# Really, Truly, and Substantially Present - Bishop Barron's Daily Sermon

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 20 Jul 2026, 14 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/73038761/really_truly_and_substantially_present_bishop_barron_s_sunday_sermon.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Peace be with you friends. We're reading, of course, of
[0:02] Speaker 1: these weeks from the sixth chapter of John, this pivotal
[0:06] Speaker 1: section of the New Testament, where John lays out his
[0:09] Speaker 1: eucharistic theology, and we come today really to the sort
[0:12] Speaker 1: of rhetorical high point of this discourse where things really
[0:18] Speaker 1: come to a head, like what is Jesus talking about?
[0:22] Speaker 1: So it's very important for us. The Church asked us
[0:24] Speaker 1: every third summer to do this extended meditation on this
[0:28] Speaker 1: passage because we're dealing with the pivotal sacrament, one of
[0:32] Speaker 1: the most important moments in the life of a Catholic.
[0:35] Speaker 1: So we pay really close attention. Listen to this note.
[0:40] Speaker 1: Jesus said to the crowds, I am the Living Bread,
[0:45] Speaker 1: come down from heaven. He talked about manna. You know,
[0:47] Speaker 1: centuries before I'm the living Bread. Whoever eats this bread
[0:52] Speaker 1: will live forever. The bread that I will give is
[0:55] Speaker 1: my flesh for the life of the world. Now we
[1:00] Speaker 1: might be accustomed to that, we heard this for two
[1:02] Speaker 1: thousand years within the Christian tradition, but imagine his audience.
[1:07] Speaker 1: Imagine an audience of first century Jews hearing this language. Well,
[1:11] Speaker 1: listen what they say. The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,
[1:17] Speaker 1: how can this man give us his flesh to eat?
[1:21] Speaker 1: To get this, we have to move into their frame
[1:24] Speaker 1: of mind. If you look in the Old Testament, there
[1:27] Speaker 1: are frequent prohibitions against the eating of an animal's flesh
[1:34] Speaker 1: with blood. I'm going to just give you a couple
[1:38] Speaker 1: Genesis nine, verse four. Every movie thing that lives shall
[1:42] Speaker 1: be food for you, But you shall not eat flesh
[1:45] Speaker 1: with its life, that is its blood. Here's Leviticus three seventeen.
[1:53] Speaker 1: It shall be a perpetual statue throughout your generations. You
[1:56] Speaker 1: must not eat any fat or any blood. Here's Deuteronomy
[2:02] Speaker 1: twelve twenty three. The clean and the uncleaner like you
[2:06] Speaker 1: may eat, only be sure you do not eat the blood.
[2:10] Speaker 1: This prohibition against eating flesh with blood so was a
[2:15] Speaker 1: way of honoring God, because blood was seen as life,
[2:18] Speaker 1: and life was the proper preserve of God. And so
[2:20] Speaker 1: we wouldn't take it upon ourselves to do that. So
[2:23] Speaker 1: imagine how a people who have been shaped for centuries
[2:26] Speaker 1: by these laws. It's basic to the kind of purity
[2:31] Speaker 1: and dietary code of ancient Israel. And Jesus says, I
[2:36] Speaker 1: can't listen the bread that I will give is my
[2:39] Speaker 1: flesh for the life of the world. So they're meaguring
[2:42] Speaker 1: he wants us to eat his flesh, which obviously has
[2:45] Speaker 1: blood in it. I can't do that in regard to
[2:47] Speaker 1: an animal. How in the world a human being. Not
[2:53] Speaker 1: only is it disgusting to them, but it's religiously offensive.
[2:59] Speaker 1: It's religiously repugnant to use language like this. So here
[3:03] Speaker 1: everybody follows. And this is why I call it the
[3:06] Speaker 1: rhetorical climax of this discourse. So the statements made summing
[3:12] Speaker 1: up jesus teaching and the visceral negative reaction to it.
