

Maranatha (Come, Lord Jesus): Come, Lord Jesus, enter, and make your home with me.                  

And as Jesus taught us to pray …

Our Father

Who art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily Bread;

And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Major holy days:    Corpus Christi:  The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, June 7 

   Sts. Peter & Paul (June 29)

   The Assumption of Mary (August 15)

   www.masstimes.org   Mass or Confession anywhere/anytime in the world!

Today’s Agenda… 

Reflection:  Reflection on John 6

Gospel Reading for Corpus Christi Sun 6/7:  Solemnity of the Most Holy Body & Blood of Christ, John 6:51-58

Reading #2:  We will conclude Doubts & Faith, Part II. 

 Corpus Christi Sunday:  The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ 

Context: 

With the Easter Season concluded on Pentecost, the Church immediately returns to that which made all this possible – the sacrifice of Jesus Christ’s body and blood for us – which is celebrated as Corpus Christi Sunday.  

Our reading this Sunday will be the last reading from the Gospel of John for a while. But John is perfect for Corpus Christi since the 2^nd half of Chapter 6 speaks about the Body and Blood of Christ like none other in the New Testament. 

Consuming the Body and Blood of Jesus is also one of the hardest discussions Catholics can have with non-Catholics, and perhaps even amongst themselves. All the more reason for us to have at it!

Let me first say that we aren’t the only ones who had a hard time with this. Jesus, did also! Therefore, it must have been very important for him to communicate this. So let’s see if we can figure this out. First, how did he set up the conversation? 

In the first half of chapter 6, Jesus takes several loaves of bread and multiplies them to feed 5000 people – which he compares to the “new manna.” This act not only showed his divinity but clearly he is preparing the people for a Eucharistic discussion. Then, after the miraculous multiplication of loaves, Jesus walked on the Sea of Galilee to save his apostles during a storm. Walking on the water is amazing enough, but when he quiets the storm (Mk 4:29), he does it with the words, “Be still!,” which only someone with an authority over nature could do. And who recalls what God says to King David? “Be still, and know that I am God” - Psalm 46:10.  What else could Jesus do? He even describes his miracles to the people by saying: 

These are the works of God, so that you believe in the one He sent.” – John 6:29

However, try as Jesus did, the people still doubted. 

So, why is this discussion about eating his flesh and blood important?

Jesus’ entire mission turns on his willing sacrifice for us and his sharing this sacrifice with us to replace the Old Covenant Passover and fulfill new Exodus for humanity. 

Can you explain how the Israelites eating the first sacrifice of the lamb is similar to our sharing in Christ’s sacrifice?    

Rather than just sacrificing the lamb to God like most sacrifices, God instructed the Israelites to eat this lamb sacrifice as part of their “communion” with Him (God); therefore, it became a worship meal that joined the people to God’s saving action. Furthermore, it foreshadowed what God would do personally for mankind when Jesus came. 

John 6:51-58

Jesus said to the Jewish crowds: "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."The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" 

Jesus said to them, "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. 

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.  

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. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever."

Exegesis/Interpretation

Jesus said to the Jewish crowds: "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.

You can see why Jesus was demonstrating his divinity before this discussion. No normal human could have this discussion. He is comparing himself to the manna in the desert (which he mentions earlier), except that this time the bread is not for their day-to-day survival like in the first Exodus, but humanity’s eternal survival.  

The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" 

The people don’t get it. Even Protestants don’t get it and say that Jesus was speaking metaphorically. Aside from the literal interpretation being taught since the time of the Apostles, if this dialogue was intended to be symbolic, then now would have been a great time for Jesus to explain this to his audience. Instead, rather than explaining it away, Jesus doubles down in his reply:  

Jesus replied to them, “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. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have (eternal) life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have (eternal) life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

Many of Jesus' disciples who were listening said, "This saying is hard; who can accept it?"

One of the reasons his audience had such difficulty with his words was the Torah’s prohibition against drinking the blood from sacrifices to pagan idols (Lev 17:12-14) – a common practice - which just shows us how literal Jesus was speaking. 

Our reading stops at V58, but if we look ahead to V66 it says: 

Because of this, many of Jesus followers returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.

His words were so shocking that people were leaving! If before wasn’t a good time to explain he was speaking symbolically, now sure would be. But, again, Jesus doesn’t:   

⁶⁷ Jesus then said to the Twelve, "Would you also like to leave?"

He wants to know if his Apostles are going to leave him, too! Does anyone reading this sense for one minute that Jesus is speaking metaphorically? Jesus seems completely willing to lose his disciples over this!  

⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered him, "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And now we believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."

