Posted on 08/23/2009 2:05:23 PM PDT by NYer
.- Before Sunday’s Angelus prayer with pilgrims in the courtyard of Castel Gandolfo, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about today’s Gospel, in which Jesus' teaching about his presence in the Eucharist is met with resistance from the Jews and his own disciples. Followers of Christ must respond to his challenging teachings with lifelong commitment instead of trying to adapt his teachings to the fashions of the times, the Pope said.
"The fourth Evangelist,” Pope Benedict explained, “relates the reaction of the people and disciples, shocked by the words of the Lord to the point that many, after having followed him until then, exclaim, ‘This saying is hard, who can accept it?'”
Benedict XVI continued reading, reciting, “And from that moment on ‘many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.'”
The Pope then noted, “Jesus, however, does not lessen his claim. Indeed, he directly addresses the twelve saying, 'Will you also go away?’”
"This provocative question,” the Pope taught, “is not only addressed to listeners of the time, but to believers and men of every age. Even today, many are shocked by the paradox of the Christian faith.”
Because “Jesus’ teaching seems too hard, too difficult to accept and put into practice,” Pope Benedict observed that, “As a result there are those who reject and abandon Christ, those who attempt to adapt his teachings to the fashions of the times distorting its meaning and value.”
“Will you also go away?' This unsettling provocation resounds in our hearts and awaits a response from each one of us. Jesus in fact is not contented by a merely superficial or formal belonging, an initial and enthusiastic adhesion is not enough for Him. On the contrary, we must take part in 'his thinking and his will' throughout our entire life,” the Holy Father said.
Drawing his words to a close, the Pope said, “Faith is God's gift to man and is, at the same time, man’s free and total trusting of himself to God.” “Docile faith, listening to the word of the Lord, that lamp for our feet, light for our path…We ask the Virgin Mary to keep alive in us this faith steeped in love, which has made her, a humble maiden of Nazareth, Mother of God and mother and model for all believers,” he prayed.
After the Marian prayer, the Pope greeted participants of the lay movement Communion and Liberation, who are gathering for their 30th annual Friendship Among Peoples meeting, which opened today in Rimini, Italy. Commenting on this year's theme, “Knowledge Is Always An Event,” he referred to his recent encyclical “Caritas in Veritate”: “'Learning is not only a material act, because…In all knowledge and in every act of love the human soul experiences something ‘over and above,’ which seems very much like a gift that we receive, or a height to which we are raised.”
The greatest gift He left us ... His presence in the Eucharist!
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Possibly, if one is not filled with the Holy Spirit and Jesus actually did take up residence in a baked wafer...
How could one be more in communion with God that to have the Spirit of God reside within ones own body as born again Christians do???
How can putting Jesus into your stomach provide any spiritual benefit???
When we are born again, we experience that Spiritual Circumcision whereby our soul is separated from our body...When we die, it is accurately said that we go to heaven when in fact, it is our separated soul that goes to heaven while our flesh goes into the ground...
The sould does not separate at death, it separates at the 'new birth'...
Jesus wants nothing to do with our flesh...It is corrupted...We will only be in the presence of God, bodily, when our bodies become incorruptable...
There is no biblical reason for Jesus to be put into someone's corrupted body...
IF?
Let’s see what Paul says about the Real Presence. Let’s take a familiar phrase that is too often misunderstood. Paul repeats the words of Jesus, "Do this in remembrance of me." These words were repeated by Luke in his version of the Last Supper in Luke 22:19–20.
John 6:30 begins a colloquy that took place in the synagogue at Capernaum. The Jews asked Jesus what sign he could perform so that they might believe in him. As a challenge, they noted that "our ancestors ate manna in the desert." Could Jesus top that? He told them the real bread from heaven comes from the Father. "Give us this bread always," they said. Jesus replied, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst." At this point the Jews understood him to be speaking metaphorically.
Jesus first repeated what he said, then summarized: "‘I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.’ The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’" (John 6:51–52).
His listeners were stupefied because now they understood Jesus literally—and correctly. He again repeated his words, but with even greater emphasis, and introduced the statement about drinking his blood: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him" (John 6:53–56).
Notice that Jesus made no attempt to soften what he said, no attempt to correct "misunderstandings," for there were none. Our Lord’s listeners understood him perfectly well. They no longer thought he was speaking metaphorically. If they had, if they mistook what he said, why no correction?
On other occasions when there was confusion, Christ explained just what he meant (cf. Matt. 16:5–12). Here, where any misunderstanding would be fatal, there was no effort by Jesus to correct. Instead, he repeated himself for greater emphasis.
In John 6:60 we read: "Many of his disciples, when they heard it, said, ‘This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?’" These were his disciples, people used to his remarkable ways. He warned them not to think carnally, but spiritually: "It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life" (John 6:63; cf. 1 Cor. 2:12–14).
It's no different today, Iscool. There are folks like you who walk away because "this is a hard saying; who can listen to it?"
>>How can putting Jesus into your stomach provide any spiritual benefit???<<
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Jesus is TRUE GOD and TRUE MAN and will always remain TRUE MAN (as well as true God). As TRUE MAN He still has and always will have a glorified human body (flesh, blood and soul). In His love for us He wants to be with us humans (flesh,blood and soul) and the only way for Him to do so is to co-mingle His Glorified Body with our earthly human body thru reception of the Eucharist.
Catholics live with the hope that they too will receive a glorified body at the Last Judgment — not a similar body as Christ has (because He is divine) but still a glorified body.
(By the way, when Christ appeared to his disciples after His Ressurection, He asked for something to eat so that He could show them that He still had a Body, and because Christ is changeless, even now He still has a Body.)
“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of everlasting life.”
