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Bigal
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How do you teach and demonstrate that the Eucharist is the real presence to a non Catholic?
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How do you teach and demonstrate that the Eucharist is the real presence to a non Catholic?
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Michael16
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I would basically invite them to read two passages in Sacred Scripture. The first is where Jesus first announces that one must eat His Flesh and drink His Blood. The second would be the Last Supper scene in the Gospel of Saint John.
Both passages amply teach and demonstrate that Our Lord wasn’t speaking symbolically: He was speaking literally. The reason that I know this is that in the first passage, many people left Our Lord upon hearing this saying. Jesus didn’t change His statement nor said: “ Okay, now that these guys are gone; I was only speaking symbolically. “
Both passages amply teach and demonstrate that Our Lord wasn’t speaking symbolically: He was speaking literally. The reason that I know this is that in the first passage, many people left Our Lord upon hearing this saying. Jesus didn’t change His statement nor said: “ Okay, now that these guys are gone; I was only speaking symbolically. “
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steph03
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In John chapter 6, Jesus says that it is his body and blood and you need to eat and drink. Many people left him because of this teaching… I didn’t hear Jesus say “Don’t worry! It’s only symbolic”…
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John_Martin
Guest
The disciples wanted to walk with and be with Jesus long before he told them and later gave them his flesh and blood to eat and drink.
I don’t try to teach non-catholics that the sacrament is flesh and is blood really.
I just live my Catholic citizenship in the Kingdom established by God with Christ as my Lord and King; I tell them: "This is what we [Catholics] do: we go to Mass on Sunday to offer sacrifice; this is what we do: we go to have ashes imposed on Ash Wednesday; this is what we do: we go to confession when we find we have missed the mark of our citizenship in His Kingdom; this is what we do: we are happy in our ability to be in your midst here in your country, so you might see a different Kingdom, a different reality - you allow license to many things, but our People [Catholics] do not do such things and are happy.
The disciples wanted to be with Jesus and walk with him; then later they found out about this covenant eating and drinking to join in the reciprocal love of God, pouring the self into the beloved.
Non-Catholics can learn about the Sacrament after seeing and wanting to be with and walk with us.
I don’t try to teach non-catholics that the sacrament is flesh and is blood really.
I just live my Catholic citizenship in the Kingdom established by God with Christ as my Lord and King; I tell them: "This is what we [Catholics] do: we go to Mass on Sunday to offer sacrifice; this is what we do: we go to have ashes imposed on Ash Wednesday; this is what we do: we go to confession when we find we have missed the mark of our citizenship in His Kingdom; this is what we do: we are happy in our ability to be in your midst here in your country, so you might see a different Kingdom, a different reality - you allow license to many things, but our People [Catholics] do not do such things and are happy.
The disciples wanted to be with Jesus and walk with him; then later they found out about this covenant eating and drinking to join in the reciprocal love of God, pouring the self into the beloved.
Non-Catholics can learn about the Sacrament after seeing and wanting to be with and walk with us.
That depends on what kind of Protestant.
You can find about every position on the Eucharist in the protestant family, from authentic belief in Real Presence (think about Luther, for example, who famously wrote “If Jesus had handed me a rotten apple and said “Eat, this is my body”, I’d have eaten it”) to merely symbolic bread (that would be Zwingli and his “Yes, Jesus said “this is my body“; but Jesus also said “I am the door“, and we don’t eat doors”).
That said, in addition to the Bible texts which have already been mentioned, I also like Luke 24 (Jesus disappears when breaking the bread, because from now on he is present in the Eucharist).
And as a (for now) Protestant who believes in Real Presence, I think it is difficult to honestly read John 6 and still defend a symbolic interpretation.
You can find about every position on the Eucharist in the protestant family, from authentic belief in Real Presence (think about Luther, for example, who famously wrote “If Jesus had handed me a rotten apple and said “Eat, this is my body”, I’d have eaten it”) to merely symbolic bread (that would be Zwingli and his “Yes, Jesus said “this is my body“; but Jesus also said “I am the door“, and we don’t eat doors”).
That said, in addition to the Bible texts which have already been mentioned, I also like Luke 24 (Jesus disappears when breaking the bread, because from now on he is present in the Eucharist).
And as a (for now) Protestant who believes in Real Presence, I think it is difficult to honestly read John 6 and still defend a symbolic interpretation.
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Nihilo
Guest
Protestant, or non-Christian?
