This Is My Body

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Montie_Claunch

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I would like to work on my defence of the Catholic Interpration of “This is my Body” “This Is my Blood” from the last supper and how Jesus wasn’t being symbolic. I am having a hard time one just on this in the Catholic Anwsers archives. Does anyone know where I can find a trackt of two on this? Thanks and God bless.
 
Montie_Claunch said:
I would like to work on my defence of the Catholic Interpration of “This is my Body” “This Is my Blood” from the last supper and how Jesus wasn’t being symbolic. I am having a hard time one just on this in the Catholic Anwsers archives. Does anyone know where I can find a trackt of two on this? Thanks and God bless.
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Pardon me for not simply citing another web-site. I will repeat one verse in more detail later on.

John 6:25ff He says “I am the Bread” and He is comparing Himself to the heavenly manna that the Jews actually did eat.

And He repeats this further on in John 6:53 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

I don’t know how more forcefully Jesus could have stated this then with saying “I tell you the truth… unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood…” If that is not enough we can endeavour to look at how the early church actually worked… And we find it is confirmed by the early church; by writings of those who were taught by the Apostles

St. Ignatius of Antioch
Epistle to the Smyrnaeans
6:2 But mark ye those who hold strange doctrine touching the grace of Jesus Christ which came to us, how that they are contrary to the mind of God. They have no care for love, none for the widow, none for the orphan, none for the afflicted, none for the prisoner, none for the hungry or thirsty. They abstain from Eucharist (thanksgiving) and prayer, because they allow not that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which flesh suffered for our sins, and which the Father of His goodness raised up.
earlychristianwritings.com/text/ignatius-smyrnaeans-lightfoot.html

We take in the bread because it is no longer mere bread…
Epistle to the Ephesians
20:2 especially if the Lord should reveal aught to me. Assemble yourselves together in common, every one of you severally, man by man, in grace, in one faith and one Jesus Christ, who after the flesh was of David’s race, who is Son of Man and Son of God, to the end that ye may obey the bishop and presbytery without distraction of mind; breaking one bread, which is the medicine of immortality and the antidote that we should not die but live for ever in Jesus Christ.
earlychristianwritings.com/text/ignatius-ephesians-lightfoot.html

Justin Martyr, in his First Apology writes…
“CHAPTER LXVI – OF THE EUCHARIST.
And this food is called among us Eukaristia [the Eucharist], of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh. For the apostles, in the memoirs composed by them, which are called Gospels, have thus delivered unto us what was enjoined upon them; that Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, said, “This do ye in remembrance of Me, this is My body;” and that, after the same manner, having taken the cup and given thanks, He said, “This is My blood;” and gave it to them alone. Which the wicked devils have imitated in the mysteries of Mithras, commanding the same thing to be done. For, that bread and a cup of water are placed with certain incantations in the mystic rites of one who is being initiated, you either know or can learn.”
earlychristianwritings.com/text/justinmartyr-firstapology.html
See also CHAP. VIII of
TERTULLIAN
ON THE RESURRECTION OF THE FLESH.
earlychristianwritings.com/text/tertullian16.html

The early church was observed by pagans who thought that the Christian church were practicing cannibalism BECAUSE the Christians were partaking of the real flesh and blood of Christ…
(see the article “Why Early Christians Were So Despised” at gospelcom.net/chi/GLIMPSEF/Glimpses/glmps139.shtml)
 
In more detail…
One of the many Protestant ‘objections’ is that Jesus sometimes used used metaphoric langauge. John 10:9 (“I am the door”) and John 15:1 (“I am the true vine”) and so forth. Jesus however set out when He wasn’t speaking metaphorically

John 3:3 In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
4 “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Note here that Nicodemus took Jesus’ words as a literal physical birth. What did Jesus do? He clarified His words for the sake of Nicodemus, to state that we must be born again, through the spirit. Thus Jesus also says “I am the bread of life”

In John 6: 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If
anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, **“How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” **
53 Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.

Note again the Jews took Him to mean a literal eating of His flesh, verse
52. Jesus confirms this interpretation. He says in truth. He says (55) “My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink”

Jesus goes to great lengths here to confirm that it is a real meal. St. Paul confirmed this by stating that the Eucharist is not a communal get
together to eat and be merry.
 
1 Corinthians 11
The Lord’s Supper
17 In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. 18 In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. 19 No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. 20 When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, 21 for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. 22 Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? Certainly not!
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23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. 

27 Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. 31 But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. 32 When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world. 

33 So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for each other. 34 If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment. 
  And when I come I will give further directions.
Specifically they missed St. Paul saying it’s not just a ‘meal’
20 When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat

It is NOT the “Lord’s Supper”. If you want to ‘eat’ a meal, do so at home…
21 for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. 22 Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in?

He repeats that this was ‘received’ from Jesus
23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you:

Then in the same passage he repeats Jesus’ words (having already said that it is NOT a ‘communal meal’; the Lord’s Supper)

The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

And it has a sacred purpose…
26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

And He again associates it with the actual body and blood of Christ
27 Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.
To sin against the body and blood you drink and eat is to sin against the very body and blood of Christ; they are alike. To sin against one is the same as to sin against the other…

Most telling of all he says you must recognise this when you partake of them…

29 For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.
If you don’t recognise that it’s the body and blood of the Lord, you bring judgment upon yourself.

And, he repeats again that it’s not just a communal meal…
Code: 
33 So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for each other. 34 If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment.
So in short Jesus says what it is. He goes to some lengths to explain the ‘context’ of it. Paul does this too.
 
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