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Hi Justin,
The problem I see with your understanding of the Eucharist is that Jesus is not a human person.
If he was, you may have a point on some of your arguments.
He is the Divine Person, with both a human and divine nature.
The Divine Person, the God-Man, Jesus died for the salvation of mankind,
so that one Divine Death on Calvary would be perpetuated thought history.
It is finished . . . but perpetuated throughout history.
Re: Number 2 in your list:
The priest acts in the person of Christ at every Mass. It
isn't another sacrifice. He and the people at every Mass are entering into
that one sacrifice of Calvary.
You said:
In Matthew 26:26-29, when Jesus was holding the cup and the bread and stating
this was the blood of the New Covenant, if He was turning the
elements into His Literal body, then He was in His Body while
holding another Body in His Hand.
Catholic's believe Jesus Christ is True God and True Man.
- Why couldn't God be able to hold his own body in his own hands?
- He
is God?
- Why couldn't God through his ministerial priesthood allow men to hold
God's own body in their hands? Once again.
- He is God . . . isn't he? :
)
Besides the Oral Tradition, check out the Biblical
basic, for the Catholic priesthood.
You said:
For anyone besides Christ to offer our Lord's Body and Blood to God as a sacrifice of sin is to rob our heavenly High Priest of His glory.
Well then, according to your Biblical interpretation, it appears St. Paul
is robbing Jesus, our heavenly High Priest of His Glory. See these Bible
passages:
- I became your father in Christ Jesus ...
be imitators of me.
- 1 Corinthians 4:14-16
- St. Paul pens the earliest written account of
the institution of the Eucharist
- 1 Corinthians 11:23-25
- 15 Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. 16 Therefore I urge you to imitate me.
- 1 Corinthians 4:14-16
You said:
Another point is that when Christ said,
"This [Communion] do in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19), it is a memorial
of his accomplished work.
Yes: We agree! [The Last Supper or the Eucharist]
is a memorial of his accomplished work but it's more! This is what the
Catechism states the following. Note CCC 1339 - 1340
The institution of the Eucharist
1337 The Lord, having loved those who were his own, loved them to the
end. Knowing that the hour had come to leave this world and return to
the Father, in the course of a meal he washed their feet and gave them
the commandment of love. In order to leave them a pledge of this love,
in order never to depart from his own and to make them sharers in his
Passover, he instituted the Eucharist as the memorial of his death and
Resurrection, and commanded his apostles to celebrate it until his return; "thereby
he constituted them priests of the New Testament."
1338 The three synoptic Gospels and St. Paul have handed on to us the
account of the institution of the Eucharist; St. John, for his part,
reports the words of Jesus in the synagogue of Capernaum that prepare
for the institution of the Eucharist: Christ calls himself the bread
of life, come down from heaven.
1339 Jesus chose the time of Passover to fulfill what he had announced
at Capernaum: giving his disciples his Body and his Blood:
Then came the day of Unleavened Bread,
on which the passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter
and John, saying,
"Go and
prepare the passover meal for us, that we may eat it. . . ."
They
went . . . and prepared the passover. And when the hour came, he sat
at table, and the apostles with him. And he said to them,
"I have
earnestly desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer; for
I tell you I shall not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom
of God."
. . . . And he took bread, and when he had given thanks
he broke it and gave it to them, saying,
"This is my body which
is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me."
And likewise the
cup after supper, saying,
"This cup which is poured out for you
is the New Covenant in my blood."
1340 By celebrating the Last Supper with his apostles in the course
of the Passover meal, Jesus gave the Jewish Passover its definitive meaning.
Jesus' passing over to his father by his death and Resurrection, the
new Passover, is anticipated in the Supper and celebrated in the Eucharist,
which fulfills the Jewish Passover and anticipates the final Passover
of the Church in the glory of the kingdom.
"Do this in memory of me"
1341 The command of Jesus to repeat his actions and words "until
he comes" does not only ask us to remember Jesus and what he did.
It is directed at the liturgical celebration, by the apostles and their
successors, of the memorial of Christ, of his life, of his death, of
his Resurrection, and of his intercession in the presence of the Father.
1342 From the beginning the Church has been faithful to the Lord's command.
Of the Church of Jerusalem it is written:
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship,
to the breaking of bread and the prayers. . . . Day by day, attending
the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they partook
of food with glad and generous hearts.
1343 It was above all on "the first day of the week," Sunday,
the day of Jesus' resurrection, that the Christians met "to break
bread." From that time on down to our own day the celebration
of the Eucharist has been continued so that today we encounter it everywhere
in the Church with the same fundamental structure. It remains the center
of the Church's life.
1344 Thus from celebration to celebration, as they proclaim the Paschal
mystery of Jesus "until he comes," the pilgrim People of God
advances, "following the narrow way of the cross," toward
the heavenly banquet, when all the elect will be seated at the table
of the kingdom. |
You see, Jesus is the New Passover Lamb for all who believe in Him.
Under the Old Testament, if you were a Jew of Jesus' times, you couldn't
just have mom make lamb cookies for you to eat. No, you had
to eat the Passover lamb as a practicing Jew. {Kudos to Scott Hahn}
In the same sense, Under the New Testament Covenant, you couldn't just stay at home on Sunday morning and only have a personal relationship with the Lord. No, you had to renew your Covenant with a body of faithful believers at Church and, if you are in a state of grace, eat the New Testament Lamb of God, Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. We
have a related post [here].
I'll have to admit Justin, I'm a little surprised that you have quoted
all these verses from Matthew and Luke but nothing from John Chapter 6.
- If these are the Word of our Divine Savior, shouldn't they be considered?
Let's step back for a moment though. Although neither of us were there,
we do have a
historical record of what the very first Christians believed
about the Eucharist. They are the Early
Church Fathers, the very first
Catholic Christians that succeeded the Apostles.
If you have time, check out my web site dedicated to them.
I've pulled these postings from our knowledge base as well; you may
find them helpful:
Hope this helps,
Mike
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