[HarleyD]

I am confused, though, why you assume that John 6:64-65 would be problematic for a Catholic? Of course, God knew before the foundation of the world who would be saved and who would not be saved.

According to Augustine, this is the definition of Pelagianism.
"Therefore," says the Pelagian, "He foreknew who would be holy and immaculate by the choice of free will, and on that account elected them before the foundation of the world in that same foreknowledge of His in which He foreknew that they would be such. Therefore He elected them," says he, "before they existed, predestinating them to be children whom He foreknew to be holy and immaculate. Certainly He did not make them so; nor did He foresee that He would make them so, but that they would be so."

Let us, then, understand the calling whereby they become elected,—not those who are elected because they have believed, but who are elected that they may believe.

Augustine-A Treatise on the Predestination of Man

but I don't see that Jesus was ever running a soup line...please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

I would agree that our Lord wasn't running a "soup line". However, there were many who thought He was. There were actually several times the Lord performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes:
Mar 8:17-21 And when Jesus knew [it], he saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart yet hardened? Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember? When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve. And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven. And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand?

The purpose wasn't for feeding the crowd but for us to know that Christ is the bread of life that will substain us.

Yes, the true disciples were separated from the false. "Eat my flesh" "drink my blood" are pretty durned explicit and unambiguous. I am not certain how in the world you could manage to ignore those phrases.

Just as Augustine states above, it is God who chooses those who will follow Him and He substains us. "Eating my flesh" and "drinking my blood" are only methaphors to the Jews who would find this absolutely repugnant; whose dietary laws forbid such things. Those hoping this would be the Messiah to restore the Israel to its physical glory were wrong. Our Lord's statement caused many who had such hopes to leave. To take this verse literally is simply not understanding who the audience was and the situation, IMO.

you cited 1 Cor 11:23-29, but you only actually quoted through 11:23-11:26. The entire citation is:...

Well, these posts do get rather long. When I mentioned the author quoting on two verses from John 6:60-66 I was going to say I can understand where he's coming from; you can't quote everything.

That being said, it doesn't negate the purpose of the Lord's Supper. Paul is very clear and, to my knowledge, this is the only place in scripture that specifically states the purpose; we proclaim the Lord's dead and return.

[kosta50]

 markomalley: I am confused, though, why you assume that John 6:64-65 would be problematic for a Catholic? Of course, God knew before the foundation of the world who would be saved and who would not be saved.

HD: According to Augustine, this is the definition of Pelagianism.

...Let us, then, understand the calling whereby they become elected,—not those who are elected because they have believed, but who are elected that they may believe.

That is not what the Church taught. What the Holy Catholic Church (East and West) taught everywhere and always is

• Article III.—God has from eternity predestinated to glory those who would, in his foreknowledge, make good use of their free will in accepting the salvation, and has condemned those who would reject it. The Calvinistic doctrine of unconditional predestination is condemned as abominable, impious, and blasphemous. [Confessio Dosithei, Council of Jerusalem 1762]

There is no "guesswork" when it comes to God's foreknowledge. But His foreknowledge does not take away our free will which was clearly given to us in the Garden of Eden.