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cgvnau
Guest
My friend says that the Eucharist, since it is the body and blood of the Savior, is somehat like cannabalism. I am not sure what to say to her. What does one say about something like that?
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Della
Guest
Is your friend a Catholic? If so, she has been poorly catechized. If she is or isn’t you can tell her that the Eucharist is the sacramental presence of Christ under the appearance of bread and wine. While the substance (what makes bread bread,wine wine, etc.) is transformed into the body and blood of Christ while the accidents (its taste, appearance, smell, feel, etc.) all remain bread and wine. It is a great mystery that is difficult to explain, like the Incarnation itself. But, we believe it because Jesus said, “This is my body” and “this is my blood.”
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Evan
Guest
I guess it depends on your definition of cannabalism.
If it is the eating of human flesh…then no. It is the body of Christ under the appearance of bread and wine.
If it is the eating of a human being…then yes. Christ is fully human, so we are eating a human being. And it’s not even a dead human being. For a human is dead when the soul is separated from the body (as when Christ was in the tomb). But the eucharistic feast is the body blood soul and divinity, a living being.
However, the prescriptions against eating a human (Christ) are set aside for the eating of Christ’s body by his commands as given in John 6.
Remember the revelation of God is given in the Old Testement with the correctives of the New Testament; that is, the fullness of revelation.
eg: “Eye for an eye” becomes “turn the other cheek”
The earliest Christians were accused of cannabalism for just this reason. (See Athenagoras Chapter XXXV newadvent.org/fathers/0205.htm)
If it is the eating of human flesh…then no. It is the body of Christ under the appearance of bread and wine.
If it is the eating of a human being…then yes. Christ is fully human, so we are eating a human being. And it’s not even a dead human being. For a human is dead when the soul is separated from the body (as when Christ was in the tomb). But the eucharistic feast is the body blood soul and divinity, a living being.
However, the prescriptions against eating a human (Christ) are set aside for the eating of Christ’s body by his commands as given in John 6.
Remember the revelation of God is given in the Old Testement with the correctives of the New Testament; that is, the fullness of revelation.
eg: “Eye for an eye” becomes “turn the other cheek”
The earliest Christians were accused of cannabalism for just this reason. (See Athenagoras Chapter XXXV newadvent.org/fathers/0205.htm)
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Madia
Guest
Cannibals eat DEAD flesh. Maybe these posts will help:
ewtn.com/vexperts/showresult.asp?RecNum=430167&Forums=0&Experts=0&Days=2005&Author=&Keyword=cannibal&pgnu=1&groupnum=0&record_bookmark=3&ORDER_BY_TXT=ORDER+BY+ReplyDate+DESC&start_at=
ewtn.com/vexperts/showresult.asp?RecNum=438567&Forums=0&Experts=0&Days=2005&Author=&Keyword=cannibal&pgnu=1&groupnum=0&record_bookmark=2&ORDER_BY_TXT=ORDER+BY+ReplyDate+DESC&start_at=
ewtn.com/vexperts/showresult.asp?RecNum=379672&Forums=0&Experts=0&Days=2003&Author=&Keyword=cannibal&pgnu=1&groupnum=0&record_bookmark=3&ORDER_BY_TXT=ORDER+BY+ReplyDate+DESC&start_at=
ewtn.com/vexperts/showresult.asp?RecNum=430167&Forums=0&Experts=0&Days=2005&Author=&Keyword=cannibal&pgnu=1&groupnum=0&record_bookmark=3&ORDER_BY_TXT=ORDER+BY+ReplyDate+DESC&start_at=
ewtn.com/vexperts/showresult.asp?RecNum=438567&Forums=0&Experts=0&Days=2005&Author=&Keyword=cannibal&pgnu=1&groupnum=0&record_bookmark=2&ORDER_BY_TXT=ORDER+BY+ReplyDate+DESC&start_at=
ewtn.com/vexperts/showresult.asp?RecNum=379672&Forums=0&Experts=0&Days=2003&Author=&Keyword=cannibal&pgnu=1&groupnum=0&record_bookmark=3&ORDER_BY_TXT=ORDER+BY+ReplyDate+DESC&start_at=
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OutinChgoburbs
Guest
I had this one thrown at me years and years and years ago by a member of a “Bible-believing Baptist” church. He did not want to listen to my explanation, so I asked him to leave my home. I then told my (ex) husband he better have his friend leave before I propelled him out. But I was very young then.
