Soon, we will return liturgically to the relative “quiet” of Ordinary Time, after so many celebrations of great historical events in Jesus’ life. Today, we pause to look back at the Last Supper. Why?

Gospel (Read Mk 14:12-16, 22-26) Now that we have liturgically re-lived with Jesus the culmination of His earthly ministry and His return to Heaven, it might seem that Jesus has, in a sense, gone away. The celebration of Christ the King and His triumphant return to the world He died to save is many months away. To avoid thinking that the long period of Ordinary Time is a time of Jesus’ “absence,” the Church calls us to the observance of the Body and Blood of Christ, or Corpus Christi. Our Gospel takes us back to the institution of the Eucharist, lest we forget that although Jesus reigns now over His Church from His throne at God’s right hand, He has given us the extraordinary gift of His continuing Presence in the bread and wine at Mass. In a way, liturgically speaking, we are better able to truly understand this gift than when we remembered it during Holy Week. Why?

During Holy Week, our meditation of the Last Supper was an anticipation of something that lay ahead. Jesus offered the death He was about to undergo as an offering for sin. He knew that He would receive His life back again, conquering death, so He was able offer the apostles, mysteriously, that indestructible, glorified life in the bread and wine He gave to them. It took Easter and the Ascension for us to fully comprehend that when Jesus rose from death, He entered a new mode of human existence. In His post-Resurrection appearances, He did some things humans can do (eat, talk, be touched), as well as some things human can’t do (appear and disappear, be unrecognizable to His best friends, yet known to them). The Ascension took Jesus permanently away into that invisible mode of human existence, but, because His human Body is able to do things ours can’t, He can still be present to us in an unrecognizable but known way—in the Eucharist. No wonder the Church wants to remind us of this now!

Jesus’ gift of Himself to us in the Eucharist, as the centerpiece of His Church’s worship, breaks through the barriers of time and space to anchor us in mystery. For Catholics, the life of Jesus was not simply linear. That is, He did not simply accomplish a cluster of magnificent historical events and then disappear until His return. He did not simply send His Spirit into the world to take His place in the hearts of men and the life of the Church—as wonderful as all that is, of course. No, in addition to the life He lived and the Spirit He imparted, He grants us the same mysterious communion with His Body and Blood that His apostles first experienced at the Last Supper. Present on all the altars of the world, He has not left us orphans. The Body and Blood of Jesus (so human, so real) that saved us on the Cross and then rose to Heaven remains within time and space to be ever present for the salvation of the whole world, in all times and places. This is the gift that will enable us to persevere until the end of time. It is the abiding and irrefutable proof that God loves us, flesh and blood. Because of it, although we will soon resume Ordinary Time, nothing can ever be “ordinary” again.

Possible response: Lord Jesus, I know that I long to be close to You. Your gift of the Eucharist shows me how You long to be close to me, too. Please help me remember this.

First Reading (Read Ex 24:3-8) Here we see one of the most important Old Testament events in Israel’s life, and it is crucial to our understanding of the Last Supper. When Moses had delivered God’s people from bondage, he took them to Mt. Sinai to meet their God. Prior to this, they had only known Him through the stories passed on in their oral tradition, which would have included Creation, the Flood, and the lives of the patriarchs. Of course, the incredible signs and wonders Moses worked in Egypt to free them from slavery taught them quite a bit, too. However, when they got to Sinai, God not only came down in a visible way (in terrifying pyrotechnics), but He also gave them a code of conduct (the Ten Commandments) and a way to worship Him (the Tabernacle). They were truly a real nation—a priestly nation—now. Before ratifying this covenant, God gave them a choice (as He always does with all men). Moses read the terms of the covenant to the people, then waited for their response. In essence, they said, “Sign us up!” That is when the blood from the animal sacrifice that was to be offered on the altar was splashed on the people as well. The blood sealed them into kinship with God, Who was represented by the altar. When the people looked at the blood on their own bodies, they knew that a remarkable relationship had now been established with God. It was an event never to be repeated in Israel’s long, tumultuous history.

