The Eucharist is Really Jesus : How Christ's Body and Blood Are the Key to Everything We Believe

Weight: 245 grams l Dimension: 14 x 2 x 21 cm I Paperback: 190 pages

When the resurrected Jesus appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus, they didn’t know him. He was there in the flesh, talking, teaching, but they didn’t recognize him.

Until the breaking of the bread. Then their eyes were open, and everything fell into place.

The same is true today. When we recognize Jesus in the bread of the Holy Eucharist—when we understand that it’s really Jesus—our eyes of faith are opened, and the mysteries of the Christian life are unlocked.

In The Eucharist Is Really Jesus, author Joe Heschmeyer first explains how Catholic belief in the Eucharist is biblical and reasonable. If you’re used to thinking of Communion as a purely symbolic ritual, you’ll find here a compelling defense of the ancient doctrine of the Real Presence.

But even if you already believe it, Heschmeyer shows how that’s not an end, but just the beginning. Knowing that the Eucharist is really Jesus becomes a master key to understanding:

• The cross of Good Friday and the empty tomb of Easter Sunday
• How to worship God in spirit and truth, according to the Bible
• The meaning of our own bodies and their immortal destiny
• How to love God and each other every day, like the saints
• …and more essential aspects of our lifelong walk with Jesus.

Like those disciples on their way to Emmaus, we don’t truly know Jesus apart from the broken bread, because the fullness of his truth remains locked away. The Eucharist Is Really Jesus will give you the key.

“Author Joe Heschmeyer opens the Scriptures to reveal deep theological and mystical realities anchored in the Eucharist. Heschmeyer describes how the piercing of the side of Christ during His crucifixion is the tearing of the true Temple veil. Through water and blood (Baptism and the Eucharist), we experience directly--not through any intermediary--the true Holy of Holies. The shocking new Christian message isn’t that we can now ‘pray to God directly.’ The shocking new Christian message is that our God wants to dwell in us—in our bodies—as He once dwelt in the Temple in Jerusalem." - Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, Archdiocese of San Francisco

"With his normal clarity and excellent research, Joe Heschmeyer has again graced us — this time with an explanation and defense of the Eucharist from Genesis through Revelation, and from the Apostolic Church until today. This is what is needed to raise nominal Catholics from the doldrums of disbelief and apathy to a passionate love and understanding of God’s greatest gift to his Church, the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist." - Steve Ray, Author of Crossing the Tiber, 

"This book by Joe Heschmeyer is a magnificent defense of the Catholic understanding of the Eucharist as the true Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Heschmeyer's defense is deeply rooted in Sacred Scripture, especially with regard to authentic worship grounded in sacrifice and the covenant of blood. His critique of the Gnostic tendencies of some Protestant views of  the Eucharist is both illuminating and persuasive. The  insights from the saints and the Eucharistic prayers make this book especially valuable for a deeper understanding of the Eucharistic mystery."  - Robert Fastiggi, Ph.D., Bishop Kevin M. Britt Chair in Christology and Dogmatic Theology, Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit