Question About the Holy Eucharist

[shyguy3498]

So someone I know who is Catholic, but isn’t as informed on the faith made a statement today about the Holy Eucharist and sort of tried to compare it to cannibalism. I knowing that their understanding of the Holy Eucharist was flawed tried explaining to them that the Holy Eucharist is not the actual Historical body of Christ, but rather his Divine body, and no matter how much you break off of a single host the same amount of Christ will remain since we are receiving his divinity. Is my understanding of the Holy Eucharist correct or are there some errors in my understanding?

 

[smead2942]

So someone I know who is Catholic, but isn’t as informed on the faith made a statement today about the Holy Eucharist and sort of tried to compare it to cannibalism. I knowing that their understanding of the Holy Eucharist was flawed tried explaining to them that the Holy Eucharist is not the actual Historical body of Christ, but rather his Divine body, and no matter how much you break off of a single host the same amount of Christ will remain since we are receiving his divinity. Is my understanding of the Holy Eucharist correct or are there some errors in my understanding?

Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa.

When we receive the Holy Eucharist, we receive Christ’s glorified Body. Cannibalism is the consumption of the flesh of a human corpse. Jesus is alive, so how can we eat his dead flesh?

The Holy Eucharist is Jesus’ glorified Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. The entirety of God the Son, received by us under the accidentals of bread and wine. It doesn’t matter how large the host is-- It is Christ himself. He said “THIS IS MY BODY”, and it was so. With God all things are possible.

In the Western Church, we call it transubstantiation-- the accidentals remain, but the substance changes. Basically, though our senses tell us it is bread and wine, the Eucharist is really, fully, the Body and Blood of Christ. No bread or wine whatsoever.

Hope I helped!

 

[shyguy3498]

Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa.

When we receive the Holy Eucharist, we receive Christ’s glorified Body. Cannibalism is the consumption of the flesh of a human corpse. Jesus is alive, so how can we eat his dead flesh?

The Holy Eucharist is Jesus’ glorified Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. The entirety of God the Son, received by us under the accidentals of bread and wine. It doesn’t matter how large the host is-- It is Christ himself. He said “THIS IS MY BODY”, and it was so. With God all things are possible.

In the Western Church, we call it transubstantiation-- the accidentals remain, but the substance changes. Basically, though our senses tell us it is bread and wine, the Eucharist is really, fully, the Body and Blood of Christ. No bread or wine whatsoever.

Hope I helped!

Yeah that is pretty much my understanding, and what I said. I don’t know how well they listened though. This is a common misconception among many non-Catholics apparently, and even apparently among a few actual Catholics.

 

[shyguy3498]

I just wanted to make sure what I told my friend was right. And from what you have told me it appears I was. Just sometimes can be scared of misinforming people so I thought I ought to double check.

 

[Richca]

So someone I know who is Catholic, but isn’t as informed on the faith made a statement today about the Holy Eucharist and sort of tried to compare it to cannibalism. I knowing that their understanding of the Holy Eucharist was flawed tried explaining to them that the Holy Eucharist is not the actual Historical body of Christ, but rather his Divine body, and no matter how much you break off of a single host the same amount of Christ will remain since we are receiving his divinity. Is my understanding of the Holy Eucharist correct or are there some errors in my understanding?

"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. (John 6:52-56).

The same body that was born of the Blessed Virgin, that Jesus suffered and died in and poured out his blood, is the same body and blood that Jesus rose with on the third day and ascended into heaven but which is now immortal and incorruptible.

The CCC#999 says: Christ is raised with his own body: “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself”; but he did not return to an earthly life. So, in him, “all of them will rise again with their own bodies which they now bear,” but Christ “will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body,” into a “spiritual body.”

And CCC#1017 says: “We believe in the true resurrection of this flesh that we now possess” (Council of Lyons II: DS 854). We sow a corruptible body in the tomb, but he raises up an incorruptible body, a “spiritual body” (cf ⇒ 1 Cor 15:42-44).

We truly eat the flesh and drink the blood of the glorified, physical, and historical body of Jesus. If there are some who want to call this some form of cannibalism, well, whatever. The body and blood of Christ is that of a God-Man and if has told us that unless we eat his flesh and drink his blood we will have no life in us, than I for one, by the grace of God and being a disciple of Jesus, am going to eat his flesh and drink his blood as he has commanded us to do.

 

[shyguy3498]

"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. (John 6:52-56).

The same body that was born of the Blessed Virgin, that Jesus suffered and died in and poured out his blood, is the same body and blood that Jesus rose with on the third day and ascended into heaven but which is now immortal and incorruptible.

The CCC#999 says: Christ is raised with his own body: “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself”; but he did not return to an earthly life. So, in him, “all of them will rise again with their own bodies which they now bear,” but Christ “will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body,” into a “spiritual body.”

And CCC#1017 says: “We believe in the true resurrection of this flesh that we now possess” (Council of Lyons II: DS 854). We sow a corruptible body in the tomb, but he raises up an incorruptible body, a “spiritual body” (cf ⇒ 1 Cor 15:42-44).

We truly eat the flesh and drink the blood of the glorified, physical, and historical body of Jesus. If there are some who want to call this some form of cannibalism, well, whatever. The body and blood of Christ is that of a God-Man and if has told us that unless we eat his flesh and drink his blood we will have no life in us, than I for one, by the grace of God and being a disciple of Jesus, am going to eat his flesh and drink his blood as he has commanded us to do.

Ah okay yes this all makes sense. It was always explained to me that it was only of his divine body and not his historical body that we receive, however his historical body is also his divine body since it has been glorified. So I guess there was some flaw in my understanding as well. Also I don’t mean to offend anyone, I am also Catholic and believe in the Holy Eucharist, just want to make sure I am informing people correctly.