He said, “This is my body...” “...this is my blood...”
Would the Holy Spirit contradict that by authorizing the first church council to tell newborn christians to abstain from blood? Look at the passage in Luke of the same Passover meal. It does not jive with the other Gospel readings, so there is a way to reconcile that. It is ALWAYS best to go to the scriptures to settle a seeming contradiction. CAn you do it? Or must you insrtead just trust ‘tradition’ to lead you along the wide road?
He said, “You brood of vipers"; "You blind men".
He said, “I am the door”, “I am the vine”, “I am the way”, I am the bread”.
By Catholic reasoning, He is made of wood, plant material, dirt, and bread dough (flour).
When re-enacting scenes whether on paper or with objects, something like a car accident, you set it up and say *This is me and this is the other guy*. Well, everyone knows that those figures are just representations, that you’re not really saying that that is you in your essence and reality.
Passover was a ceremony of REMEMBRANCE, the different aspects of it looking forward to the Messiah, each representing a different aspect of Him. When Jesus was doing the last supper, He was explaining to the disciples what the different aspects of the Passover Seder were showing them. He held up the bread and the cup and said, *This is my body...., this is my blood*. IOW, this aspect of the Passover meal represents this aspect of me. It fits in PERFECTLY with the rest of Scripture and does not contradict one single teaching of it found anywhere else.
So you ever get hungry again? Or thirsty? Or are you expecting to die? If literal, physical eating is demanded by Catholics, then consistency in interpreting the Bible passages demands that the rest of what He said be taken literally and physically, so that you will literally, physically never become hungry again, never literally physically become thirsty again, and never literally, physically die.
Otherwise, when Catholics pick and choose on a verse by verse basis which to take literally and which to take figuratively, they can be rightly suspected of having an agenda and misusing the word of God to further it.
In John 6 Jesus also says that the flesh profits nothing, it is the SPIRIT which gives life and Peter said that Jesus had the words of eternal life. Jesus told us that man does not live by bread alone but by every WORD that proceeds from the mouth of God.
Using physical objects to represent spiritual realities to us thick headed human beings is not uncommon in Scripture. It’s used everywhere. It helps us understand it. This is no different because our performing physical actions does not cause spiritual reality to happen. It shows us in a way that makes sense and will stick with us. Faith in God, believing Him, is the key. Not faith in the church or in sacraments or rituals.
Without faith in God, it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God.
Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, before he ever did a thing but believe Him.