And you are ignoring the fact that Jesus said something, and did not reassure the departing followers that He didn’t really mean it.
He said something with meaning, did not say that meaning was not really what He meant, and you re-interpet it as meaning something totally banal instead of an incredibly sublime gift He was giving us.
I don’t understand your reasoning...
I believe you. You have been indoctrinated into believing the Catholic way. It is ingrained.
Jesus many time times spoke in parables or metaphors. At first His Disciples did not understand until they were truly converted. Jesus was about changing the human heart. The New Covenant is about the Holy Spirit coming into us to achieve what God wants. To meet Him on His terms not ours.
The Catholic Church is big on rituals and ceremonies. The New Covenant cuts all through that and gets to the meat of things. The Mosaic Law was abolished on the cross. Now we celebrate life and each other every day in every act. Jesus told Peter to "Feed My sheep" three times. He wasn't talking about food.
My main problem with Catholics is they worship their denomination the way they should worship God.They think there is no salvation apart from the RCC. They indoctrinate people to believe that. None of the Disciples were Catholics, they were Jews. They lived as Jews and died as Jews. They followed the Law and did their best (with the Holy Spirit) to fulfill the Law as Jesus their example did.