[Salvation]

**John 6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh. This last quote is from the Gospel for today’s feast. The passage is a profound theology of the Eucharist from Jesus Himself.**

He makes it clear that we are not permitted to think of the Eucharist as a symbol or in metaphorical terms.

[Salvation]

Monsignor Pope Ping!

[Jim W N]

Are You a Man or Mouse?

Squeak up.

[chajin]

At the risk of exuding self-absorption...my handle "Chajin" literally reads 茶人 or "tea person" and means someone who practices the Japanese tea ceremony. It would take a whole set of blogs to go into how the tea ceremony emulates the Service of the Altar. Suffice to say that the man who designed the tea ceremony in the 1500s, Sen-no-Rikyu, had seven disciples, and three of them, including Dom Justo (Takayama Ukon), were Christians, meaning Catholic, since the only missionaries were Jesuits and Dominicans. One of my personal quirks is that when I receive the Eucharist, I emulate the actions of a person receiving the kasha and matcha of the tea ceremony in a way that doesn't bring any attention to myself, but which reminds me of how Christ Himself is present in elements of the altar.

I'll point out a small but significant aspect that only a Christian would understand. When guests at a tea ceremony receive the bowl of tea, their response is "Otemae choudai shimasu." Otemae means "honorable host," and choudai shimasu means "I humbly receive." The guest doesn't say "Otemae *kara* choudai shimasu" which would mean "I receive this *from* the honorable host." The phrase means that the guest receives the honorable host. Christ gives us Himself, and we humbly receive Him, not as a mouse, but as a man.

[scrabblehack]

The old joke goes...definitely a man....my wife would be afraid of a mouse.

[MurphsLaw]

yes for sure, though the most overlooked and real zinger Christ tells the unbelievers......

+++60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” 61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before!

Meaning...."IF this offends you, and you can't believe in this....HOW will you be able to believe in MY Resurrection!"

Christ tells them, and us, explicitly what we MUST believe in......and how important that it is to do so.......