The 3 Veils of Accidental Appearance
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This presentation is not just about veils. It is about an invitation to pause, to reflect, and to contemplate the profound mystery of the Holy Mass—the mystery of how Jesus promises to be with us, not just for a time, but forever.
The veils Jesus uses are a revelation, a revelation that carries a deep meaning for us. They are not to hide, but to reveal, not to cover truth, but to pull you closer to it. They are not a wail, but a whisper, not a denial, but a divine invitation. They invite us to search, to long for, and to discover. The veils invite us to see with the eyes of faith, and to encounter the living Christ, truly present, even in the most unlikely of places.
The veils are a mystery, but mysteries are not empty. They are full, full of presence, full of glory, full of God, even when you cannot see Him, because sometimes God hides to make us seek. Sometimes He steps into shadow, so we will stop settling for surface light. Sometimes He covers Himself, just enough to awaken your hunger. Even faith that sees clearly knows there is always more, more to know, more to love, more to follow, even though we can see Him in the veil plainly with the eyes of faith.
This is at the heart of the 3 veils: they are a revelation of God’s presence with us, but this is just the beginning. This is the journey that we are invited to take. A journey of discovery, of contemplation, of faith.
And so, I want to begin in the Upper Room, the place where the foundation of our faith was laid.
Listen closely to the words of Jesus as He speaks to His disciples:
“This IS my body; this IS my blood of the New Testament which shall be shed for you and for many unto the forgiveness of sin.”
In these sacred words, He gives us Himself, body and blood, soul and divinity, in a way that would defy the expectations of the world. And yet, just a little further, He says:
“I WILL BE WITH YOU TILL THE END OF TIME.”
He says it plainly, without hesitation, without qualification.
“I WILL BE WITH YOU.”
But then, He adds something perplexing:
“I must go. I must leave the world to be at the right hand of my Father.”
He must go, and yet He promises to remain.
He must ascend to His Father, and yet He will never leave us.
How is this possible?
How can He be with us if He is no longer with us?
Does He prove it to us? Does He show us how He can go to the Father and yet remain here with us—till the end of time?
The answer comes, not through theological debate, but through an action, a simple, yet profound act that echoes through the ages.
The Road, the 1st Veil, and the Revelation
Jesus proves He will remain with us in the moments immediately following His resurrection. Imagine the scene: the disciples are confused, disillusioned, searching for Him. They do not know where to find His body. They run to the tomb, and they find it empty. The women speak of a vision, a message, a promise, but still, no one knows where He is.
And then, on a dusty road to Emmaus, we see it. Two disciples—confused, broken-hearted, disheartened by the events they have witnessed—are walking, unsure of what to believe. They are consumed by sorrow. Oh, how they had hoped that Jesus was the one to redeem Israel, but hope, it seemed, had been buried with Him in the tomb.
Now, a man is walking with them, and it is Jesus. But they do not recognize Him.
Scripture tells us: “He VEILED Himself from their eyes.”
There is the 1st veil, and we see how the disciples reacted to it. Cleopas speaks up and says:
“Art thou only a stranger to Jerusalem, and have you not known the things that have been done there in these days?
To whom he said: What things?
“And they said: Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty in work and word before God and all the people; And how our chief priests and princes delivered him to be condemned to death and crucified him.
“But we hoped that it was he that should have redeemed Israel: and now besides all this, today is the third day since these things were done.
“Furthermore, some of our women astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, but they did not find His body. They came and told us they had seen a vision of angels, who said that Jesus was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had described. But Him they did not see.”
Then he said to them: O foolish, and slow of heart to believe in all things which the prophets have spoken.
Now, let me ask you: Does God ever act without purpose? Does He deceive us? No. God does nothing by accident, nothing without intention. The veiling is not a random event—it is not a moment of trickery or confusion.
God veils Himself for a reason, and as we journey with these two disciples, we will come to understand just how significant this veil is. For in this veiling, Jesus is revealing something far greater than the appearance of another man. He is showing us that the way to truly find Him is not in the place where we expect Him to be, but in the places where we are willing to look beyond our own limitations—beyond what we can see, beyond the confines of our understanding. And with each step, He promises to be with us, always, until the end of time.
So, we must ask why would the God of all creation veil Himself from those who walked with Him, spoke with Him, and loved Him?
Let us talk about “Revealed Truth” or “Revelation” in Scripture, and here we are talking about an unveiling that takes place, a divine disclosure of something they did not know before the disclosure, something that allows us to encounter God in a way that challenges our understanding.
So, a man appeared beside them. Just a man, or so they thought. He walked with them, spoke with them, opened the Scriptures to them in ways their hearts had never known. Something stirred deep within them, but still — they did not see Him.
Now, let us pause and take a deeper look at some of the theological terms that are guiding this mystery—terms that will help us understand the veil more clearly.
First, we must examine the term “Accidental Appearance.” You may have heard this phrase before, but what does it really mean?
When we speak of “accidental appearance,” we are referring to the outward appearance of something—what it looks like, how it presents itself to our senses. This is what we see, what we touch, what we experience with our human faculties. But in the case of the Eucharist these appearances are not the essence of the thing itself. They do not reveal the true substance.