Don’t think the Apostles weren’t worried about how Jesus was going to accomplish his words: eat my flesh, drink my blood.  Of course they were. It makes Peter’s response a complete and total act of faith, similar to Abraham taking Issac up to the mountain to sacrifice him. Abraham had no idea why God asked him to sacrifice Issac, but he trusted that God would somehow make things right. Similarly, the Apostles had no idea what Jesus meant when he said, “eat my body” and “drink my blood” except that Jesus would somehow make it work out! 

How does Jesus work it out?

Remember, the Manna and “Bread of the Presence” in Exodus prefigured Jesus. Now, at the Last Supper, Jesus puts his presence into them, making the “Bread from Heaven” and the “Bread of His Presence” fulfilled and real.  

What happened is that Jesus made our sharing in his sacrifice on the cross as easy as he could – via Communion in the Bread and Wine!

CS Lewis’ once said:  

Either Jesus was a liar, or he was insane, or He was the Son of God. – CS Lewis, Mere Christianity

Indeed. 

Faith & Doubts – Part II

Last week, we discussed that doubts are not an obstacle of faith. The saints and even the Apostles had to overcome them. The question is not whether we have doubts, but what we do with them. We will discuss this today. 

We also discussed science. Are faith and science in conflict? TayQuiz

No, not as long as science doesn’t try to get theological.  

Atheists like to say faith and science are in conflict because the physical universe is their belief system; it’s their religion, because they “believe” that’s all there is. Now that’s only true for half the scientists; the other half (51% according to the Pew Research Center) believe in God. To this group we can add Einstein, Isaac Newton, Georges Lemaitre, Frances Bacon, Johannes Kepler, and Max Plank, and many others. George Lemaitre, who developed the Theory of the Big Bang in 1927, was a Catholic priest. In fact, the Catholic Church helped get most universities started in the middle ages where modern science got its start. The Vatican even has its own observatory. So this idea that faith and science being in conflict is pure myth, which secularists often tie to fundamentalist Christians who believe the universe was created 6000 years ago. 

It is useful to know that from the time of Aristotle to the “Enlightenment,” science meant the “pursuit of truth,” wherever that led you, which is why philosophy was one of the primary sciences. However, since we can only prove things that we can observe and measure, we eventually redefined science to be “the study of the material universe.” That being the case, if a “scientist” tries to judge morality or the existence of God, that’s like asking a plumber to fix your heart. Spiritual subjects which are outside the physical realm include such things as truth, meaning, purpose, beauty, good, evil, faith, and the soul/afterlife. Yet, it is these very subjects that define what it means to be human. 

Nothing we just said makes science bad by any means – humans could not advance without it. I would probably be long dead without the many advances in medicine, hearing, eyesight, the ability to predict weather, and so on. Science is wonderful. It’s just not capable – because of its self-limiting definition – of answering questions beyond the physical domain.   

Said in other words, science is simply the study of God’s physical creation. How can they be in conflict? In fact, it is faith that gives humans the ability to do science, because we can ask “what if” questions, which is what hypotheses and theories are. We ask, “What if this or that happens?” and then we test it – that’s the scientific method.

What to do with doubts?

How many times have we called out to God for help – perhaps in illness, loneliness, confusion, or grief? How many times did it seem like nothing happened? Silence. Delay. No visible answer. In those moments, it is easy to turn inward and think, “Maybe my faith is too weak. Maybe I didn’t pray the right way. Maybe I’m not worthy.” Or… “Why am I having these doubts? Is this a bad sign?”

I should note that some people have beautiful, pure faith, no questions asked, no theology needed. My mother was that way!  It’s a rare gift. I wish I had it and, if I did, I would probably not be here tonight. So, if you never had any doubts, the following comments may not be particularly helpful for you. Don’t worry, you are blessed. 

Doubts come about for a variety of reasons. Most doubts are not attacks on our core beliefs, but rather attacks at the periphery of our beliefs. The devil likes to nibble away at the smaller things to sow doubts until they become bigger, which is what happens if they aren’t addressed. One might hear that the Church acted immorally in the past, or that the Church made up doctrines out of thin air, like the Assumption of Mary’s promulgation in 1950. 

The first thing we need to do when challenged is to remember to give the benefit of the doubt to the Church until you can do our homework, just like you would want to be given the benefit of the doubt if someone was spreading bad rumors about you. In fact, the Church itself can do nothing immoral, but people in the Church can and have done so – we are all sinners, starting with the apostles. It is also true that Pope Pius XII didn’t declare the Assumption of Mary to be a dogma of the Church until 1950, but good homework will show you that the Church believed in the Assumption for 2000 years; it just never had the need to defend it until 1950. Still, even when we give the Church the benefit of the doubt until we can learn the truth, we will often still have sick twinges of doubts in our guts. Just sayin’, that’s normal. 

