The Antichrist and the Eucharist

"As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied Him."- John 6:66

Here's a fun fact.

This verse, from the Gospel reading this Sunday, is the only one in the New Testament that corresponds to the infamous Number of the Beast found in the book of Revelations: 666. People have been trying to figure out what the meaning of that number is since Revelations was written. John states:

"Wisdom is needed here; one who understands can calculate the number of the beast for it is a number that stands for a person." -Revelations 13:18

This verse seems very dark and mysterious to us reading it two millenia later. It has lead to a lot of confusion and more than a few crazy theories as to the identity of the man that will be known as Antichrist. Some thought it was Ronald Wilson Reagen because he had three names of six letters each. Some people even created a fictional papal title Vicarius Filli Dei and used to identify the Pope as the Beast because the numerical values of the Roman numerals in the title add up to 666. (Never mind that Pope has never used the title "Vicar of the Son of God". Ever.) In reality the answer is quite simple for a Christian or Jew living in the late first century, which is the intended audience of the Book of Revelations.

Gematria was a wide-spread practice in the classical world, especially among the Jews. (For an example of its continued use among modern Jews, look in Chaim Potok's The Chosen.) In it, a numerical value is assigned to each letter of the alphabet. At the same time, different numbers are given mystical properties. Thus, any word and any name has a numerical value which may or may not be mystically significant. John takes the Greek name of Caesar Nero and replaces the Greek letters with their Hebrew equivalents in a process known as transliteration. The sum of the numerical values of Nero's name is 666. That is why John says that wisdom is needed to calculate the number-it is a code telling the readers the identity of the antagonist without explicitly mentioning the name. Most, if not all, of the imagery in the Apocalypse is attacking the Roman Empire, specifically the Cult of the Divine Emperor. Therefore, the name attached to the number 666 is that of the Roman Emperor Nero. Case closed.

But the Church teaches that the symbolism in the book of Revelations is multi-layered. It may be meant to tell of a past event, or a tribulation yet to come or both. The Church teaches that the Antichrist will come during the final days before Christ's Second Coming in glory. He will be an individual person who will set himself up as a god and persecute the Church as ruthlessly as the Roman Emperors before him and who will ultimately be defeated by Christ Himself when He returns. I will not speculate as to the identity of this final archenemy of Christ and His Church. But the Church also teaches that there are and have been many antichrists (notice the little c) who are the manifestations of the spirit of antichrist in the world.

Interestingly enough, there is no mention of the word Antichrist anywhere in the Book of Revelations. In fact the only place that the word is used in the Bible is in the Epistles of John.

"Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh; such is the deceitful one and the antichrist."- 2 John :7

"Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that the antichrist was coming; so many antichrists have appeared. Thus we know this is the final hour. They went out from us but they were not really of our number; if they had been, they would have remained with us...Who is the liar. Whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Whoever denies the Father and the Son, this is the antichrist."- 1 John 2:18-19, 22

This is very interesting in light of the first verse from the Gospel of John. (Modern Biblical scholars will try to tell you that the authors of the Gospel of John, the Johannine Epistles and the Book of Revelation are three separate people. I don't buy it. I think they were all written by Jochannin bar Zebedee, John the Beloved Disciple.) In the preceding verses, Jesus has stated emphatically that "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true flesh and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him." The crowd is shocked by Jesus' words but He does nothing to calm them down, instead He repeats Himself, saying "Amen, amen I say to you" to drive the point home. John even states that Jesus knew that many would reject His teaching on His Body and Blood and that Jesus used it as a test to see who His true followers were. Finally, in the verse that shares the Number of the Beast, Jesus' followers leave because they find His teachings hard to accept.

Could there be a connection?

If, as I believe, the verses examined thus far were penned by the same divinely inspired man, could it be a sign of some deeper meaning?

The only book of the Bible used more often than Revelations when talking about the End Times is the book Daniel. Both are apocalyptic literature, full of terrifying symbolism. Just as John was written for Christians living under the persecution of Domitian, Daniel was written for Jews living under the persecution of the Seluecid king Antiochus Ephianes. The following verses were written because Antiochus banned the sacrifices in the Temple during his persecution, but many believe it also applies to the final Antichrist:

"For one week, he shall make a firm compact with the many; half the week he shall abolish sacrifice and oblation." -Daniel 9:27

"It's power extended to the host of heaven, so that it cast down to earth some of the host and some of the stars and trampled on them. It boasted even against the prince of the host, from whom it removed the daily sacrifice, and whose sanctuary it cast down, as well as the host, while sin replaced the daily sacrifice."
-Daniel 8:10-12

