“How is it possible,” an educated Mohammedan asked a missionary bishop, “that bread and wine should become the Flesh and Blood of Christ?”
The bishop answered, “You were small when you were born. You grew big because your body changed the food you took into flesh and blood. If a man's body is able to transform bread and wine into flesh and blood, then God can do it far more easily.”
The Mohammedan then asked: “How is it possible for Jesus to be wholly and entirely present in a little Host?”
The bishop answered, “Look at the landscape before you and consider how much smaller your eye is in comparison to it. Now within your little eye there is an image of this vast countryside. Can God not do in reality, in His Person, what is done in us by way of a likeness or image?”
Then the Mohammedan asked, “How is it possible for the same Body to be present at the same time in all your churches and in all the consecrated Hosts?”
The bishop said, “Nothing is impossible with God — and this answer ought to be enough. But nature also answers this question. Let us take a mirror, throw it down on the floor and let it break into pieces. Every piece can carry the same image that the whole mirror formerly reproduced. Likewise, the self-same Jesus reproduces Himself, not as a mere likeness, but as a reality, in every consecrated Host. He is truly present in each One of Them.”
The bishop answered, “You were small when you were born. You grew big because your body changed the food you took into flesh and blood. If a man's body is able to transform bread and wine into flesh and blood, then God can do it far more easily.”
The Mohammedan then asked: “How is it possible for Jesus to be wholly and entirely present in a little Host?”
The bishop answered, “Look at the landscape before you and consider how much smaller your eye is in comparison to it. Now within your little eye there is an image of this vast countryside. Can God not do in reality, in His Person, what is done in us by way of a likeness or image?”
Then the Mohammedan asked, “How is it possible for the same Body to be present at the same time in all your churches and in all the consecrated Hosts?”
The bishop said, “Nothing is impossible with God — and this answer ought to be enough. But nature also answers this question. Let us take a mirror, throw it down on the floor and let it break into pieces. Every piece can carry the same image that the whole mirror formerly reproduced. Likewise, the self-same Jesus reproduces Himself, not as a mere likeness, but as a reality, in every consecrated Host. He is truly present in each One of Them.”
~ Father Stefano Manelli, O.F.M. Conv., S.T.D ~
From Jesus Our Eucharistic Love
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