[sayuncledave]

Does this really sound like a metaphor to you:

“Amen, amen I say unto you: He that believeth in me, hath everlasting life. [48] I am the bread of life. [49] Your fathers did eat manna in the desert, and are dead. [50] This is the bread which cometh down from heaven; that if any man eat of it, he may not die.

[51] I am the living bread which came down from heaven. [52] If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give, is my flesh, for the life of the world. [53] The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying: How can this man give us his flesh to eat? [54] Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. [55] He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day.

[56] For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed. [57] He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him. [58] As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, the same also shall live by me. [59] This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that eateth this bread, shall live for ever.”

straight from John 6, Douay Rheims online (http://www.drbo.org/chapter/50006.htm)

Note verse 54, where He certainly could have said, I’m speaking metaphorically, if that was what He meant. Instead, what does He say? He underscores what He has just said, and repeats it. He meant exactly what He said, and we, respectfully, take it just like He said.

[fish hawk]

LOL. That’s EXACTLY what a metaphor is.

[MHGinTN]

Do those who partake of the Eucharist die? Do their bodies die? ... It is their spirit which is 'fed' with the body and blood of Jesus The Christ. Did the hebrews eating manna in the desert die? Jesus was making his point thatthere is a profound difference in the body and the spirit. Jesus offers His body and blood as Spiritual food, not literal cannibalism. He told His disciples to take and eat the bread and drink the wine in REMEMBRANCE of Him, not to digest His flesh and blood. Now if God has a spiritual way to transmogrify the wheat product and the grape product into SPIRITUAL substance, then God does that. But a man with a special robe, bland wafers, and a pretty gobblet with derivative from grapes doesn't do it. The love feast was practiced in homes of believers before there was even a Catholic Church of Priests and Churches. The Eucharistic feast is a catholic remembrance of Jesus sacrificing His body and blood for our Atonement.

[metmom]

Has there been a person yet who hasn’t died even after taking communion?

I mean, if we’re to take His saying literally, then we shouldn’t be dying.