If the Eucharist is truly Jesus

[Hypothesis]

You know, this exact same argument is used by atheists to prove God doesn’t exist. He doesn’t heal every person who asks Him to, so He must not exist. The answer is that God is not a vending machine or a genie, and we don’t place our faith in signs. God can give signs if He wants, and He does, but I don’t need Him to be constantly proving himself to me to believe in Him. Same thing with the Eucharist.

Jesus when he was on earth, wasn’t some magical talisman that automatically healed people when they touched him. He is God, he heals those whom he chooses. This question actually demonstrates a rather low christology. Jesus HAS to heal every person who touches him. No He doesn’t.

Maybe just one? One person in a wheelchair that gets up after touching the body of Christ? Not every person, but is there ANY person?

Personally, I’m going to believe in the Eucharist because I believe He was God, and if he said we need to eat his flesh and drink his blood, and his flesh is true food and his blood is true drink, that’s good enough for me. He promised we would have life in us if we do, in Greek that’s zoay(spelled that wrong sorry) the DIVINE LIFE OF GOD! He did not say if you eat this you will be healed from every little physical infirmity. Rather, He said the* spirit is what gives life, the flesh is of no avail. (Not * HIS flesh obviously, * THE * flesh. Big difference.)Our souls are what matter most.

Plus think about it, if he did heal every person who touched him in the Eucharist, The Mass would quickly cease to be about God and loving Him because he deserved it, and become all about us and what God can give me. That defeats the entire purpose of worship, which is to take us out of ourselves.

That is true.

 

[Hypothesis]

You know what it is that hunts me, that I think of every day since I heard about it? It’s about a man who worked in the cemetries of Auschwitz. He burned his own people. Knowing that as long as he would have this “job” he would stay alive. He talked about how he could hear people screaming the name of G=d in the gas chamber. This didn’t let me go. How could G0d so foresake his own people that were screaming his name? Where was he, and how could he do this? Now, however, the question has changed. It turned into the question: Who am I to take an attempt to basically judge the Almighty Himself?
G=d doesn’t heal all these people, and it’s up to him why this is so. There might have been people who were healed. There might have been some who weren’t.

This is disturbing, most definitely.

If anyone who touched the Eucharist was healed in a heartbeat people would run over the churches and chapels for one single reason: to be healed.

And you think this would be a bad reason, why exactly?

 

[WingsOfEagles]

Crutches at St. Anne de Beaupre

Maybe just one? One person in a wheelchair that gets up after touching the body of Christ? Not every person, but is there ANY person?

That is true.

 

[LightFromLight]

When we read the Gospels, it is evident that people were healed when they touched Jesus.

For example the woman who simply touched the hem of his garment was made well…

Why doesn’t the Eucharist which is ‘body, blood, soul and divinity’ of Jesus heal sick people?

I have witnessed several people ‘touch’ Jesus ask for healing and not be healed.

How could someone actually hold the body of God in their hand and not be made well of some silly little disease?

Now, I understand that people can’t be healed of everything that comes to them every time or they would live forever and never humanly die.

To me this points more to a symbolic presence because symbolic presences do not heal either.

My faith in the Eucharist is weakening, due to not healing people who are begging God to heal them. Also people can’t receive Jesus body because they are ‘allergic’ to it…and I understand that in this case they are allergic to the ‘accidents’ that remain…

Tell me where I am wrong…

There are many people who have sustained themselves with the Eucharist for many weeks without food or water. There are many Eucharistic miracles and healings, you should look them up.

It is not a symbolic presence, He said “This is My Body”.
Trust the word of God. Also, people will not be heal for begging, they can only be healed if they trust in God.

Has someone else influenced your thinking on this? If you don’t mind me asking.

 

[Trebor135]

I recall this, but did anybody who came to Jesus for healing not be healed?

Is there an instance of someone with great faith saying “I will go to Jesus and he will heal me”…then once they arrived, nothing happened at all?

Well, as another poster noted, St. Paul, an apostle chosen by Christ himself, prayed for a “thorn in the flesh” to be removed, but he was told, “My grace is sufficient for you.”

 

[Skye_Ariel]

How many people touched Jesus back then and were NOT healed? The Bible mentions the ones who were, but can you imagine how many people touched Jesus in His lifetime? The ones who crucified Him touched Him, the ones He made things for as a carpenter touched Him and things He made, people He may have brushed past while walking touched Him etc. Remember in the Bible the lady with the issue of blood touched Jesus and was healed and He felt the healing virtue go out of Him and asked who touched Him and someone said “you are in a crowd of people all around you and you ask who touched you?” Everyone was touching Him! LOL! So touching Jesus even in His human form did not always cause the person to be healed.

