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And believe me, it's not literal, either.

Yes, it is.

Anyone who is remotely familiar with Scripture and Jesus' parables know that He often had to explain what He meant - people didn't simply understand. He would be frustrated sometimes, but when He used an allegory or a metaphor that people confused, He would clarify for them or for the Apostles. You will find no such clarification in John 6. In fact, you find the exact opposite. Jesus says that you must eat His flesh and drink His blood to have eternal life and the Jews simply don't understand and our disgusted by this. They say "you can't be serious?" and how does Jesus respond? He doesn't explain, elaborate, nada. In fact, He reinforces what He said when its questioned by saying, "Amen, amen, I say to you..."

So, in other words, people who question the Eucharist are no different from the Jews in John 6 and when you stand here saying "pfft! How can this be? You're not serious?" Christ isn't going to say "Yeah, you're right." He's going to respond exactly how He responded to the Jews by saying "Amen, amen, I say to you..."

Furthermore, the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist has been believed for 2000 years. It wasn't till after the Protestant Reformation in the 16th Century that people disagreed. Do Protestants know something that 1500 years of Christians did not?

I'm going to make this a recurrent theme of mine on this thread: "Read the early Church's witness!"

If they got this wrong, like Purgatory, the objection to which on your part I already answered in post 124, then they botched Christianity generally. If they did that, we both believe in a manifestly false religion, even in the basics, for reasons I also stated in post 124. I'm tired of having to be a broken record witnessing to people who object to Catholicism without reading any explanations from the Catholics on this board. I'm sure it's also getting tedious to wade through for the many lurkers on this site, who come here to learn. The same lame objections, over and over, fully refuted and countered over and over, often on threads that have been hijacked and taken into directions bearing no relation to the original purpose of the thread. Enough, already! Please *read* the countering to your objections, either here or in the archives.

Here are a few witnesses to the *early*, *literal* understanding of the Eucharist being the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ:

http://www.catholic.com/library/Real_Presence.asp

http://www.davidmacd.com/catholic/eucharist.htm