Flash forward to the Last Supper. If we wonder why Jesus wants to give His followers His Body and Blood to take into their own bodies, we can see that he was drawing on the Jewish belief that sharing blood in covenant-making creates kinship. The Body and Blood of our Savior mingles with our own; we are one people with Him.

The people at Sinai who had altar blood on them knew something extraordinary was taking place. When we receive from our altars the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus, so should we.

Possible response: Lord Jesus, thank You for spilling blood so that I could share kinship with You.

The best way to read this psalm is to imagine we can hear Jesus reading it, because truly it is His prophetic Voice written hundreds of years before He lived. On Jesus’ lips, this psalm is a prayer of praise and thanksgiving for God’s faithfulness to Him, especially in deliverance from death. This was a psalm recited in the Jewish celebration of Passover. Surely Jesus recited it at the Last Supper. He took up “the cup of salvation,” which would mean death for Him. However, He knew that “precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones.” He knew Himself to be “the son of [God’s] handmaid [Mary]”; He knew that death would not hold Him (“You have loosed My bonds”).

Now, in the Eucharist, Jesus offers His followers the same joy expressed in the psalm. The Eucharist is our “sacrifice of thanksgiving.” As we offer and receive it, we can sing our responsorial with confidence: “I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.”

Possible response: The psalm is, itself, a response to our other readings. Read it again prayerfully to make it your own.

The epistle gives us a rare glimpse behind the veil of invisibility that covered Jesus when he ascended to the Father in heaven. It draws back the curtain so we can have an image of what Jesus did when He left us. He fulfilled His work as High Priest on our behalf, entering the “sanctuary” of heaven with the perfect, final offering for sin—Himself, taking “His own blood.” He is there now as our “Mediator of a new covenant.” Each time we receive His Body and Blood from the altar at Mass, we share His exalted life and receive into our own bodies a guarantee of the “promised eternal inheritance,” the fruit of the Eucharistic meal. Our consciences are cleansed “from dead works to worship the living God.”

The Lauda Sion (Laud, O Zion) sequence, often part of the Corpus Christi liturgy, describes this beautifully:

Now the new the old effaces, Truth away the shadow chases. Light dispels the gloom of night. What He did at supper seated, Christ ordained to be repeated, His memorial ne’er to cease: And His rule for guidance taking, Bread and wine we hallow, making Thus our sacrifice of peace.

Possible response: Lord Jesus, I only barely comprehend how You have joined heaven and earth in Your Body and in mine. Help me ponder this mystery on this special day.

True to cultic form, having your most recent posting of provocative propaganda refuted once again, the Catholic devotee simply doubles down on pushing more of the same, and thus must face more of the same exposure of the unScriptural Catholic contrivance of the Lord's supper. But perhaps you hope this robotic posting of Catholic prevarications will obtain some sort of indulgence, since in reality such remains an argument against being a Catholic.

He entered a new mode of human existence. In His post-Resurrection appearances, He did some things humans can do (eat, talk, be touched), as well as some things human can’t do (appear and disappear, be unrecognizable to His best friends, yet known to them). The Ascension took Jesus permanently away into that invisible mode of human existence, but, because His human Body is able to do things ours can’t, He can still be present to us in an unrecognizable but known way—in the Eucharist

Rather, the incarnated Christ always appeared on earth in a manifestly physical body which Scripture emphasizes* versus one whose appearance did not correspond to what His body materially was, and thid never appeared as an inanimate object, and one which actually does not exist. For in Catholic Eucharistic theology, the bread wine cease to exist at the utterance of the words of consecration by the priest, with the "true body and blood" of Christ" having taken their place. Until that is, the non-existence host - which as with the true body of Christ looks, feels, etc., and would scientifically test to be what it appears as - begins to manifestly decay (for in contrast to how appearance is dismissed in declaring that what looks like bread and wine is really Jesus under a different form, in the case of corruption then seeing is required). At which point Christ also ceases to exist under that form.