The church he attended was one of the few I have ever heard of being put “off limits” by the shore patrol. Seems one of their beliefs was not only that wives should keep quiet and be submissive, but that husbands had a duty and right to spank their wives for whatever the husband determined was sinful on the part of the wife. After a few wives called the shore patrol and had their husbands arrested for battery, the skipper just had the whole church put off limits.
Yes, the whole idea of Catholic canibals is bogus. Everybody else explained it just fine.
The church he attended was one of the few I have ever heard of being put “off limits” by the shore patrol. Seems one of their beliefs was not only that wives should keep quiet and be submissive, but that husbands had a duty and right to spank their wives for whatever the husband determined was sinful on the part of the wife. After a few wives called the shore patrol and had their husbands arrested for battery, the skipper just had the whole church put off limits.
Yes, the whole idea of Catholic canibals is bogus. Everybody else explained it just fine.
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StephanieC
Guest
See if this gives your friend a speed bump to think over:
If Jesus wanted us to actually CANNIBALIZE His body, why, at the Last Supper, didn’t He just pop off oh, say, a pinkie finger for James, an earlobe for John…here, Judas, here’s a big toe…
Ridiculous, right?
If that’s really what Jesus wanted, He could have done so. But He didn’t–He gave us His living body under the appearances of bread and wine.
Sometimes I still find it difficult to understand, and I doubt I’ll ever really grasp it as totally as some of the saints have. I BELIEVE, though…Lord, help my UNbelief! I BELIEVE, that I may understand.
If Jesus wanted us to actually CANNIBALIZE His body, why, at the Last Supper, didn’t He just pop off oh, say, a pinkie finger for James, an earlobe for John…here, Judas, here’s a big toe…
Ridiculous, right?
If that’s really what Jesus wanted, He could have done so. But He didn’t–He gave us His living body under the appearances of bread and wine.
Sometimes I still find it difficult to understand, and I doubt I’ll ever really grasp it as totally as some of the saints have. I BELIEVE, though…Lord, help my UNbelief! I BELIEVE, that I may understand.
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CARose
Guest
And, while he didn’t pluck off a finger to share, neither did he call back those who chose to leave when they understood that he truly meant they were to eat his Flesh, which they found disgusting. Rather, he turned to the 12 and ask if they too were going to leave.
CAROSE
CAROSE
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TEME525
Guest
Believe it or not, the point your friend made has been something the Church has faced from the time of Jesus himself (read John 6 and the response of many of Jesus’ disicples). The Church Fathers (read especially Justin Myrter) had to face this charge by the Roman government. Today, Catholic face this charge by those who do not believe in the Real Presence. My response is fisrt this is a Sacrament and a matter of belief (al though the belief is in a reality) but we are not talking about Flesh and Blood in the same sense as you and I are flesh and blood, a coporal presence limited to a particular time and space. Therefore while we are comfessing that it is the Real Presence, it is the presence of the RESSURECTED Christ in the forms of bread and wine.
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Brendan
Guest
Cannibalism is the eating of one’s own species.
So the Eucharist is only cannibalism if one is the same species as God.
So the Eucharist is only cannibalism if one is the same species as God.
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Topher
Guest
Cannibalism is the consumption of human flesh in its narual mode under its normal accidents. In communion, we ingest (not digest) the body and blood of Christ in a supernatural and sacramental mode under the accidents of bread and wine. Comparing Canibalism and the Eucharist is like comparing apples and oranges.
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neophyte
Guest
Someone asked this exact question within the last week or so on the CA radio program. Go over to the radio archives and listen for it.
Jimmy’s response was very good. Part of it was to the effect that cannibalism is about eating and metabolizing flesh, which is not at all what the Eucharist is about.
Jimmy’s response was very good. Part of it was to the effect that cannibalism is about eating and metabolizing flesh, which is not at all what the Eucharist is about.
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ForeverAdam
Guest
Well, if we Catholics are cannibals for our beliefs about the Real Presence, then the Protestants are engaging in “symbolic cannibalism” when they eat their symbols of the Body and Blood of Jesus.
