Do you have to eat his flesh and drink his blood?

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This seems like such a basic question, but as I understand it, in the ordinary sense, this is how it works: Baptism removes Original Sin and all other sins. Confession removes all venial sin and more importantly all mortal sin post-Baptism. Healing of the Sick removes all sin and provides spiritual or miraculous physical healing. Marriage binds two people for a vocational life of faithfulness, intimacy, procreation, and child-rearing. Holy Orders, a different kind of procreation, continues the Apostolic succession.

Jesus said in the Gospel that whoever eats his flesh and drinks his blood will have eternal life, but it has been held since the beginning of the Church that Baptism or Baptism by desire or blood will infallibly save a person and allow them the Beatific Vision. The sacramental lifeboat between a man’s Heaven or hell seems to traditionally rest squarely on Baptism. So… you don’t have to eat his flesh and drink his blood in order to have eternal life? How is this traditionally interpreted? I guess the root of my question is: what role on earth does consuming Jesus have in mankind’s destiny of union with God?

edit: Heaven forbid I just read the entire section on the Eucharist in my catechsim. I’ll do that later, but feel free to offer insight.
 
TK421 said:
This seems like such a basic question, but as I understand it, in the ordinary sense, this is how it works: Baptism removes Original Sin and all other sins. Confession removes all venial sin and more importantly all mortal sin post-Baptism. Healing of the Sick removes all sin and provides spiritual or miraculous physical healing. Marriage binds two people for a vocational life of faithfulness, intimacy, procreation, and child-rearing. Holy Orders, a different kind of procreation, continues the Apostolic succession.

Jesus said in the Gospel that whoever eats his flesh and drinks his blood will have eternal life, but it has been held since the beginning of the Church that Baptism or Baptism by desire or blood will infallibly save a person and allow them the Beatific Vision. The sacramental lifeboat between a man’s Heaven or hell seems to traditionally rest squarely on Baptism. So… you don’t have to eat his flesh and drink his blood in order to have eternal life? How is this traditionally interpreted? I guess the root of my question is: what role on earth does consuming Jesus have in mankind’s destiny of union with God?

edit: Heaven forbid I just read the entire section on the Eucharist in my catechsim. I’ll do that later, but feel free to offer insight.
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According to the Word of God in John 6:53

*Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. *

The use of the word ‘unless’ is very powerful. So if you want life within you (eternal life) you MUST eat the flesh and drink his blood.
 
In my RCIA class they said that just like our human bodies need food to survive, that communion is to “feed” our souls as we navigate through life.
 
SJacob7 said:
According to the Word of God in John 6:53

*Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. *

The use of the word ‘unless’ is very powerful. So if you want life within you (eternal life) you MUST eat the flesh and drink his blood.
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But my understanding is that newborn infants have always been baptized in order to remove Original Sin and initiate them as a Christian. In old theology under Sts Augustine/Aquinas, this was because any unbaptized infant could not be saved. If Catholic doctrine is that both Baptism & Eucharist are necessary for eternal life and obliged to be done, then why don’t infants receive Baptism/Confirmation/Eucharist in one ceremony?
 
I imagine there are cases where it is not possible to partake but personally I would never want to be separated from the Eucharist and the real presence.
 
Not only because of that “if you do not eat my flesh or drink my blood you have no life within you” scripture line, but we also believe that receiving the Eucharist gives us graces which can sanctify us - graces which allow us to overcome sin/grow in virtue, perform good works, etc., which we would not have otherwise been able do without receiving the Eucharist. The traditional definition of a sacrament should answer why we should partake in it: "An outward sign, instituted by Christ, to give us grace.
 
TK421 said:
But my understanding is that newborn infants have always been baptized in order to remove Original Sin and initiate them as a Christian. In old theology under Sts Augustine/Aquinas, this was because any unbaptized infant could not be saved. If Catholic doctrine is that both Baptism & Eucharist are necessary for eternal life and obliged to be done, then why don’t infants receive Baptism/Confirmation/Eucharist in one ceremony?
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I wish I knew the answer to your question! I sure don’t. I don’t know what Catholic doctrine is when pertaining to the ‘unless you eat my flesh’, I’m just pointing out what Jesus said. Using the word ‘unless’ means we HAVE to do it in order to have life within us (eternal life). Jesus doesn’t leave any wiggle room to NOT eat his flesh and drink his blood.🤷
 
We have laws for attaining Salvation but remember the Sacraments are for us, not for God. We need the Sacraments, God doesn’t. As a practical rule, yes we must receive Communion to be saved. However, think about protestants that don’t receive either Eucharistic species. The Church still SATs and has always said that those who do not know the true Church through no fault of their own can be saved. How is this possible? When people just don’t know, or have strong mental or emotional blocks towards the Church but nonetheless love the Lord and if they could be convinced of the Real Presence and in which case receive it, God knows their hearts. They can receive grace by proxy. They are like branches proken partially off a tree. The are not healthy but they still receive a little bit of sap and so still live. The same can be true for children who die before Communion. Teh Church contiously receceives the Lord in Communion and members of the body of Christ, the Blood if Christ flows through it’s veins. They don’t receive the same grace but at least some. At the Tridentine mass only the priest received the Precious Blood (yes I know the “bread” contains the whole Christ, but it seems we are to receive from the Chalice.), and they do. The priest receives it for them. I think this is correct.
 
TK421 said:
This seems like such a basic question, but as I understand it, in the ordinary sense, this is how it works: Baptism removes Original Sin and all other sins. Confession removes all venial sin and more importantly all mortal sin post-Baptism. Healing of the Sick removes all sin and provides spiritual or miraculous physical healing. Marriage binds two people for a vocational life of faithfulness, intimacy, procreation, and child-rearing. Holy Orders, a different kind of procreation, continues the Apostolic succession.

Jesus said in the Gospel that whoever eats his flesh and drinks his blood will have eternal life, but it has been held since the beginning of the Church that Baptism or Baptism by desire or blood will infallibly save a person and allow them the Beatific Vision. The sacramental lifeboat between a man’s Heaven or hell seems to traditionally rest squarely on Baptism. So… you don’t have to eat his flesh and drink his blood in order to have eternal life? How is this traditionally interpreted? I guess the root of my question is: what role on earth does consuming Jesus have in mankind’s destiny of union with God?

edit: Heaven forbid I just read the entire section on the Eucharist in my catechsim. I’ll do that later, but feel free to offer insight.
Click to expand...
John 3:5-8 Jesus answered, “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I told you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church

1257 The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation.60 He also commands his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them.61 Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament.62 The Church does not know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude; this is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the Lord to see that all who can be baptized are “reborn of water and the Spirit.” God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments.
60 Cf. Jn 3:5.
61 Cf. Mt 28:19-20; cf. Council of Trent (1547) DS 1618; LG 14; AG 5.
62 Cf. Mk 16:16.

1446 Christ instituted the sacrament of Penance for all sinful members of his Church: above all for those who, since Baptism, have fallen into grave sin, and have thus lost their baptismal grace and wounded ecclesial communion. It is to them that the sacrament of Penance offers a new possibility to convert and to recover the grace of justification. The Fathers of the Church present this sacrament as "the second plank [of salvation] after the shipwreck which is the loss of grace."47
47 Tertullian, De Paenit. 4,2:PL 1,1343; cf. Council of Trent (1547): DS 1542.
 
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