Eucharist

[markguitar_1]

Could i have some suggestions in answering the following statement:

Matt. 26:28, 29 speaks of them drinking the BLOOD of Christ… and notice in verse 29 that Jesus states that “I WILL NOT DRINK HENCEFORTH OF THIS FRUIT OF THE VINE, UNTIL THAT DAY WHEN I DRINK IT NEW WITH YOU IN MY FATHERS KINGDOM.” this is either stating that the LITERAL meaning of the blood it the wine from the graper… OR Jesus will drink his OWN blood new in the Kingdom… see that is why I believe that… ALSO… if you look up the GREEK word for BLOOD the GREEK word is “HAIMA”. it is a KNOWN figurative translation for the juice of grapes.

 

[reggieM]

Our Lord will not drink of it with them “until He enters His Father’s kingdom”.
He did not fully enter the Kingdom until his ascension.
So, the person arguing for the “literal” meaning of “grape wine” thinks that the ascended-Lord has grape vineyards in heaven and is making wine there.

 

[VociMike]

As reggieM wonders, what exactly are Jesus and the apostles literally drinking in heaven? Are they drinking wine? And are they drinking this wine (which suggests earthly wine, not heavenly wine, which would be another wine entirely).

Or we could dig a little deeper, and ask what Jesus might be saying. We know from the Old Testament that the life is in the blood, and if the “wine” had become the blood of Christ, then the “wine” is the life of God. Now who would deny that the apostles, when they entered into the kingdom of God, shared the life of God with God?

In the latter case, note that the life of God at the Last Supper (“this fruit of the vine”) is exactly the same life of God in the kingdom of God.

Sounds like the Catholic understanding is the only understanding that makes sense. But then we’re used to that.

 

[NHInsider]

We know that Jesus shared meals and celebrated the Eucharist with his disciples after the Resurrection. I’ve always understood that this was the fulfillment of the prophecy at the Last Supper - because the Kingdom began with the Resurrection.

 

[reggieM]

Actually, there’s another and better answer than the one I gave first.

If we take Our Lord’s words literally, then he predicted that he would not drink wine until He entered into His Kingdom.

But, we read in Matthew 27:48:

Immediately one of them ran, and taking a sponge, he filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and gave Him a drink.

John 19:30 says the same thing*:

“When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished’; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (19:30).

So, Jesus could not have been talking about literal grape wine, since it did drink it before the resurrection and after the Last Supper.

Even if Jesus did drink wine after the resurrection, while on earth (and we could say that the Kingdom began with the founding of the Church – although that really was at Pentecost fully) – he did drink it on the Cross.

So, He could not be talking about “grape wine” when he said that they would drink together in the Kingdom.

*Scott Hahn uses this passage as the fulfillment of the Passover ritual and the drinking of the 4th cup.

catholic.com/thisrock/1991/9109fea1.asp