The "Body" and the "Blood" of Christ

[Rand_Al_Thor]

Peace be with you!

The Catholic campus minister at my college explained transubstantiation in a way I hadn’t heard before. He said that it is Christ’s heavenly body that we are eating. I know that we aren’t canibals eating human flesh, but I’d just never heard it explained that way before. Is that an official teaching of the Church? It makes sense to me.

In Christ,
Rand

 

[Eireann]

**CCC **

1413 By the consecration the transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ is brought about. Under the consecrated species of bread and wine Christ himself, living and glorious, is present in a true, real, and substantial manner: his Body and his Blood, with his soul and his divinity (cf. Council of Trent: DS 1640; 1651).

1376 The Council of Trent summarizes the Catholic faith by declaring: “Because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again, that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation.”​

This is a hard teaching for many today, then again it was at the time Christ said it aswell.
**John 6:56 For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed. 57 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him. 58 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, the same also shall live by me. 59 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that eateth this bread, shall live for ever. 60 These things he said, teaching in the synagogue, in Capharnaum.

61 Many therefore of his disciples, hearing it, said: This saying is hard, and who can hear it? 62 But Jesus, knowing in himself, that his disciples murmured at this, said to them: Doth this scandalize you? 63 If then you shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? 64 It is the spirit that quickeneth: the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I have spoken to you, are spirit and life. 65 But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning, who they were that did not believe, and who he was, that would betray him. **

 

[Flopfoot]

Christ’s heavenly body and His earthly body are the same thing (this is not like what it will be for us) - as Christ rose from the dead body and soul, whereas our souls will be given a new body after the second coming. (I hope I got that right - I’m no theologian, so please correct me if I’m wrong).

So there’s no need to specify that it is Christ’s heavenly body that we are eating.
On the other hand, well yes it is right, if we are eating Christ’s body then we must be eating His heavenly body.

I guess a consequence of this is that we are eating something perfect, as nothing sinful or imperfect can enter heaven. (Again correct me if I’m wrong).

 

[mlchance]

Flopfoot:

Christ’s heavenly body and His earthly body are the same thing…

Incorrect. Christ’s resurrected body is glorified. In ways not fully explainable, it was qualitatively different from his earthly body. For example, while he bore the wounds of his death, his resurrected body wasn’t identifiable immediately as his Jesus. Mary Magdalene mistook him for a gardner.

– Mark L. Chance.

 

[puzzleannie]

Jesus Christ is sacramentally present in his glorified body in the Eucharist, fully present, body, blood, soul and divinity. this is important to our doctrine of bodily resurrection for all of us. It is our glorified bodies which will reside (hopefully) in heaven.

What was our Lord’s risen body like? (from Catechism of the Summa by fr. Pegues OP, Roman Catholic Books pub)
It was absolutely the same as that which was nailed to the Cross and was laid in the tomb, but in a state of glory with the qualities of impassibility, sublety, agility, and clarity which derived from the fulness of the soul’s perfection that was henceforth free to communicate to the body its own fulness of perfection (LIV.1-3)

 

[puzzleannie]

Flopfoot:

Christ’s heavenly body and His earthly body are the same thing (this is not like what it will be for us) - as Christ rose from the dead body and soul, whereas our souls will be given a new body after the second coming. (I hope I got that right - I’m no theologian, so please correct me if I’m wrong).

).

from the same source on the Summa
will the bodies of all the just who rise from the dead be instantatneously transformed and become glorious?
yes.

but will these bodies now resplendent with glory be the same bodies that the just had when they lived in this life?
yes, they will be the same bodies with this difference, that there will be no imperfections or troubles or sicknesses such as they were subject to on earth; on the contrary these bodies will have perfections that will in some sense spiritualize them (LXXIX-LXXXI)
the 4 qualities listed above are further described over several sections.

 

[Tom]

God has manifest His presence in many physical manners, a dove, a fiery pillar, a column of smoke, a burning bush, as God incarnate, etc. So, what is so very difficult in believing the Word God Himself gave to us? That “This is My body, this is My blood”. Could God present His body and blood as say a lamb, or a cow, or any physical thing He desires? What prevents some from believing God can and does present Himself in the consecrated bread and wine?

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

Flopfoot:

Christ’s heavenly body and His earthly body are the same thing (this is not like what it will be for us) - as Christ rose from the dead body and soul, whereas our souls will be given a new body after the second coming. (I hope I got that right - I’m no theologian, so please correct me if I’m wrong).

Christs Heavenly body and His earthly body are the same body in a different state *Glorified"

Our bodies will also rise from the dead in a glorified state, free from imperfections and illness and be re-united to our souls at the end of time. We will not be given a “new” body. We will reunite with our old one in a new state of perfection.

 

[Tom]

I want a new body…
If I had realized I was going to live this long, I would have kept better care of this old worn out one…

 

[Contarini]

So is the consensus that the priest was correct? Certainly my understanding of Catholic theology (chiefly Aquinas) is that he was correct–as long as it’s understood that the “heavenly body” is the glorified earthly body and not something completely separate.

Sorry for butting in on this–but the question is of ecumenical importance.

Edwin