[3:17] Speaker 1: So you'd expect, okay, if they're just misunderstanding here what
[3:21] Speaker 1: he means, they're just misconstruing his language that he would,
[3:25] Speaker 1: you know, clear it up. Remember when we spoke to Nicodemus,
[3:29] Speaker 1: you unless a man be born again, and Nicodemus, well,
[3:31] Speaker 1: how can a man go back in his mother's womb? Well,
[3:33] Speaker 1: I mean, Jesus just sort of side steps that because
[3:36] Speaker 1: that's silly. He's not talking at that level. So why
[3:39] Speaker 1: doesn't he do a similar clarification here, Because listen to
[3:43] Speaker 1: what he says a man A man I say to you.
[3:46] Speaker 1: That's code for listen up. This is this is really
[3:51] Speaker 1: important and really true. Unless you eat the flesh of
[3:56] Speaker 1: the son of Man and drink his blood, you do
[4:00] Speaker 1: not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and
[4:03] Speaker 1: drinks my blood as eternal life. Now, I've pointed it
[4:07] Speaker 1: out before to you, and I've written about it. The
[4:10] Speaker 1: Greek here is very instructive because the usual word you'd
[4:14] Speaker 1: use in Greek for to eat, the way human beings
[4:17] Speaker 1: gather around a table to eat, is Fagain, he doesn't
[4:21] Speaker 1: use that verb, though, he uses the verb trogane, and
[4:25] Speaker 1: trogaane is the way an animal would eat. It means
[4:29] Speaker 1: something like to gnaw on. So they've objected to the
[4:34] Speaker 1: sort of physicalistic realism of this. What do you mean
[4:38] Speaker 1: eat your flesh and drink your blood. He doesn't explain
[4:42] Speaker 1: it away. He doesn't appeal to metaphor. No, he heightens
[4:47] Speaker 1: the language. Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you
[4:51] Speaker 1: gnaw on the flesh or front of man. And then
[4:56] Speaker 1: he adds lest they miss it and drink his blood.
[5:00] Speaker 1: I say that they had always prohibitions against eating flesh
[5:02] Speaker 1: with blood, so in case they forgot, he reminds them
[5:06] Speaker 1: and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
[5:11] Speaker 1: Whoever eats my flesh, drinks my blood has eternal life.
[5:17] Speaker 1: This is it, everybody. It seems to me, this is
[5:21] Speaker 1: the ground of what we call in the Catholic tradition,
[5:25] Speaker 1: the doctrine of the real presence, that Jesus is not
[5:30] Speaker 1: simply symbolically present, present through metaphor. He's really truly and
[5:39] Speaker 1: substantially present under the signs of bread and wine. That's
[5:44] Speaker 1: why we say it. I think it's articulated most fully
[5:47] Speaker 1: here in John six. You know. Vatican two. In case
[5:51] Speaker 1: you think there's some kind of old fashioned doctrine, think again.
[5:54] Speaker 1: Vatican Council two affirms Christ's presence in a number of ways.
