“What is it?”

The Eucharist: Part I

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A 2019 Pew Research Center survey found that 69% of Catholics believe that Holy Communion is a just symbol. The 69% is broken down as follows: 

• 22% believe that the Catholic Church teaches that the Eucharist is actually Jesus Christ, but they personally believe it’s just a symbol. 
• 43% think the Church teaches that the Eucharist is a symbol and personally believe it’s just a symbol.
• The remaining 4% are not sure what the Church teaches, but personally believe it’s just a symbol.

What do you believe? Who is correct? What is the Eucharist? What does the Church teach? The truth about what the Eucharist really is, is obviously an important question. If the Eucharist is just a symbol, that’s one thing. However, if it’s actually Jesus, then it’s the most important gift God has given us – and Catholics need to know.

This is not the first time the faithful have been confused about holy bread. And I’m not referring to the Eucharist, but to another bread from heaven that came thousands of years before.

After the people of Israel escaped Egypt and crossed the Red Sea with Moses, they found themselves hungry. God provided food for them. God said,

“I have heard the murmurings of the people of Israel; say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread; then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.'” In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning dew lay round about the camp. And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as hoarfrost on the ground. When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat. Now the house of Israel called its name manna.

-Exodus 16:12-15, 31

When the people first saw the manna, they asked, “What is it?” in Hebrew, “man hu” This also led to the name of the bread: man hu: manna. Like many Catholics today, the Israelites also did not know what their bread really was. 

Much of what we read in the Old Testament is a foreshadowing of Jesus, the Church, the Sacraments, Mary and more. The “what is it?” bread – manna – is a foreshadowing of the Eucharist (or Holy Communion). An important fact about Biblical foreshadowing is this: The New Testament fulfillment is always greater than what foreshadowed it in the Old Testament. For example, Moses is a foreshadowing of Jesus and Jesus is greater than Moses. This means that the bread that Jesus gave is far superior to the manna which came down from heaven in the desert. 

But if it’s just a symbol, how is it greater? I’ll give you a hint… it’s not just a symbol.