The wine doesn't become blood until the ritual of communion itself, performed by a priest (or in the bible, by Jesus himself). Before he consecrates the elements, they're simply plain old bread and wine. When Jesus first picked up the cup, it simply was "fruit on the vine". When they drank it later on, it was blood.
And if Jesus' disciples knew they were simply drinking wine, they wouldn't have been so shocked and repulsed by Jesus' words in the bible.
The thing is I'm never going to convince you here since as a protestant you're told that your church "accepts" the exact wording of the bible and the Catholics don't, so you try to find ways to twist the meeting of the passage to claim it's symbolic. However, if you just read it by yourself and comtemplated EXACTLY what Jesus said and EXACTLY how the apostles reacted to his comments, the intent is clear.
Now you can say "ah ha, the doctrine of the assumption of the virgin Mary is unbibical!" and I won't argue the point, since my church does not claim to get all its rules from the text of the bible itself. Yours does, but in the case of the last supper, you have to ignore the exact wording because it doesn't suit your purpose.
Jesus words, “this is my body” should be taken symbolically because it falls within a long list of symbolic statements Christ said: “I am the bread,” (John 6:41), “I am the vine,” (John 15:5), “I am the door,” (John 10:7,9), “I am the good shepherd,”(John 10:11,12), “You are the world the salt, (Matthew 5:13), “You are the light of the world the salt, (Matthew 5:14)
You don't get that either...They didn't believe Jesus was the Son of God...And they believed he was being literal...That's why they were repulsed...
You guys always ignore everything in the chapter that doens't say 'eat my flesh'...
Joh 6:64 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.
THAT'S WHY Jesus did not try to explain this was just a parable...Because they didn't believe in him regardless of the flesh eating issue...
The Apostles didn't believe it either...The reason THEY weren't shocked at the Last Supper is because when they ate the bread and drank the juice, they could see they were eating bread and drinking juice...Just as you can see you are eating bread and drinking wine...
Besides, there is no prescription any where in the scriptures for anyone to turn bread into flesh...It doesn't exist in the scriptures, therefore, it doesn't exist...It's a religious ritual...It's not a biblical truth...