Do faith-alone Christians have enough faith to believe Jesus gave us his body to eat as "real food"?

If you are in a hurry read the last paragraph number 4.

Usually, most Christians who are not Catholics deny it because they think that it is mere symbolic or figurative talk. Some other Christians will find the excuse that John's Gospel is a later addition to the Synoptic Gospels. Now let us look what is really meant in this text.

J'esus was a masterful teacher, who understood the working of the human psyche. He brought attention to His teachings by miracles and revelations, by parables and visual aids. When He was ready to proclaim His doctrine of the Eucharist (from a Greek word meaning to show favor), He prepared well for it. First, He worked the miracle of feeding 4000 (Mark 8). Then in John 6 He works a second feeding miracle for 5000, an immediate preparation for what He will announce the following day.

The next day (John 6), after the miracle of the 5000, the crowd has sought out J'esus again. He tells them that they were seeking Him not because they understood His signs of preparation but because they had their fill to eat, adding they should be concerned not with food that perishes but with that food which endures for eternal life. The Jews, thinking of the manna G'od gave their ancestors in the desert, want J'esus to work similar miracles for them.

1) "My Father gives you the true bread from heaven," J'esus replies.. "For the bread of G-d is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." They say to Him, "L'ord, give us this bread always."

Then J'esus declares, @ "I Am the bread of life. I Am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any 1 eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give for the life of the world IS My Flesh." @ (Quite blunt!).

2) This statement shocked the Jews, and they began arguing among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" @The Jews accepted of Christ literally; They Did Not Think He Was Speaking Symbolically or Figuratively.@

J'esus Did Not Correct Their Interpretation, knowing that they had understood Him. "Truly, Truly," He replied, "...unless you Eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and Drink His Blood, you have No Life in you; he who Eats the Flesh of the Son of Man and Drink His Blood, you have no life in you; he who Eats and Drinks My Blood... abides in Me and I in him. He who Eats this Bread Will Live Forever."

3) The teaching scandalized the Jews, and the crowd dispersed. With them went @ some of His disciples who could not accept the Literalness of His statement. J'esus did not call them back and say, "Look, I was only talking in symbols; don't take me literally." No, He let them go!@

Then He turned to the 12 and asked, "Will you also go away?"

"L'ord, to whom shall we go?" replied Peter, spokesman for the group. "You have the words of Eternal Life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of G'od."

In His sermon J'esus spoke of "the bread that I shall give," meaning that The Bestowal of This Bread Was In The Future. That future arrived at the Last Supper. Mark describes it this way:

And as they were eating, He took bread, and blessed and broke it, and gave it to them and said, "Take; this IS my Body." And He took a cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And He said to them, "This IS My Blood of the covenant, which IS poured out for many." Check also Luke 22:19-20.

Christ's "Do this" clearly shows He was instituting a rite that He wanted to carry on. The apostolic Church understood this and called the ceremony the Breaking of the Bread and the L'ord's supper. The Fathers referred to it as the dismissal, "Ite, missa est (Go, it sent)." The word @missa@ is from the Latin mittere, to send to spread His Gospel.

4) Paul gives a clear description of what this ceremony meant in the early Church when he writes in 1Cor 11:23-27:

"For I received from the L'ord what I also delivered to you, that the L'ord J'esus on the night when He was betrayed took bread, 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." In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup Is the new covenant in My Blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." For as often as you eat and drink this cup, you proclaim the L'ord's death until He comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the Bread or drinks the Cup In An Unworthy Manner Will Be guilty of Profaning the Body and Blood of the L'ord."

(How can one profanes J'esus Body by eating and drinking this bread and blood in an unworthy manner t if it is Only symbolic talk?)

that's right, it's all about faith, and believing the words of Jesus as He reveals them to us. Faith is NOT making His words say what the interpreter "wants" them to say. As in the case of His eternal words as you have scriptural pointed out, non believers make them to say whoever eats the symbols of my flesh and bloods. Christ is quite insistent and also very articulate in trying to tell us that this flesh we eat and blood we drink is REAL and NOT symbols, He calls it bread and refers back to the manna that fell from heaven, it is His flesh and His blood symbolically presented in bread and wine but it actually contains what it symbolizes, flesh=bread as blood = wine. It is only by becoming as a little child and tho' not understanding how this can be, just as they didn't know how Jesus changed water into wine at cana, or fed the multitude from 2 loaves and fishes, we merely make an assent to faith and believe He is God and do anything. But for the non believer who lacks this commanded child-like faith, He is doomed to one day experience what Jesus meant when He told us that unless you eat this bread and drink this cup you cannot have life. (Jesus said He is life)

Without this "faith" it is impossible, to please God.

Let us who have faith, pray for those who lack the faith to believe in the true Presence of Jesus, who is yet among us, in this Eucharistic Presence.

