Welcome back to the Word on Fire show. I'm Matthew Petrusick, Senior Director of the

Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire show. Thank you for joining us.

America's three-year National Eucharistic Revival concluded, following a missionary year across the nation.

This week, we're bringing back a talk that Bishop Barron had given in one of his study programs on the Eucharist,

in which he addressed Christ's real presence in the Eucharist. Enjoy.

A final theme I want to look at is real presence.

We say that Jesus is really present in the Eucharist.

Here's a story I love. It's become pretty well known in recent years.

It's about Flannery O'Connor, who I think was the greatest Catholic fiction writer of the 20th century.

When she was a very young woman just commencing her career, she sat down with Mary McCarthy, who was an established New York writer,

a former Catholic, and some of McCarthy's friends.

And O'Connor said she was so intimidated she never spoke a word during this high-powered literary dinner.

But at one point Mary McCarthy was trying to reach out to the shy O'Connor, knowing she was a Catholic.

And she said, I think the Eucharist is something wonderful. It's a very powerful symbol.

And the first thing Flannery O'Connor said that night was, in a shaky voice,

well, if it's only a symbol, I say to hell with it.

And she said, that's about all I could say in regard to the Eucharist.

I've always felt that's a wonderful expression of the Catholic difference.

When Catholics say Christ is really present in the Eucharist,

we know that symbolic language is just not going to do it.

It's just not sufficient to the reality that we're talking about.

Thomas Aquinas said that Christ's power is present in the other sacraments.

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