How do you eat a symbol?

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MartinJordan

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On personal note, I think the Eucharist is the single most privilege any person can have, to a relationship with Jesus because it is his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.

However as it is known, not all Christians believe in the Real Presence and thus my query. If the bread is just a symbol, does it make sense to eat and ingest a mere symbol?

Thoughts?

MJ
 
MartinJordan said:
On personal note, I think the Eucharist is the single most privilege any person can have, to a relationship with Jesus because it is his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.

However as it is known, not all Christians believe in the Real Presence and thus my query. If the bread is just a symbol, does it make sense to eat and ingest a mere symbol?

Thoughts?

MJ
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I agree with you, but they would say “do this in remembrance of Me” means just that. We do it in remembrance of Him.

Jon
 
JonNC said:
I agree with you, but they would say “do this in remembrance of Me” means just that. We do it in remembrance of Him.

Jon
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Wasn’t Jesus with his chosen ones when he said this? So what I can see is that he picked certain men to give this instruction. While we as “common priests” share in this, by Jesus’ instruction to spread his teachings via his Priests to us.

So there is this added specialness in the taking of his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. In other words not be taken lightly by just remembering him but taking him Truly and with His Church.

In this way, he can say “I am with you always till the end of the Age” in Communion with him rather than only in memory.

MJ
 
People interact with symbols all the time. They salute the flag, a symbol of their country. They will place photos of people in places where those people died tragically. Until recently thousands of couples had placed padlocks, symbols of their unbreakable love, on the Pont des Art bridge.

I’m not arguing whether the Eucharist is symbolic or the real presense, but if the idea is that people who see the Eucharist as a symbol shouldn’t bother eating it because it’s symbolic ignores how often we do similar things with other symbolic items.
 
Mike_from_NJ said:
People interact with symbols all the time. They salute the flag, a symbol of their country. They will place photos of people in places where those people died tragically. Until recently thousands of couples had placed padlocks, symbols of their unbreakable love, on the Pont des Art bridge.

I’m not arguing whether the Eucharist is symbolic or the real presense, but if the idea is that people who see the Eucharist as a symbol shouldn’t bother eating it because it’s symbolic ignores how often we do similar things with other symbolic items.
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I didn’t say people should not take it if they believe it is a symbol. :hmmm:

MJ
 
You said “If the bread is just a symbol, does it make sense to eat and ingest a mere symbol?”

You’re proposing that if the bread is a symbol then there might night be a poiint in eating it. So when you said
MartinJordan said:
I didn’t say people should not take it if they believe it is a symbol. :hmmm:
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you were questioning the point of eating it. I never said that you said that people shouldn’t eat the bread just that it doesn’t seem make to sense. I’m explaining why people would eat the bread.
 
MartinJordan said:
On personal note, I think the Eucharist is the single most privilege any person can have, to a relationship with Jesus because it is his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.

However as it is known, not all Christians believe in the Real Presence and thus my query. If the bread is just a symbol, does it make sense to eat and ingest a mere symbol?

Thoughts?

MJ
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Before I became a Catholic, I thought of Communion as a meal done in remembrance of Christ. The meal itself was the symbol and for me a very beautiful symbol. Since I have become a Catholic this meal has a much greater meaning and reality for me. For me wine is no longer a symbol of Christ blood but the reality. The bread was no longer a symbol of Christ’s body but the reality.
 
HelenRose said:
Before I became a Catholic, I thought of Communion as a meal done in remembrance of Christ. The meal itself was the symbol and for me a very beautiful symbol. Since I have become a Catholic this meal has a much greater meaning and reality for me. For me wine is no longer a symbol of Christ blood but the reality. The bread was no longer a symbol of Christ’s body but the reality.
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Exactly. You said what I wanted to say. And this what I meant. You can believe it is a symbol and eat the bread like Christians who don’t take it as a reality but symbolic. However, what I am getting at is, there a greater meaning and action in this ingesting than “merely symbolic”.

MJ
 
MartinJordan said:
On personal note, I think the Eucharist is the single most privilege any person can have, to a relationship with Jesus because it is his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.

However as it is known, not all Christians believe in the Real Presence and thus my query. If the bread is just a symbol, does it make sense to eat and ingest a mere symbol?

Thoughts?

MJ
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With regard to the Eucharist, it makes no sense in eating it if it is just a symbol. Similarly it makes no sense to be Baptized if it is just a ritual. Sure people could go on fun spree in symbolism but this is not what the Eucharist meant to be.

The Eucharist is more than just a symbol. It is worship. It is Communion. It is to be one with the body and divinity of Christ. These are not symbols.

But yes, people can eat the bread and drink the wine as symbols, but how trite and trivial that would be, not to mention forsaking the grace of real Communion with God that the Eucharist brings.
 
Reuben_J said:
With regard to the Eucharist, it makes no sense in eating it if it is just a symbol. Similarly it makes no sense to be Baptized if it is just a ritual. Sure people could go on fun spree in symbolism but this is not what the Eucharist meant to be.

