... or you Catholics who are, horridly, indifferent about the subject matter, George Sipe provides some eye-opening and relevant words:
Catholics believe in the real presence of our Lord in the Eucharist. Bread and wine literally become the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus. This is the well-documented belief of the Church from the time of Jesus onward.
The Holy Bible itself is also quite clear, requiring something akin to a Herculean effort to explain away. Let’s try anyway! Not in scripture are words shown in strike through. Words shown in bold actually are in scripture.
Bread as a Metaphor?
When Jesus became aware of this he said, “You of great faith, you concluded among yourselves that it is because you have no bread. You understand, and need not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and the many wicker baskets you took up. Nor the seven loaves for the four thousand, and the many baskets you took up. You comprehend that I was speaking only of the ordinary, of simple bread. I had no other point.
When Jesus became aware of this he said, “You of little faith, why do you conclude among yourselves that it is because you have no bread? Do you not yet understand, and do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many wicker baskets you took up? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you took up? How do you not comprehend that I was not speaking to you about bread?
Matthew 16:8-11
Speaking very, very clearly – or just rhetorical flourishes?
Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am like the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this recalls is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the symbolic living bread that came down from heaven; whoever accepts me eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give represents is my flesh for the life of the world.”
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us [his] flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you metaphorically eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink wine in his memory his blood, you do not have life within you. Of these things I speak in remembrance, for the law of Moses forbids you to actually drink blood. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who is sent by feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.” These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
Then many of his disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, “Does this shock you? Be not afraid. I am not speaking literally but figuratively. What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who misinterpreted my words do not believe.” Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would be confused not believe and the one who would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father.”
Jesus knew of the confusion his words had caused and said “I speak to you by analogy, not that you must literally eat my body and drink my blood. That would be cannibalism. Stay with me. As a result of this, many [of] his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.
John 6:47-66
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