(translation)
“Aw, FReep. What’s my other choice? I could go to Hell, but how would that help?” I love St. Peter - he’s me! Anoreth took “Peter” for her Confirmation name; he’s her, too.
I love this chapter of John. It opens with Jesus performing a miracle with bread (feeding the multitudes). Jesus then performs a miracle with his body (walking on water). Jesus then gives a discourse on bread tying in God saving his people with Manna in the desert with his own status as the bread of life.
It’s hard to imagine Christians who will not accept this teaching.
***There is no biblical reason for Jesus to be put into someone’s corrupted body...***
You mean other than the words of Jesus? Your church is astonishingly unbiblical, Iscool. I know that these words are hard to accept. That is why the Church of Jesus Christ will be here if and when all individuals will choose to accept them. We accept the word of Jesus, not the words of individual men sitting in their LaZBoys.
Outward signs are more biblical than you think. All through the Old Testament, God communicated with the Chosen People through outward tangible signs. The life sustaining manna in the desert was a physical food meant to sustain them. It is a foreshadowing of the Eucharist, a physical food meant to sustain our souls.
You are also forgetting that our physical bodies are separated from our souls until the Final Judgment. Then our bodies will be reunited, in perfect form, with our souls to live in heaven with Christ forever.
Christ also saved us by taking on our “corrupted” flesh. Why would He join Himself to corruption? Obviously, because God loves the human form He created, gave physical miracles to sustain the physical bodies and souls of His people, returned from the dead in very physical form, and intends to return us to our physical bodies when He comes in glory.
Why, in addition, did Jesus perform all the physical signs and traditions of the Jews? He does not take up residence in the baked wafer. He joins Himself in a mysterious way with the physical wafer and it becomes His body. He told us so in the Bible (Jn 6:53, 55) when He said, “My flesh is real food, my blood is real drink.”
Christ repeated that He is the bread of life 12 times! He said, “Drink my blood, eat my flesh” 4 times! Why was He so repetitive? He meant it literally and the Jews who heard and saw Him say it took him literally. He let those who took Him literally and began to doubt walk away. Why didn’t He clarify if they misunderstood Him? Their souls were at stake; why didn’t He explain to them He just meant that “symbolically?”
Our pastor this morning tied it all together using the second reading and marriage as an example. And after Mass I talked to a young lady who had been in the choir. It seems she's entering a convent of a semi-cloisterd order in the next couple weeks. A life-long commitment. Doesn't seem to matter what our vocation is, it's always a life-long commitment.
The way we live our lives today - moving all the time, easy divorce, switching jobs constantly - life-long commitments are not exactly the norm.
You could partake of the sanctified, glorified, resurrected human nature of Jesus, and have the Holy Spirit dwelling in your soul.
How can putting Jesus into your stomach provide any spiritual benefit???
Jesus evidently thought that it did. Why are you second-guessing him? He's the one who said, "Take ... eat ... this is my body". We didn't make it up.
Moreover, you seem to forget that God set up the Passover meal (What was he thinking? What spiritual benefit could come from eating a roasted lamb and smearing its blood on the doorpost?) and Scripture is completely clear that Christ is the new Passover.
Jesus wants nothing to do with our flesh...It is corrupted...We will only be in the presence of God, bodily, when our bodies become incorruptable
If Jesus wants "nothing to do with our flesh," how and why is he going to make it incorruptible? And if your flesh is so corrupted that Jesus wants nothing do with it, what is the "Spirit of God" doing "residing in it"?
Are Jesus and the "Spirit of God" not in agreement about your flesh? One thinks it's so corrupted that he wants nothing to do with it, and the other thinks it's okay to live there?
You contradict yourself, and I know why.
Your fundamentalist Christianity, being as anti-sacramental as it is, naturally tends toward Platonism (matter bad, spirit good).
But you know at some level that Platonism contradicts Scripture (the world is saved through the matter of Christ's incarnate body; God intends to redeem all of creation, including material creation, including our bodies), so you're left with a contradiction.
And there are only two ways out. You reject the unscriptural Platonism of your own tradition and become a Catholic, or you reject Christianity altogether.
Until then, your theology is internally at war with itself.
Excellent observations. You are most blessed with a pastor whose catechesis has touched hearts and souls.
That's what we've been saying all along...
"It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life" (John 6:63; cf. 1 Cor. 2:12–14).
You guys claim Jesus' blood is human blood...Type AB...You claim Jesus flesh that you eat is a human heart...
Mat 16:16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Mat 16:17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
You're not going to get much from human flesh and blood...Except disease...
1Co 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
Human flesh and blood is corrupt...Why would Jesus have human blood???
As you can see, there will be no human flesh and blood in the Kingdom of God...
Jesus first repeated what he said, then summarized: "‘I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.’ The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’" (John 6:51–52).
The bread-is my flesh...
If you eat the bread (flesh), you will never again hunger...You can't separate the two...They are tied together...The flesh is the bread...If you eat the flesh you will have eternal life...At the same time, you will never again hunger...
So the flesh that was born at Bethlehem and nailed to the cross on Calvary wasn't human flesh, and the blood that flowed from Christ's hands, feet, and sides wasn't human blood?
It seems we are now being told that Jesus Christ WAS NOT Man at all and I am not aware of ANY Christian who would not consider this to be heresy.
Jesus answers your questions better than I...
Joh 6:26 Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.
Joh 6:64 But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.
Mat 13:13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Mat 13:14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Mat 13:15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
You guys invented a name for everything...If matter is so good, why's God going to burn it all up???
But you know at some level that Platonism contradicts Scripture (the world is saved through the matter of Christ's incarnate body; God intends to redeem all of creation, including material creation, including our bodies), so you're left with a contradiction.
'Christians' are saved by the death of Jesus' incarnate body as the one and only sacrifice
How about John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
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