How do you eat a symbol?

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A similar “direction” is looking at the church and declaring “This is the body of Christ.” Is the church His physical body? No. But, is it right to say that it is indeed His Body? Of course. I gave the example before; the old “this is your brain, this is your brain on drugs” commercial. There is no doubt about the word picture, as obvious as a literary device as that is in the commercial, I see that in scripture and not just in the Last Supper. I understand the arguments for a literal interpretation, I just don’t agree with them, especially since I don’t see John 6 as connected to the Last Supper passages, as we’ve touched on before.
K
The celebrant priest does not say “This is *****the *****body of Christ.” But, rather, “**This is my Body”… “This is my Blood”. **Do you see the difference?

The priest is acting persona Christi, in the person of Christ, for it is Christ Himself acting through the priest (the priest is just God’s vessel or instrument however you’d like to word it to understand better) and it is the Christ Himself offering the sacrifice and changing ordinary bread and wine into His Body and Blood for nothing is impossible for God.

How is it that the 1st Jewish Christians in the 1st Century believed in the RP of Jesus in the Eucharist?

Because they knew the Old Testament prophecies.

In the Old Testament Passover, in Exodus chapter 12, God gave the people certain regulations they had to follow in order to be set free from Egypt particularly from the plague of death. There was a ritual sacrifice that had to be carried out and several steps that had to be followed:
1st a father from each household would take an unblemished male lamb and sacrifice it in doing so the father was acting as priest over his family because every Jew in the 1st century and before knew that only a priest could offer blood sacrifice. The father acting as priest had to spread the blood of the lamb on the door posts of the door and on the lentil of the door. Also the lamb had to be eaten - the flesh of the lamb had to be eaten in order to be saved from the plague of death. This was part of the Passover ritual in the Old Testament. Over time that Passover ritual developed and certain elements were added. At the time of Christ, the child had to ask the father what he was doing. The child would ask the father why is this nite different from any other nite? Why do we eat unleavened bread and lamb? The father would give this answer: “It is because of what the Lord did for ***me ***when I came out of Egypt.” In saying that he was quoting Ex. 13:8.
How could he say that though? The Israelites had left Egypt over a thousand years before. The 1st Century Jews believed that thru the sacrifice of the lamb thru the Passover liturgy and thru that ritual that they were somehow spiritually brought back in time to participate in that 1st Exodus. An actual participation in the one Passover.

The Eucharist is the New Passover. What do you have to do in the New Passover – you have to eat the lamb. Jesus is the lamb. Jesus is replacing the Old Covenant Passover with the New Covenant Passover.
 
You just did the same thing; He is the rain. But He isn’t literally rain, is He? Drink the living water; He isn’t water. The water in David’s cup was called blood, but it wasn’t really blood. Symbolic language of just the same type is throughout old and new testament. In a very real and powerful way that bread is indeed His body as is the partaking of it amongst a gathering of His believer; His body.
K
That was the point I was making when I said that Jesus is the rain in a dry and parched land – who am I to say if my words are just symbolic or not. Pablope explained it in his post #109. I don’t have the authority to do so, Christ gave the authority to His Church to be the sole interpreter of His Words in Scripture thru the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
 
The Eucharist tests not our senses but rather our faith. Do we believe in God’s Word or our human senses?

Sight, taste, and touch in Thee are each deceived;
The ear alone most safely is believed:
I believe all the Son of God has spoken:
Than Truth’s own word there is no truer token.
St. Thomas Aquinas
 
More St. Thomas Aquinas

Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore
Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more,
See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart
Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art.

Seeing, touching, tasting are in thee deceived;
How says trusting hearing? that shall be believed;
What God’s Son has told me, take for truth I do;
Truth himself speaks truly or there’s nothing true.
 
The celebrant priest does not say “This is *****the *****body of Christ.” But, rather, “**This is my Body”… “This is my Blood”. **Do you see the difference?
No, there isn’t a substantive difference in RCC teaching on the subject. One is explaining what the priest says, the other is explaining the teaching of the church; transubstantiation. It can be seen when an individual receives the wafer; Corpus Christi.
How is it that the 1st Jewish Christians in the 1st Century believed in the RP of Jesus in the Eucharist?
I don’t believe they did teach nor believe they were imbibing in literal physical blood, for we can see the injunction against it repeated by the council at Jerusalem when they told Gentiles not to imbibe blood with no clarification that there is an exception; the physical blood of Christ. The earliest teachings on the subject are in scripture, and certainly don’t allude to “transubstantiation” because that isn’t a teaching from the Jewish framework, but rather an Aristotelian one.

