Radical,
No Christ never said, “my body will mystically change into bread” But he did
- Call him self the bread of life
- He Paralleled this bread to the manna in the desert, but said you will not die like the Israelites but have everlasting life. The manna in the desert was food for their journey to the promised land, it tasted like wafers made of honey, a foretaste of the “land of milk and honey”. The Eucharist is a wafer that is food for our journey, not a physical journey out of Egypt but a spiritual journey. When Christ stepped into the river it didn’t part like it did for Moses, but the clouds parted because the new exodus is a spiritual heavenly journey and not a physical journey. The eucharist is food for the new exodus
- He tells the people to eat this new bread after calling himself the bread of life, and then he tells them that his flesh is true food and his blood is true drink. He says “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life” after having already said “ if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever”
…
Eat Christ, then; though eaten He yet lives, for when slain He rose from the dead. Nor do we divide Him into parts when we eat Him: though indeed this is done in the Sacrament, as the faithful well know when they eat the Flesh of Christ, for each receives his part, hence are those parts called graces. Yet though thus eaten in parts He remains whole and entire; eaten in parts in the Sacrament, He remains whole and entire in Heaven. {Mai 129, 1; cf. Sermon 131; on p.65}
Here’s an interesting perspective from Augustine on the “hard teaching”
“The very first heresy was formulated when men said: “this saying is hard and who can bear it [Jn 6:60]?” {Enarr. 1, 23 on Ps. 54; on p.66}
As for cannibalism, one reason the early Christians in Rome were persecuted is because the Eucharist was seen as cannibalism by opponents of Christianity.
my bucket, 
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