In the Eucharist, the accidents—the bread and wine—appear as bread and wine to our senses, but the substance, the very reality of what is present, is the Body and Blood of Christ. This is what the Church means when it talks about the veiled presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The bread and wine are the accidental appearances, but underneath—hidden, veiled, and yet truly present—is the substance of Christ’s Body and Blood.
To understand this, we need to explore two important concepts: substance and accidents.
Substance refers to the reality of something, what it is in its very essence. When we speak about the substance of a man or a dog, we are referring to what makes a man a man, or a dog a dog. It is the underlying nature of what something is in itself.
Accidents, on the other hand, refer to the properties that we can perceive with our senses—the shape, the color, the size, the texture—these are the accidents that distinguish me from other human beings, but the shared substance of human nature between all of us remains the same. This actually touches on the nature of the Most Holy Trinity in which there are 3 distinct persons, all sharing the same Divine Nature, but that is for another talk.
Now, let us return to the road to Emmaus, where the disciples are walking, unaware of the profound presence beside them, and reflect on this.
We know that Jesus is not veiled to deceive, but to invite us into a deeper relationship with Him, to make the revelation more intimate, more personal, more profound. But often in our own lives we miss His presence. When it comes to the Eucharist we simply fail to look beyond the accidents—the surface appearances—into the deeper mystery of who He truly is.
But here is the crucial point: If there is no meaning, then there is no purpose. But we know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that God does nothing without purpose. So, we must conclude that there is a profound reason why Jesus veiled Himself in this moment.
Let us never forget: The veil is not an accident; it is not a mere consequence; it is part of God’s plan. It is part of His revelation of Himself to us because the 1st veil will serve to bring about the next two veils, and the next 2 veils will tell us where we are to find Him.
Now, let us explore the word “accidental” in a bit more depth. In this context, “accidental” does not mean something that is random or unplanned, or something like an automobile accident. It refers to the outward appearances—the things we can see with our eyes, the characteristics of something that are not essential to its nature, but simply part of what makes it appear a certain way.
In the case of the Eucharist, we speak of the “accidental appearance” of bread and wine, but there are different types of bread and wine, and each type has its own accidents. It means that when we look at the bread and wine, we see the outward appearance, the accidents—what they look like, how they taste, how they feel. But beneath those appearances, beneath the veil of the Eucharist lies the substance—the true body and blood of Christ.
So, the Church uses this term, “accidental appearances,” to describe the way Christ is veiled in the Eucharist. The substance—the reality of Christ’s body and blood—is present, but it is hidden beneath the accidents—the outward appearance of bread and wine.
And now, let us apply this to what happens on the road to Emmaus.
When Jesus walks alongside the two disciples, He is veiling Himself. He is intentionally hiding the substance of His human nature and the accidents proper to His human nature. But here is the profound truth Jesus reveals in this moment: in concealing Himself, He reveals not only His Divine Nature, but also the mystery of how HE CHOOSES to be present with us in the Holy Eucharist which we will soon see.
He does not want to be on the "outside" of us, He wants to dwell within us, on the inside, in our hearts along with the Most Holy Trinity.
So, Jesus appears as an ordinary man—and this appearance is itself a miracle, rich with purpose. As Lord of all creation, He commands even the elements. Could He choose to come to us under another form, hidden yet wholly Himself? Yes—and He did. This is no mere occurrence, but a miracle: a divine act that transcends the natural order.
This is exactly what Jesus wanted to show the disciples. He didn’t have to veil Himself; He could have appeared openly, but we must look beyond the surface to recognize Him.
When Jesus encounters the two disciples, He listens to their concerns and then says to them,
“O foolish and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.”
One might wonder if they could recognize Him by His voice, but that too was hidden because He is speaking with them from under a veil, a veil which is a call to hear Him speak to us also. It is far too easy to think of Jesus as static in the Eucharist. No! Jesus is speaking to us from the cross, from the resurrection.
But why did He not just say, “It is Me” right away? Why the veil?
Because He wanted to evoke something from them. He wanted to set their hearts on fire with the truth of who He is. And as He spoke to them about Himself—about the fulfillment of the Scriptures and the necessity of His suffering—they were drawn in. Their hearts burned within them, yet they still did not know it was Him.
And here is the pivotal moment: They ask Him to stay with them.
The disciples’ invitation— “Stay with us”—reveals a deep, almost instinctive longing for something more than mere companionship. Though their eyes were still closed to His real identity, their hearts already recognized the presence of something divine, but Jesus didn’t impose Himself. Remember, He pretended like He was going on without them, and by doing this He drew out their desire, allowed it to surface freely, so that their invitation came not from obligation, but from genuine yearning.
This is no small thing. It is a profound moment because in their request, they are unknowingly echoing the very promise Jesus made to us all: “I will be with you until the end of time.” Jesus, under the veil, is showing us that He will indeed stay with us, even when we do not fully recognize Him. And He does stay with us. His substantial presence is with us, hidden beneath the veil of bread and wine in the Eucharist, veiled in the quiet moments of our lives, veiled in the Scriptures, and veiled in the hearts of those who seek Him.
We should be like the disciples, and by sensing His presence our hearts should be set on fire. And that burning desire, that longing for Him, was the first step toward recognizing Him. They begged Him to stay.
So, what happens next?
We see that after Jesus enters the room with the disciples, He sits down at table with them, and there they are, in the presence of this man they still don't recognize. But there's something so familiar about Him — the way He takes bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them.
