THE EUCHARIST - THREE HURDLES

OVERVIEW
Three main points that I thought I would bring to your attention was:

1. Interpreting Drinking Blood
In John 6 and at the Last Supper we read Jesus say the words that a person must drink His blood.

I have posted this line of thinking – this observation - to many anti-Catholics on the CARM forum and no one touches it. Is it because they don’t know how to respond?

It can be summarised as follows:
• Same Teacher (Jesus)
• Same words (drink My blood)
• Same Feast (Passover – one year apart)
• Same people being taught (The Apostles – the ones who didn’t walk away from Jesus in John 6 – although protestants will say they didn’t walk away because they got it right and understood Jesus words as symbolic or some such thing )
• Same understanding/meaning - the only difference being, the second time Jesus said the exact same words He hands a cup to the Apostles and they drink.
• Same person being identified as betraying Jesus is both discourses (Judas)

• One could add in another Same, with the same understanding/doctrine for the last 2000 years - the wine becomes the actual literal and spiritual blood of Jesus.

Maybe our non Catholic friends overlooked the fact that a miracle occurs every time Jesus gave the blessing/gave thanks throughout the Gospels.

The Last Supper was no exception. Which leads me to point 2 below.


2. The Power of the Blessing
The Power of the Blessing – It is the Spirit That Gives Life!
CARM seems to miss this whole “blessing/give thanks” thing!
What do we see at the beginning of John 6?
We see Jesus multiply 5 loaves. How?
Jesus took bread, GAVE THANKS, and handed the bread out.
It was a supernatural event – a miracle performed by Jesus.
The very next day Jesus said to all those that followed Him to ‘eat His flesh and drink His blood’.

What do we see at the Last Supper?
Those two events that happened one day apart in John 6 get combined.

Jesus took bread, GAVE THANKS and handed the bread out while saying ‘this is My body, take and eat’ and likewise He did the same with the cup of wine. Jesus took the cup GAVE THANKS and handed the Cup saying "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.” Luke records how important this meal was with Jesus saying He earnestly desired (key words to gain an insight as to how important Jesus viewed this meal) to eat this Passover with His disciples and it was here He established the New Covenant.
The Last Supper was a supernatural event – a miracle was performed by Jesus.

Although that should be enough, Jesus reinforced this when He met with the disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:30). He took the bread, BLESSED (GAVE THANKS) and handed it to them and at that moment He disappeared at the breaking of the bread. This meal was a supernatural event – a miracle was performed by Jesus. Another observation can be made here, scripture alone was not enough for the disciples to see Jesus.

To sum it up – when Jesus blesses the meal as He has done above, the Spirit gives life and the supernatural occurs.

Just make sure we understand the Blessing does not happen at all the meals of Jesus but only at very ‘instructional’ meals may I suggest you read when Jesus eats fish in Luke 24:43 and bread and fish in John 21:13 – there is no blessing - no giving thanks.

And if someone objects by stating that God only goes inside humans, they have not read about the burning bush in the Book of Exodus.


3. Transubstantiation
Simple research would reveal the Catholic Church agrees with other non catholic Christians in that it is definitely spiritual. The priest at every Mass at the beginning of the Liturgy of the Eucharist refers to the wine saying it will become our spiritual drink.

Amen to the fact it is the Spirit that gives LIFE! It is a spiritual reality! (reality = real)

But importantly non catholic Christians interpret these words as spiritual and figurative whereas the Catholic Church interprets these words as spiritual and literal.

Catholic Christians say if you are a Christian you literally are a new creation in Christ. Catholics believe the Spirit changes things for real.

The Spirit gives literal life even if the outside looks the same as before!

That is a Biblical concept.

To modify the word pagan, Christians “are no longer” pagans, “but only retain their appearance of being” pagans. What has changed – the Spirit within the person!

This is the same for the Real Presence.

Transubstantiation states that the substance of the elements are changed even though their appearance is not.

Therefore non Catholic Christians must believe that ALL Christians are only figuratively a new creation and must think the Spirit gives only a figurative life. Therefore, you might label yourself a Christian but you are figuratively a Christian but literally you are a pagan on the outside and on the inside.