Why does the Catholic Church believe Christ is really present in the Eucharist? -A Catholic response to this question

[mdgspencer]

(From the Catholics Come Home website: Two-Minute Answers | Catholics Come Home ):

"Why does the Catholic Church believe Christ is really present in the Eucharist?

The Catholic doctrine of the Real Presence is the belief that Jesus Christ is literally, not symbolically, present in the Holy Eucharist—body, blood, soul and divinity. Catholics believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist because Jesus tells us this is true in the Bible:

‘I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh. The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him’ (John 6:48-56).

Furthermore, the early Church Fathers either imply or directly state that the bread and wine offered in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper is really the body and blood of Jesus Christ. In other words, the doctrine of the Real Presence that Catholics believe today was believed by the earliest Christians 2,000 years ago!

This miracle of God’s physical presence to us at every Mass is the truest testament to Christ’s love for us and His desire for each of us to have a personal relationship with Him."

 

[Prodigal1984]

It’s worth noting, the Orthodox Churches have the same belief in it.
It is only churches made up in the 1500s and their subsequent further error offshoots that make this claim.

 

[John_Martin]

The bread becomes his body, so his body is what you see and hold in your hand, or in your mouth, then chew and swallow.
The wine becomes his blood in the Sacrament, so it is his blood in the chalice that you hold and then drink.
These two are real because they are materially there in your hands and mouth, to touch and feel… do you feel them? they are really there for you to handle, his body, his blood (of course some people do not take him at his word - but we desire to be fully “gullible to anything Jesus tells us”. definition gullible: It is thought that gullible might be derived from the verb gull, meaning “to swallow.” This would be a funny coincidence as gullible describes an overly trusting person who tends to swallow the stories he hears whole, as we do with our LORD.).

Now, as for Jesus’ real presence, not just the body, not just the blood (those two you can see for yourself), but his soul, his divinity, his “being”, not just his corpse, this is present because of the resurrection of Jesus - his body did not remain in the tomb, but he rose from the dead. And what you hold in your hand is the body and blood of the LIVING Jesus, not the corpse of a dead man. A Living Person’s body and blood contain, and are contained, by his Soul - my body is contained by my soul and my body contains my soul in every part. So, “I AM PRESENT”, my whole soul, when you see my material that I call “my body”. and the same with Jesus, since he is alive, and you hold his body and blood in your mouth, you also are consuming his whole being, not just the material you are eating, but the life, the soul, the divinity you are also consuming.

John Martin