These four actions — taking, blessing, breaking, and giving — are the four marks of the Mass. This is precisely what Jesus did at the Last Supper. In the Upper Room, He took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, “This is My Body... this is My Blood.” The same words that we continue to use in the Mass today.
The Opening of Eyes: From Genesis to the Road to Emmaus
There is an important biblical parallel between the opening of eyes in Genesis and the road to Emmaus.
In Genesis 3, after Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, their eyes were opened, but it resulted in a loss of vision. Their newly acquired awareness brought with it the veil of sin, separating them from God's direct presence. Before they ate, they had perfect communion with God. After their fall, their eyes were opened, but it was a loss of the vision they once had — a kind of veil, a veil of spiritual blindness, as they were now aware of their nakedness, their shame, and their separation from God.
This is contrasted with what happens on the road to Emmaus: Jesus opens the eyes of the disciples not to a loss, not just to restored vision, but to a revelation. The Eucharist is the very means by which humanity is restored to the intimate union with God that Adam and Eve once enjoyed before the Fall. It is the sacrament of new life.
The Divine Disclosure: The Second Veil - Invisibility
When Jesus drops the veil of accidental appearances, the disciples recognize Him, and their hearts burn with a new understanding of who He truly is. It is the same Jesus, with the same substance and accidents of His human nature. Their eyes were opened, but it was not just a meal, it was a moment. A covenant. A revelation.
Truth stepped out of shadow. Sight was restored. Glory walked beside them all along. The veil was never the end. No. It was just the beginning of a revelation, too beautiful to be seen all at once.
But immediately after He revealed Himself, He vanishes from their sight. There is the 2nd veil—Invisibility.
Now, I don’t know about you, but if I were in that room and Jesus revealed Himself and then instantly made Himself invisible, the natural question for me would be, where did He go? Did Jesus fall out of existence? No, of course not, which means they recognized Him IN the 2nd veil of invisibility. Think of it. Jesus is INVISIBLE yet He remains right there, watching what the two disciples will do.
But let us not miss the point: Jesus was not just revealing Himself to the disciples for their own sake. He was revealing Himself to us — to all of humanity. This revelation of Christ is for all who seek Him. Just as the disciples were given the gift of seeing Christ after the veil was lifted, so too, we are called to look for Christ beneath the veil to see that veil drop through the eyes of the 2 disciples. The veil is not about hiding, it is about revelation.
The revelation that took place in that room is breathtaking, divinely powerful, and transformative. What was once a mystery before the divine disclosure of Himself when He dropped the veil is to show it was Him all along. And now, we discover there is a new veil, invisibility, and it is for us to find Him in the 3rd veil which we will talk about shortly, but first, we need to take a closer look at what it means to reveal something.
The word “reveal” means to make something that was previously hidden or unknown, known to others. And what is that divine disclosure? Jesus REVEALED HIMSELF. This revelation, this dramatic divine disclosure, where a truth that was once hidden is now made known in a way that transforms understanding. It is JESUS Himself, but there is more, and it is crucial to understand the third veil.
The veil of invisibility now beckons us to find Him. It invites us into the mystery of faith, to recognize that Jesus is still present, even though He is hidden from our eyes. We are invited to recognize His presence even when we cannot physically see Him.
In fact, the second veil serves as a test of faith, asking, “Do we believe in the presence of Christ even when we cannot see Him?” This touches on what Jesus will later say to Thomas, but it is an invitation to believe without relying on our senses alone. This is the essence of faith, the grace to believe what has been revealed, trusting that He is with us, even when He is hidden from view in invisibility.
What we witness in this moment with the two disciples is not just a historical event, but a theological truth that the Church continues to live and proclaim. In the Eucharist, we experience the substantial presence of Christ. When we receive the Eucharist, we are invited to recognize Christ.
Jesus reveals Himself to us, but only if we seek Him with open hearts is He willing to drop the veil as He did with the two disciples. Just as He opened their eyes, He opens our eyes to see the reality of His presence — always and forever with us, veiled and revealed, hidden and made known.
The Third Veil: The Eucharist
It is important to understand that the third veil must be visible, just like the first veil was visible when Jesus had the appearance of another man. God is the Lord and Master of the elements, and He can veil His presence in whatever way He chooses.
The veils call us to faith and belief in His presence even when we cannot see Him with our eyes. The Holy Mass is a revelation where Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary is made present through the priesthood, veiled under the appearance of bread and wine. It is not merely symbolic. In fact, nowhere in Scripture does “Spirit” mean “symbol.” Christ is substantially present, veiled in bread and wine, as He was to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Jesus is present in a way that transcends the natural order.
The key takeaway is that Jesus veils Himself for a reason — to teach us to look beyond appearances, to recognize Him in the hidden moments of our lives. Whether it's under the appearance of a man, under the veil of invisibility, or under the veil of bread and wine, Christ is always present — and we are called to recognize Him.
In the 1st veil Jesus had the appearance of another man, but the appearance had NOTHING TO DO with the substance and accidents of another man.
In the 2nd veil, Jesus was invisible, but the substance and accidents of Jesus REMAINED even though he was invisible.
In the 3rd veil He appears as bread and wine, but bread and wine have NOTHING TO DO with the substance and accidents of Jesus.