It's obvious, even by reading many of the dumb protestant answers here, that they don't. Don't you just wonder how different they'd feel and think about it if they were raised in Roman Catholic schools and received their First Holy Communion as I did, and probably you did as well. It's a loss or absence from one's life that no one should have to experience, but so many do, and then they're left with, . . ., well, . . ., "faith alone" and "sola scriptura". The best we can do is pray for them that one day they, too, will experience their First Holy Communion. It's a life-changing event. God Bless you.

Some of our Protestant friends teach we are saved by faith alone, but when Jesus plainly and repeatedly asked us to believe that his body and blood become our food and drink in the form of bread and wine, it is "Uh uh, Jesus." What kind of faith is that?

Those who make false analogies with some of Jesus' figurative teachings are not reading well. Nowhere did Jesus reiterate a figurative teaching when someone asked him if he meant it literally. Compare John 3 where Nicodemus asked him if he meant a man could go back into his mother's wombs to be born again. Jesus dropped the figure and said, ""I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit."

When the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" Jesus stuck with his original words.

In denying the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist Non Lutheran Protestants show that they are going by the church interpretation and tradition and the self- authorized teaching authority of their tradition and not by the Bible Alone

And they do not have enough faith in Christ's words and deny the power thereof

We are not saved by faith alone. We are saved by GRACE through FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST, the Son of the Living God. The Lamb of God who takes away our sins, the Resurrection & the Eternal Life.

Jesus said that we must eat His Body & drink His Blood to receive Eternal Life.

This is receiving His Atonement to take away our sins. Jesus is the Sacrificial Lamb of Passover.

Jesus set before us the Passover 'fruit of the vine' and Passover 'unleavened bread' as His Body & His Blood. We are to take Communion or Eucharist in remembrance of Him. This is also discerning that we are purchased with a High Price and belong to Jesus as part of the Body of Christ.

I do find it odd that the same Christians who say that the Bible is infallible and must be read literally, say that "Unless you eat the body of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life within you" is symbolic.

Even when I ask about this respectfully, I get angry non-answers. Odd.

It's only the Catholics who believe this literal translation that we actually eat his body and drink his blood. It is only symbolic.

FIREBALL -

Jesus was commissioning the Eucharist. He was really there and yet He said, "Do this in rememberance of me". Why would they need to remember him if He was there?

Yet, He told them to do it.

As sure as He told them "This is my body." He wanted us to remember His sacrifice at Calvary. As often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim His death.

If He didn't want us to do it, He wouldn't have said so.

I find it much more interesting that He told us to do this, rather than just preach the word.

If it's really not Him, how come we must discern ourselves before we eat Him as St. Paul said?

How come we are told if we don't eat Him we wont have life in us?

No, they doubt it like the Jews and the disciple who left him did.

~~~~The short version is Jesus the "Lamb" of God and therefore as a Lamb consuming his body and blood is not cannibalism.

He was also the "Lamb" for the passover meal. Ever notice at the last supper they never mention the passover lamb? That's because it is Jesus, he is the lamb.

John 1:29 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

~~~~The longer story, Jesus is the "Prefect" sacrifice. He is the Victim, The Priest and God. As the Victim he is the "Lamb". As the Priest he is making an atonement for our sins to God and as God he has mercy on us and forgives us.

In the Old Testament and the New, the wages of sin is death.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So if you sinned you had to bring an unblemished lamb to the Priest and the lamb would die in your place (this is also where confession to a Priest comes from).

Leviticus 6:6 "Then he shall bring to the priest his guilt offering to the LORD, a ram without defect from the flock, according to your valuation, for a guilt offering,

Leviticus 6:7 and the priest shall make atonement for him before the LORD, and he will be forgiven for any one of the things which he may have done to incur guilt."

Leviticus 6:18 'Every male among the sons of Aaron may eat it; it is a permanent ordinance throughout your generations, from the offerings by fire to the LORD. Whoever touches them will become consecrated.'"

~~~~Now, for the passover lamb. Jewish tradition (Jesus was a Jew) the sacrificial lamb that was prepared for the passover meal was to be consumed completely by all who were present at one sitting.

Exodus 12:46 "It is to be eaten in a single house; you are not to bring forth any of the flesh outside of the house, nor are you to break any bone of it.

NOTE: Two important facts in the scripture.

1) "It is to be eaten in a single house; you are not to bring forth any of the flesh outside of the house" -- This is why we consume the Eucharist at Mass and we are not permitted to take it outside the Church (Except for the Sick).

2)"nor are you to break any bone of it" and notice -- John 19:33 but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.

The tradition of sharing the Lamb is that if you and I were sitting there sharing the lamb we are bonded by it because you and I have the same lamb in us. So just like Jesus says in John 6:

John 6:56 "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.

Peace be with you

<<<Devout Catholic>>>