We eat Jesus, and the Protestants pretend to.
Adam
We eat Jesus, and the Protestants pretend to.
Adam
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ForeverAdam
Guest
But on a more serious note, we need to understand that in the
Holy Eucharist that we receive the* literal * Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Eucharist in a spiritual manner as opposed to a bloody, cannablistic manner.
Adam
Holy Eucharist that we receive the* literal * Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Eucharist in a spiritual manner as opposed to a bloody, cannablistic manner.
Adam
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HagiaSophia
Guest
From This Rock: ( Item #5)
If we took Jesus’ words literally, wouldn’t that imply cannibalism?
Cannibalism is when one individual physically eats the human flesh off of another’s body. Catholic or not, the words in John 6 do sound cannibalistic. Even a Fundamentalist would have to say that he eats the flesh of Christ and drinks his blood in a symbolic manner so as to concur with the passage. By the same allowance, Catholics eat the flesh of Christ and drink his blood in a sacramental way. Neither the Protestant nor the Catholic appears to be doing anything cannibalistic, though.
It would have been cannibalism is if a disciple two thousand years ago had tried literally to eat Jesus by sinking his teeth into his arm. Now that our Lord is in heaven with a glorified body and made present under the appearance of bread in the Eucharist, cannibalism is not possible.
catholic.com/thisrock/2001/0103sbs.asp
and also these previous threads where this question was discussed:
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=71602&highlight=cannibal
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=9390&highlight=cannibal
If we took Jesus’ words literally, wouldn’t that imply cannibalism?
Cannibalism is when one individual physically eats the human flesh off of another’s body. Catholic or not, the words in John 6 do sound cannibalistic. Even a Fundamentalist would have to say that he eats the flesh of Christ and drinks his blood in a symbolic manner so as to concur with the passage. By the same allowance, Catholics eat the flesh of Christ and drink his blood in a sacramental way. Neither the Protestant nor the Catholic appears to be doing anything cannibalistic, though.
It would have been cannibalism is if a disciple two thousand years ago had tried literally to eat Jesus by sinking his teeth into his arm. Now that our Lord is in heaven with a glorified body and made present under the appearance of bread in the Eucharist, cannibalism is not possible.
catholic.com/thisrock/2001/0103sbs.asp
and also these previous threads where this question was discussed:
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=71602&highlight=cannibal
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=9390&highlight=cannibal
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viktor_aleksndr
Guest
If it is cannibalism then they are also calling Jesus a cannibal. If that is not the real body and blood of Jesus Christ then He could have said after the last supper that " what we did was just symbolic for you to remember my death and sacrifice"
Leave them if the call us cannibal for this name was given to us even to the early Christians.
Leave them if the call us cannibal for this name was given to us even to the early Christians.
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Fergal
Guest
No.
At the moment of consecration 2 miracles take place instantaneously
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At the moment of consecration 2 miracles take place instantaneously
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- The bread becomes the body, blood, soul and divinity of our Lord
- The body, blood, soul and divinity takes on the appearance of bread and wine.
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Tintin
Guest
What’s the problem?
There is nothing intrinsically sinful about cannibalism.
There is nothing intrinsically sinful about cannibalism.
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Trick
Guest
If Catholics are right and the bread and wine actually becomes the Body & Blood of Jesus,then Jesus’ words in the gospel of John are literally true.
By recieving communion then we are obeying Christ’s words, I definetly will obey Jesus’ command, rather than worrying if this is canabalism or not.I figure if Jesus says to do it I better.
If Catholics are wrong about the bread and wine becoming the Body and Blood, then we certainly are not guilty of canabalism, beacause than we are only recieving bread and wine.
Trick
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Topher
Guest
It is not a spiritual manner. The Eucharistic presence is both real and Physical. However, it is supernatural and sacramental, not natural.
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Ivornotion
Guest
What about blood transfusions ? I suppose blood transfusions could be called another form of intravenous cannabilism, but life saving none the less.
At least your friend by saying that, admits that Transubstantiation takes place, many others don’t.
Whoever eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood dwells continually in Me and I dwell in him."-John 6:56-57
acfp2000.com/Miracles/eucharistic.html
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