The same Jesus who walked with the disciples on the road to Emmaus is the same Jesus who is present with us, under the veil of the Eucharist. The veils — whether it's the first veil of appearance, the second veil of invisibility, or the third veil of the Eucharist — all point us toward the mystery of faith: that Christ is truly present with us, hidden yet fully real.
"Do you see Him?" That’s the question Jesus asks us today — just as He asked the disciples. Will we recognize Him in the breaking of the bread? Will we see Him under the veils that He has placed before us?
Melchizedek and the Prophecy of the Eucharist
Melchizedek is both a King and a Priest, the King of Salem (which later becomes Jerusalem), and a priest must offer a sacrifice of a living thing to be pleasing to God. But he brings bread and wine as an offering to God instead. There is no turtle dove, no lamb, or anything else.
He is a type of Christ, and Melchizedek’s offering of bread and wine foreshadows the Eucharist, where Christ, the true priest, offers Himself as the living sacrifice.
The typology of Melchizedek’s offering of bread and wine serves to tell us within the Eucharist, within the Mass, there is not only something living, but it is Christ Himself, under the appearance of bread and wine, fulfilling the prophecy.
Melchizedek’s offering of bread and wine points forward to the sacrifice of Christ where He would be immolated for the salvation of the world, hidden under the veils of bread and wine. The prophetic significance of Melchizedek’s action is fulfilled in the Mass, where Jesus Christ becomes the true sacrificial victim, offering His body and blood for the salvation of mankind.
The Return to Jerusalem: The Upper Room
Let us return now to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. After the disciples recognize Jesus in the breaking of the bread, they immediately return to Jerusalem to tell the Apostles. The urgency in their actions shows the profound effect this revelation has on them. They cannot contain the joy and the truth they have encountered. They must go back to Jerusalem, to the place of the Upper Room where they find the Apostles in hiding.
They bring back the truth they have discovered to the Apostles: “We knew Him in the breaking of the bread.” They now have the knowledge of who Jesus is — He is the Christ, the Messiah, and He is present in the Eucharist.
In this entire narrative, we see how Jesus uses veils to reveal deeper truths about Himself. The veils are not arbitrary; they serve to reveal His presence in a deeper, more profound way.
The two disciples recount their experience to the Apostles, unaware that Jesus is present in the Upper Room, hidden from their eyes. This moment is remarkable because Jesus stands there in His substantial presence, with His human nature veiled by invisibility.
The disciples’ testimony about recognizing Him in the breaking of the bread, “This is My Body, this is My Blood,” should have sounded an alarm in the minds of the Apostles. They had witnessed Jesus do this very act just a week earlier in the Last Supper — taking the bread, blessing it, breaking it, and giving it to them, saying, “This is My Body”. This same action should have led them to immediately understand what had happened. But instead, they are still confused and troubled.
This moment of misunderstanding is not simply about the Apostles failing to recognize Jesus under the veil of His presence. It is a spiritual blindness that reflects how, even after the resurrection, the Apostles struggled to comprehend the mystery of Christ’s true presence in the Eucharist. Their spiritual blindness, their failure to recognize Christ was certainly not due to a lack of grace on the part of Christ.
Jesus' Manifestation to the Apostles
The crucial turning point occurs when Jesus drops the veil of invisibility and reveals Himself to the Apostles in the Upper Room. Suddenly, the veil is lifted, and they can now see Him in His full, substantial presence.
Let us think for a moment. Even though the Apostles had seen Jesus perform miracles, including walking on water and feeding the 5,000, they still had not fully grasped what these miracles meant for their relationship with Him.
Jesus' declaration of “Peace be to you; it is I, fear not” is significant because He reassures them even though they were still grappling with the idea that Jesus had truly risen and that He was now alive in a new and mysterious way. Their fear stemmed from the thought that they might be seeing a ghost, a reflection of their confusion and lack of understanding of His presence because of their disbelief. Christ was not content on leaving them in the dark. He was unveiling Himself from invisibility so that He might "unveil" their DISBELIEF in all of its rawness which resulted in almost all of the Apostles going one day to their death in martyrdom for "BELIEF" in this marvelous, rich mystery.
Remember, Jesus appeared to His disciples walking on water in Mark 6:46-50, where He appears to His disciples during a storm. The disciples, terrified, think He is a ghost, and once again, He speaks words of comfort: “It is I, fear not.” This is remarkably like the moment in the Upper Room, when the Apostles fearfully think that the risen Christ is a ghost, and He once again says, “It is I, fear not.”
In both cases, the disciples are confronted with the mystery of Christ’s presence in a way they had not yet fully understand. In the case of the stormy sea, Jesus walking on water was an act of divine power, but the disciples did not yet understand that Jesus’ true nature was also manifest in the sacrament of the Eucharist, which would soon be revealed to them.
The Apostles’ Failure to Understand the Eucharist
The Apostles' failure to understand the deeper significance of Jesus' words and actions is evident in the Upper Room. They failed to grasp the full meaning of His words at the Last Supper — "This is My Body, this is My Blood." Even after witnessing miracles like the multiplication of the loaves and fishes and the walking on water, they still had not fully come to terms with the Eucharist as the central reality of Christ’s mission.
The Eucharist is the key that unlocks the mystery of Christ’s presence and His redemptive act. They still struggle with understanding how Jesus can be both fully present in the bread and wine, while still being the risen Lord. This is a spiritual process that they are going through, and the Eucharist is still veiled to them in many ways.
