Egypt, and water into wine at the wedding of
Cana? Does he not daily make devout souls the tabernacles of the Holy
Ghost? And shall we have the hardihood to deny, in spite of our Lord's
plain declaration, that God, who works these wonders, is able to change
bread and wine into His body and blood for the food of our souls?

You tell me it is a mystery above your comprehension. A mystery, indeed. A
religion that rejects a revealed truth because it is incomprehensible
contains in itself the seeds of dissolution and will end in rationalism.
Is not everything around us a mystery? Are we not a mystery to ourselves?
Explain to me how the blood circulates in your veins, how the soul
animates and permeates the whole body, how the hand moves at the will of
the soul. Explain to me the mystery of life and death.

Is not the Scripture full of incomprehensible mysteries? Do you not
believe in the Trinity--a mystery not only above, but apparently contrary
to, reason? Do you not admit the Incarnation--that the helpless infant in
Bethlehem was God? I understand why Rationalists, who admit nothing above
their reason, reject the Real Presence; but that Bible Christians should
reject it is to me incomprehensible.

But do those who reject the Catholic interpretation explain this text to
their own satisfaction: "This is My body, etc?" Alas! here their burden
begins. Only a few years after the early Reformers had rejected the
Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist no fewer than one hundred meanings were
given to these words: "This is My body." It is far easier to destroy than
to rebuild.

Let me now offer you some additional reasons in favor of the Catholic or
literal sense. According to a common rule observed in the interpretation
of the Holy Scripture, we must always take the words in their literal
signification, unless we have some special reason which obliges us to
accept them in a figurative meaning. Now, in the present instance, far
from being forced to employ the words above quoted in a figurative sense,
every circumstance connected with the delivery of them obliges us to
interpret them in their plain and literal acceptation.

To whom did our Savior address these words? At what time and under what
circumstances did He speak? He was addressing His few chosen disciples, to
whom He promised to speak in future, not in parables nor in obscure
language, but in the words of simple truth. He uttered these words the
night before His Passion. A