However, I do believe they taught a type of RP that is not transubstantiation, and is not “physical” in nature. Again, I believe that symbolic acts and “things” have reality, power, and deep meaning, and I see that reflected in some of the writings in the ECF’s.
Because they knew the Old Testament prophecies.
In the Old Testament Passover, in Exodus chapter 12, God gave the people certain regulations they had to follow in order to be set free from Egypt particularly from the plague of death. There was a ritual sacrifice that had to be carried out and several steps that had to be followed:
1st a father from each household would take an unblemished male lamb and sacrifice it in doing so the father was acting as priest over his family because every Jew in the 1st century and before knew that only a priest could offer blood sacrifice. The father acting as priest had to spread the blood of the lamb on the door posts of the door and on the lentil of the door. Also the lamb had to be eaten - the flesh of the lamb had to be eaten in order to be saved from the plague of death. This was part of the Passover ritual in the Old Testament. Over time that Passover ritual developed and certain elements were added. At the time of Christ, the child had to ask the father what he was doing. The child would ask the father why is this nite different from any other nite? Why do we eat unleavened bread and lamb? The father would give this answer: “It is because of what the Lord did for ***me ***when I came out of Egypt.” In saying that he was quoting Ex. 13:8.
How could he say that though? The Israelites had left Egypt over a thousand years before. The 1st Century Jews believed that thru the sacrifice of the lamb thru the Passover liturgy and thru that ritual that they were somehow spiritually brought back in time to participate in that 1st Exodus. An actual participation in the one Passover.
The Eucharist is the New Passover. What do you have to do in the New Passover – you have to eat the lamb. Jesus is the lamb. Jesus is replacing the Old Covenant Passover with the New Covenant Passover.
I don’t have any issue with us remembering and showing forth in a deeper sense than “mere” symbol, I believe that we do. However, in this instance He didn’t choose the Lamb to say the blessing over to represent Him at the Last Supper, He chose the bread and cup, a very particular piece of bread and a very particular cup of wine.
 
However, I do believe they taught a type of RP that is not transubstantiation, and is not “physical” in nature. Again, I believe that symbolic acts and “things” have reality, power, and deep meaning, and I see that reflected in some of the writings in the ECF’s.
click on any of the Fathers mentioned
therealpresence.org/eucharst/father/a5.html

If you want to verify by going to their exact writing mentioned here’s the link
newadvent.org/fathers/

For example,

Ignatius in the 1st link mentions Ignatius letter to the Smerneans Epistle to the Smyrnæans
look at paragraph 6

And then keep going through the list.
K:
I don’t have any issue with us remembering and showing forth in a deeper sense than “mere” symbol, I believe that we do. However, in this instance He didn’t choose the Lamb to say the blessing over to represent Him at the Last Supper, He chose the bread and cup, a very particular piece of bread and a very particular cup of wine.
He used unleavened bread and a cup of real wine not grape juice to consecrate and change into His body and blood…
 