The Apostles’ understanding will mature in the coming days and weeks, but the Eucharist will always be the center of their faith and the way in which they are continually drawn into the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection.
Through all these veils — the veil of His human appearance, the veil of invisibility, and the veil of the Eucharist — Jesus is present, offering Himself for the life of the world. Just as He reveals Himself to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, He continues to reveal Himself to us in the breaking of the bread, and through that sacrament, we come to know and encounter the Living Christ in our own lives.
Why Did Jesus Use Veils?
Veils are central to understanding how Christ reveals Himself to us. In fact, the veils are intimately tied to His resurrection. At each point in His post-resurrection appearances, Jesus uses veils to conceal and then reveal His substantial presence. Veils, like the veil of invisibility or the veil of bread and wine, are not meant to hide His essence permanently, but rather to invite us into a deeper and more mysterious communion with Him.
By veiling Himself, Jesus is giving us the space to come to Him, gradually understanding who He is and what He is offering. It is not just about knowing Jesus intellectually but about growing in the depths of our hearts to recognize His real identity and His presence in a more intimate way. In faith, we are called to look beyond what is immediately apparent and recognize His true presence beneath the surface.
Jesus is teaching us something powerful about how God works in our lives. Often, He does not immediately reveal Himself to us in clear, unmistakable ways. Instead, He calls us to look deeper — to see His presence under the veil of the ordinary, whether it’s the bread and wine of the Eucharist or the invisible aspects of His post-resurrection form.
The Reason Jesus Appeared to Continue Walking
Let us look once again at why Jesus “pretended.”
Jesus pretended to walk on by, both on the water and on the road to Emmaus. In both situations, He draws the disciples into the act of faith and desire. He is waiting for them to seek Him out, to invite Him in, to acknowledge Him. This is deeply relational. He does not force His presence on them; He invites them to respond.
In the case of the Apostles on the boat, they were afraid because they did not understand who He was and how He was present. They saw Him walking on the water and thought He was a ghost. Why? Because He invites them to seek Him more intentionally. His acts of veiling Himself force the disciples to go beyond the surface, to search with their hearts, and to come to a deeper understanding of His true nature behind the veils, and so it is with us.
The Apostles' Slowness to Believe
Even when Jesus dropped the veil of invisibility and appeared in the Upper Room, the Apostles were still slow to believe. They had His human body right in front of them, but they were struggling to understand the mystery of His resurrection and how His presence was now both real and hidden. Jesus calls them slow of heart to believe, and He asks,
“Why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts?”
The reason for the veils is to lead them—and us—into a deeper understanding of faith. The miracles of the loaves and fish, the walking on water, and the Eucharist are all meant to teach us something crucial. Jesus used veils not because He was trying to trick them or to confuse them, but to challenge their faith and teach them. He does not give us a faith that is based purely on immediate sensory perception or human logic, but one that requires faith in His true presence behind the veils. This is a mystery that we must accept with humility and grace.
The veils push us to move beyond superficial appearances and see the deeper truth. They invite us to drop our stubborn intellect to enter the mystery of Christ’s presence in the world today. His use of veils is not arbitrary. He veils Himself to invite us into a deeper relationship with Him.
The Apostles' Struggle to Believe
Jesus showed the Apostles His hands and feet to show them He was not a ghost, yet they still struggled to believe and this is incredibly significant. It underscores a crucial theme: faith versus immediate perception. Despite the fact they could see Him and touch Him, they were still unable to immediately accept the reality of His resurrection. This hesitation reveals something important about human nature and how we often resist a miracle, even though we may fully accept the truths that God reveals to us. Even when presented with clear evidence, the Apostles were still struggling to believe because the reality of Christ’s presence was veiled in ways that challenged their understanding.
The scene in the Upper Room is particularly striking. Despite all the evidence, the Apostles still struggled to believe. This shows the deep mystery of the Resurrection. The Apostles were joyful, but their minds still could not comprehend the full reality.
What is important here is the revelation that comes when Jesus opens their minds to understand the Scriptures. This moment is crucial, because He helps them see how all of Scripture—Melchizedek, Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms—points to Him, and how the Eucharist is the fulfillment of all those prophecies.
Jesus' body, even though He was physically standing before them, was now glorified in a way that they did not expect. It was not just about seeing Him—it was about recognizing Him in a deeper, spiritual way that went beyond the surface. This is why, even when He showed them His wounds, it was not just a matter of seeing but of believing that He was truly risen and present with them in a way they had not yet grasped.
The fact that faith was the issue in their reluctance to accept His presence highlights that Jesus' resurrection was not just about physical evidence, but about a transformation of the heart and mind. It was a moment of learning to accept God's work in a way that was mysterious and supernatural, and not immediately accessible to their senses.
Think about how the Eucharist works in this way. Jesus veils His glorious and transcendent presence under the humble appearance of bread and wine, asking us to believe that He is fully present even though the veil appears to be ordinary bread and wine. This is a test of trust, one that calls us to believe in His word and trust in His promise, much like the disciples were challenged to do.
His flesh will be real food — not in a cannibalistic sense. A person must die for cannibalism to take place. But Jesus is NOT a human person. No "PERSON" dies when we receive Him in the Eucharist. No "human person" died on Calvary because "He is NOT a human person." He is a DIVINE PERSON only, and a Divine Person cannot die. He is One Divine Person with 2 natures, human and Divine. He dies ONLY in His human nature, not in His Divine Nature.
