Stay With Us Always, Lord!
by Carol Eagan

With Us Today: On the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist
by John A. Hardon, S.J.
Ave Maria University Communications pp. 185
1-800-343-8607

Gaspard Cardinal Mermillod (+1892) once wrote, “Jesus must be the life of my work: otherwise...” For the Cardinal as for the author of With Us Today, there was never an “otherwise.” It was always clear that the very reason for the existence of Fr. John Anthony Hardon, S.J.(+2000), was to know, love and serve his Master. He was a fearless warrior who never wavered in his defense of the truths of the Catholic Faith and the centerpiece of his life was the Holy Eucharist.

With Us Today: On the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist is a work derived from his intimate familiarity with the Eucharistic Heart of Christ.

With breathtaking insight, Fr. Hardon deeply penetrates the essential truths of the Eucharistic mystery. The one relief for our troubled world is Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. We are weary wayfarers. Weary from the assaults of secularism; weary victims of the breakup of the family; weary of the fallout caused by decadent wickedness of every kind; weary of the pain of the loss of our nation’s soul. 

With the wisdom of centuries of Catholic tradition, Fr. Hardon simplifies the wealth of Church teachings on the Holy Eucharist and distills them into a clear presentation. With Us Today is not just another book on the Holy Eucharist. In league with the writings of St. Alphonsus de Ligouri, Fr. Faber and St. Peter Julian Eymard, Fr. Hardon’s book is a uniquely distinctive portrait of God-with-us. 

So many modern books on the Holy Eucharist are either overly sentimental or theologically barren. Fr. Hardon’s book is rich with theological and philosophical truth. It is an essential for Catholics today and a musts read for anyone struggling with the epidemic of errors which still surround the doctrine of the Holy Eucharist.

This invaluable book is at one and the same time a broad analysis of “the deepest mystery of Christianity” and a practical guide to the teachings of the Church on the Holy Eucharist. With analytical and methodical care, Father Hardon leaves the reader without a shred of ambiguity or doubt about Who is the Holy Eucharist. 

With characteristically thorough detail, Fr. Hardon first sketches the history of Eucharistic doctrine. Three chapters—three, four and five-divide the history of Eucharistic doctrine into two sets of fifteen hundred years on either side of the sixteenth century, “the most divisive century of the Church’s existence.” Fr. Hardon’s underlying objective is to advance the love of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. But he also wanted to broaden our understanding of the central mystery of our Faith in order that we might better deal with the challenges of the modern age. He never tired of teaching that we must “understand what we believe.” Modernism, he warns, is “basing one’s faith on one’s own inner mind and feelings rather than conforming the mind to God and His objective truth.” Secularism, the other major modern challenge to our belief in the Real Presence, is “a faith believing that only the saeculum —this world of space and time-exists.”

The book answers three basic questions:

• What do we believe when we believe in the Real Presence?
• Why did Christ institute the Holy Eucharist as His bodily presence on earth?
• How do we put this mystery of Faith into practice?

The teachings of the Church include the development of doctrine on the Holy Eucharist through the centuries. He leads us through the most salient doctrine on the Eucharist such as the Council of Trent, which, to this day, remains the benchmark teaching of the Church on the Holy Eucharist. 

Each of the five canons of Trent to which Father Hardon refers is worded in the form of an “anathema,” or curse, meaning anyone who denies one of these five dogmas is thereby denying a divinely revealed mystery of faith and ceases to be a Catholic. For example, the exactness of canon one drives home the sobering truth of the meaning of the Real Presence: “If anyone says that the Body and Blood together with His whole Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore the whole Christ, is truly, really and substantially contained in the Sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist, but says that Christ is present in the Sacrament only as a sign or figure or by His power, let him be anathema.”

Following an assiduous forty-six page doctrinal groundwork, Father brings us to the sacramental reality. “The Eucharist is not only a sacrament. It is the sacrament—the greatest of all sacraments.” He then draws on the development of doctrine of the Eucharist largely established by Pope John Paul II. The Eucharist is at once a Sacrifice-Sacrament, a Presence-Sacrament and a Communion-Sacrament.

Now the reader is ready to find out about what the Eucharist should mean to each person individually. What makes this book unlike any other book on the Holy Eucharist is Fr. Hardon’s insistence on drawing close to the God-become-man, really and truly present in the Most Blessed Sacrament. The reader is challenged to be open to a deeper personal relationship with the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity as “treasury of God’s Blessings for ourselves and others.” Jesus Christ is the source of all graces and He provides for all our needs and the needs of those we are so earnestly praying for. Jesus Christ is the manifestation of Divine Wisdom, Power, Love and Mercy. 

Why did God become Man? Fr. Hardon tells us “for two basic reasons: so that He might assume a human free will and by His death on the Cross, freely sacrifice His human life for our salvation. God became man so that He might have a body and soul that could separate at death.” We are left with no doubt as to the omnipotent Love hidden in the Sacred Host. 

Hidden in Catholic devotion to the Sacrament of Sacraments are the theological virtues. Belief in the Real Presence is a profession of faith, hope and love. Two chapters are devoted to the humility of Christ (Chapters 17 and 18). If pride caused the fall of man, the humility of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament balances, refreshes and restores humanity. Jesus Christ practices humility in the Blessed Sacrament; He practices poverty in the Blessed Sacrament (Chapter 19); He practices patient charity in the Blessed Sacrament (Chapter 20). We are not just informed of these virtues of Jesus Christ; we are irresistibly drawn into the imitation of the virtues our Lord practices in the Blessed Sacrament. 

Fr. Hardon never closed a conference, a homily, a reflection or a book without giving practical advice. This book is no exception. His practical advice augments our own understanding of what the Church teaches on the Holy Eucharist. He gives so many reasons for promoting Eucharistic adoration that it scarcely seems possible that our troubled world can survive without it. 

Finally, the Sacred Heart is the Holy Eucharist. If we have not by now been completely enraptured by the words in this marvelous book, we are no longer able to resist the words, “How we need to know that God became a sensitive human being! When we come to Him in the Blessed Sacrament, He wants us to tell Him how we feel, and He will tell us how He feels.” For all the loneliness and pain in the world; for all the confusion and ignorance, here at last, is the answer. Jesus Christ alone gives us what nothing and no one else can provide.

This 185-page book deserves wide readership not only among Catholics, but also for anyone who sincerely wants to know the real truth behind the central mystery of our faith. When Jesus said, “I have many more things to tell you but you cannot bear it now” (Jn 16:12), He must surely have been referring to, among other teachings, the fullest meaning of the Holy Eucharist, which at the time, His apostles were unable to fully grasp. This book expertly teaches us that Jesus Christ is truly, really, and substantially present on earth, here and now in every tabernacle throughout the world just as He is present in Heaven.
No one will close the pages of this book unaffected. Martha’s words to her sister Mary echo to us down through the centuries; down to the hearts of each and every soul. We are being urgently summoned, each one of us. The call is a whisper but it is unmistakable: “The Master is here, and He wants to see you!” (Jn 11:28).

Carol Egan writes from Northern Virginia.