Question From Prot. Re The Eucharist----

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A Fundy Evangelical asks me: “Well if you say you take Christ into your body, His Body, Blood, Soul, Divinity,”, etc., how long does it last? If you don’t do it for a month? then what? Is it like a gas fill up?
Any helpful replies to this here???

You all are great! I’ve learned so much from y’all~~
 
My understanding is that we consider the host as Christ’s body as long as it retains the appearance of bread. So once ingested, I have heard approximately 15 minutes.

Even the tiny particles left in the ciborium or paten need to be carefully cleaned and NOT disposed of in the trash or sink that leads to the sewer system. They are eaten if large enough or placed in a sequarium which is a sink that leads to holy ground.
 
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jpusateri:
My understanding is that we consider the host as Christ’s body as long as it retains the appearance of bread. So once ingested, I have heard approximately 15 minutes.

Even the tiny particles left in the ciborium or paten need to be carefully cleaned and NOT disposed of in the trash or sink that leads to the sewer system. They are eaten if large enough or placed in a sequarium which is a sink that leads to holy ground.
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So then my question I suppose is, does this mean then that we have Jesus in us for only 15 minutes? This is what my relative is asking.
 
Our priest says the time it takes for our digestive system to dissolve the Host; about 15, 20 minutes. Hence he always advises us to walk slowly home from church and not eat anything immediately after leaving Church but wait awhile.
 
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sparkle:
A Fundy Evangelical asks me: “Well if you say you take Christ into your body, His Body, Blood, Soul, Divinity,”, etc., how long does it last? If you don’t do it for a month? then what? Is it like a gas fill up?
Any helpful replies to this here???

You all are great! I’ve learned so much from y’all~~
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“Well if you say you take Christ into your mind and heart while praying and meditating, how long does it last?”

If you have a personal relationship with God, and you’re doing something that takes all your attention and aren’t thinking about God, what happens to your personal relationship?http://forums.catholic-questions.org/images/icons/icon12.gif
 
Hi Sparkle,

Because the Eucharist is such a foreign concept to most Evangelicals, they eventually tend to focus on the physiological aspects (Do you digest Jesus? Don’t you ultimately “pass” Jesus?, etc.).

The Eucharist is a Divine Mystery. When we receive worthily, we are taking into our bodies not just Jesus’ flesh and blood, but his soul and divinity, his very nature as both man and God. What an incredible gift!

How long His presence in our body lasts (or more specifically, how long the attending graces last within our soul) is a matter of speculation, and is really ancillary to the main point, which is that we can and should avail ourselves of this Divine gift as often as possible.
 
When we receive Christ in the sacred species
  1. The sacramental presence of Jesus Christ lasts for 15 - 20 mins or thereabouts in a healthy stomach but of course the presence of the Holy Spirit, which again is God, lasts as long as the soul is in the state of grace and brings about great effects.
Think of the story of Christ reaching out to Peter as he was sinking in the sea though fear. Christ reached out and clasped him. The clasp ended when Peter was safe but Peter never left the heart of Christ. A word from Christ wouold have been sufficient to save Peter, but Christ recognised the need for physical contact, the reassurance of physical contact and the humanity of it. Think now of each Holy Communion as a 15-20 min physical clasp of Christ though which he lifts our sinking humanity from the lure of sin.
  1. Christ does not leave us but unfortunaltey due to our humanity we often leave him i.e. through sin and preoccupation with worldly matters and worries
  2. We never leave a meeting with him in exactly the same way as we arrived we are always changed. Think of the many parables where there was a brief meeting with Christ and some other. They never left their brief encounter the same person. There was always a change. And so it is today in Holy Communion.
  3. This Sacramental meeting is prolonged each and every time we offer a Spiritual Communion. We should offer one often during the day. The Liturgy of the Hours if you pray it extends the Holy Mass though the day.
  4. The day has its source in the Eucharist. Our day flows from the Sacred Host. It is our blueprint for living.
 
The amount of time for digestion misses the whole point.

We receive Christ’s grace through the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
In the Mass, we offer ourselves along with CHrist to the Father on Calvary since the Mass is One SIngle Sacrifice on Calvary made present to us in time.