And St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, warns us not to approach this mystery casually. In 1 Corinthians 11:29, he says: “For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself.”
You cannot discern what is not there. The Body is truly present — but it is veiled, and that veil must be approached with faith and reverence.
The Miracle of the Loaves and Fish
The connection between the miracle of the loaves and fish and the Eucharist is the abundance of the loaves is symbolic of the superabundance of grace available through the sacrificial offering of Christ's body and blood. The twelve baskets left over in the feeding of the 5,000, even though it was a real event, represent the fullness of the Church, which, through the Apostolic Succession, is called to feed the faithful with the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist.
The Apostles are being prepared to continue this sacrificial act through their priestly ministry, in the celebration of the Mass, where Christ’s sacrifice is made present again under the veiled appearances of bread and wine.
The Eucharist as the Fulfillment of Scripture
Finally, Jesus had just opened the Apostles’ understanding of the Scriptures and showed them how everything in the Old Testament was pointing to Him—and ultimately to the Eucharist. The bread and wine offered by Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18), the manna in the wilderness (Exodus 16), and the sacrificial system in the Law of Moses all point to the ultimate sacrifice of Christ on the cross and the Eucharistic offering that will continue in the Church through the Mass.
As a matter of fact, Jesus Himself spoke of this. As a man, speaking 2,000 years ago, He said,
“Before Abraham came to be, I AM” while He was speaking to the Jews.
He also said to His Apostles, “I will be with you till the end of time.”
What do we see here? Jesus is speaking in both directions of time from a specific point in time 2,000 years ago. But it is not just in that moment that Jesus is present to all time and place. Every moment of His life is present to all time and place. He is eternally present, from His incarnation to His resurrection into Glory.
In fact, from the first instant of His incarnation we see that we are to consume Him in the Eucharist because it is a discourse on the Bread of Life. Bethel means house of God, Bethlehem means house of bread, and within the house we find Jesus, the bread, in the manger, and the word manger comes from Le Mange which means “I eat.” Jesus wishes us to consume Him.
His life is present to ALL of time, at every instant, from His birth to His Ascension, in time and outside of time, because He is God. But here is the point we MUST NOT miss. Calvary was an instant in HIs life also, and that instant when he sacrificed HIs life for us is PRESENT TO ALL TIME as well. His human nature is an instrument of His Omnipresence.
And the reason Christ’s human nature serves as an instrument of His omnipresence is as follows:
In the Divine Person, there is neither change nor division—no boundary, no edge, no spatial limitation. The infinite nature of God defies all measurement, form, and locality. A Divine Person transcends all concepts of place or extension. Yet in the mystery of the Incarnation, Jesus Christ assumed a true human nature, finite in size and confined to space and time. This raises a profound question: where, then, is the human nature of Christ united to the Divine Person, when there is no "place, no spot, no extension, no edge" within the infinite 2nd Person of the blessed Trinity to which His human nature could be attached? The answer lies not in spatial locality, but in the eternal, immaterial union of the Word with humanity—where the human nature is personally united to the Divine Person of the Son, not by occupying a part of Him (for He has no parts), but by being wholly assumed into the person of the Word without division, confusion, or separation. Thus, the human nature of Jesus becomes the living instrument through which the omnipresent Son makes Himself present to us.
This is most fully realized in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The Mass is not a repetition of Calvary, nor is it a mere symbolic memorial; rather, it is the sacramental re-presentation of the one same sacrifice.
Through the ministry of the priest—who acts in persona Christi—and the power of the Holy Spirit, the Church is brought into communion with the eternal act of Christ’s self-offering. What was accomplished once in blood upon the Cross is made present anew under the signs of bread and wine. In the Eucharist, time and eternity touch. The faithful do not simply recall Calvary—they are drawn into it and offered the fruits of the sacrifice where they find themselves standing at the foot of the Cross. The only thing that changes about Calvary are the people who get to be there. When we come to exist, Calvary is already ahead of us.
Thus, the crucifix and the altar are united: both testify to the mystery of a love that dies once, but lives forever, offering Himself unceasingly for the salvation of the world.
It is for this reason that Christ is truly present to all time and place in the Holy Eucharist. By His omnipresence, the reality of Jesus is made present in every tabernacle throughout history, and at every Holy Mass ever celebrated. He is present at the Mass where your parents were married; He is present in the liturgies offered by the Monks in the desert—whether a century ago, a thousand years ago, or fifteen hundred years ago.
This means that when YOU are at Mass, you are present to all of those moments, each and every one, because the Mass for all time is the one and same reality across time.
This understanding of the sacrifice of Calvary, re-presented in every Mass through the Eucharist, reveals that Christs' sacrifice is not merely a past event that came and went. Rather, the Mass is eternally present in every Eucharistic celebration under the veiled appearance of Bread and Wine where we encounter Christ—His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.
The Role of Judas and the Eucharist
Judas’ rejection of Jesus to the concept of the Eucharist is thought-provoking. Judas’ departure from Jesus wasn't just about money; it was about the teaching of the Eucharist—the teaching that Jesus would give His flesh and blood for the life of the world. This teaching was too much for him, and he left because he couldn’t accept it literally.
