Meat with the blood still ini it

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In RCIA last night 3 jewish laws we still keep were mentioned.
One was to abstain from meat with the blood still in it.
Does that mean such things as a med. rare steak?
 
Not that. It has to do with how the animal was killed.

In Acts 15:29, the letter from the Council to all Gentile Christians speaks of abstaining from “blood, the meat of animals sacrificed to idols, and from strangled animals,” among other precepts. The reason for avoiding blood was that it was the life force, and thus sacred to God, the author of all life.
 
Ok, It did sound like this is something that pehaps I should be doing.
We still abstain from food offered up to idols…
 
IneedGod said:
In RCIA last night 3 jewish laws we still keep were mentioned.
One was to abstain from meat with the blood still in it.
Does that mean such things as a med. rare steak?
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Gee, I hope not. Medium rare is the only way i’ll eat beef.
 
IneedGod said:
Hmm it was the RCIA leader…
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Everyone makes mistakes. Take him aside after the next class and as him (or her, don’t hit me!) about it. See if they can give you a place in scripture or by the holy fathers where it forbids eating blood. After all, I LOVE gravy.
 
IneedGod said:
Hmm it was the RCIA leader…
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I hate to diss RCIA leaders but we’ve had a few who’ve said more than one wrong thing.

We are not bound to Jewish dietary regulations by virtue of Christ’s words that it isn’t what enters the mouth that makes one unclean, and the Council of Jerusalem’s ruling in Acts 15.
 
Ok, my sponsor also said it was something I might want to ask the priest about.
 
This is a dietary rule which has been in place off-and-on in the early-ish Church. The most recent instance I can find of the rule being enforced was by Pope Gregory III in the Eighth Century.

All rules of the Church are subject to change, and they can come and go. This rule is no longer in force.
 
Like most things, it depends why you are doing it. I doubt eating a med rare steak is wromg. 🙂
 
DavidFilmer said:
This is a dietary rule which has been in place off-and-on in the early-ish Church. The most recent instance I can find of the rule being enforced was by Pope Gregory III in the Eighth Century.

All rules of the Church are subject to change, and they can come and go. This rule is no longer in force.
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Not exactly divine law cannot be change, but that eat law here is not divine so it can be changed.
 
The life is in the blood. That’s why God told the Israelites through his servant Moses to abstain from blood.

Only be sure that you do not eat the blood; for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh. (Dueteronomy 12:23)

God said that the life of an animal is in it’s blood, and so if they consumed the blood of a beast, they would consume the life of a beast. Consuming animal blood meant living the life of an animal, living my instinct and giving in to passions and carnal desires. God doesn’t want to to live the life of the beasts. He doesn’t want us to live like animals, so he commanded that the Israelites abstain from blood in which is life.

Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. (John 6:53-54)

God want’s us to live the life of Christ. The “Life is in the Blood” so now God commands us to eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of Christ, so that we can live the eternal life of Christ, not as beasts and animals, but as sons of God! God reserved the consumption of blood for the perfect flesh and perfect blood, the blood of the Second Person of the Trinity who came down from heaven to give life to the world.

I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." (John 6:51)

In commanding the Israelites not to consume blood, God was preparing his people for their eventual reception of Jesus - God in the Flesh - and preparing his people for reception of the Eucharist - the flesh and blood of Christ which gives life to the world.

We can argue about whether we should be permitted to eat rare steaks or not, but that completely misses the point. The prohibition against blood in the Old Testament pointed the chosen nation of Israel and all of creation forward to the Messiah, who would be the flesh and blood which would give life to the world, and it points us to the Mass, to Christ, and to the Eucharist - the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ - which gives us the eternal life of Christ.

***the one who feeds on me will have life *because of me. (John 6:57)

Let’s leave arguments about whether rare steaks are against God’s will to the Evangelicals who take everything in scripture literally. For us, it’s about the Eucharist.

-Tim-
 
I struggled with the prohibition in Acts for a time because I had recently been introduced to a soup that uses cubes of coagulated blood as an ingredient. I asked a priest if he knew anything about the prohibition but he couldn’t give any guidance. Over time, and after listening to lessons given by another priest (including discussion on Acts 15:29), I came to realize that the prohibition on blood was mainly a cultural issue. At the time, they had the belief that the blood itself was literally the life of the creature. Modern society does not hold the same literal teaching so blood, for the modern Catholic, is another source of food. Later councils determined that consumption of blood is not a moral issue so the prohibition is not absolute.

This is not the only case of a command given in the NT that is not followed today. Elsewhere, Paul commands that women should cover their heads, yet very few women do today. Even at the EF, there are women who do not cover their heads.
 
IneedGod said:
In RCIA last night 3 jewish laws we still keep were mentioned.
One was to abstain from meat with the blood still in it.
Does that mean such things as a med. rare steak?
Click to expand...
I hope not, I love red meat 😦
 
This quotation bothered me, too, for a long time. Some rabbinical scholars (I’m sorry but I don’t have the references) commented that this rule is as ancient as the seven Noahide Laws. In other words, we are all hardwired to know doing certain things are bad. It is immoral to eat meat from an animal while it is still alive. By draining the blood from an animal before it is eaten, there is a guarantee that the animal really is dead.

Blood sausage was traditionally made by cutting the pig’s throat with the intention to cause its living heart to pump the blood into a collection vessel. The pig would bleed to death. The animal was very much alive while this collection for food was taking place. Hence, there is the reasoning that blood sausage is created from a live animal. Modern slaughter techniques may have changed, but since I don’t know how a particular cut of blood sausage has been made, I avoid eating any blood sausage.

Cows in modern slaughterhouses are decapitated before they are turned into steaks, so on balance, you don’t need to fret about ordering medium rare.

Basically the injunction is there to protect cruelty to animals.
 
I think the OP is referring to the part in Acts where the apostles sit down and try to figure out what laws from the Old Testament to keep. They decided on not eating blood, sexual immorality, and something else that escapes me at the moment. I’m not sure how to reconcile this.
 
kbwall said:
I think the OP is referring to the part in Acts where the apostles sit down and try to figure out what laws from the Old Testament to keep. They decided on not eating blood, sexual immorality, and something else that escapes me at the moment. I’m not sure how to reconcile this.
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And food offered to idols. However, with the exception of sexual immorailty, dietary regulations are disciplinary in nature and the Church has seen it fit to since lift those restrictions, in light of the Lord’s words.
 
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