:confused: No, He would not have, if transubstantiation is to believed. If one studies the ideas of Aristotle from which the RCC formed the idea of transubstantiation, the appearance of a thing is a moot point. Transubstantiation teaches you are indeed drinking blood.
Transubtiantiation was coined by the CC. It is strange for you to quote it against us as Catholics and Protestants don’t follow Mosaic dietary laws. You should be making a case for the Jews instead as they do not believe in transubstantiation. Since they do not believe it, they have no case against Jesus because they didn’t “see” the flesh and blood for it to qualify. Indeed the same as your logic.
Quite the contrary, He gave us the scriptures, the very word of God to tell us of these things. There are quite clear writings calling Jesus water, a door, a vine, light, etc… and that is very plain as well. They are also symbolic. He was very clear how we participate in His life, and how we consume the Word.
The topic is on the Real Presence. How all 3 Gospel writers wrote about it and the actual eating of it. None of them described it as symbolic. Please keep to the subject proper. Introducing extraneous topics like vines, door and such has no bearing on the subject proper. When he declares the bread is his body, we don’t know how he did it. We don’t expect to know how he raise people from the dead either. The question is do you have faith when God says it is his body, it actually is. And not questioning God whether he mean something else. Bringing in the vines and door is a typical tactic when one don’t wish to deal deeply with the subject proper. All you are saying is that there are cases of symbolic language and therefore this is a case of symbolic language without having to prove it. When Jesus said he is the vine he tied that with us being the branches. No one is scandalize by this. When Jesus said he is the door, no one is mistaking him to be an actual door. When Jesus said to eat his flesh and drink his blood , that was a scandal! Disciples leaving en masse. If that wasn’t a scandal and merely a figure of speech, why did they leave? Jesus didn’t even proffer an explanation to say that it was all symbols and figure of speech.
That is simply not the case. Paul certainly didn’t consider the piece of bread to be Jesus Himself. Nor did many of the early church fathers, nor was it recorded as such in the Didache.
You have not proven your case. See 1 Cor 11:23-26 again. On the Church Fathers, you need to disclose the many Church fathers that did not believe in the Real Presence. I doubt you have many/any.

Protestant historian of the early Church J. N. D. Kelly said, “Eucharistic teaching, it should be understood at the outset, was in general unquestioningly realist, i.e., the consecrated bread and wine were taken to be, and were treated and designated as, the Savior’s body and blood” (Early Christian Doctrines, 440).

Kelly writes: “Ignatius roundly declares that . . . [t]he bread is the flesh of Jesus, the cup his blood. Clearly he intends this realism to be taken strictly, for he makes it the basis of his argument against the Docetists’ denial of the reality of Christ’s body. . . . Irenaeus teaches that the bread and wine are really the Lord’s body and blood. His witness is, indeed, all the more impressive because he produces it quite incidentally while refuting the Gnostic and Docetic rejection of the Lord’s real humanity”

And he includes Hippolytus, Tertullian, Cyprian as well. We also have on record Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Aphraahat the Persian Sage, Cyril of Jerusalem, Ambrose of Milan, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Augustine.

Council of Niceae 1 Canon 18: It has come to the attention of this holy and great synod that in some places and cities deacons give communion to presbyters, although neither canon nor custom allows this, namely that those who have no authority to offer should give the body of Christ to those who do offer.

Even before the New Testament was finalized, this Church Council already spoke about the communion of the Body of Christ. You can’t quote your Bible at all when it didn’t exist.

Council of Ephesus

Proclaiming the death according to the flesh of the only begotten Son of God, that is Jesus Christ, and professing his return to life from the dead and his ascension into heaven, we offer the unbloody worship [sacrificii servitutem] in the churches and so proceed to the mystical thanksgivings and are sanctified having partaken of the holy flesh [corpus] and precious blood of Christ, the saviour of us all. This we receive not as ordinary flesh, heaven forbid, nor as that of a man who has been made holy and joined to the Word by union of honour, or who had a divine indwelling, but as truly the life-giving and real flesh of the Word.

I presume you accept the proclamations of the 2 Councils.

I assume you have read the Didache since you quoted it. Let me quote:

On the Lord’s own day, when you gather together, break bread and give thanks [Or: celebrate the eucharist] after you have confessed your unlawful deeds, that your sacrifice may be pure.
If it is just ordinary bread why go through confession? If you understand the meaning of the Eucharist, you will understand that the Lord was the sacrifice and it is a pure sacrifice. You have to confess your sins before eating ordinary bread?

“Let no one quarreling with his neighbor join you until they are reconciled, that your sacrifice may not be defiled”. Do not profane the Lord! Same as what Paul said. How do you defile ordinary bread?

The Didache teaches that one must confess our sins before partaking the body and blood of Christ lest we defile Him.
 