In John 6, Jesus declares,
"Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you."
This teaching proved difficult for many of His listeners to accept and follow, then, as now where many people no longer accept the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. The Jews of His time struggled with the literal weight of His words, and among them was Judas, who would not embrace this profound mystery. His rejection foreshadows the betrayal to come.
This moment in the Gospel sets the stage for the Last Supper, where Jesus fulfills His promise by giving His Body and Blood to His disciples under the form of bread and wine. Judas, who had already turned away in his heart, would not receive this gift in faith. His refusal to believe in the Real Presence marked the beginning of his departure—not just from the table, but from the life Christ came to give.
What is crucial to understand when the Jews would no longer walk with Him, and when Judas broke from Him, is the literal meaning of Jesus’ words. He could have corrected any misunderstanding about the Eucharist at any point, especially after the reaction of the crowd, and even when many of His followers walked away. He is God, He knows every single thought of everyone throughout all of time, yet Jesus did not retract His statement. If He had intended His words about eating His flesh and drinking His blood to be merely symbolic, He could have easily clarified it when many of His disciples found it hard to accept. Yet, He did not. Instead, He let them leave. They would no longer walk with Him. This shows that Jesus’ words were deliberate and intentional, meant to lead us into a deeper, literal understanding of His presence in the Eucharist.
The Rejection of the Literal Eucharist
This rejection by Judas (and many others) represents a rejection of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. To reject Jesus’ words at the Last Supper, “This is My Body... This is My Blood,” is to reject His real presence and His gift to us. It is not just a rejection of what he thought to be a symbol but a rejection of God’s plan for salvation through the Eucharist.
Jesus allowed people to reject Him rather than compromise the truth of what He was teaching. This speaks volumes about the importance of the Eucharist and why the Church holds it so dear. To believe in the Eucharist is to believe in Jesus' true presence with us, invisible but substantial, under the veils of bread and wine.
The important connection between Judas’ betrayal and his rejection of Jesus’ words about the Eucharist was when Jesus calls Judas a devil (John 6:70). It is clear that his rejection of Jesus’ literal words was not merely a misunderstanding but a sinful rebellion against the truth. Judas had turned away from what Jesus had said, and in doing so, he turned away from the very salvation that Christ offered.
Jesus just finished giving a discourse about consuming Him, that His body was real meat and His blood was real drink, so Peter’s response to Jesus was about His teaching on the Eucharist which became central to His ministry. But Judas wouldn’t accept it. His rejection of Jesus’ Eucharistic words was part of his overall rejection of Jesus as the True Messiah. Satan had already put the idea of betrayal in Judas’ heart, and rejecting Christ’s words about consuming His body and blood fits perfectly into this narrative of spiritual blindness and rebellion, the stubborn intellect of man.
Remember, Peter said, “Where will we go Lord, you have the words of Eternal Life.” Peter just pronounced the words of Jesus as being literal. He speaks of Eternal life found in consuming the Body and Blood of the Lord in the Mass which is essential.
Trusting in the Veiled Presence of Christ
Ultimately, all of this points to trust in Jesus' veiled presence. Whether it is through the veil of invisibility, the veil of bread and wine, or the veil of misunderstanding in the Apostles’ hearts, Jesus is teaching us to trust in His substantial presence even when we cannot see or fully grasp it. The Eucharist is the ultimate test of faith: to believe that Jesus is truly present under the veil of the bread and wine, just as He was truly present when He showed His wounds to the Apostles. It’s an invitation to look deeper than the surface and trust in the faithful, trustworthy presence of Christ, who remains with us, even though we cannot see Him clearly with our physical eyes.
Satan’s Role
Satan is actively trying to destroy belief in the Eucharistic reality because it is the fullness of Christ’s sacrificial love and the redemption. He hates it with the full fury of demonic hatred, and he wants us to participate in his hatred in rejection of the Eucharist, but the Eucharist is the most intimate and powerful encounter with Christ that believers can experience. But Satan works tirelessly to undermine belief in it.
For those who say, “I don’t get anything out of Mass,” the issue is not that Christ is not present—it is that they have not yet opened their hearts to the mystery of what is happening. Indifference to this reality is the greatest tragedy, because the Eucharist is the source of our eternal life. To reject or ignore the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is to miss the very heart of salvation. Those who reject the Eucharist are, like Judas, turning away from the source of eternal life that Jesus offers through His body and blood.
Remember, Scripture tells us there were followers of Christ that, "No longer walked with Him." "They no longer walked with Him" is tantamount to a death judgment. They chose not to be with Christ. That is not what He wanted, but it is what they wanted.
We will be judged one day by Christ, and rejection of the Eucharist is rejecting Christ Himself. We don't want to find ourselves walking down the same path as Judas who turned away from Jesus when he rejected the Eucharistic reality.
The Eucharist is central to Christian faith, serving as both its source and summit, and providing the grace of salvation. Satan attempts to undermine this truth because of its power and life-giving nature.
The Veil of Invisibility: Why Jesus Chooses to Hide His Presence when He appeared to Thomas
Jesus did not need to hide His presence to prove His Resurrection to the Apostles. Do you think that is the underlying reason He appeared to them? They knew He had been killed; they put Him in the tomb. He could have simply appeared to the Apostles openly. However, He chose to veil Himself.
