We are all called to be evangelists, to make believers of all nations. Sometimes, this requires we leave our homes or even our country to minister in foreign lands; sometimes it simply means that we endeavor to prepare our children to receive the sacraments and embrace the faith. Depending on the child, this task might be as daunting as those on the mission field.

Patrick is seven and has just received his First Holy Communion — but not before testing my mettle as an apologist. An extremely bright, very literal child, he demanded a full and thorough explanation of transubstantiation and the Real Presence — over and over again. Despite being a cradle Catholic and like many people of my generation, these were concepts that were not clearly taught to me in childhood. I am determined that my children receive the sacraments with as clear an understanding as is possible for them to grasp in their own stages of cognitive and spiritual development. The path to holiness takes a lifetime to journey and we all grow in understanding and faith as we travel. Often, our children lead us on this path and it is when we try to teach that we learn the most. In order to explain the Real Presence, I had to understand it myself. Before I explained it to Patrick, I asked some people to explain it again to me. My friend Linda, who is a convert and my youngest child’s godmother was especially helpful. Then, I gave it a go with my little guy.

Patrick, when Jesus was born God gave the world a real, living Savior. The people who knew Him were able to see Him and touch Him and be with Him. God knew that it was important for Christ to be physically present, not just for the apostles but for every Christian who lived after them. He knew that humans are made to know and love and worship with their whole bodies. Catholics pray with our bodies. We bless ourselves and stand and sit and kneel. We have incense and we sing. We use all our senses to worship and to know God. God knew that we would need all that because He made people. Before He died, Christ made sure that we would never be without His physical presence. He gave us the Eucharist. And He made the Eucharist the "source and summit of Christian life" (CCC, 1324). Jesus told us that whenever we celebrated Mass, the bread and wine would really and truly become the body and blood of Christ.

At this point, Patrick’s eyebrows arch and he gets his "prove it" look on his face. He has heard all this before, but he will put me through the paces, partly because he truly does want to understand better and partly because he dearly loves to challenge me at every turn. That’s fine, we’re sharpening each other.

Okay, Paddy, Catholics are really blessed. Since the very beginning, we have lived and learned in the Church Jesus founded. We have had the benefit of the teaching and the tradition of that Church. A little later, when the Bible was published, we had the benefit of the Word of God and the benefit of the teachers of the Church to help us understand the Word. We know that Jesus told us that, after consecration, what looks like bread and wine are actually His flesh and blood (John 6:52-68). If we have any doubt after reading the Bible that Christ wanted to be really and truly present physically, we can look to the teachers in the Church. St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest teachers of all, writes:

"Seeing, touching, tasting are in thee deceived;

How says trusty hearing? That shall be believed;

What God’s Son has told me, take for truth I do;

Truth himself speaks truly or there’s nothing true." (CCC, 1381)

Then, we can also look to the doctrine of the Church, which is much easier to find for you, Patrick, than it was when I was little. We can read the Catechism of the Catholic Church to see exactly what transubstantiation is:

"Because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again, that 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 our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation" (CCC 1377).

Patrick and I talked a bit more and translated the above into language a seven-year-old can grasp.

"Wow!," said he, "So it’s really God?"

"It’s really God," I replied. "We know it because we have faith."

"Okay, I get it," said my scholar, an impish grin gathering in his big brown eyes. "It’s a bit of a mystery, but I get it. Now, will you please explain the Trinity again?"

Foss is a freelance writer from Northern Virginia.