*"Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." (Luke 24:39) "Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing." (John 20:27) "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life: This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth." (1 John 1:1; 5:6) "For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist." (2 John 7)

Moreover, the so-called plain literal interpretation of the Lord's supper which many Catholics assert is hardly that, for if "Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you," (1 Corinthians 11:24) and "Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (Matthew 26:27-28) means that physical bread was transformed into His Body and Blood at the Last Supper, then it would manifestly be the same manifestly physical body that was crucified body and shed blood of Christ - which looked, smelled, behaved and would scientifically test as being real human flesh.

However, since Catholic priests cannot confect this manifestly physical body (aside from some claimed special miracles) then Rome has engaged in extraordinary efforts in attempting to explain it, resulting in a metaphysical contrivance of the Lord's supper.

. Only the metaphorical understanding of the Lord's supper easily conforms to Scripture overall, while the contrivance of it by Catholicism does not, as abundantly shown here, which I directed you to before, by the grace of God.

However, if you want to actually attempt to defend your Eucharistic theology, then you must face challenges such as,

1. Where in all of Scripture did Jesus Christ appear as an inanimate object, which by all tests of physicality would be just that? 0

2. Where in Scripture is the manifest physicality of Christ emphasized as establishing who the real Christ was, in contrast to one whose bodily appearance did not correspond to what He physically was? (Is. 53; Lk. 24:39; John 20:27; 1 John 4:2; 5:6,8)

3. Where in all of Scripture did the words of the Lord's supper necessarily teach that the body that "is broken" and the blood that is shed, appeared as bread and wine, rather than literally appearing as the manifestly physical flesh and blood that was bruised and shed? 0

4. Where in Scripture is actual water referred to as blood, and thus poured out unto the Lord, and people referred to as bread for the people of God, and the body of Christ referred to as the church being bread? (2 Samuel 23:16-17; Num. 14:9; 1 Corinthians 10:17)

5. Where in all of Scripture is spiritual life obtained by literally physically consuming anything due the nature of the food? 0

6. Where in Acts and the apostles teaching in the NT (these being interpretive of the gospels) is spiritual life obtained by taking part in the Lord's supper versus hearing and effectually believing the gospel of the grace of God? Acts 10:43; 15:7-9; Eph. 1:13)

7. Where from Acts onward in the NT is communion/partakers with the object of religious feasts and each other realized by literally consuming the flesh of the object of worship, rather than by taking part in a communal meal as worship of that object? (1 Corinthians 10:18-22)

8. Where from Acts onward in the NT is communion/partakers with the object of religious feasts and each other realized by sharing a meal together ("feast of charity") in a way that effectually evidences remembrance? (1 Cor. 10,11 )

9. Where are distinctive Greek words for a separate class of sacerdotal believers (hiereus; archiereus; hieráteuma) distinctively used for NT pastors? 0

10. Where is a distinctive Greek word (hieráteuma) for a separate class of sacerdotal believers used for all believers? (1Pt. 2:5,9; Re 1:6; 5:10; 20:6).

11. Where from Acts onward in the NT are church pastors charged with or exampled uniquely conducting the Lord's supper and offering it up as a sacrifice for sins and dispensing it to the people as spiritual food? 0

12. Where from Acts onward in the NT are church pastors charged with or exampled as preaching the Word and feeding the flock with the Word which is called spiritual food ("milk," "meat") by which they are nourished? (Acts 20:28; 1Pt. 5:2 ;1Co. 3:22; 1Pt. 1:22; Heb. 5:12-14; 1 Timothy 4:6; Acts 20:32

Again, the Catholic contrivance of the Lord's supper is just one of the distinctive Catholic teachings that are not manifest in the only wholly inspired substantive authoritative record of what the NT church believed (which is Scripture, in particular Acts through Revelation, which best shows how the NT church understood the gospels).

Where do you find in your Bible that God reveals himself "wholly unto writings"- and in no other way except that found in Scripture?