So no, doubts are not a sign something is wrong with our faith. Doubts are not only to be expected; they are often necessary to the advancement of our faith. Once again, the issue is not that we have doubts but how we respond to them.

The blind Bartimaeus (Mk 10:46-52) teaches us an important lesson that should be mentioned at the outset. Recall that the crowd tried to silence him, “yet he cried out all the more.”  His faith was not measured by immediate results, but by persistence. Faith is not proven by how quickly God answers – besides, God’s time is not our time – it is proven by how firmly we continue to trust and pray even when He seems silent. 

Also recall the story of the Persistent Widow (Luke 18:1-8): she continues to go back to the judge until she gets a fair hearing. Jesus uses this example to point out that faith doesn’t get strengthened by easy, fast answers (although sometimes we get those, too!) but by putting in the hard work. 

This points up an interesting truth. One cannot advance one’s faith without trials any more than one can improve at piano without hours, days, and weeks of practice. Or get better at one’s hobby (i.e., gardening, music, carpenter) or at one’s job (whether a receptionist, musician, manager, or doctor) without overcoming obstacles. 

Who is our “trainer” when it comes to faith? TayQuiz

An unusual suspect: our ego. The ego is at the center of our worldly desires for immediate safety and gratification, which is the opposite of what we need when overcoming obstacles, learning, or seeking answers or truth. But how does the ego train us?

If you’ve ever shot a basketball without anyone guarding you, you will eventually learn to make a high percentage of your shots. But once a friend starts guarding you, you will have a much harder time, right? You will need to develop your skills more before you can start making the same percentage of shots. I used to think of my ego as my enemy. No. Think of your ego as your friend guarding you, making you work harder for patience and knowledge. 

The Staircase of Faith & Doubt

Like everything else we learn, our knowledge advances as we overcome obstacles. Therefore, we must see doubts like any other obstacle. When we come face to face with an obstacle in our hobby or job, do we panic and run away? Not usually!  Nor should we panic or assume the worst or run away when we have doubts. 

Doubts about one’s faith can often look insurmountable at first, like an impassable wall. But the fact is that it is just a big step on the stairway to greater faith. 

When we first hit the “step," it feels like a giant wall, a dead end. Our ego says, "See, I told you so. This is a waste of time. Now, let’s get the hell out of here.” Why does our ego say that? Because the ego always wants safety, not uncertainty. But if we listened to our egos all our life, we’d all be eternal couch potatoes. 

Remember that when the temptation hits to run back down the stairs, know that it’s a very temporary, false sense of security, for you will find NOTHING at the bottom that will make you feel better. That’s the material world at the bottom and materialism has no answers or meaning to give us, only marketing gimmicks and distractions to keep us from God. 

So what should we do? Instead of running away down the stairs, we offer our doubts back to the Lord.  Example:  

“Lord, look, I can’t deal with this, so I am asking for your help! Can you help me solve this issue? If not now, then please take my doubts and give them back to me when you’re ready, or when I’m ready. Now, I am going to put these doubts out of my mind for now because they are in YOUR hands." Then let it go and move on. Let God do His work and, if you have homework to do, then make a note of it and follow up just like you would any other obstacle in your life. 

It is worth noting that every person’s faith is unique – there are not two people on the planet who are in the same exact same spiritual place. Yet, our response to confronting our doubts IS the same answer: rather than running away we give them back to God, ask for help, and then hand them over. 

Note that this act of trusting God is itself an act of faith!  Do you see, the answer to advancing beyond our doubts is to do the most counter-intuitive thing of all – give it to God. Responding to doubts by an act of faith is the greatest act of faith you can practice. God will help you somehow, some way. In time (sometimes soon, sometimes later), you will find yourself up that next step looking down and wondering why you ever had that doubt in the first place. 

Furthermore, when you rise up to the next step you will no longer be the same person you were before. We may be humans but that is “what” we are. Who we are is tied to our spiritual natures and, as we move up this spiritual staircase, our “who” changes with every step.  

Closing Prayer: 

O God 

Who by the light of the Holy Spirit

Did instruct the hearts of the faithful

Grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise

And ever enjoy His consolations.

Through Christ, Our Lord.  

Think of Pentecost…      Come Holy Spirit

Fill the hearts of the faithful 

And kindle in them the fire of Your love. 

Send forth Your Spirit and they shall be created

And You shall renew the face of the Earth. 

Amen.