If the bread is not the Lord, and if those individuals are worshiping bread as though it is the Lord, then idolatry was committed. Idolatry is not an unforgivable sin, however. Further, to clarify my position, from my own studies I don’t believe the early church fathers were monolithic in the belief of transubstantiation. I do understand others don’t interpret them as I do.
So you are saying all those early Christians who believe the Real Presence were bread idolators? Yes or No answer will do.
Quite the opposite, the Holy Spirit indwells and guides all believers. Jesus and Paul warn again and again and again against false teaching and false leaders. It is clear false teachers and false leaders were already on the scene even in biblical days, so there is no promise the church won’t stray (in fact in Revelation we see several churches that did indeed stray). Further, Paul even warns that if and angel from heaven or he himself teaches a different gospel not to heed it. If that wasn’t a chance, then he was lying.
Totally irrelevant to the subject proper. If you want to accuse any one of false teachings , give names and evidences of doing so. Quoting scriptures really does not argue your case. You need to identify the person and the wrong teaching. Now back to my point. Did the Holy Spirit mislead all those who believe in the Real Presence? Yes or no.
The church isn’t an institution, but rather all believers, all out-called ones. He is with all believers even now. In fact He made it clear He is truly and really present anywhere 2 or more are gathered in His name.
Not relevant to the subject proper. Now back to the question. Was Jesus with those Real Presence believers aka bread idolators? Basically the Church Fathers are guilty of bread idolatry. So if Jesus was with them, why did he led his Church into idolatry?
Once more, I see it taught as symbol in the bible.
Please answer the question. For 1500 years was the Church practicing idolatry of bread before Reformation? Yes or no.
I have quite often.
Yet your supporting reasons are inadequate.
The ones that got upset were the ones that took Him literally, just as they got upset when they took Him literally about tearing the temple down. They were wrong on both counts. The ingesting and eating of something is an extremely common way of describing something symbolically in the Jewish tradition, with examples in the OT as well as the NT.
Why do you need to resort to other irrelevant subjects such as tearing of the temple? That is a pure and simple fallacious reasoning. Something somewhere was a symbol and therefore this is a symbol too. In fact I notice that this is your main modus operandi of justifying the symbolic Eucharist just because symbols were used in another place. You need to show why John 6 context is symbolic within John 6 itself. You distract with vine, door , temple etc. You need to explain why did Jesus say to chew/gnaw his flesh, why did his disciples left en masse, why he didn’t explain or try to hold them back by explaining that wasn’t what he meant and so on. You need to explain why he was telling about the actual eating of the manna by their ancestors and yet not to mean it after he has told them to eat his flesh 7 times. Not once did he say it is symbolic.
But the RCC doesn’t even take Him literally; He said this is My body, not this is My body, blood, soul and divinity. There’s no need for the wine if that were so. I take Him quite literally just as I take Him literally that He is living water, and that He is the chief cornerstone, and that He is a vine and a door and light. The Matzoh bread served at Passover is without yeast, sinless, bruised, broken, pierced. Every time we have communion we show forth Christ crucified.
You do not know the meaning of “literal”? When the CC says Real Presence, it means Jesus himself. We don’t have to mention bits and pieces of him like what you just did.
 
Wrong verse context for the point; 1 Corinthian 11: 27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. 29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. 30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. 31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. 32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. 33 Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another.
You left out the most important word - profane. How do you profane the the Body and blood of the Lord? How is one unworthy then? The answer is in the Didache that you brought up! One is unworthy if one didn’t confess their sins! That is why Paul said “let a man examine himself”. Person with unconfessed sins eating the Lord would have defiled the purity of the sacrifice! Don’t be stuck in the secular world of bad manners of being drunk or bad manners in eating. Bad manners and unworthiness are very separate attributes.
You act as though symbols have no power or reality. That is simply not true, and is why is it insulting when people refer to things as “merely” or “just” symbolic. That is denying the reality and the power of that thing. We are the body of Christ. We are His body. They were eating and drinking unworthily (adverb), how were they eating and drinking in an unworthy manner? They were not discerning the Lord’s body; the church.
You are mistaken. Symbols are important in the right places. But the Eucharist is not merely a symbol, it is our Lord. So now the bread is the symbol for the Church according to your latest assessment? Exactly how did they not discern the Church? So when Jesus said “This is my body” he means “This is my Church”? So when he said " take, eat, this is my body" he meant “take, eat this is my Church”? Which Church father subscribed to this view? You quoted many, so I am really eager to see this list.

And not only do you profane the body of Christ (Church to you) explain how did they profane the blood of Christ? I think you have an unexplained hole in your exegesis.
In the old testament David refused to drink water from a well calling it the blood of his men. He poured it out for an offering. He certainly believed and showed that a symbol can indeed be profaned. Something symbolic is not devoid of actual reality nor power.
I am not disputing that symbols do not exist. I am disputing your inference that since symbols exist, the Eucharist must therefore also be symbolic. This is just plain fallacious reasoning.
 
