"Is the Eucharist Really Christ's Body and Blood?" Article on What the Eucharist Is, What Follows from That

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Personally I AM amazed at both the breadth of understanding, AND the lack of understanding in the Protestant churches.

Some profess to accept the Dogma of the Real Presence, without the actual ability to make Jesus “Really, Truly and Substantially Present”, as we Catholics do; while other hold fast to visions of a “sign”, a “symbol” or a “reminder of” Christ Real Presence".

The first group is to be applauded for recognizing that Mt. 26: 26-28’, . 14: 22-24 & Lk 22: 17:20 , John 6: 47-58, 56-72; and 1st Cor, 11:23-30 are all to be understood as being LITERAL testimonies and Instructions.; while not grasping that to make Jesus Truly Present requires Direct Apostolic Succession; with Martin Luther forfeited in his Apostasy…

The second group, much brader in the number of churches holding the “sigh & Symbol” doctrine is simply missing the TESTIMONY of Jesus Himself & five different CATHOLIC authors of the NT accounts. Choosing to be among the those who freely choose to deny and abandon Christ:

John 6: [53] The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying: How can this man give us his flesh to eat? [54] Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. [55] He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day.[56] For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed. [57] He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him… [67] After this many of his disciples went back; and walked no more with him. [68] Then Jesus said to the twelve: Will you also go away? [69] And Simon Peter answered him: L.ord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. [70] And we have believed and have known, that thou art the Christ, the Son of God.

This group misses the historical fact of the immediate beliefs and practice of this to be later become a DOGMA of Christian Faith.:

Acts.2: 4]" And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship**, to the breaking of bread** and the prayers", BREAKING OF THE BREAD was the 1st .theological term for today’s Catholic Holy Communion. Then historically 11 of the 12 Apostles [Jesus SAVED John who they tried to boil in oil] AND countless others gave their very lives in TESTIMONY of.

So my friend, you are precisely correct; there can be no closer, no more intimate relationship with Jesus Christ, who REALLY is Present; “Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity” [THE REAL AND TOTAL JESUS CHRIST] , so there can be no compelling reason to be a informed, FAITH-FILLED, practicing Catholic. AMEN!

Matt.7: 13 "Enter by the narrow gate; [SINGULAR as is “My Church” in Mt 16:18] for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.

God Bless you:
Partick
 
Your last phrase here is so very important: the receiving of Holy Eucharist with love and devotion - and not mindlessly, mechanically, merely outwardly and lacking the “right disposition” needed for fruitful reception of the sacrament.

The Church teaches that the Sacrament is presented to us with power! But the fruitfulness of the Sacrament in us depends on the way we receive it - our interior disposition:

Catechism 1128 This is the meaning of the Church’s affirmation [Cf. Council of Trent (1547): DS 1608] that the sacraments act ex opere operato (literally: “by the very fact of the action’s being performed”), i.e., by virtue of the saving work of Christ, accomplished once for all. It follows that “the sacrament is not wrought by the righteousness of either the celebrant or the recipient, but by the power of God.” [St. Thomas Aquinas, STh III, 68, 8] From the moment that a sacrament is celebrated in accordance with the intention of the Church, the power of Christ and his Spirit acts in and through it, independently of the personal holiness of the minister. Nevertheless, the fruits of the sacraments also depend on the disposition of the one who receives them.

A troubling possibility, for those lacking the right disposition, is to fall into superstition - and this (superstition) is what I think many protestants think we are guilty of.

Catechism 2111 Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition. [Cf. Mt 23:16-22]
 
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