The Holy Eucharist and the Hint of an Explanation

The English author and convert to Catholicism Graham Greene once penned a short story entitled “The Hint of an Explanation,” which is well worth the read, not least of all for Graham’s prose and haunting slow-burn of a narrative. The story tells of a young altar server who dutifully attends his priest at Sunday Mass and regularly receives Holy Communion. “I hated it,” the boy recounts of putting on his surplice in a Catholic church, instead of the nearby Anglican church, which he says he considered the “proper” church. Gradually and somewhat reluctantly, the boy is befriended by one of the town’s two bakers, known as Blacker.

“He was hemmed in by his hatred — his hatred of us,” the boy recalls. “That poor man was preparing to revenge himself on everything he hated — my father, the Catholics, the God whom people persisted in crediting.” Blacker seemingly manufactures encounters with the boy and, aware that the child serves at Mass, eventually offers him a magnificent toy train set in exchange for a consecrated Communion host. “It may seem odd to you, but this was the first time that the idea of transsubstantiation really lodged in my mind. I had learned it all by rote; I had grown up with the idea,” the boy narrates. “[B]ut here suddenly I was in the presence of a man who took it seriously, as seriously as the priest whom naturally one didn’t count — it was his job. I felt more scared than ever.” To find how the story ends, you’ll have to read it yourself. (READ MORE from S.A. McCarthy: The Pernicious Persecution of Traditional Catholics)

It is perhaps excusable for a child not to think too deeply on the doctrine of the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, especially if his head is filled with visions of electric train sets and terrors of secretive bakers. But the initial thoughtless apathy of the boy in the story has, sadly, essentially become the norm for adult Catholics. A 2019 survey from the Pew Research Center found that only 31 percent of American Catholics really believe that, as the Church teaches, “during Catholic Mass, the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus.” According to a more recent study from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, only about 35 percent of American Catholics believe in the True Presence. Perhaps unsurprisingly in the present age, nearly 10 percent of American Catholics noted that they are familiar with the Church’s doctrinal teachings on the True Presence but choose to reject them.

Contrast these abysmal statistics with the recent story of a priest charged with battery for biting a woman during Mass — in order to protect the Holy Eucharist. According to Catholic News Agency, a woman and her same-sex partner attended a First Communion Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in St. Cloud, Florida. The woman stood in line to receive Communion but neither held out her hands nor opened her mouth to receive on the tongue. The priest, recognizing that something was wrong, asked her when she had last been to confession and recommended she attend the sacrament before presenting herself for Holy Communion.

The woman and her partner attended Mass again just two hours later and she once again presented herself for Holy Communion before the same priest. He asked her if she had had an opportunity to attend confession and, according to his account of events, she replied, “No, I don’t need to explain to you, I don’t need to give an explanation, you don’t have authority, you don’t need to judge me.” The priest responded, “I’m not judging you, I’m asking you only, did you confess after the other Mass [to] receive the Communion now? Because if you did not confess, I can’t give you the Communion.”

Then, just as Greene’s Blacker no doubt sought to do, the woman reached out and grabbed a handful of consecrated Communion hosts and began breaking them into little bits. To one who recognizes what Greene called the “infinite value” of the Blessed Sacrament, such an act is one of heartbreak and horror: the mangling and desecrating of the Body and Blood of Christ Himself, as helpless under the appearance of bread and wine as He was hanging bruised and bloodied and battered upon the cross. In an effort to protect the Body of Christ and to keep the Communion hosts from falling to the ground, the priest leaned forward and bit the woman’s arm. (READ MORE: The Bogeyman: The Leftists’ Hatred of the Catholic Church)

The Diocese of Orlando released a statement saying, “[W]hile the Diocese of Orlando does not condone physical altercations such as this, in good faith, Father Rodriguez was simply attempting to prevent an act of desecration of the holy Communion, which, as a priest, Father Rodriguez is bound by duty to protect.” Police have charged the priest with one count of battery. The woman told police present, “I just wanted a cookie. That’s all.” She added, “He wouldn’t give me a cookie.”

Far too many self-professed Catholics today would no doubt say that Father Rodriguez overreacted or caused a scene. Perhaps his behavior wasn’t “pastoral” or “inclusive” enough. An old joke — less funny than it is saddeningly poignant — asks, “What’s the difference between a progressive Catholic and a Satanist?” The Satanist believes in the True Presence. For those who consider a priest a madman for biting a woman over “a cookie,” there is perhaps no sensible explanation for such behavior. But for those who see that this priest would not only bite to safeguard the Blessed Sacrament but would surely die for It, that may perhaps be the hint of an explanation.

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