“the Eucharist should not be understood as literal human flesh... but it IS the literal Body of Christ”
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It’s amusing to watch you bend yourself into a pretzel like this. According to the Roman Catholic view, it IS the literal flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. You can’t say that just because it looks like bread and wine, that it isn’t literally the body of Christ. That’s my view! The bread is just the “form,” but the substance is literally Christ’s body.
“Here, read all of paragraph 12, all of it, with an open mind and then come back and dare say St Augustine believed in some kind of “ONLY symbolic” form of the Eucharist.”
I’ll let Augustine, from paragraph 12, do it himself:
“To what purpose do you make ready teeth and stomach? Believe, and you have eaten already.”
“Tractate 50 has simply nothing to do with the teaching of the Eucharist so it’s quite intellectually dishonest to try to use it to apply it to that teaching.”
“Thy forefathers held by the flesh, hold thou with the heart; for the absent Christ is also present. But for His presence, we ourselves were unable to hold Him.”
Presumably, every Sunday you hold Christ in your hands.
” Again, read the WHOLE thing, not just paragraphs 1 & 2, PORTIONS of which you quote. Pay particular attention to paragraphs 19 and 20 ( if the whole thing is too much to read ) and again, dare come back and tell me St Augustine is some kind of proto-Protestant.”
“For to believe in Him is to eat the living bread. He that believes eats; he is sated invisibly, because invisibly is he born again.”
“For to believe in Him is to eat the living bread. He that believes eats; he is sated invisibly, because invisibly is he born again.”
“For to believe in Him is to eat the living bread. He that believes eats; he is sated invisibly, because invisibly is he born again.”
Read it again and again until it computes.
“Sermon 227 is sadly not online (that I can see) but I think I’ve demonstrated enough,”
You’ve demonstrated your ability to assert that things agree with you when they actually don’t.
The next time you are dumpster diving on anti-Catholic websites for new material you should take a few minutes and visit a credible website to learn the difference between Substance and Property. Right now you look pretty foolish to the educated among us.
Peace be to you
Funny, that's the exact same impression I have after reading your last reply to me.
Go ahead, reply back, get that precious last word in if you desperately need it.