“[The Eucharist] was probably the hardest thing to believe. It seems to magical, so fairytale-ish, so impossible. Most converts from Protestantism that I know have that same reaction. And now that they’ve been Catholic for years and have lived into an understanding of those doctrines, they find that very beautiful, and they can’t understand how they could’ve missed it before.
Go into a Catholic church sometime when nobody else is around, so you won’t be embarrassed. And if you’re a Christian at all, and Christ is your Lord, ask him, ‘Are Catholics believing this nonsensical superstition and confusing the symbol with the reality? If so, please don’t let me go any closer to that ridiculous idea. But if that’s really You, I want You in the most intimate way; I want to marry You with my soul. [Then] draw me there.’ So if you really don’t know, but you’re honest and you search for truth, ask Him.
[And] the fact that there are very rarely mystical or miraculous experiences is its power. God does not give us a spiritual sweet tooth. So we have to do it ourselves; that is, our faith, which is a gift from God, comes through our own choice.”
Prof. Peter Kreeft,
Philosophy
“[St. Thomas Aquinas] has a very elegant account of [the Sacraments], that God condescends to use humble things of this world in order to convey His natural grace. But the summit of the Sacramental system, for Aquinas, is the Eucharist, because uniquely that not only brings about God’s grace, but it actually brings about God Himself—God with us.
I started off my studies…fascinated by the entire question of God coming into His creation in order to sanctify it, in order to save it. And it seems to me that the Eucharist is, in some ways, the logical culmination of God’s presence in His own creation to lift it up. It’s the fact that God continues to make Himself available to us and present to us even after the Resurrection.
Even before the Pew results came out, which didn’t shock me, because I teach undergrads…I was already aware of how little cognizance there was among Catholics about sacramental theology in general, and the Eucharist. So I’d already incorporated [it] into all my undergrad teaching. It always gladdens my heart when I see the reaction; you can see the lights going on, and all of a sudden, their eyes open. People have a very powerful reaction once they grasp it. There’s also a sad reaction that it took them maybe 18, 19, 20 years of their life…to finally have some explain this to them. I would encourage all Catholic educators to maybe consider adding a lesson on the Eucharist to their classes at all levels.”
Prof. Gregorio Montejo,
Theology