[6:00] Speaker 1: Vatican two talks about, indeed, the presence of Christ in
[6:03] Speaker 1: the word proclaimed. It's true why we prosess with the
[6:06] Speaker 1: scriptures and we sing and we incense the scriptures. It
[6:10] Speaker 1: affirms the presence of Christ in the gathered community. Wherever
[6:13] Speaker 1: two or three are gathered in my name, I'm there
[6:16] Speaker 1: in their midst. Vatican two affirms the presence of Christ
[6:19] Speaker 1: in the poor, all these in the person of the
[6:24] Speaker 1: priest at Mass. That's why, you know, in a higher liturgy,
[6:28] Speaker 1: we will incense the person of the priest because he,
[6:32] Speaker 1: in a sense embodies the presence of Christ. All these
[6:35] Speaker 1: are real presences, that they're not phony presences. But then
[6:40] Speaker 1: Vatican two distinguishes between all of those and the qualitatively
[6:47] Speaker 1: different mode of presence in the Eucharist, which again is real,
[6:53] Speaker 1: true and substantial. Not that the other ones are inauthentic,
[6:59] Speaker 1: but there's a qualitative difference between all those other modes
[7:02] Speaker 1: of presence and this one. You know, Thomas Aquinas famously
[7:08] Speaker 1: said that the vertus christie, the power of Christ is
[7:12] Speaker 1: present in all the other sacraments. Think of the you know,
[7:16] Speaker 1: the water of baptism, think of the oil used the
[7:18] Speaker 1: confirmation at at a marriage, at a wedding. I mean,
[7:23] Speaker 1: Christ's power is present in all those sacraments. But then
[7:28] Speaker 1: he says in the Eucharist, ipsey, Christus is present. That
[7:34] Speaker 1: means Christ himself, not just his power. That's in all
[7:39] Speaker 1: the sacraments, Christ himself. Here's a clue, by the way,
[7:44] Speaker 1: for Catholic especially listening to me. After we baptize a
[7:48] Speaker 1: baby and we bless the water, we baptize a baby
[7:51] Speaker 1: in the water, but we don't don't save the water
[7:55] Speaker 1: and genuflect in front of it. No, it was a
[7:57] Speaker 1: bearer for that time of the vert christie, the power
[8:01] Speaker 1: of Christ after confirmation. I've got the little stock of oils.
[8:05] Speaker 1: I don't put that in a tabernacle and kneel down. No,
[8:09] Speaker 1: for the time of the ceremony, it was a bearer
[8:12] Speaker 1: of the virtus CHRISTI. It's not ipse Christus, but the
[8:18] Speaker 1: Eucharist is. But the Eucharist is. Unless you gnaw on
[8:22] Speaker 1: the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
[8:25] Speaker 1: you have no life in you. It's why you know.
[8:29] Speaker 1: You can't say the eucharistis. Oh, it's really one wonderful
[8:32] Speaker 1: prevocative sign among many. Like, hey, I know you're into
[8:34] Speaker 1: the Eucharist, but I'm really into Christ's presence among the poor.
[8:38] Speaker 1: I know the Euchrist means a lot too, but hey,
[8:40] Speaker 1: I'm really into Christ's presence in the scriptures. No, No,
[8:43] Speaker 1: you can't play it that way. It's not one presence
[8:46] Speaker 1: among many. They're all the other ones. And then there's
[8:52] Speaker 1: the Eucharist. John Paul two, you know, ecclezia day, Eucharistia.
[8:58] Speaker 1: The church comes from the Echrist. I wouldn't say that
[9:01] Speaker 1: about any other sacrament, but I can say it about
[9:03] Speaker 1: the Eucharist, which is the very body of Christ. Okay,
[9:09] Speaker 1: Having made that clarification based on what Jesus says in
[9:12] Speaker 1: John six, how come we don't react the same way
[9:16] Speaker 1: the Jews at the time reacted. I mean, I said, Okay,
[9:20] Speaker 1: I guess I understand what you're saying here, but it
[9:22] Speaker 1: seems like like so much nonsense. I mean, what do
[9:24] Speaker 1: you mean this? I go to Mass and these words
[9:27] Speaker 1: are said, and there's this still looks like bread to
[9:29] Speaker 1: me and like wine to me. What do you mean
[9:31] Speaker 1: it's really the presence of Christ? Well, here's everybody an
[9:36] Speaker 1: important clarification in regard to the eucharistic change. We're never
[9:42] Speaker 1: talking about something that's empirically verifiable. The Church says Jesus
[9:48] Speaker 1: is really truly and substantially present. What does that mean?
[9:53] Speaker 1: That means at the deepest center or ground of its being,
[9:59] Speaker 1: that bread has changed into the substance of the body
[10:02] Speaker 1: of Christ. Even as to use the classical language, the
[10:06] Speaker 1: accidents remain just a fancy way of saying the appearances remain.
