The drinking of blood

[Don_Ross]

My son claims that the consecrated wine can not really be the actual blood of Jesus since the bible forbids the drinking of blood. How do I respond to this since blood was one of the things forbiden to gentiles who became Christians; see Acts 15:25.

 

[Mannyfit75]

My son claims that the consecrated wine can not really be the actual blood of Jesus since the bible forbids the drinking of blood. How do I respond to this since blood was one of the things forbiden to gentiles who became Christians; see Acts 15:25.

Give him this verse from John 6:56-57

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.

Also read 1st Cor Chapter 11:21-30.

For every one taketh before his own supper to eat. And one indeed is hungry and another is drunk. 22 What, have you not houses to eat and to drink in? Or despise ye the church of God; and put them to shame that have not? What shall I say to you? Do I praise you? In this I praise you not. 23 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. 24 And giving thanks, broke, and said: Take ye, and eat: this is my body, which shall be delivered for you: this do for the commemoration of me. 25 In like manner also the chalice, after he had supped, saying: This chalice is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as often as you shall drink, for the commemoration of me.

26 For as often as you shall eat this bread, and drink the chalice, you shall shew the death of the Lord, until he come. 27 Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man prove himself: and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of the chalice. 29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord. 30 Therefore are there many infirm and weak among you, and many sleep.

Then ask him, If it is not Jesus Blood, then is Jesus lying in the verses I have shown you?

 

[jmcrae]

Don;

The blood is the life of the animal. We don’t drink animals’ blood because we don’t want to become like animals. But we do drink Jesus’ blood, because we want to become like Jesus.

 

[Mannyfit75]

I also like to add that it is not blood in a physical state, but its form remain unchanged. When it does become consecrated at Mass, it becomes the Blood of Our Lord.

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."201 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."202 "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."203

 

[VociMike]

My son claims that the consecrated wine can not really be the actual blood of Jesus since the bible forbids the drinking of blood. How do I respond to this since blood was one of the things forbiden to gentiles who became Christians; see Acts 15:25.

Actually, and interestingly, the bible forbids the eating of blood. Doesn’t say anything about the drinking. But Christ tells us to drink His blood. Very curious. Also look at Ezekiel 39 regarding drinking blood.

But that aside, what is the reason God Himself gives for not eating blood? It is because the life is in the blood. Ask your son if Jesus did not come to give us His life, everlasting life? I would hope he would answer yes! Further, the prohibition is against eating the blood of any creature, but of course Jesus is no creature, but the Creator. Thus the total message is, do not seek the life of lower creatures, but only seek the life of God. We are not to lower ourselves down to the animals, but to raise ourselves up to God (by His grace, of course).

As to Acts 15:25, the point of the prohibition here is obvious based on the narrow range of actions prohibited. The issue was stopping various pagan religious practices.

 

[Liberian]

My son claims that the consecrated wine can not really be the actual blood of Jesus since the bible forbids the drinking of blood. How do I respond to this since blood was one of the things forbiden to gentiles who became Christians; see Acts 15:25.

Don,

Hello and welcome to the Catholic Answers Forums. I see you’ve been around a little more than a month but have apparently spent most of that time lurking. Welcome out of the shadows.

The reason that the drinking of blood was forbidden is because “the life of the animal is in the blood.” People were allowed to eat the meat, but the life was given by God and so the blood belonged to God.

When you apply this to Christ’s Blood, it actually fits the pattern very well. Jesus is trying to give us His life, and since the life is in the blood, we are to drink His Blood. This is why the prohibition does not extend to the Blood of Christ.

• Liberian

 

[Mot_Juste]

In the Old Testament, the blood was the life of the animal, and the life belonged to God. I find this passage from Leviticus interesting. These are God’s words to Moses, “Since the life of a living body is in its blood, I have made you put it on the altar, so that atonement may thereby be made for your own lives, because it is the blood, as the seat of life, that makes atonement. That is why I have told the Israelites: No one among you, not even a resident alien, may partake of blood.” (Lev 17:11-12)

That reading evokes two ideas for me. First, Jesus Christ offered himself as the perfect sacrifice. God told Moses to put the blood of the sacrifice on the altar for atonement. Jesus’ blood is the perfect atonement. Where would his blood be, but on the altar?

Second, if Jesus is God, and the blood, as the seat of life, belongs to God, does Jesus not have the standing to offer that blood to us as a free gift? Stealing what belongs to God is a sin. Accepting the free gift of God is a privilege. Is Jesus God? Does he offer himself to us?

Jesus’ perfect atonement is wonderful, but he did not stop there. He offers his very life to us, that we may be in him, and he in us.

–Bill

 

[runandsew]

There are a couple of things to consider, first what was the reasoning behind the prohibition of partaking of blood, and the second thing is what was the punishment for partaking in blood?

The Jews believed that the blood contained the life force, so we wouldn’t want to take in a lower life force, but the risen Christ is God, a higher life force, we want Christ in us.

If you partook in blood you would be cut off from your people, and that is what happens when we receive the precious blood, we are cut of from the family of Adam and brought into the supernatural family of God.