"The Body of Christ"
Posted on 08/12/2006 7:01:28 AM PDT by NYer
Jesus’ hearers cannot believe the seemingly unbelievable. When Jesus makes the radical claim, “I am the living bread come down from heaven,” He is not only asking the Jews to accept His assertion that He can give His body as flesh to eat under the appearance of bread, Jesus is asking the Jews to believe in something even more fundamental — that He is the Son of God.
That is why the Jews murmur among themselves that Jesus is nothing more than the son of Joseph, another man just like them. For Jesus to claim that He has come down from heaven is too unbelievable. If the Jews can believe that Jesus is the Son of God, then they might accept that He is the living bread come down from heaven. We learn that they cannot accept either claim.
What lies at the heart of our Lord’s teaching, which forms the foundation of our belief in the Eucharist, is His humble and self-effacing love. In making the claim that He is the bread of life, He shows us the depth of His love. As if it were not enough that He condescends to take our human nature upon Himself in all things but sin, He goes further by dying at Calvary for our redemption. And as if that were not enough, He goes the extra mile by choosing to remain with us always, until the end of time, in the sacramental form of the Eucharist. We must ask, “Is this too incredible for us to believe? Is the transubstantiation of ordinary bread and wine into the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ too much for us to accept?” Even though the appearances of bread and wine remain, we know that nothing of bread and nothing of wine is present in the Eucharist. Perhaps we can consider this doctrine in this way: If Jesus Christ is both true God and true man, and we know that God created the entire universe by His mere word, then what is to stop us from believing that the Son of God could transform ordinary bread and wine into His own body and blood by His word? It is more difficult to create something out of nothing (as in the case of creation) than it is to change pre-existing matter (bread and wine) into the Eucharist.
Yet how sad it is when statistics show a significant decline in Catholics who believe in the Real Presence; when Mass attendance in some parts of the world is at an all-time low; when people’s attire for Mass shows an obvious lack of due respect or recognition of the miracle occurring on the altar; when many fail to keep the one-hour Eucharistic fast; or even worse, when people come forward to receive Holy Communion when they are in a state of mortal sin. Christ’s love, made manifest in the Eucharist, is returned with so much indifference in our own day.
This claim, “I am the bread of life,” would cost Jesus some credibility and certainly some popularity. At the end of the sixth chapter of the Gospel of St. John, many of the disciples would abandon our Lord. The claim costs all of us as well — at least those of us who live according to the “Amen” we say when we receive holy Communion. When communicants say, “Amen” to the words “The body of Christ” when they receive the Eucharist at Mass, they are saying “Amen” to several things, whether they know it or not. First, they are saying “Amen” to the reality of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Next, they are saying “Amen” to the priesthood that confects the Eucharist and the authority of the bishops and the pope who govern and ordain men into the priesthood. Finally, they are saying “Amen” to all that the Church proposes as being true and definitively taught as worthy of our belief. So, in order to make a genuine Communion, a person receiving the Eucharist must be in full communion with the Church, that is, he accepts all of what the Church teaches. To believe in anything less makes that person’s “Amen” a disingenuous act. Only a true “Amen” links us to Jesus and nourishes us into everlasting life.
For those who do not accept the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the murmuring of disbelief in the Gospel continues in our own day. This is particularly disturbing when the murmuring comes from within our own ranks in the Church. Let us pray that we continue to grow in our belief of the seemingly unbelievable and teach others to love our blessed Lord, Who, through the Eucharist, pledges to remain with us until the end of time.
Amen, Amen! As a cradle catholic, I have always believed this but I didn't have a deep understanding of it until recently. I have done a few protestant bible studies (Beth Moore studies). My Catholic friends were worried that I would be 'swayed', it did nothing except deepen my Catholic faith. Especially when we were studying old testament and the manna that came down from heaven. The light bulb went off.. God did NOT send SYMBOLIC manna, he sent real food, true food to them. That is what Jesus was trying to tell us about himself! It's exciting and so peaceful at the same time...
You have been given an awesome gift of understanding this! God bless you!
"Our first Christian ancestors devoted themselves to the Eucharist, and that is perhaps the most important way they showed themselves to be Christians. No Christian practice is so well attested from those early years. No doctrine is so systematically worked out as the doctrine of the Eucharist. "
The Martyr’s Cup
Beautiful! Thank you for that meditation, another prefigurement.
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Do you believe that Jesus is made of wood or that he has leaves?
Did Jesus grasp a particular tree, a physical tree, and say the tree was he?
Do you know how many of Jesus' disciples were lost to Him that day because they had their mind set exactly as you do?
St. Peter understood His words and said, "Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life."
Jesus repeated at least three times Amen, Amen I say to you... about His body and His blood in John chapter 6. Amen means so be it, truly. What more proof do you want?
I see that you're still trying to sell as "Biblical theology" the heretical doctrine of cannibalism.... The problem is... This RCC doctrine will not stand up to the scrutiny of Scripture or the scrutiny of science...
The transubstantiation of bread and wine into literal flesh and blood has no basis in Scripture or in science... Do I need to explain this any further.. The choice is yours...
Here is one of my favorite Hymns.. Its message is Biblically correct... We sing it often.. When we remember Christ according to His command on the first day of the week...
"For the bread and for the wine,
For the pledge that seals Him mine,
For the words of love divine,
We give Thee thanks, O Lord.
For the words that turn our eye
To the cross of Calvary,
Bidding us in faith draw nigh,
We give Thee thanks, O Lord.
For the words that tell of home,
Pointing us beyond the tomb,
"Do ye this, until I come!"
We give Thee thanks, O Lord.
Till He come we take the bread,
Type of Him on Whom we feed,
Him who liveth and was dead!
We give Thee thanks, O Lord.
Till He come we take the cup;
As we at His table sup,
Eye and heart are lifted up!
We give Thee thanks, O Lord.
For that coming, here foreshown,
For that day to man unknown,
For the glory and the throne,
We give Thee thanks, O Lord."
The transubstantiation of bread and wine into literal flesh and blood has no basis in Scripture or in science
You totally misunderstand what "transubstantiation" means. It means that while maintaining the accidents of bread and wine (taste, appearance, smell, etc.), the consecrated host and wine is in its essence the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, of Our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and true Man.
>>You totally misunderstand what "transubstantiation" means. It means that while maintaining the accidents of bread and wine (taste, appearance, smell, etc.), the consecrated host and wine is in its essence the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, of Our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and true Man.<<
Maybe we're getting somewhere... So, what you're saying is that the bread and wine DO NOT literally become, by something called "transubstantiation", LITERAL flesh and LITERAL blood? You're saying that when the bread and wine would be put under scientific analysis... The bread and wine would have the same texture, smell, taste, molecular structure... etc as they had before they underwent a thing called "transubstantiation"... Right?
This is at odds with what some of you're RCC friends are saying... Some are saying that it becomes "literal" flesh and "literal" wine...
It is what it is. If God can raise stones to be sons of Abraham, He can make His Flesh and Blood look and taste like bread and wine.
"It is what it is. If God can raise stones to be sons of Abraham, "
If He did, they wouldn't still look like stones - would they?
You doubt the omnipotence of God?
"You doubt the omnipotence of God?"
No, I confirm it.
When God changes water into wine it becomes WINE.
It doesn't remain water.
"Blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed" (John 20:29).
BTTT
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