Shawn Hughes
wrote:
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Hi, guys —
Greetings! In class today, I had a student
ask me about the Real Presence of Christ in
the Eucharist. He asked me:
- If it's the real Blood of Christ,
why do people sometime get sick?
As an example, he brought up when the swine flu was going around and there
was a letter posted stating they will not
be distributing the precious Blood because
the people may catch the disease.
Ultimately, I did not know what to tell him
because whatever I said, he replied saying, Christ blood should be the most holy and pure
of all things.
- How does a bacteria or sickness contaminate
it?
Thank you!
Shawn
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{
Why do some get sick from ailments like the flu or plague, if
the Eucharist is the Blood of
Christ? }
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John
replied:
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Hi, Shawn —
The Real Presence is a sacramental
presence, not a biological presence. If you were
to put the Precious Blood under the
microscope, you wouldn't see blood
cells (and|or) DNA. The appearances
and accidents remains, the substance changes. So they remain
subject to the laws of nature.
That
includes carrying bacteria.
John
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Sean
replied:
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Thanks John!
I tried to explain that to him; not
exactly like you did, but close. He did not budge on the question
though.
I thank you sincerely for your answer.
Sean
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John
replied:
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Shawn,
Try this.
When Jesus walked the earth, He,
more than likely, stepped
in some bacteria during the course
of His Life. Using your friends logic,
the moment the bacteria came into
contact with Jesus' Body it would
have died.
Bacteria is a life form. In many
ways, we need certain kinds of bacteria
in our system; it's part of the ecosystem. Without bacteria, things
wouldn't decompose and fertilize
the earth so bacteria is not always
a bad thing.
It's only because of Adam's sin,
that sickness entered the world but
it's not bacteria that entered the
world because of sin. It's our sin
which causes us to react negatively
to the bacteria.
That said, any bacteria that came
into contact with Jesus when he walked
this Earth, wouldn't affect Him because
He is sinless. Nevertheless, it doesn't
mean that when the bacteria came
into contact with Him, it would die.
When Jesus was walking the Earth
His Body didn't act as a germ killer.
- Why would His Blood under the
appearance of wine act any differently?
- Get my point?
John
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Mary
Ann replied:
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Shawn,
The substance or being of the species
is that of the Living Lord, but the accidents, everything connected
with the senses, remain those
of bread and wine.
That means that it can decay, be
degraded, get moldy, get germs on,
or in, it and will appear to be bread
and wine to all scientific tests.
Mary Ann
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Sean
replied:
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Thank you Mary Ann!
That's how I viewed it too.
Shawn
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