I think Carrie responded to your question.
I would add however, that while I do appreciate your sincere question, I want to point out that it so illustrates a complete ignorance that many , if not most, Protestants have about the Catholic Church. Probably since the Reformation, Protestants have attempted to portray the Church as a purely ritualistic system devoid of any intimate knowledge of the Savior. Although I dont think either Luther either Calvin would have completely accepted this characterization, most modern non Catholics seem to.
While it is somewhat understandable that most Evangelicals and other non Catholic Christians have the belief that Catholics have a very works oriented, impersonal, almost Deistic theology, since many Catholics do NOT know their faith very well. However, many mainline Protestants have a very similar understanding of Christianity as well! It appears to me that they believe their salvation comes from helping the poor and working for civil rights. And I am sure I am just as wrong about them as you are about the Catholic Church.
I often wonder why so many Protestants almost seem to WANT to believe the Catholic Church teaches something other than a living relationship with Jesus Christ. I fully appreciate the love of Christ that most Evangelicals have, but I wonder how it is that with this desire for Christ they would so resist the opportunity to actually be in His Real Presence! In the Mass , in the Eucharist or Communion, Catholics have the most real and personal relationship with Jesus Christ that is possible. HE is there with us at the alter, in a most physical and real alter call of all! And yet most non Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans, Lutherans, excluded, want to simply portray such theology as a form of bread and wine idolatry! Assume for a second that the interpretation of the bible and the Early Church Fathers about the Lords Supper as the REAL PRESENCE OF CHRIST is true. With the zeal for Jesus Christ that most Evangelicals and Protestants have, wouldnt you be racing to be with Christ at the Eucharist?! Of course you would. Yet, while much of American Protestantism insists on literal interpretation of the bible they somehow need to reject literalism when it comes the Real Presence of Christ in the Lords Supper. From a Catholic perspective, it seems like a perverse need to avoid Him. I know thats not the case, but that is what it looks like. Just like it must appear to you that Catholics are not taught or do not have a real personal relationship with Christ.
As Catholics, we adore the Eucharist because the Church teaches and we believe in a need for a real , living , faith in Christ that means not just believing He is God but that we need to make him LORD in EVERY aspect of our lives. This is the message and practice of the Saints! Faith in Christ is emptying ourselves to fill with the Holy Spirit and the life of Jesus Christ! So, as we celebrate the Mass we are celebrating our communion with one another in the Body of Christ and, our communion with His Real Presence, and we stand at the door of Heaven because we are in the actual presence of our Savior who spans the void between Heaven and earth.
You cannot have that understanding of the Mass if you do not believe in a real living relationship with Jesus! Unfortunately, many Catholics do not understand this! But that is not because the Church teaches something else other than the Living Christ who is to occupy every cell of our being.
So while pondering whether Catholics are taught about a real living relationship with Christ, you may also want to consider how it could be that you too could experience not only a living relationship with Him but His actual physical Real Presence every day if you desired. Yes, Christ is there spiritually whenever two are gathered in his name. But, consider that He actually taught that we could be in His actual Presence whenever we wanted. For any believer who desires a real relationship with Jesus, how could that believer not also desire His Real Presence as well? Simply because ones own tradition does not teach Christs Real Presence in the Lords Supper, should that be the reason for denying this Grace to the believer , especially when was His Real Presence was understood by the Early Church from the very beginning? And furthermore, Catholicism is not alone in a belief in the Real Presence. Some of Protestantism, and all of Orthodoxy still holds to some degree of this truth. Consider what His Real Presence in your life may mean as it does for millions of Catholics, Orthodox, even other Protestants.
God bless!!
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