Well...

There DOES seem to be a bit of a precedent:

NIV Matthew 2:5
"In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written:

NIV Matthew 4:1-11
1. Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.
2. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
3. The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread."
4. Jesus answered, "It is written: `Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.' "
5. Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.
6. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written: "`He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.' "
7. Jesus answered him, "It is also written: `Do not put the Lord your God to the test.' "
8. Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.
9. "All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me."
10. Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: `Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.' "
11. Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

NIV Matthew 11:10
This is the one about whom it is written: "`I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.'

NIV Matthew 21:13
"It is written," he said to them, "`My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a `den of robbers.' "

NIV Matthew 26:24
The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him.

NIV Matthew 26:31
Then Jesus told them, "This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written: "`I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.'

NIV Mark 7:6-7
6. He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: "`These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
7. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.'

NIV Mark 9:11-13
11. And they asked him, "Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?"
12. Jesus replied, "To be sure, Elijah does come first, and restores all things. Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected?
13. But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him."

NIV Mark 11:17
And as he taught them, he said, "Is it not written: "`My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations' ? But you have made it `a den of robbers.' "

NIV Mark 14:27
"You will all fall away," Jesus told them, "for it is written: "`I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.'

NIV Luke 4:17-19
17. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18. "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed,
19. to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

NIV Luke 7:27
This is the one about whom it is written: "`I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.'

NIV Luke 10:26
"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"

NIV Luke 18:31-33
31. Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled.
32. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him.
33. On the third day he will rise again."

NIV Luke 20:17-18
17. Jesus looked directly at them and asked, "Then what is the meaning of that which is written: "`The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone ' ?
18. Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed."

NIV Luke 21:22
For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written.

NIV Luke 22:37
It is written: `And he was numbered with the transgressors' ; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment."

NIV Luke 24:44-47
44. He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms."
45. Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.
46. He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day,
47. and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

NIV John 2:17
His disciples remembered that it is written: "Zeal for your house will consume me."

NIV John 6:31
Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: `He gave them bread from heaven to eat.' "

NIV John 6:45
It is written in the Prophets: `They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.

NIV John 12:14-16
14. Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written,
15. "Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey's colt."
16. At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that they had done these things to him.

NIV John 15:25
But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: `They hated me without reason.'

NIV John 20:30-31
30. Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.
31. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

NIV Acts 1:20
"For," said Peter, "it is written in the book of Psalms, "`May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,' and, "`May another take his place of leadership.'

NIV Acts 7:42
But God turned away and gave them over to the worship of the heavenly bodies. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets: "`Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the desert, O house of Israel?

NIV Acts 13:29
When they had carried out all that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb.

NIV Acts 13:32-33
32. "We tell you the good news: What God promised our fathers
33. he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm: "`You are my Son; today I have become your Father. '

NIV Acts 15:15-18
15. The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written:
16. "`After this I will return and rebuild David's fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it,
17. that the remnant of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things'
18. that have been known for ages.

NIV Acts 23:5
Paul replied, "Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it is written: `Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.' "

NIV Acts 24:14
However, I admit that I worship the God of our fathers as a follower of the Way, which they call a sect. I believe everything that agrees with the Law and that is written in the Prophets,
and I have the same hope in God as these men, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.

NIV Romans 1:17
For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."

NIV Romans 2:24
As it is written: "God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."

NIV Romans 3:4
Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written: "So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge."

NIV Romans 3:10-12
10. As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one;
11. there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.
12. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."

NIV Romans 4:17
As it is written: "I have made you a father of many nations." He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed--the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.

NIV Romans 4:23-24
23. The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone,
24. but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness--for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

NIV Romans 8:36
As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."

NIV Romans 9:13
Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."

NIV Romans 9:33
As it is written: "See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."

NIV Romans 10:15
And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

NIV Romans 11:7-10
7. What then? What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened,
8. as it is written: "God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see and ears so that they could not hear, to this very day."
9. And David says: "May their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them.
10. May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever."