 

[Skye_Ariel]

And you think this would be a bad reason, why exactly?

Because the Eucharist would become a magic pill just to be taken to solve their problems and heal their illnesses and not really bring them closer to God. It’s like everyone becoming your friend because you won the lottery and was giving out money to everyone who came to you. You couldn’t possibly think any meaningful relationship would come from having people come to you under those circumstances. People would just use you and have no respect for you. You can’t buy love or affection or respect, not with money and not with miracles.

 

[vames]

How could someone actually hold the body of God in their hand and not be made well of some silly little disease?

Now, I understand that people can’t be healed of everything that comes to them every time or they would live forever and never humanly die.

To me this points more to a symbolic presence because symbolic presences do not heal either.

My faith in the Eucharist is weakening, due to not healing people who are begging God to heal them. Also people can’t receive Jesus body because they are ‘allergic’ to it…and I understand that in this case they are allergic to the ‘accidents’ that remain…

Tell me where I am wrong…

But Jesus didn’t promise physical healing when He instituted the Eucharist. He talked about sins, spiritual nourishment and the promise of everlasting life.
“For this is my blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins.”
“I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall not hunger: and he that believeth in me shall never thirst.”
“He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day.”
“This is my body, which is given for you. Do this for a commemoration of me.”

The historical Jesus of Nazareth, the one who performed the physical healings and all the other miracles, left this world when He died.
“And I say to you, I will not drink from henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I shall drink it with you new in the kingdom of my Father.”

So the disciples were sad when He ascended into heaven. But He said that He is still with us, so we don’t have to be sad and lonely - hence the “commemoration of me”.
“Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.”

When the priest breaks the host and we receive the Eucharist, we relive the Last Supper and He is with us, as He said. That’s the Real Presence. So we are not cannibals eating physical flesh and blood; likewise, we don’t understand the Eucharist as a magical tool designed for physical or mental healing.

 

[Robyn_p]

Maybe just one? One person in a wheelchair that gets up after touching the body of Christ? Not every person, but is there ANY person?

I don’t know, I’m sure there is. I do know a lady in my own parish, she has incredible beautiful faith, and she has severe gluten allergy. Yet she goes and takes the Host and is never harmed! I know that doesn’t happen to every single person, but God has His reasons.

That is true.

It’s all about love, that’s what the cross says, that’s what the Eucharist says. Sometimes a person being healed might not help them in the long run. To heal them would not be love then. I have a disease that causes me to be in a wheelchair myself, but every time I receive the Eucharist, I get overwhelmed! It’s so awesome! I deserve absolutely nothing, God didn’t have to create me, He definitely didn’t have to die for me, and then he goes even farther and let’s himself be my food! God, the Creator of the entire universe, loves me that much!! Why? I have no clue. He joins himself to me and to every single person who receives the Eucharist in such an awesome amazing way, it’s too much sometimes to comprehend!!! So much that I don’t even remember or care that I can’t walk, because it doesn’t matter in the end. What matters is love.

 

[Classicist]

Dear Hypothesis,

There is only one instance of a person being healed by the mere action of touching the Lord. This was the woman with the flow of blood – and she didn’t even touch Him, but the hem of His garment. Many people pressed up against Him and were not healed when He was on Earth.

You’ve got to remember that the Lord never even promised that all who merely touch Him will be healed instantly. Where do you get the idea in the first place, if I may ask?

 

[Classicist]

And you think this would be a bad reason, why exactly?

It would be bad for exactly the same reason that it was bad for the 5000 fed by Christ in John 6 to come looking for Him in order to get bread, rather than to find the Truth. People who just want to be healed include atheists and pagans. They would not come for the renewed heart, the forgiveness, and the love of God. It would be about material blessings. God despises that worldly motivation.

 

[Hypothesis]

There are many people who have sustained themselves with the Eucharist for many weeks without food or water. There are many Eucharistic miracles and healings, you should look them up.

It is not a symbolic presence, He said “This is My Body”.
Trust the word of God. Also, people will not be heal for begging, they can only be healed if they trust in God.

Has someone else influenced your thinking on this? If you don’t mind me asking.

No one has influenced my thinking. Just from living, watching and learning.