The latter need only understand that Christ is risen from the dead, then the Real Presence can be founded upon that central and crowning truth of the faith later on.
Protestants though are stubborn people. For one thing when they say that communion is not His body and blood, they are merely saying the truth in their churches, where there is no Holy Orders and so there is no Real Presence either. In order for Him to be present in the Eucharist the presider must be ordained.
You can show till you’re blue in the face how there isn’t a hint of symbolism in the Lord saying, “This is My body,” and that He is recorded saying these words Four Times in the Scripture, which is like saying it with three underscores, but the stubborn Protestant will reserve their right to take it as metaphorical anyway.
When you show them that John substitutes the feeding of the 5000 followed up by a discourse on the Real Presence in his sixth chapter, instead of a fourth account of “This is My body,” they will still resist.
In a real way, to get them to believe in the Real Presence is to get them to believe in Catholicism (or at least in Catholicism or Orthodoxy), and they on some level know this, and so you’ve got that working against you as well. They won’t capitulate their whole theology over just one point of doctrine, no matter how good a job you do at demonstrating that it’s scriptural and historical.
But mainly it’s stubbornness. They stubbornly refuse to relinquish their stubbornness. All you can really do is pray for them.
The latter need only understand that Christ is risen from the dead, then the Real Presence can be founded upon that central and crowning truth of the faith later on.
Protestants though are stubborn people. For one thing when they say that communion is not His body and blood, they are merely saying the truth in their churches, where there is no Holy Orders and so there is no Real Presence either. In order for Him to be present in the Eucharist the presider must be ordained.
You can show till you’re blue in the face how there isn’t a hint of symbolism in the Lord saying, “This is My body,” and that He is recorded saying these words Four Times in the Scripture, which is like saying it with three underscores, but the stubborn Protestant will reserve their right to take it as metaphorical anyway.
When you show them that John substitutes the feeding of the 5000 followed up by a discourse on the Real Presence in his sixth chapter, instead of a fourth account of “This is My body,” they will still resist.
In a real way, to get them to believe in the Real Presence is to get them to believe in Catholicism (or at least in Catholicism or Orthodoxy), and they on some level know this, and so you’ve got that working against you as well. They won’t capitulate their whole theology over just one point of doctrine, no matter how good a job you do at demonstrating that it’s scriptural and historical.
But mainly it’s stubbornness. They stubbornly refuse to relinquish their stubbornness. All you can really do is pray for them.
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BartholomewB
Guest
There’s a story about Luther and Zwingli that may or may not be true – I suspect it’s not, but perhaps you can confirm that, one way or the other.
A German prince brought the two reformers together at his palace in Marburg in an attempt to get them to join together in a single Protestant church, to strengthen them in their struggle against the Catholic Church. (This much is true – it’s called the Marburg Colloquy. It’s the rest I’m not sure about.) The meeting dragged on day after day, with Luther and Zwingli facing each other across a big wooden desk. They managed to come to an agreement on nearly all their differences. But in the end the meeting broke up over one sticking point, which was the Real Presence. There came a moment when Luther lost patience, pulled out a knife the size of a bayonet, and carved into the top of the desk the Latin words: Hoc est corpus meum, This is my body.
A German prince brought the two reformers together at his palace in Marburg in an attempt to get them to join together in a single Protestant church, to strengthen them in their struggle against the Catholic Church. (This much is true – it’s called the Marburg Colloquy. It’s the rest I’m not sure about.) The meeting dragged on day after day, with Luther and Zwingli facing each other across a big wooden desk. They managed to come to an agreement on nearly all their differences. But in the end the meeting broke up over one sticking point, which was the Real Presence. There came a moment when Luther lost patience, pulled out a knife the size of a bayonet, and carved into the top of the desk the Latin words: Hoc est corpus meum, This is my body.
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matjam
Guest
- Eucharistic Miracles happening around the world. Eucharistic miracle of Buenos Aires | Rev. Andrew P. Carrozza
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Eucharistic_miracle - There was a talk on this subject by Fr. Daniel Poovannathil, a renowned catholic priest from India. It was life-changing for me. Since it was in my local language, Malayalam, I will translate the main points to English.
There are more than 3000 religions in the world. These religions have around 10000 religious symbols. For example, we Christians have the cross, rosary, etc. Satan worshippers desecrate the consecrated host. Why do they only target the Holy Eucharist and no other religious symbol in the world? Because satan knows that there is a real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
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