WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH

​“Dear Kuya Jeff, thank you for breaking down the Holy Eucharist and how it’s tied to Christ’s passion and death in our Messianic Fulfillment Part 3 talk. I get it now—Holy Thursday and Good Friday are actually one continuous story. By the way, what’s the heresy called when some groups only do singing and preaching for worship but skip the sacrifice part? Is it basically a false teaching the Church already addressed?” - In Eucharistic communion with him, Macario

​1. How has God been inviting His people to worship Him since the very beginning?

From the very beginning, God created man with a purpose: to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him. Man was created on the sixth day along with the beasts of the earth (Genesis 1:24–31), but unlike the beasts, God gave man a spiritual calling. On the seventh day, God rested, blessed it, and made it holy (Genesis 2:2–3), inviting man into worship. In Revelation 13:16–18, those marked with the number 666 are symbolically those who live as beasts—creatures of the sixth day—never answering God’s call to rise into the seventh day of worship. Those who do not know, love, and serve the Lord refuse the very purpose for which they were created.

2. Why did God set Israel free from slavery in Egypt?

When God sent Moses to Pharaoh, His command was clear: “Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness (Exodus 5:1).” “Let my people go, so that they may worship me (Exodus 8:1; Exodus 9:1).” The liberation from Egypt was not just for political or social freedom—it was to worship the one true God. Worship has always been God’s end goal for His people.

3. What does it mean to worship God in spirit and in truth?

Jesus told the Samaritan woman: “The true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks (John 4:23–24).” In the desert, God gave His people manna: “I will rain down bread from heaven for you (Exodus 16:4).” This heavenly bread prefigured Christ. In John 6:32–35, Jesus makes the connection: “It was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven… I am the bread of life.” True worship is not just listening to God’s Word—it includes receiving His heavenly bread.

4. Why did Jesus command His followers to eat His body and drink His blood? Jesus makes this command unambiguous: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you… Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life (John 6:53–54). At the Last Supper, He instituted the Eucharist: “Take and eat; this is my body… Drink from it, all of you; this is my blood of the covenant (Matthew 26:26–28).” St. Paul affirms this is to be done continually: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes (1 Corinthians 11:26).” 

5. Are Catholics re-sacrificing Jesus every time they celebrate the Mass?

Dr. Taylor Marshall, a former Protestant minister turned Catholic, explains that the Eucharist is not a repetition of Jesus’ sacrifice at Calvary. Scripture teaches Christ offered Himself “once for all” (Hebrews 10:10–14). At Mass, that one sacrifice is made present in an unbloody manner, not repeated. The Last Supper instituted the Eucharist as the way His sacrifice would be applied until He returns (Luke 22:19–20). Early Fathers like St. Cyprian and St. John Chrysostom affirmed it is the same Lamb offered always. The altar is a window into the eternal offering in heaven (Hebrews 9:24–26). “Remembrance” (anamnesis) means making present, not merely recalling. Thus, the Eucharist unites us to Christ’s one perfect sacrifice for our salvation.

6. How is the Holy Mass connected to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb in heaven?

Dr. Scott Hahn, yet another Protestant minister who converted to Catholicism, come to see the undeniable connection between the Holy Eucharist and the Wedding Supper of the Lamb described in the Book of Revelation. It describes heavenly worship—the Wedding Feast of the Lamb—filled with the same praises and rituals we find in the Catholic Mass:
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• Gloria: “Glory to God in the highest” (Luke 2:14; Revelation 15:3–4)
• Alleluia: “After this I heard… ‘Alleluia! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God’” (Revelation 19:1)
• Sanctus: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty” (Revelation 4:8)
• Candles/Torches: “Seven golden lampstands” (Revelation 1:12; Exodus 25:37)
• Incense: “The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people” (Revelation 8:3–4)
• Water: “The river of the water of life… flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Revelation 22:1)

As Scott Hahn explains in The Lamb’s Supper, what John saw in Revelation is the heavenly liturgy—and the Holy Mass is that same Wedding Supper made present on earth. It is not merely a remembrance; it is heaven touching earth. True worship is not about smoke machines, loud music, emotional highs, stage performances or financial literacy seminars—it is the Eucharistic celebration, the highest form of public worship in the Catholic Church. In the Mass, we both hear the Word of God and partake in the Body and Blood of Christ, joining the angels and saints in heaven.

7. What did the Early Church Fathers teach about the true meaning of the Eucharist?

St. Ignatius of Antioch (c. 107 A.D.):

• “They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ.” (Letter to the Smyrnaeans, 7)

St. Justin Martyr (c. 155 A.D.):

• “We do not receive these as common bread and drink; but… the food blessed by the prayer of His word… is the flesh and blood of that Jesus.” (First Apology, 66)

From the earliest days, Sunday gatherings without the Eucharist were considered incomplete and contrary to the apostolic faith. To remove the Body and Blood from worship and focus only on preaching is to omit what Jesus Himself commanded as central to worship in spirit and truth.

8. What is the Church’s authentic teaching on the Eucharist?

 The Feeding of the Five Thousand (Matthew 14:13–21; Mark 6:30–44; Luke 9:10–17; John 6:1–15)
This miraculous event, recorded in all four Gospels, is not only a testament to Christ’s compassion but also a profound prefigurement of the Holy Eucharist. Jeff Cavins, a distinguished Catholic biblical scholar and former Protestant pastor and biblical scholar who converted to catholicism describes the feeding of the five thousand as “the overabundance of the Holy Eucharist” foreshadowed in the ministry of Jesus. According to Cavins, the orderly arrangement of the people in groups of fifty and one hundred (Mark 6:40) symbolizes the structure of the Church — with the smaller groups representing parishes, the larger ones corresponding to dioceses, and the apostles foreshadowing the ordained clergy of the New Covenant. In this light, the miracle anticipates the role of Catholic priests today as those who, like the apostles, receive from the hands of Christ and distribute His Body and Blood to the faithful (cf. 1 Corinthians 11:23–26). The abundance of bread, with twelve baskets left over, reveals God’s inexhaustible generosity in the sacrament of the Eucharist — a foretaste of the heavenly banquet where all will be satisfied (cf. Isaiah 25:6–9).

9. Summary and Conclusion:

• God created man for worship, calling us to rise above living like beasts and to dedicate the seventh day to Him.
• He freed Israel to worship Him alone.
• He revealed that true worship is in spirit and truth—prefigured in manna, fulfilled in Christ, the Bread of Life.
• Jesus commands us to eat His Body and drink His Blood until He returns.
• The Mass is the earthly participation in the heavenly Wedding Feast of the Lamb, not a repetition of the sacrificing calvary.
• The early Church taught that worship without the Eucharist is not the full worship Christ instituted.
• The Holy Mass—where we both listen to God’s Word and partake in His Body and Blood—is the one true worship in spirit and truth, prescribed by Jesus and intended by God whenever we gather on Sunday.

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