st_felicity:
Which verse in the John 6 discourse says that? This seems an important point. You need to identify the verse there that says His life is transferred through faith. I don’t see it–but I’ve been accused of having “Catholic” eyes before…
When reading Jn. six you have to read it in total context. Catholics tend to focus just on the words “eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood” (vs. 53), and do not take into consideration how these words fit into the entire context of Christ’s discourse. You’re told by the Magesterium that these words refer to the Eucharist and the Mass, so why bother to study His words in context?
In verse 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life (He begins with an obvious metaphor); he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and He who BELIEVES in Me shall never thirst.” “But I said to you, that you have seen Me, and yet do NOT BELIEVE” (vs. 36). “Truly, truly, he who BELIEVES HAS ETERNAL LIFE” (vs. 47). “I am the bread of LIFE” (vs. 48). “This is the bread that comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die” (vs. 50).
(Notice the key phrases that puts it all in perspective: “he who comes to Me,” “he who believes in Me,” “life,” “eternal,” “that one may eat and NOT DIE”)
In context Jesus is comparing Himself with the “manna” their ancestors ate in the wilderness which God provided to sustain their physical lives. And He draws upon this historical event to build the spiritual principle behind the metaphor He now presents to them concerning Himself. That just as the life of the manna was transferred to the one who ate it, thereby sustaining his physical life, even more, the life of Christ, the true bread that came down out of heaven, is transferred to the one who “believes” in Him, and the life in Him is “eternal.”
Jesus informs them of how this will be done in verse 51: “I am the bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread also which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh” (cf. Jn. 3:16). This is not a reference to the Eucharist but His substitutionary sacrifice on the cross. After His death, burial and bodily resurrection the word went out by the Apostles to the world that whoever BELIEVES in Him HAS ETERNAL LIFE (Rom. 6:32; 1 Tim. 1:16).
The metaphor of eating and drinking was the best possible figure Jesus could employ to express the assimilation of one body by another, whereby life is transferred from the eaten to the eater. The literal eating of His flesh and blood was not being demanded. Jesus carefully explained that the process was analogous to His own living by the Father (vs. 57; cf. Jn. 4:34; 5:19; 14:10-11), and obviously eating and drinking can not be literally applied there.
The truth fully set forth in Christ’s discourse in this chapter is the believer’s UNION with his Lord, his complete dependence upon Him for life, his continued appropriation, by faith, of His very self, his feeding on Him, living on Him, his experience that Jesus in giving Himself (on the cross) satisfies every want of his soul.
Of course the metaphor was repulsive, but it graphically expressed the meaning of the complete assimilation of Christ into all the life of the believer, and the life of the believer into that of Christ ( vs. 56; cf. Jn. 14:19; 23; Jn. 17:20-23). Jesus explained to His disciples, who did not immediately defect by what He had said, that the words He spoke “are spirit and are life.”
His veiled statements mystified not only His enemies but also many who
professed to being His disciples. And upon hearing His graphic, metaphorical words they grumbled and refused to walk with Him anymore (vs. 66). But John makes it very clear in his account that this defection was no surprise to Jesus (vs. 64). He knew them, He knew their inward rebellion. The whole purpose was to promote faith in Him (our only Source of eternal life), and in so doing it weeded out the insincere, the imposter, who rather than inquire further into what He had said, instead immediately defected. Their inward unbelief was fully exposed by their defection.
None of the N.T. writers equate what Jesus said in Jn. six to the words He spoke to His disciples at the Last Supper. And it’s already been pointed out that John doesn’t even record those words. In this case silence speaks loudly.
So I’m just playing the sandbox with my shovel and bucket - doing the best I can.