[10:13] Speaker 1: The point there is, you're never going to discern this
[10:15] Speaker 1: change by analyzing the eucharistic elements like oh I saw it,
[10:21] Speaker 1: or let's put that under a microscope and see what
[10:24] Speaker 1: we can see. No, no, the change is not at
[10:27] Speaker 1: an empirically verifiable level. And here's the interesting thing. In
[10:31] Speaker 1: a way, it's indicative of the prejudice of our time
[10:35] Speaker 1: that we tend to conflate the real and the empirical. Right,
[10:41] Speaker 1: we're very scientifically minded. So what's real, Well, what the
[10:45] Speaker 1: sciences can measure, what our senses can see, and what
[10:48] Speaker 1: the sciences can measure with their instruments, that's the real.
[10:51] Speaker 1: Everything else is kind of I don't know, squishy, subjective,
[10:55] Speaker 1: you know, indefinite. But that's an impoverishment that we we
[11:00] Speaker 1: have today. Prior to the modern period, people understood all
[11:04] Speaker 1: these different levels of reality. They understood a kind of
[11:08] Speaker 1: onto logical hierarchy. There is, indeed the level of being
[11:12] Speaker 1: that we can see with our senses and measure with
[11:15] Speaker 1: our instruments, but being is not limited to that God
[11:18] Speaker 1: help us. In fact, even the scientists talk about lots
[11:22] Speaker 1: of things that are real but that we can't see
[11:25] Speaker 1: now A for ZR. I think of mystics and philosophers, poets,
[11:31] Speaker 1: theologians who talk about dimensions of reality that are eminently
[11:36] Speaker 1: real but that we can't see. You can't see a number,
[11:40] Speaker 1: for example, you can see a number of things. Oh,
[11:42] Speaker 1: there are seven things over there, the number seven. What
[11:45] Speaker 1: does it look like? What's it smell like? The number seven?
[11:48] Speaker 1: How do you analyze it with a microscope? You can't
[11:51] Speaker 1: the number seven or the quadratic formula. Those are pure abstractions.
[11:56] Speaker 1: Those are invisible realities. And so make sure it's of
[12:00] Speaker 1: the substance. Call it the deepest dimension of the reality
[12:06] Speaker 1: of a thing that has changed. In this case, Joseph
[12:10] Speaker 1: Roskier said, God has seized those elements, the bread and wine,
[12:15] Speaker 1: at the deepest root of their being, and has now
[12:18] Speaker 1: made those appearances pure bearers of His presence. The change
[12:24] Speaker 1: not empirical, but the change at the substantial level. Something
[12:28] Speaker 1: I've shared out clothes with this, I've shared before with
[12:30] Speaker 1: you is in the Biblical imagination, things are what God
[12:36] Speaker 1: says they are right. God speaks, and then things happen.
[12:41] Speaker 1: That's the poetic way of saying that God's knowledge grounds
[12:45] Speaker 1: the reality of things. God doesn't look at the world
[12:49] Speaker 1: and therefore and know it the way we do. Rather,
[12:52] Speaker 1: God knows the world and Therefore it is what God
[12:57] Speaker 1: says is who's Jesus. Well, if you were just one
[13:03] Speaker 1: prophet among many, one more religious philosopher, well then he
[13:08] Speaker 1: could speak high metaphorical language and we'd find it fascinating.
[13:13] Speaker 1: But that's not who he is. Jesus is God from God,
[13:17] Speaker 1: Light from light, True God, from true God. Therefore, what
[13:21] Speaker 1: he says is, this is my body, this is my blood.
[13:28] Speaker 1: God thereby seizing these elements by the very root of
[13:31] Speaker 1: their being and making them bearers of His presence. That's
[13:37] Speaker 1: our eucharistic faith. That's the rhetorical climax of this discourse.
[13:42] Speaker 1: That's the hinge upon which everything turns, and God bless you.

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