Sorry ericc, I’ve played the merry-go-round game before and have no wish to do so again, I understand the teaching of the RCC on transubstantiation, and I don’t agree that it is Biblical, nor what Jesus, Paul, Peter, etc… taught. I’ve explained my position, and I have no wish to argue it into the ground, and I certainly have no wish to be disrespectful to the beliefs of this board, nor to break its rules.

Praying for us all to be lead to a more perfect understanding of all His teachings,

Grace and peace to you,
K
 
Originally Posted by Kliska
OOPS!!!

Kliska,

I found that this post to you was in need of a correction

The reference to Ignatius and the Eucharist should be paragraphs 7 & 8 in his letter to the Smyrneans . NOT paragraph 6 as was stated.

let’s see, where is that key to remind me to check my work before sending? :manvspc:
 
Sorry ericc, I’ve played the merry-go-round game before and have no wish to do so again, I understand the teaching of the RCC on transubstantiation, and I don’t agree that it is Biblical, nor what Jesus, Paul, Peter, etc… taught. I’ve explained my position, and I have no wish to argue it into the ground, and I certainly have no wish to be disrespectful to the beliefs of this board, nor to break its rules.

Praying for us all to be lead to a more perfect understanding of all His teachings,

Grace and peace to you,
K
That’s ok. I just want to leave you with questions which you know were not adequately responded by your good self:D. Perhaps you can find time to reflect why your answers fell short.

And no, it is not a merry go round game. If one is genuinely seeking understanding, it should lead us to wherever the argument/evidence takes you. For me it is genuinely sharing the knowledge I have gained from CAF. 5 years ago, all I had was kindergarten knowledge about Catholicism. Questions thrown at me would lead me scurrying the internet, magazines, books for answers.

May your search for Christ lead you to the Eucharist. You can’t have a relationship any closer than being invited for a meal and eating his Bread of Life. I don’t mean crackers and grape juice.😛
 
My pastor told me it is hard for people to become Catholics and to accept authority and discipline.
 
My pastor told me it is hard for people to become Catholics and to accept authority and discipline.
I would add

it is hard for people to become Catholics and remain Catholic
**
because it’s hard for people to accept authority and discipline.
 
Sorry ericc, I’ve played the merry-go-round game before and have no wish to do so again, I understand the teaching of the RCC on transubstantiation, and I don’t agree that it is Biblical, nor what Jesus, Paul, Peter, etc… taught. I’ve explained my position, and I have no wish to argue it into the ground,
You can’t prove your view either from scripture or from early Church writings. Your response is an emotional one, but not one backled up by evidence.
 
You can’t prove your view either from scripture or from early Church writings. Your response is an emotional one, but not one backled up by evidence.
I understand why you would think so, but of course I disagree. This isn’t an “emotional” issue to take position on, but rather what God has or has not taught. We disagree on what that is.

Grace and peace,
K
 
The Episcopal faith uses faith and reason too.
Absolutely they do!

And yet, in the engagement of their faculties of reason, and in their appeal to faith… various Episcopal communities reach a variety of conclusions with respect to the Eucharist. What can we glean from this seeming incongruity? After all, the law of non-contradiction has to kick in at some point.

As a Catholic, I conclude that the assurances of protection from error given to the Church do not apply equally to all those who call themselves by the name of ‘Christian’. Therefore, those who appeal to ‘faith and reason’ – outside the Church – have to answer to the variety of conflicting conclusions they reach. 🤷
 
I would add

it is hard for people to become Catholics and remain Catholic
**
because it’s hard for people to accept authority and discipline.
For me it isn’t the discipline as much as authority - and this is because there are some teachings that I don’t see within the early Christians and, if I can be convinced that these teachings were practiced by them I would throw off my life vest and swim the Tiber in an instant. I have not been convinced as of yet.

God bless!!

Rita
 
I understand why you would think so, but of course I disagree. This isn’t an “emotional” issue to take position on, but rather what God has or has not taught. We disagree on what that is.

Grace and peace,
K
Exactly. Believers in good faith disagree and as another poster pointed out, not everyone is convinced of another’s beliefs.
 
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