When we eat His flesh and drink His blood, we have life within us as it says in John 6:35-67.

It is through the Sacraments that we partake in Christ’s divine nature (2 Pet 1:3-4). When we accept the Sacraments through faith, we accept the transforming power of the visible signs that unite us to Christ.

This isn’t hocus pocus magic. The Eucharist is mystery.
CHrist says that His flesh is real food and that his blood is real drink. We believe CHrist when he says this and accept the Eucharist in faith, trusting what he said.
The reason so many disciples left Jesus in John 6:66 is that they could not accept the real presence, that his flesh was to be eaten and his blood drunk.
People don’t leave over symbolism.
Those disciples knew exactly that Jesus was speaking literally and could not accept what He said.
As Catholics,we affirm what Peter says.
Lord, where else would we go. YOu have the words of eternal life!
 
In the physical realm - the eating of the Body of Christ and how long it lasts in our bodies - the host only lasts as long it takes foo it to be digested.

Spiritually speaking, the effects (grace) of the Eucharist last for much longer. It is received by the faithful for enduring the trials that come our way - to persevere in the faith. If a person so “needs” to get through a crisis in his life then it would behove him to go to Mass everyday. Actually, it would do us all alot of good to go to Mass everyday so we all can be exposed to the bountiful graces God bestows on us at Holy Communion.

The Eucharist is a sacrament - an outward sign of an inward reality. It is for the grace and the “joining” of our bodies with Christ’s body in the eating of the Eucharist that we receive Him. He literally joins Himself with us to make us “strong”, spiritually speaking, just like regular food makes our bodies physically strong. There have been many saints that have eaten nothing but the Eucharist, no other food at all, and have lived and been perfectly healthy. Jesus said that his body and blood was “true food and true drink.”

Just because the Eucharist does not remain in our bodies indefinitely doesn’t mean that Eucharist does not remain with us indefinitely! Get it? The Host is subject to our physical bodily functions but the grace is not. The grace remains as long as we decide not to separate ourselves from Him (sin). The Eucharist gives us strength to avoid that sin as long as we avail ourselves to it.
 
Just as we genuflect and keep silence in Church out of respect for the presence of Christ in the tabernacle, we apply a similar material respect for the time it takes the accidents of bread and wine to be converted by our bodies into something else.

Think about eating the Body of Christ as St. Augustine did: not that we “digestively” assimilate Jesus, but that **He **assimilates us.

Fundamentalists tend to have an extremely earth-bound view of things. They tend to have absolutely no appreciation of mystical theology – if they have even heard of it. One evangelical told me that mystical theology is just a way of applying “so many multi-levels of interpretation that the written Word of God no longer holds any real significance and means whatever the reader wants it to mean.”
 
I guess I wonder from what perspective your friend is coming from. Protestant theology can be reductionist, where you pare down everything to the minimum requirements for this or that. In this case, perhaps he would like to assert how silly it is to “eat” Jesus and then he is gone in 15 minutes…what’s the point? What about the other 23 3/4 hours in the day?

I look at it similarly to how we look at “once saved always saved”. We can always lose our salvation and must work (battle) with ourselves to conform ourselves to Christ. It doesn’t last forever, once gotten. Also, the Eucharist feeds us sacramentally, it IS real bread for our bodies and IS real Christ for our souls. Conferring Grace to assist us in our supernatural fight against the tendency to sin. Your body uses up the bread and the work of salvation takes Grace to run on. The Grace, however is superabundant for the job!

In Baptism, we become part of the body of Christ and He is in us and we are in Him. In the Eucharist, we renew that commitment by putting Jesus in us and we are given Grace to enter more deeply into Him.

Remember that it takes will and work, but the strength for the work is Christ’s through Grace.
 
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Dan-Man916:
The amount of time for digestion misses the whole point.

We receive Christ’s grace through the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
In the Mass, we offer ourselves along with CHrist to the Father on Calvary since the Mass is One SIngle Sacrifice on Calvary made present to us in time.

When we eat His flesh and drink His blood, we have life within us as it says in John 6:35-67.

It is through the Sacraments that we partake in Christ’s divine nature (2 Pet 1:3-4). When we accept the Sacraments through faith, we accept the transforming power of the visible signs that unite us to Christ.

