Just Teach Sheets – Seekers November Week 1 2025

Seeker Track

November Week 1
Theme: The Mass & the Eucharist
Focus: Why Catholics Believe Jesus Is Really Present in the Eucharist
Audience: Seekers, non-Catholics, and those returning to the Church

Weekly Goal

To understand why the Catholic Church teaches that Jesus Christ is truly, really, and substantially present in the Eucharist — not as a symbol, but as the living reality of His Body and Blood.
This week provides solid apologetic answers for common objections and helps seekers grasp the biblical, historical, and logical foundations of the Real Presence.

What You’ll Need

This sheet

Bible

Notebook for questions

Optional: attend a weekday Mass or visit a Catholic church for quiet prayer

Opening Prayer (Daily)

Lord Jesus,
You said, “This is My Body.”
Help me to believe Your words.
Give me the faith of those who first heard You in the Upper Room,
and open my heart to understand Your presence in the Eucharist.
Amen.

Day 1 – The Words of Jesus Mean What They Say

Teaching:
At the Last Supper, Jesus took bread and wine and said:

“This is My Body… This is My Blood.” (Luke 22:19–20)

Catholics take Him at His word. He did not say, “This represents My Body.” The same Jesus who could heal the blind and raise the dead could also change bread and wine into His Body and Blood.

John 6:53–56 – “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.”

Apologetics:

When the disciples misunderstood Jesus’ teaching on eating His Flesh, He did not correct them — He repeated it more forcefully (John 6:60–66).

The Greek verb estin (“is”) used in “This is My Body” means literal identity, not symbolism.

Reflection:
If we trust Jesus’ words about forgiveness and eternal life, why doubt Him here?

Day 2 – The Early Church Always Believed It

Teaching:
From the first century, Christians believed the Eucharist was the real Body and Blood of Christ.

1 Corinthians 10:16 – “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?”

Historical Witness:

St Ignatius of Antioch (AD 107): “The Eucharist is the Flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ.” (Letter to the Smyrnaeans 7)

St Justin Martyr (AD 155): “We do not receive these as common bread and drink, but as Jesus Christ, who was made flesh.” (First Apology 66)

Apologetics:
Every ancient Christian community believed this. The “symbol only” view arose centuries later. The Catholic belief today is the same faith held by the earliest followers of the Apostles.

Reflection:
Truth does not change with time; genuine Christianity has always centred on the Eucharist.

Day 3 – How It Happens: Faith and the Words of Christ

Teaching:
The Church calls this mystery Transubstantiation — the substance (what the thing truly is) changes, even though the appearances (what it looks like) remain bread and wine.

Matthew 26:26 – “Take and eat; this is My Body.”
CCC 1376: “By the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the Body of Christ.”

Apologetics:

Objection: “It still looks like bread.”
→ Response: The senses perceive accidents (appearance), but faith perceives the substance. When God acts, reality changes at a deeper level.

Objection: “That’s impossible.”
→ Response: So is the Incarnation and the Resurrection — yet both are real. God, who created matter, can transform it.

Analogy:
Just as the Word became flesh without ceasing to appear human, so the Eucharist becomes Christ without changing appearance.

Day 4 – The Mass: One Sacrifice in Every Age

Teaching:
The Eucharist is not a new sacrifice each Sunday. It is the one sacrifice of Christ on Calvary, made present across time.
At Mass, heaven and earth meet; Christ the High Priest offers Himself through the priest.

Hebrews 9:24–26 – “Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with hands… but into heaven itself… He has appeared once for all to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”
CCC 1367 – “The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice.”

Apologetics:

Objection: “Didn’t Jesus say ‘It is finished’?”
→ Yes — His sacrifice is complete. But at Mass we are joined to that same offering, not repeating it. Time cannot limit an eternal act of God.

Objection: “Why call priests necessary?”
→ The priest acts in persona Christi — in the person of Christ the High Priest — so that Christ Himself offers the Mass.

Reflection:
Every Mass places us mystically at the foot of the Cross, not as spectators but as participants.

Day 5 – What the Eucharist Demands of Us

Teaching:
To receive Christ in the Eucharist is to enter communion with Him — body, soul, and spirit. This demands reverence, faith, and conversion of life.

1 Corinthians 11:27–29 – “Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup unworthily will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord.”
CCC 1385 – “Anyone conscious of grave sin must receive the sacrament of Reconciliation before coming to Communion.”

Apologetics:
The Eucharist is the most intimate union possible between God and man on earth. Therefore, preparation matters — confession, faith, and fasting honour the gift.
Far from “earning” grace, this readiness opens the soul to receive it fruitfully.

Reflection:
If Christ is truly present, our response must be love, reverence, and transformation.

Weekend Wrap-Up – Key Catholic Truths

Jesus meant literally what He said: “This is My Body.”

The earliest Christians worshipped the Eucharist as Christ Himself.

Transubstantiation explains how the change occurs without denying physical appearances.

The Mass makes the one sacrifice of Calvary present today.

Receiving the Eucharist unites us to Christ and calls us to holiness.

Apologetics summary:
The Real Presence is biblically grounded, historically continuous, and theologically coherent.
To deny it is to break with Scripture, the Fathers, and the Church Christ founded.

Journal Prompts

“If the Eucharist is truly Jesus, how should I respond?”

“Which question about the Eucharist still challenges me most?”

“What difference would belief in the Real Presence make to my worship?”

��️ Quick Apologetic Responses

ObjectionCatholic Response
“It’s only a symbol.”The language of Scripture is literal, not figurative (John 6; Luke 22). The early Church unanimously affirmed the Real Presence.
“You can’t see Jesus there.”True — faith, not sight, perceives Him. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” (John 20:29)
“You re-sacrifice Christ.”The Eucharist is one with Calvary — an eternal sacrifice made present, not repeated.
“Why adore a piece of bread?”We adore not bread, but Christ truly present under the appearance of bread. If the Incarnation is real, so is this.
“Science disproves it.”The Eucharist transcends science because it is a miracle at the level of being, not chemistry. Substance changes; accidents remain.

 

Catechism Extension

CCC 1322–1419 – The Eucharist: source and summit of Christian life.

CCC 1365–1377 – Sacrifice and Real Presence.

CCC 1374–1377 – Transubstantiation.

CCC 1384–1390 – Holy Communion and preparation.

Further Helps & Recommended Reading

Lumen Gentium 11 & 26 – The Eucharist builds the Church.

Mysterium Fidei (Pope Paul VI) – On the Real Presence.

The Lamb’s Supper – Scott Hahn (Biblical theology of the Mass).

Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist – Brant Pitre.

St Justin Martyr, First Apology 66.

St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae III, q. 75-83.