We see the encounter with Thomas specifically, where Jesus rebukes him for his unbelief, but it is essential to notice that the rebuke is tied to the purpose of the veils. We must fully realize that Jesus appears and reveals Himself from under the veil of invisibility to underscore the idea that His Resurrection is not just a physical event.
Thomas’ experience serves as a powerful model for the Church today. When Thomas said, “Unless I see…”, he was not just doubting Christ’s Resurrection but also the mystery of Christ’s presence. His “I will not believe” can be seen as a rejection of the hidden, veiled nature of Jesus' presence that was established in the Eucharist. When Jesus appears to him, He is showing that His presence in the world, under the veil of bread and wine, will require faith—faith in the truth of His real presence even when it is hidden.
When Thomas exclaims, “My Lord and my God”, he sees the truth of who Jesus, and Jesus’ rebuke was meant to show that belief in the Eucharist requires faith beyond sight—something deeper than merely seeing His physical form.
Remember, Jesus was first under the veil of invisibility in the upper room, then, suddenly, He appeared from behind that veil right in front of Thomas. THAT’s why Thomas said, “My Lord and my God.” It was not a statement of excitement because he saw that Christ was alive again. He knew right then and there that Christ is God. He's now seeing Christ had come from behind the veil of invisibility.
Thomas was blessed to believe after seeing, but Jesus’ statement “Blessed are those who believe without seeing” is a direct encouragement for us—those who would come after His ascension—to believe in the substantial presence of Christ in the Eucharist, despite the veils that obscure it from our physical eyes.
The Eucharistic veils are not meant to be barriers, but an invitation: they invite us to faith. Just as Thomas came to believe in Christ's real presence when He appeared to him, the wounds in His hands and feet and are now, veiled under the appearance of bread and wine.
Through faith, we are invited to see beyond the visible to the real presence that remains with us. Just as Thomas had to believe that Jesus was still with him, veiled in His wounds, we are asked to believe that Jesus remains with us in the Eucharist, veiled in the form of bread and wine.
Thomas and the veils are a powerful meditation on the nature of faith and Eucharistic belief. The question for us, then, is whether we, like Thomas, will fall to our knees and proclaim that Jesus is our Lord and our God in the Eucharist, even when He is veiled in bread and wine.
The Eucharist: A Source of Love and Unity
To compare the Eucharist to wedding vows, emphasizing the intimacy and oneness that the Eucharist provides, we find there is a beauty in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. When we receive the Body and Blood of Christ, we are united to Him in a way that goes beyond simple physical union; it’s a divine union that speaks of love, sacrifice, and life-giving communion. This union with Christ is not just symbolic; it is real and substantial.
The Power of Christ Over Nature and the Eucharist
Jesus calming the storm with the Apostles further reinforces the authority of Christ over creation. If Jesus can command the wind and the sea to obey Him, then certainly He has the power to transform the substance of bread and wine into His Body and Blood. The Eucharist reveals Christ’s divine power at work, where the elements of nature—the bread and wine—become the means of our salvation. The Apostles saw the Lord calm the wind and the seas and were overcome with awe and fear saying, “Who is this that even the wind and sea obey Him.” We should say at the consecration in the Mass, “Who is this that even the elements of bread and wine obey Him?”
The Mass: The Reality of Calvary
Scripture tells us we are to draw near to Calvary. How can we do this is Calvary is not made present to us? The Holy Mass is not just a memorial of the Last Supper or a symbol of the crucifixion. It is the actual re-presentation of the sacrifice of Calvary. In every Mass, the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross is made present, and we are drawn near to that moment of salvation. This is a mystical reality that transcends time and place, where Christ’s sacrifice is present to us in a way that is fully real, but still veiled under the appearances of bread and wine.
The Promise of Christ’s Presence
Jesus’ words, “I will be with you until the end of time,” are not just a promise of spiritual presence, but of substantial presence. He is with us, body and soul, through His human nature, which has been raised to eternal life which was united to His Divine Person in the first instant of His Incarnation, and forever. In the Holy Eucharist, He remains with us in the fullness of His human nature, made present to us bodily, though veiled under the accidents of bread and wine.
The Eucharist as a Transcendent Mystery
The Eucharist is not just a symbol or representation—it is transcendent, a mystical reality that transcends our human understanding. It is through faith that we come to recognize this mystery and accept Christ’s presence in the Eucharist. Faith in the Eucharist is an invitation to union with Christ—an invitation to share in His divinity, to become one with Him in a way that leads us to eternal life.
The Eucharist as a Promise and Invitation
By inviting us to see the Eucharist not just as a ritual or an event, is a promise of eternal life and union with Christ. By receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, we are united to Him and to one another in a mystical communion. This is the wedding vow between Christ the Groom and His Church the Bride—an invitation to share in His life, His sacrifice, and His divinity.
The Eucharist is the central mystery of Christianity, which speaks of Christ’s presence, love, and sacrifice. Attending Mass with faith means accepting Christ's sacrifice and union. "This is My Body... This is My Blood" is a promise revealed to believers.
Highlights
This is the paradox of the Christian life: that in the very things that seem ordinary, God has hidden the extraordinary.
Call to action:
Ask yourself: Do I see only the veil — or do I seek the One behind it?
Come to the altar not as a spectator, but as a disciple who recognizes Jesus “in the breaking of the bread.”
