Today’s first question is more for teenagers than it may be for many of the adults gathered here today. That doesn’t mean grownups won’t know the answer, but somehow, they may be less attuned to the answer than younger people might be. My question is this: what is meant by “virtual reality?” No, I won’t ask if you can explain “virtual reality.” But do you have a feeling for what it is? Can you describe what it is?
One answer might be: virtual reality is a condition or experience where it seems real but really isn’t. You put on a special computerized-helmet and maybe some special computerized-gloves and it feels like you can really see things and touch things, but they aren’t really there.
Now for grownups, I’d ask a slightly different, second question. One you might be able to answer if you can remember some of your high school physics. What’s a “virtual image?” Do you re-call, it’s the image you see reflected through a lens when it makes an image on a screen which you hold up behind the lens. Remember when you had to figure out whether the image was going to be right-side-up or up-side-down and all that stuff about concave and convex lenses?
Ok, so now you have a feeling for a “virtual image.” So, what’s an “image?” What’s a “non-virtual image,” if you will? Well, it’s something that’s made to look like the real thing. It’s not the real thing, but you can touch it and feel it, like with a statue or picture.
Now with “virtual reality,” things become a little more complicated. You can see both virtual reality and what shall we call the other? “Real” reality? But, with those special computerized gloves, you can not only see virtual reality, but you can also touch virtual reality. So, what’s the difference between “virtual” reality and “real” reality?
In fact, what is “real reality,” anyway? Originally, it was something you could see and touch. If you could knock on wood and feel and touch it, why it must be real. It’s solid to the touch. But then modern science came along with new concepts for energy and matter. Now we know wood isn’t really very solid after all.
Wood and everything else are made up of molecules. And what about the molecules? Why they’re made up of atoms, of course. Any kid now a-days knows that. And what about the atoms? When I was in high school, we all learned atoms were made up of a solid nucleus and those electrons whizzing around them. But then by college, the nucleus wasn’t quite as solid. It had protons and neutrons and a lot of space in between them. And the electrons were no longer like little planets revolving around a miniature sun. Now they were electron “shells” completely surrounding the nucleus at different levels.
But soon, if you weren’t careful, those electrons became merely mathematical expressions of the probability of where an electron might be – if you didn’t look at it. Because the equations said if you look at one, it no longer exists where you look. And those nice, somewhat solid protons and neutrons now broke down into “quarks” and things called “charm” and “beauty” – mainly because those physicists didn’t know what they really were, but they had to call them something.
So now we know “reality” isn’t very solid after all. Matter is made up of energy that just seems to be solid to us. And maybe “real” reality isn’t much more “real” than virtual reality is. Are you confused? Well, you’re not alone. The ancient Israelites asked the same question: what is reality? And their answer seems strange to us. Just as two-thousand years from now, our descendants may find our 21st century physics to be rather quaint.
For the Israelites, reality was what they made of it. Last week, Father Frank spoke about the Jewish view of “remembering.” Of how in the act of remembering, the reality of the past became the reality of the present. The Hebrews remembered the words and actions of Moses from that first Passover and the beginning of their Exodus from Egypt to the promised land and each year brought all of those remembrances into the present moment.
Father Frank spoke of how the early Christians remembered the words and actions of Jesus at the last meal he had shared with his followers. How these early Christians linked these words and actions with those words we heard proclaimed a few moments ago: “I myself am the living bread come down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread he shall live forever; the bread I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world.”
We, also, recall how those companions of Jesus who journeyed with him to Emmaus recognized him in the breaking of the bread. The breaking of the bread was a reality for those early Christians in the first twelve centuries following the death and resurrection of Jesus. In this action of the breaking of the bread – and the sharing of the bread – Jesus was again present to them in a very real way. They “re-membered,” they put together, again, his instructions, as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew: “‘take this and eat it … this is my body’ then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them. ‘All of you must drink from it’ he said, ‘for this is my blood, the blood of the covenant, to be poured out in behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins.’”
This was the reality of Christians until the time of Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century when intellectuals began to ask new questions about nature and reality. The answer given by Aquinas and the scholastics, the scholars, was that reality could be explained by so-called “things” that were made up of an “inner reality,” called substance and an “outer reality” called appearance. They, also, became more interested in the concept of change as it relates to substance and appearance. “How do you change lead into gold?” was a popular question, for obvious reasons. Or how are bread and wine changed into the body and blood of Christ?
The simple folk had an easy answer: they heard the Latin words: “hoc est corpus meus” said by the priest over the bread. And if you say it fast enough the words that mean “this is my body” … Hoc est corpus meus … become “hocus pocus.” Just say the magic words and you can change anything you want to change.
But the scholars, the scholastics, like Aquinas, had a different answer. They said the inner reality, the substance of the bread and wine changed into the body and blood of Christ, whereas the outer reality, the appearances, remained those of bread and wine. And so was born the concept called “transubstantiation” – the changing of the substance of bread and wine into the substance of Christ while retaining the appearance of bread and wine. It was an attempt to explain, in human terms, the unexplainable, divine mystery first encountered in the remembering of those early Christians.
And what about today? How do we attempt to explain the real presence, the reality of Jesus with us today? Today in our liturgy, our public act of Eucharist, of Thanksgiving, how do we experience Jesus, once more, in the “breaking of the bread?”
The documents of the Second Vatican Council held in the sixties speak of several ways in which Jesus is present to us in this gathering. First of all, he is present in a special, real way in the nature of the gathering, itself – for we are the Body of Christ.
Secondly, the documents of Vatican II remind us Jesus is present in the proclaimed words of scripture. Hearing the words spoken by the reader is as important as receiving Christ in the form of bread and wine. This is why here at Christ the Good Shepherd we don’t use missalettes for you to read along with those who proclaim the Holy Scriptures. We could afford buying them, but we take seriously the Vatican II teaching that Christ is present in the spoken, proclaimed words of scripture.
Thirdly, the documents of Vatican II remind us Jesus is present in a special way in the presider of this assembly. He is present in Father Frank who acts in persona Christi – in the person of Christ – when he prays over the bread and wine with the words: “Let your Spirit come upon these gifts to make them holy, so that they may become for us the Body and Blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ.” And so it is, by the power of the Holy Spirt, that in some way, a way we cannot be explain with mere human words, that the real presence of Jesus the Christ comes among us under the appearance of bread and wine.
And while we realize this presence is especially found under the form of consecrated bread and wine, we must also remember his real presence can also be found in the presider, in the proclaimed word of God, and in the gathered assembly. It is, also, for this reason, we encourage our ministers here at Christ the Good Shepherd to do certain things. We ask our readers not to elevate the lectionary at the end of the readings – which would suggest the book, itself, is the Word of God. And rather than saying: “This is the Word of God,” which again focuses on the thing, this book, but rather to say: “The Word of God” to focus on the spoken proclamation as the presence of Jesus the Christ.
And finally, we also encourage ministers of the bread and of the cup to look directly at each of you when distributing the body and blood of Jesus which, by the way, are found in both the consecrated host and in the consecrated wine and not the body in only the bread, and the blood only in the wine. We encourage our ministers to look directly into your eyes as they speak the words “Body of Christ” or “Blood of Christ” to remind you: it is not only the bread or the wine which contain the Body and Blood of Christ, but you, yourself, contain the real presence of Jesus the Christ. We are members of the Body of Christ. The real presence of Jesus exists in us as we go forth into the world. Each of us has a soul that bears the image and likeness of God. We are the image, the virtual image, of God … who is the reality of our virtual world.
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time; August 10, 1997
1 Kings 19:4-8; Ephesians 4:30-5.2; John 6:41-51