http://www.anawim.pair.com/CATHOLICS/CATHOLIC%20MASS.htm
"look
at John
6:52-55, the
Jews had a hard time believing Jesus' words as do
non-Catholics."
"Non-Catholics
believe that John
6:53 is merely a symbol and not the actual presence
of Christ. If Jesus were truly a symbol, then verse 27 through 29 in 1 Cor. 11
would not make
sense."
hmm. we believe it's a reminder. And when he told the disciples
when he did, he was telling them about what he was going to do.
in 1 cor 11, u hv to understand the context of what happened.
...
... but it doesn't mean that the bread is really Jesus' body, or
the wine is really his blood. it's purely symbolic. you can go test
the wine now and test the bread that u use everyday, unless God
performs another miracle, it's just bread, and it's just wine. but
it symbolize everything Christ wanted for the church - to remember
He died for us, to remember that we can now stand before a holy God
in freedom and joy, to remember we don't have to hide in shame, to
remember that He loves us, to remember to love others as He loves
us.
... so basically 2 issues paul addressed.
1) the need for unity in the family of God
2) not to treat Christ's sacrifice lightly.
St Paul uses very harsh words and
warnings about eating the bread and drinking the cup in an unworthy
manner. He describes such a
person as sinning/profaning against the body and blood of
Christ, eating and drinking judgement upon himself and even links this to the
illnesses and deaths being experienced by his
audience.
All these warnings/consequences would appear 'over-done' if
the bread and wine were mere symbols. The warnings would
make much more sense however,
if the bread and wine do indeed become the body and blood of Christ
when consecrated. This I
believe, was the point that the article was making.
What we perceive with our senses
is not always a good indicator of spiritual realities. In the Holy
Eucharist, Jesus is
literally and wholly present - body and blood, soul and divinity -
under the appearances of
bread and wine. This is how we eat
his flesh and drink his blood in order to have eternal life as
Jesus taught in John 6:54. The Jews understood Jesus as
speaking
literally, hence their question, "How can this man give
us His flesh to eat?" (John
6:52). Many of Jesus' followers then left him because of the
difficulty of this teaching. Did Jesus clarify, ""Hey, guys, come back here, you got it
all wrong. I was only speaking symbolically !" ? No, he did not
because they did not get it
wrong. They understood correctly - we must eat Jesus'
flesh and drink His blood, or we have no life within us. And we do this during
Holy Communion.
