Eucharist/Cannabalism?

[mlz]

I was trying to explain to my husband the Catholic teaching and got all messed up…he ended up concluding that what Catholics believe is cannabalism by eating the flesh and blood of Christ…can anyone help me do a better job explaining… I stopped explaining after this and thought I’d better be able to explain another time…any help??!

Thank you,
mlz

 

[DavidFilmer]

Lemme think, where have I heard this objection before? hmmmmmmm. Oh yeah, John Chapter 6:

The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat? … Many of his disciples remarked, "This sort of talk is hard to endure! How can anyone take it seriously? … From this time on, many of his disciples broke away and would not remain in his company any longer.

I recommend the Catechism of the Catholic Church, beginning at article 1373.

 

[Pfaffenhoffen]

I was trying to explain to my husband the Catholic teaching and got all messed up…he ended up concluding that what Catholics believe is cannabalism by eating the flesh and blood of Christ…can anyone help me do a better job explaining… I stopped explaining after this and thought I’d better be able to explain another time…any help??!

Thank you,
mlz

You are put into the sword and the wall. At these times, I attack. You know, nothing to lose. Tactics… maybe not the best …!!!

I would say: “yes, it is cannibalism” but … of a special kind … so special that it is unique. Look, this cannibalism is special why? Because:

1. 
   *]It’s being done for 2000 years on the Same Person, the Son of God. So, it seems it has nothing to do with ordinary cannibalism.
   *]The Flesh of Christ and the Blood of Christ never ends. Or we know an ordinary person has got 5 liters of blood.
   *]The Flesh tastes to Bread and the Blood tastes to Wine. Waw, this time we are getting too far away from ordinary cannibalism to call it cannibalism. But we may use it, knwing that it is a Unique Cannibalism.
   *]You Eat such small amounts of God’s Flesh and Blood and for sure if you were to eat only that for 1 month, you’ld die. So it does not nourish you body, as cannibalis (OC) ordinarily does. It nourishes Your Soul, what OC cannot do.
   *]isn’t it enough?
   
   As another member emphasized, the Jews and even the Apostles were terryfied, for eating human’s Flesh was forbidden in Jewish Law.
   
   I tell you: your husband had the normal human reaction. It is the last piece on the puzzle this Mystery of the Eucharist. It is hard to believe. I myself look at the Bread and wonder every time: “How come the whole Universe , the Infinite, God, is there?” You cannot but wonder. If one is not surprised, then I think he does not know what is he up to.
   
   I admire your kindness, patience, tact, intelligence, humility and perseverance.
   
   God Bless you.

 

[CaseyDeAnn]

It is NOT cannibalism. We are not taking Jesus’ flesh off of His body and drinking His blood like vampires. Jesus is sacramentally, or metaphysically–if you will–present. In order to seal and renew our covenant with God the Father, we must do as the Jews did when sealing and renewing their Passover covenant with God the Father–we must EAT THE LAMB. Jesus is the true Lamb of God. If the Jews sacrificed a lamb and did not eat it, they would awake to find that God did not “pass over” their first-born son. By doing this, the Jews were in communion with God, and by consuming the Eucharist, so are we. That is why Jesus insisted, “If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (Jn 6:53). Eternal life, that is.

Explaining it that way might make more sense to him.

 

[At_Trent]

I was trying to explain to my husband the Catholic teaching and got all messed up…he ended up concluding that what Catholics believe is cannabalism by eating the flesh and blood of Christ…can anyone help me do a better job explaining… I stopped explaining after this and thought I’d better be able to explain another time…any help??!

Thank you,
mlz

yep, one either accepts the Gospel or not

‘unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.’"

 

[runningdude]

It is impossible to destroy the Body of Christ. When humans eat ordinary food, it is broken down, and digested to absorb the becomes energy and nutrients. The food is destroyed.

When the Body of Christ is consumed, the teeth and stomach break down the Communion Host and Wine. However, once broken down in the stomach, the holy bread and wine are no longer the Eucharist. The Body and Blood of Christ are no longer present in the digestive system.

Unlike in cannibalism, where another human being is butchered to provide physical nutrition for another human being, the Eucharist provides no such physical nutrition. It provides grace on a supernatural level, not physical level.

 

[MarcoPolo]

Jesus is sacramentally, or metaphysically–if you will–present.

This is the crux of the answer in my understanding. The Eucharistic presence is real, but veiled (CCC#1404). It is his body ontologically.

In taking the Eucharist, our bodies do not metabolize empirical human tissue. Cannibalism does. They are not the same.

 

[yablabo]

I was trying to explain to my husband the Catholic teaching and got all messed up…he ended up concluding that what Catholics believe is cannabalism by eating the flesh and blood of Christ…can anyone help me do a better job explaining… I stopped explaining after this and thought I’d better be able to explain another time…any help??!

Thank you,
mlz

The problem here is the distinction between substance and accident/species (that is, appearances). The species we perceive in the Eucharist (i.e., bread or wine) do not exist in any substance, the substance of bread and wine is no longer there. This is a singular and unique occurrence which only happens in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Christ is present there really, truly and substantially (as the Council of Trent expresses most beautifully in the 13th Session) under the veil of the species of bread and wine. It is these species which we consume bodily, we do not digest and metabolize Christ, as if Christ’s Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity could be subject to corruption.

I would suggest to get the 13th Session of the Council of Trent and read it.

– Nicole

 

[Todd_Easton]

Cannibalism refers to eating a natural human body such that it is destroyed, in whole or in part, in the process. When he was resurrected, Jesus’ natural human body was transformed into a supernatural human body. In the Eucharist, we eat the supernatural body of Jesus in such a way that it is not destroyed at all in the process so it’s not really cannibalism.

 

[Miriam1947]

I was trying to explain to my husband the Catholic teaching and got all messed up…he ended up concluding that what Catholics believe is cannabalism by eating the flesh and blood of Christ…can anyone help me do a better job explaining… I stopped explaining after this and thought I’d better be able to explain another time…any help??!

Thank you,
mlz

Jesus used a lot of material objects to describe Himself–He said, “I am the Light.” “I am the Door.” “I am the Shepherd.”

But He never said, “That light is Me.” “That door is Me.” “That shepherd is Me.”

However, He did say, “That Bread is Me. That Wine is Me.”

(Thank you Cat)

Hosts will look the same and have the same characteristics. It’s called a mystery.

This is the explanation that Cat (one of our long time posters here) heard from her daughter before Cat converted to Catholicism.

Also, prayerfully read John 6 starting at verse 35-71

gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=John+6

35Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

41 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43 Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— 46 not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread [3] the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 Jesus [4] said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.

The Words of Eternal Life
60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” 70 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” 71 He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the Twelve, was going to betray him.

These are the words of Jesus. 36 verses just here to tell you to eat His flesh and drink His blood or you have no life in you. It is amazing and wonderful that we truly receive Him in the Eucharist. I am a convert to the Church. Easter vigil 2008.

I keep posting this on different threads because this question comes up so often.