 

[Hypothesis]

http://staplessabbatical.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/p4050162-2.jpg

Crutches at St. Anne de Beaupre

That is awesome. This is people who came in needing crutches and canes to walk and left healed?

 

[Hypothesis]

How many people touched Jesus back then and were NOT healed? The Bible mentions the ones who were, but can you imagine how many people touched Jesus in His lifetime? The ones who crucified Him touched Him, the ones He made things for as a carpenter touched Him and things He made, people He may have brushed past while walking touched Him etc. Remember in the Bible the lady with the issue of blood touched Jesus and was healed and He felt the healing virtue go out of Him and asked who touched Him and someone said “you are in a crowd of people all around you and you ask who touched you?” Everyone was touching Him! LOL! So touching Jesus even in His human form did not always cause the person to be healed.

The point here is this. Touching Jesus with faith healed her. The same people do when they go to Mass and touch the Lord begging for his healing.

 

[Hypothesis]

It would be bad for exactly the same reason that it was bad for the 5000 fed by Christ in John 6 to come looking for Him in order to get bread, rather than to find the Truth. People who just want to be healed include atheists and pagans. They would not come for the renewed heart, the forgiveness, and the love of God. It would be about material blessings. God despises that worldly motivation.

So its bad for people to come to Jesus for physical healing? Instead they should be coming to him to hear about suffering and death and eternal life after they die? If this was the case then why did Jesus heal anybody to begin with physically?

 

[Hypothesis]

Dear Hypothesis,

There is only one instance of a person being healed by the mere action of touching the Lord. This was the woman with the flow of blood – and she didn’t even touch Him, but the hem of His garment. Many people pressed up against Him and were not healed when He was on Earth.

You’ve got to remember that the Lord never even promised that all who merely touch Him will be healed instantly. Where do you get the idea in the first place, if I may ask?

Peter’s shadow could heal but the body, blood, soul and divinity don’t? Seems like a valid question to me.

 

[LilyM]

Peter’s shadow could heal but the body, blood, soul and divinity don’t? Seems like a valid question to me.

Scripture never says that all, or even most, of those who sought healing either from Our Lord or Peter were in fact healed, only that it happened sometimes. And Our Lord point blank refused on at least a few occasions to perform miracles - for example for Herod.

Remember Christ’s words to Thomas about the importance of being willing to believe without seeing? And his emphasis on forgiving the paralytic’s sins above and beyond the physical healing he did, which only came afterwards?

 

[LilyM]

So its bad for people to come to Jesus for physical healing? Instead they should be coming to him to hear about suffering and death and eternal life after they die? If this was the case then why did Jesus heal anybody to begin with physically?

It IS bad to treat God like a vending machine which must dispense material goodies (including physical healing) for you if you put in a certain amount of money/prayers/faith. God heals where it is His will and plan to do so.

Remember Jesus - God - chose Himself to suffer. Suffering is thus not something automatically to be shunned and avoided at all costs. It is something that can bring huge, even infinite, good when we unite our sufferings to His and this participate in His saving Passion.

This alone is more than ample reason why God would not choose to remove all suffering.

 

[Christine85]

I have a little testimony of how I was healed…
I take psychiatric medication , and one night I slept at a friends house and did not have the night time medicine on me. Anyway, I didn’t sleep pretty much all night and had that horrible creepy feeling under the skin like a drug addict needing their drug, anyway, it remained. Then we went to morning Mass that next day, I was still feel super edgy with that creepy crawly feeling under the skin, I received Communion. I noticed after we left the Church that the creepy withdrawal feeling from the drug had gone after I had received Communion!! So I was healed of that on that day by taking Communion.

I believe a key thing is what Gods will is and also the person must have a very great faith in the Eucharist.

 

[Hypothesis]

I have a little testimony of how I was healed…
I take psychiatric medication , and one night I slept at a friends house and did not have the night time medicine on me. Anyway, I didn’t sleep pretty much all night and had that horrible creepy feeling under the skin like a drug addict needing their drug, anyway, it remained. Then we went to morning Mass that next day, I was still feel super edgy with that creepy crawly feeling under the skin, I received Communion. I noticed after we left the Church that the creepy withdrawal feeling from the drug had gone after I had received Communion!! So I was healed of that on that day by taking Communion.

I believe a key thing is what Gods will is and also the person must have a very great faith in the Eucharist.

Thank you for sharing this with me. I really enjoy reading miracles from real people and not some random websites.