NIV Romans 11:26-27
26. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
27. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins."

NIV Romans 12:19
Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.

NIV Romans 14:11
It is written: "`As surely as I live,' says the Lord, `every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.'"

NIV Romans 15:3-4
3. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: "The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me."
4. For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

NIV Romans 15:7-12
7. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.
8. For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God's truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs
9. so that the Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy, as it is written: "Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing hymns to your name."
10. Again, it says, "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people."
11. And again, "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and sing praises to him, all you peoples."
12. And again, Isaiah says, "The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; the Gentiles will hope in him."

NIV Romans 15:21
Rather, as it is written: "Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand."

NIV 1 Corinthians 1:19
For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate."

NIV 1 Corinthians 1:31
Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."

NIV 1 Corinthians 2:9
However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" --

NIV 1 Corinthians 3:19-20
19. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness" ;
20. and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile."

NIV 1 Corinthians 4:6
Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, "Do not go beyond what is written." Then you will not take pride in one man over against another.

NIV 1 Corinthians 9:9
For it is written in the Law of Moses: "Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain." Is it about oxen that God is concerned?

NIV 1 Corinthians 10:7
Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: "The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry."

NIV 1 Corinthians 10:11
These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.

NIV 1 Corinthians 14:21
In the Law it is written: "Through men of strange tongues and through the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me," says the Lord.

NIV 1 Corinthians 15:45
So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being" ; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.

NIV 1 Corinthians 15:54
When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."

NIV 2 Corinthians 4:13-14
13. it is written: "I believed; therefore I have spoken." With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak,
14. because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence.

NIV 2 Corinthians 8:15
as it is written: "He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little."

NIV Galatians 3:10
All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law."

NIV Galatians 3:13
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."

NIV Galatians 4:22
For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.

NIV Galatians 4:27
For it is written: "Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have no labor pains; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband."

NIV Hebrews 10:7
Then I said, `Here I am-- it is written about me in the scroll-- I have come to do your will, O God.'"

NIV 1 Peter 1:15-16
But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."
And now; for the Believers in Christ who may have wondered how much FAITH to place upon the Apostles written words...

NIV Luke 1:1-4
1. Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us,
2. just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.
3. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus,
4. so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

NIV 2 Corinthians 1:13-14
13. For we do not write you anything you cannot read or understand. And I hope that,
14. as you have understood us in part, you will come to understand fully that you can boast of us just as we will boast of you in the day of the Lord Jesus.

NIV 2 Peter 3:16
He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

NIV 1 John 2:12-14
12. I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
13. I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father.
14. I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

"Knowing what we know now... sure an easy answer for some of us...but not all of us....so what if we lived back then- and had to accept ALL of John 6 from Jesus?Could we? Does he still ask of us that question today.... "will you leave too"? As disciples.... would we have walked away ourselves? How strong... and how far... would our belief in Christ in the Flesh would have been for us?"

It could have been as strong as that of John who penned it, as well as the other apostles, who unlike protoCatholics, understood the use of metaphor and which John recorded already, of Christ being the "Lamb" of God, (John 1:29)

and being the "temple" of God (John 2:19) - which the Jews misunderstood and which metaphor Christ did not explain to them,

and the requirement of another birth - which no less a Jew as Nicodemus misunderstood and which Christ basically explained to him as mysteriously spiritually , (John 3:1-9ff)

and the "living water" - which a sinful Samaritan misunderstood, which Jesus basically explained as spiritual, (John 4:5-29)

and of the "meat" which the Lord ate being something the disciples knew not of, but which he explained as spiritual, that of doing the will of His Father, (John 4:31-34) Jesus for " It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." (Luke 4:4)

Which brings us to John 6, in which either consuming the literal flesh and blood of the crucified flesh is required in order to obtain spiritual life, (John 6:53) - but which is nowhere taught as being the instrument of regeneration or as providing spiritual life - or it metaphorically refers to living by Christ as He lived by the Father ("As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me," (John 6:57) meaning by receiving His word and living by it, as that was the "meat" of Christ. And which conflates with the spiritual explanation that follows,

