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The problem is Protestants use proof texts from the Scriptures, rather
taking the Bible as a whole, looking for principles from which to develop
a coherent theology.
The Eucharist has to be understood in the context of the Hebrew understanding
of the sacrificial meal celebrated at Passover. Jews understood that when
they celebrated the Passover, they were not just remembering, but making
present and participating in the Passover experienced by their ancestors.
We too as Catholics, understand that the Eucharistic Sacrifice makes
present the-once-and-forever sacrifice of Christ at Calvary. Just as the
Jews had to eat the lamb sacrificed at Passover, so are Christians supposed
to eat the Lamb of God. We must bear in mind that God lives in the eternal
present and that He is not limited by time and space. The sacrifice of
Calvary is always in the eternal now, [before|in front of] Him. In fact,
the book of Revelation tells us that the Lamb of God was slain before the
foundation of the earth. (Revelation 13:8)
This is a mystery to us who are limited by space and time, yet in a mystical
way, through the Holy Spirit, when we celebrate the Eucharist, we are present
at Calvary and we eat the Lamb of God which was slain and now appears
to be bread and wine.
Hope this helps,
John
Mike replied:
Hi Tom,
This is from my list of Catholic Scripture verses that defend Catholic
doctrines:
While most Protestants believe the Last Supper was significant and often
agree that communion is important, they don't believe that Jesus literally
meant, He wanted us to eat His Flesh and drink His Blood. They argue that
Jesus used many symbols to refer to Himself — He called Himself a door,
a vine, etc. And since eating human flesh is cannibalism, they argue
that Jesus could not have been speaking literally in John 6. The Eucharist,
however, is a unique and miraculous reality in which we consume the entirety
of the living Christ — although his natural condition is veiled by the
sacrament.
The Church has consistently understood Christ's Words to be
literally referring to His True Flesh and Blood, as is evident in the
writings of the early Church saints like:
Although all the faithful
in the Church have always believed this teaching of transubstantiation,
there was no need to formally define it until 1215, at the Fourth Lateran Council dogmatically which said: that while the outward appearances of bread and wine remain {the taste,
touch, smell and looks}, their inward realities or substance has become
the living Christ. Because Jesus is truly present — Body, Blood, Soul
and Divinity — we adore the Eucharist with profound reverence.
The Church is the extension of Christ's incarnation, and that
extension takes place through the sacraments. (Scott
Hahn , Swear to God, Page 22)
What Our Lord was calling the Jewish people to do is to die
to the Old Adam and Old Testament laws and rituals and enter the New
Covenant of his Body and Blood.
to symbolically eat and drink ones body and blood
back in Jesus' times means to assault. This would make our Lord promise
life everlasting to the culprit for slandering and hating Him, which
would reduce the whole passage to utter nonsense. Christ would be saying:
This is the bread that comes
down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living
bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live
forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life
of the world. The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, How
can this man give us (his) flesh to eat? Jesus said to them, Amen,
amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and
drink his blood, you do not have life within you. 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 food, and my blood is true
drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and
I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because
of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because
of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your
ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live
forever. These things he said while teaching in the synagogue
in Capernaum. Then many of his disciples who were listening said, This
saying is hard; who can accept it? Since Jesus knew that his
disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, Does
this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending
to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life, while the
flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and
life. [See note 1.]But there are some of
you who do not believe. Jesus knew from the beginning the ones
who would not believe and the one who would betray him. And he said, For
this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it
is granted him by my Father. As a result of this, many (of)
his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer
accompanied him. Jesus then said to the Twelve, Do you also
want to leave? Simon Peter answered him, Master, to whom
shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to
believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.
Does this shock
you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was
before? It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no
avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
What Our Lord says here is not intended a Maldonatus thought, to increase
the scandal, but to rectify what was simply a cannibalistic interpretation
of what he has just said. The Ascension will perhaps surprise the recalcitrants
more, but it will eliminate the chief difficulty about eating the flesh
of One who in celestial glory takes his place where he was from eternity.
Note 2: - Notice that the close followers of Our Lord,
the disciplesleft Him because this was a hard saying. Then Our Lord asks Peter if he
will leave him too. Peter representing the 12 Apostles says:
Master, to whom
shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to
believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God. (John 6:69)
[heretics] abstain from the
Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not confess that the Eucharist
is the Flesh of Our Savior Jesus Christ. (His Letter to the Smyrnaeans
6, 2)
not as common bread, nor
common drink do we receive these; but ... as we have been taught, the
food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer
set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh are
nourished, is both the flesh and blood of that Incarnated Jesus." (His First
Apology 66, 20)
He [ Jesus ] has declared
the cup, a part of his creation, to be His own Blood from
which causes our blood to flow; and the bread, a part of his creation,
He has established as His own Body from which He gives
increase to our bodies. (His Against Heresies 5, 2, 2)
"He himself,
therefore, having declared and said of the Bread, 'This is My Body',
who will dare any longer to doubt? And when he himself has affirmed
and said, 'This is My Blood' who can ever hesitate and say it is not
His Blood." (Catechetical Lectues: Mystagogic 4, 22, 1)
"Do not regard
the bread and wine as simply that, for they are, according to the Master's
declaration, the Body and Blood of Christ. Even though
the sense suggest to you other, let faith make you firm. Do not judge
in this manner by taste, but be fully assured by faith, not doubting
that you have been deemed worthy of the Body and Blood of Christ."