The Eucharist is more than just a symbol. It is worship. It is Communion. It is to be one with the body and divinity of Christ. These are not symbols.

But yes, people can eat the bread and drink the wine as symbols, but how trite and trivial that would be, not to mention forsaking the grace of real Communion with God that the Eucharist brings.
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Thank you RJ. Nicely put.

As I remarked earlier, it is indeed a Communion. To be of One Church and that’s where I say the Eucharist becomes much more special than symbolism.

MJ
 
Some of the symbolic foods for Passover are eaten and some are not. Rosh Hashanah has symbolic foods, Chinese New Year has symbolic foods…lots of traditional feasts have them. Not all are just for show. It is hardly nonsensical to eat foods that are “merely” symbolic or to for a symbolic ritual to have a real religious value.
 
EasterJoy said:
It is hardly nonsensical to eat foods that are “merely” symbolic or to for a symbolic ritual to have a real religious value.
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For the record I do not think Jesus was putting down anyone or myself assume that there is no “real religious value” if one eats a symbol. But I would think Jesus really wants us to eat the living bread that came down from Heaven ie the Son of Man.

MJ
 
MartinJordan said:
On personal note, I think the Eucharist is the single most privilege any person can have, to a relationship with Jesus because it is his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.

However as it is known, not all Christians believe in the Real Presence and thus my query. If the bread is just a symbol, does it make sense to eat and ingest a mere symbol?

Thoughts?

MJ
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Have you never had birthday cake?

Or toasted the bride with champagne?

Or eaten haggis on Rabbie Burns night?
 
MartinJordan said:
I’m not getting what you mean. All the above lasts forever? :hmmm:

MJ
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I think the problem is what you are trying to say and the way that you phrased the topic are two different things.

In your replies you are talking about the majesty and importance of Catholics celebrating the Eucharist as compared to those Christians who see the Eucharist as purely symbolic.

The title of the topic and the question you gave in the first post (“If the bread is just a symbol, does it make sense to eat and ingest a mere symbol?”) don’t treat the question as a comparison, but as to why anybody would eat a food that is symbolic of something.

EasterJoy and triumphguy – who I believe are treating the topic as you’ve described it in your first post and title – have given several excellent examples of food that many people (including many Catholics) eat that are symbolic in nature.

I think for clarity’s sake please let us know if the purpose of this topic is to compare Eucharistic celebrations between those who do and do not believe in the real presence, or if the purpose of the topic is to question why anyone would eat a food of a symbolic nature.
 
Back when I lived at home, my parents had a lamb cake for Easter every year.

That was symbolic and everyone enjoyed it. Coming to think about it, since my parents died and my sister moved away, we haven’t had a lamb cake for Easter in quite a while. That doesn’t make Easter less but Easter is more than just lamb cakes and jelly beans. The real deal is Jesus in the Eucharist.

Incidentally, you may be amused by this, but after I made my first communion, I discovered our goldfish food tasted like the host. Back in those days they made this wafer fish food that came in sheets inside a box. It was white and the fish loved it. At 7 years of age, I happened to try a little piece. Sure enough, it tasted like communion.
 
Arizona_Fat_Gir said:
The real deal is Jesus in the Eucharist…
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Amen to that.

“There are various ways in which the symbolism of eating bread and drinking wine discloses the meaning of the Eucharist. For example, just as natural food gives nourishment to the body, so the eucharistic food gives spiritual nourishment. Furthermore, the sharing of an ordinary meal establishes a **certain communion among the people who share it; in the Eucharist, the People of God share a meal that brings them into communion not only with each other but with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. **Similarly, as St. Paul tells us, the single loaf that is shared among many during the eucharistic meal is an **indication of the unity of those who have been called together by the Holy Spirit as one body, the Body of Christ **(1 Cor 10:17).”

usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/the-mass/order-of-mass/liturgy-of-the-eucharist/the-real-presence-of-jesus-christ-in-the-sacrament-of-the-eucharist-basic-questions-and-answers.cfm

MJ
 
MartinJordan said:
Wasn’t Jesus with his chosen ones when he said this? So what I can see is that he picked certain men to give this instruction. While we as “common priests” share in this, by Jesus’ instruction to spread his teachings via his Priests to us.

So there is this added specialness in the taking of his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. In other words not be taken lightly by just remembering him but taking him Truly and with His Church.

In this way, he can say “I am with you always till the end of the Age” in Communion with him rather than only in memory.

MJ
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Like I said, as a Lutheran I agree with you. I hope someone who holds a symbolic view responds, but ISTM that for those who do, they are responding to what they believe Christ’s command and intent to be.

Jon
 
Reuben_J said:
But yes, people can eat the bread and drink the wine as symbols, but how trite and trivial that would be,
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When you insult another person’s religion, you insult all religion including your own.
 
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