IWhen Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. 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. (John 6:61-64)(John 6:63-64)

Since the Lord would not be physically present to provide this literal crucified flesh and blood, then this presents a problem (and there is nothing here of the novel metaphysical Catholic contrivance of inanimate non-existent bread and wine being the crucified body of Christ), but rather than flesh giving life, then it is the Spirit, and the words of Christ are what are life-giving spirit. And which is the only understanding that John teaches as well as the rest of the NT after John. In which believing the word of the gospel, of the crucified and risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ are what obtains spiritual life, and which word alone is called spiritual food, "milk" (1Cor. 3:2; 1Pt. 1:22) and "meat" (Heb. 5:12,14) whereby the recipients are nourished (1 Tim. 4:6) and built up. (Acts 20:32)

In contrast, the idea that kosher apostles would silently submit to consuming human blood, and even believe in transubstantiation which they are nowhere seen being taught, is absurd, while it is only the metaphorical understanding that easily conflates with the rest of Scripture.

"Where he instructs us to STAND FAST and HOLD THOSE TRADITIONS I HAVE TAUGHT YOU.... was not just a suggestion - so shame oh him for NOT WRITING DOWN EVERYTHING EXACTLY WHAT HIS TRADITIONS WERE... Its not right to call out what was left unexplained in the Good Book. Thats where the First Church fathers come in to aid us... "

What?! You are one who rejects writings of Paul in the Bible as all being wholly God-inspired, even though (as shown you) your own church does, and thus you must allow others to do the same, including 2 Thessalonians 2:15, even though we affirms its Divine inspiration vs your selectiveness.

Meanwhile, you can only presume that Paul did not also write what he orally taught, must less imagine that this reference to tradition was never penned but that is provides cover for whatever Catholic decides was of tradition, even under the premise that it remembers what history "forgot" to record for hundreds of years.

As shown you, even Ratzinger confessed,

Before Mary's bodily Assumption into heaven was defined, all theological faculties in the world were consulted for their opinion. Our teachers' answer was emphatically negative. What here became evident was the one-sidedness, not only of the historical, but of the historicist method in theology. “Tradition” was identified with what could be proved on the basis of texts. Altaner, the patrologist from Wurzburg…had proven in a scientifically persuasive manner that the doctrine of Mary’s bodily Assumption into heaven was unknown before the 5C; this doctrine, therefore, he argued, could not belong to the “apostolic tradition. And this was his conclusion, which my teachers at Munich shared.

How then can Rome rationalize making belief in the Assumption a binding doctrine? Why, by claiming,

But if you conceive of “tradition” as the living process whereby the Holy Spirit introduces us to the fullness of truth and teaches us how to understand what previously we could still not grasp (cf. Jn 16:12-13), then subsequent “remembering” (cf. Jn 16:4, for instance) can come to recognize what it has not caught sight of previously and was already handed down in the original Word,” J. Ratzinger, Milestones (Ignatius, n.d.), 58-59.

"Caught sight of" means seeing what is not there. Yet the actual basis for the claimed veracity of such decrees as the Assumption is NOT that Scripture substantiates it, but is based upon the novel and unScriptural premise of ensured perpetual magisterial infallibility as per Rome, and which (in circularity) invokes tradition was supporting it.

For Rome has presumed to infallibly declare she is and will be perpetually infallible whenever she speaks in accordance with her infallibly defined (scope and subject-based) formula, which renders her declaration that she is infallible, to be infallible, as well as all else she accordingly declares.

Moreover , what Paul he did in 2 Thessalonians 2:15 was what a SS preacher can also preach to souls without their own copies of Scripture, under the premise that the latter will validate them, as the noble Bereans found.

However, why should we take time to expose your falsehoods when you just blithely go and post them again?

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Well...

John 6:25-40

“Tradition” was identified with what could be proved on the basis of texts.