The Protestants have this funny idea. They believe that the future Antichrist will abolish sacrifices in the Temple of Jerusalem. The only problem with this theory is that the Temple was burned down by the Romans in 70 A.D. and has yet to be rebuilt. Therefore they hold that the Jews will eventually build a Third Temple on the Temple Mount (nevermind that the Dome of the Rock is already there or that Jesus said that "no stone will be left upon another." Julian the Apostate tried to rebuild the Temple to prove Jesus and failed epically.) only to have it absconded and desecrated by the Antichrist, who will than proceed to outlaw all sacrifices within. Again. Than, and only than, will Jesus return to earth and defeat the Antichrist a neat and tidy seven years to the day that the Antichrist signed a peace treaty with Israel, kicking off the whole party in the first place. (This rather flawed interpretation of Daniel is one of the leading causes of our nation's unqualified support for the state of Israel, thanks to all those fundamentalist, evangelical Christians who think if Israel dies as a nation, the Temple will never be rebuilt and if the Temple is never rebuilt, Jesus will never return.)

All this confusion and hoop-lah is a direct result of the Protestant rejection of the doctrine of the Holy Eucharist and a misunderstanding about the sacrificial nature of Jesus' death. No one needs to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem or re-instate animal sacrifices because there already is a Temple in which a sacrifice is offered, not only daily, but perpetually.

All over the world, at all hours of the day, priests are offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Catholics believe that the Mass is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Malachi:

"For from the rising of the sun to its setting, my name is great among the nations; and everywhere they bring sacrifice to my name, and a pure offering." -Malachi 1:11

This is echoed in the Eucharistic prayer although unfortunately the Latin occidentis and oreintis was mistranslated as "from to East to West" when it really means "sunrise" and "sunset." The Mass is generally believed to be the "daily sacrifice" referred to in Daniel as well.

Protestants miss this because of a faulty understanding of the words of St. Paul:
"Just as it is appointed that men die once, and after this the judgment, so also Christ, offered once to take away the sins of many, will appear a second time." Hebrews 9:27-28

Protestants argue that the Mass is offering Jesus as a sacrifice again and again, which is impossible since He was offered once. They say that the priest is essentially killing Christ again and again. This is not true. Christ instituted the Mass at the Last Supper, mystically connecting his coming death with the Passover meal of bread and wine. Although we are constrained by time, God is not and the sacrifice of Jesus on Golgotha is timeless. Thus we can unite ourselves in the sacrifice that occurred 2.000 years ago every day at Mass. The Baltimore Catechism explains:

The manner in which the sacrifice is offered is different. On the cross Christ physically shed His blood, and was physically slain., while in the Mass there is no physical shedding of blood nor physical death, because Christ can die no more; on the cross Christ gained merit and satisfaction for us, while in the Mass He applies to us the merits and satisfaction of His death on the cross.

Thus, we can see that the daily sacrifice is the Mass and the Temple which the Antichrist will enter and defile is the Roman Catholic Church. He will outlaw the sacrifice of the Mass and will persecute those who celebrate it. His Mark is the rejection of the basic doctrine of the Eucharist. Just as John wrote, the spirit of antichrist is to deny that Christ come in the flesh, first as a man to save and redeem us; secondly that He comes in the Flesh to us, every day, in the Blessed Sacrament.

The spirit of antichrist is already at work in the world and even in the Church. John saw it in the first century and it has been paving for its final manifestation for some time. John said that many of the number of Christians belong to the Antichrist and in Revelations he shares a vision of the Dragon casting down a third of the stars from the sky. Daniel states that "the little horn" shall cast down to earth some of the heavenly host. St. Paul speaks of a gradual falling away from the faith, also called the Great Apostasy:

"We ask you brothers, with regard to the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling with Him, not to be shaken out of your minds suddenly, or to be alarmed either by a spirit, or an oral statement, or by a letter allegedly from us to the effect that the day of the Lord is at hand. Let no one deceive you in this way. For the apostasy comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one doomed to perdition."
-2 Thessalonians 2:1-3

We see this falling away evident as Catholics reject more and more basic teachings of the Church. None is more clear than the rejection of the Real Presence of Christ. 70% of Catholics claim that they do not believe that Jesus is present Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Eucharist. Could be this be the beginning of the foretold Great Apostasy. No one knows for sure. But if the spirit of Antichrist so vehemently hates the Eucharist no doubt it will strive to eradicate all traces of belief in the Real Presence in order to make it easier for the Abomination of Desolation to enter the Sanctuary of the Church founded by Christ. John Paul the Great stated that the Eucharist is the source and summit of the spiritual life of the Church. It is what identifies us most as Catholics.

"As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied Him."- John 6:66

The Number of the Beast is 666.

The Beast is the Antichrist.

The Spirit of Antichrist rejects that Jesus came in the flesh.

The Antichrist shall abolish the "daily sacrifice."

Daily, Jesus comes in the flesh in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

70% of Catholics do not believe in the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

The spirit of the Antichrist is to deny the truth of Jesus in the Eucharist.




Let us pray for a return to devotion to the Holy Eucharist