I don’t know if anybody has that as “official doctrine,” Thurifer…but I can attest that many Christians have said that they personally believe this to be true.
…in fact, some of them have said this quite forcefully.
The Eucharistic Sacrifice
I’m willing to do something I’ve been thinking of for a long time: review in brief the evidence for the Real Presence/Transubstantiation of Christ in the Mass from both Scripture and earliest Fathers of the Church. This effort will be revised as I continue to improve it. I shall concentrate only on the evidence from the first and second centuries AD.
I. First, I’ll set the “stage” by explaining how Holy Church defines the Real Presence of Christ in the sacrifice of the Mass by quoting a bit from the CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.
1374 The mode of Christ’s presence under the Eucharistic species is unique. It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as “the perfection of the spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments tend” [199 St. Thomas Aquinas, STh III, 73, 3c]. In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist “the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, THE WHOLE CHRIST IS TRULY, REALLY, AND SUBSTANTIALLY contained” [200 Council of Trent (1551): DS 1651]. “This presence is called “real”–by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they could not be “real” too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a SUBSTANTIAL presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present” [201 Paul VI, MYSTERIUM FIDEI 39].
II. Next, I’ll quote the relevant texts from the Bible on why the Real Presence/Transubstantiation is true.
Malachi 1.11
“For from the rising of the sun, even to its setting, my name is great among the nations; And everywhere they bring sacrifice to my name, and a pure offering; For great is my name among the nations, says the LORD of hosts.” [NAB]
The NAB comments: “1,10f: The imperfect sacrifices offered without sincerity by the people of Judah are displeasing to the Lord. He will rather be pleased with the offerings of the Gentile nations throughout the world (‘from the rising of the sun even to its setting’), which anticipate the ‘pure offering’ to be sacrificed in messianic times, the universal sacrifice of the Mass, as we are told by the Council of Trent.”
Matthew 26.26-30
While they were eating, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, from now on I shall not drink this fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it with you new in the kingdom of my Father.” Then, after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Mark 14.22-26
While they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, and said, “Take it; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it. He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which will shed for many. Amen, I say to you, I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” Then, after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Luke 22.14-22
When the hour came, he took his place at table with the apostles. He said to them, I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, for, I tell you, I shall not eat it [again] until there is fulfillment in the kingdom of God." Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and said, “Take this and share it among yourselves; for I tell you [that] from this time on I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will shed for you.”
The next extract, from John 6, is from the “Bread of life” discourse.
The basic position of most Protestants about the Eucharist is that Our Lord did not mean his words to be taken literally. But, if Christ only meant what He said in a metaphorical sense, why didn’t He make it unchallengeably clear that His words should not be understood literally?
John 6.41-59
The Jews murmured about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven,” and they said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, ’ I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Stop murmuring among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets; ‘They shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. 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.”
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us [his] flesh to eat?” 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. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.” These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
ught with one of their wifes?