This isn’t hocus pocus magic. The Eucharist is mystery.
CHrist says that His flesh is real food and that his blood is real drink. We believe CHrist when he says this and accept the Eucharist in faith, trusting what he said.
The reason so many disciples left Jesus in John 6:66 is that they could not accept the real presence, that his flesh was to be eaten and his blood drunk.
People don’t leave over symbolism.
Those disciples knew exactly that Jesus was speaking literally and could not accept what He said.
As Catholics,we affirm what Peter says.
Lord, where else would we go. YOu have the words of eternal life!
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Exellent post, Dan.
Amen!
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How long does the Eucharist last in us? It depends on the person. Just like the lady who was hemorraghing and reached out and touched Christ and received healing. There were numerous others who touched Christ but were not healed or affected.

If we reach out to Christ during the Eucharist, the effect could last a lifetime!!! If we receive Christ in a lukewarm manner, we never truly receive The Body and of our Lord.

NotWorthy
 
To answer this pathetic and silly question, we can mention some of the effects of the Holy Eucharist. Those effects, of course, subsist more than the 15 minutes of digestion. Union with Christ and increase of grace and virtue. Remission of venial sin and temporal punishment. Preservation from mortal sin. Help to practice good works. The Holy Eucharist is also the pledge of future glory. To sum it up: basic CCC…
 
I sometimes like to think of it in very human terms when taking a break from theological calculations. How long does a hug last? Some hugs last 2 seconds and others (especially at airports) last around 10. The significance of the Most Blessed Sacrament is the contact. To touch, even better to taste, even better to ingest. So in very laymen terminology I would consider it the most intimate contact even more than the marital union. God grants this unbelievable priveledge and gift to us…but there is a catch: we have to believe that Jesus meant what he said in John 6. Chesterton said that the Catholic faith is the faith that can accept a mystery like a buried seed and in this acceptance (by faith) the blossoming comes forth. If we cannot bury the seed so to speeak, we will not see the plant. So as Catholics have held this faith for 2000 years, we see things very differently.

Good thread y’all.

in Christ.
 
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AquinasXVI:
…Chesterton said that the Catholic faith is the faith that can accept a mystery like a buried seed and in this acceptance (by faith) the blossoming comes forth. If we cannot bury the seed so to speeak, we will not see the plant. So as Catholics have held this faith for 2000 years, we see things very differently.

Good thread y’all.

in Christ.
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This is related, but I do not remeber to whom it is attributed:

“…first faith, then knowledge…”

Mark
www.veritas-catholic.blogspot.com
 
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AquinasXVI:
I sometimes like to think of it in very human terms when taking a break from theological calculations. How long does a hug last? Some hugs last 2 seconds and others (especially at airports) last around 10.
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Great Aquinas! What a good analogy!!!

Upon writing to this relative in response to his “silly” question “how long does it last–like a gas fill-up?” ----he writes me back this a.m. saying “This taking Jesus into your body—is a joke”.

Sad.😦 Similar to those who couldn’t believe it either and walked away from Jesus when he told them. I wonder if I’m casting pearls before swine here with all the e-mail discussions?
 
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trth_skr:
This is related, but I do not remeber to whom it is attributed:

“…first faith, then knowledge…”

Mark
www.veritas-catholic.blogspot.com
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Fides quaerens intellectum. (Faith seeking understanding). It was St. Anselm.

Quia ut intelligam. (I believe that I might understand). St. Augustine.

In these matters faith gives birth to comprehension.
 
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barsapp:
To answer this pathetic and silly question, we can mention some of the effects of the Holy Eucharist.
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What an obscene lack of charity.
 
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Fergal:
What an obscene lack of charity.
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No more obscene than fundies insulting the Holy Eucharist. And it is indeed a pathetic and silly question. Anyway, sparkle is only relaying what the fundie said. I don’t think bars actually addressed sparkle directly.

Just check out characters like Chick and we can see that bar’s comment was outright canonization of them when compared to what they say about our Eucharistic Lord.

I think we shouldn’t let “charity” prevent us from identifying a pathetic and silly question when we see one.
 
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