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Share this link:. But, more deeply moving yet is my experience of Jesus' words repeated by the priest as Jesus himself speaking directly to us, inviting us from the time of the last supper to our very moment in time.
And then his "do this in memory of me" is do this for me, my gift to you so that we may be one. Personally, for me it's a real and profound experience of love Jesus shares with us every time. This is a recent colloquy I have had with baptized Catholic millennials. Do you really believe that the hands of a pedophile priest raping a child on Saturday night are divinely capable to transubstantiate on Sunday Morning. So you agree that the functionality of Holy Orders is conditional on the purity of the vessel the priest whose hands are consecrated?
I think that is probably right. So if I am pure can I transubstantiate? Your Bishop did not ordain you.. And he is forbidden to do so because you are a woman.
So if I was a male and the Bishop consecrated my hands but I was really a pedophile who became a priest because I wanted preferred access to innocent children , I might be able to transubstantiate.
Dennis, you have left me stuck on the horns of a dilemma. I can't answer these questions either. Your dialogues suggest that no criminally evil person can perform good works, which I am sure is debatable. For example, you could have another dialogue about a drowning man being offered a life jacket by a pedophile--should he take it or not? If you, a layman, said the eucharistic prayers before offering me bread and wine, why should I doubt that they have been transubstantiated?
If Christ the divine became human so that humans could become divine, then surely many human actions can have a divine quality and purpose? But I still can't answer your dilemma! Your first answer should have been "Yes. Otherwise people would not be married, people would not be truly baptized into Christ, and sins would not be forgiven.
In my 16 years of Catholic education the last being at a Jesuit University I have asked this question often and continued asking but never has anyone, religious or laymen, attempted to answer. At what point are all the hosts consecrated? I believe that during Mass, using the words given by Christ Himself, the priest does change the host into the Body and Blood. But even though I receive one of the many hosts I have no reason to view it as anything other than a symbol. Just in case.
Unquestionably true as it is that the Eucharist is no mere symbol, neither is it real Eucharist -Christ's salvific presence- except as actively symbolized in bread and wine. The question at first is Consubstantiation v. It would be sacrilegious to test the host for protein or carb count, although you could use a breathalyzer on a priest to see if alcohol is present in the blood of Christ.
I am not risking it, because the appearance of the wine in Communion will still cause me to relapse. This raises the question of Adoration. We cannot know, only believe because the test is reception. The chief question is faith v.
It is the same as faith in God v. It ranks up there with whether morals are for us in this life or God in the next; between compassion and disobedience; living God v.
Divine Ogre insisting on rigor; Sheep and goats v. Will prostitutes enter Heaven before the CDF? Is Mass a common meal or worshipful sacrifice in a dead language historical accuracy would favor Greek or Aramaic? It is whether we can't ordain women or simply won't. The question is not about polling at all. It is about Theology. Are questions of Church discipline and doctrine nest explained by theology or sociology and culture? Here is where I had my moment of faith when I heard this Gospel while serving Mass.
Jesus is gentle and humble of heart, his yoke easy and his burden light. Purity and Danger should be required reading in Seminary. It raises the question of which came first: real theological disputes or branding for group identity? Faith or power? No, it's not; the "real question" is whether you or anyone else believes in the supernatural. Most modern folk do not, and cannot; our "religion" is science, and because of our obsessive devotion to science, we are unable to believe in anything except that which is confirmed by our very unreliable five senses.
But it can be nurtured. In all the traditional ways: first, by parents teaching and example; second, by fundamental catechesis; third, by an insistence on an attitude of reverence in the reception of the sacrament.
All seven sacraments integrate the fundamental dimensions of our lives into the Paschal Mystery. It's what they have in common, that is sometimes missed when we contemplate them separately.
The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is part of this dynamic, but it's unfortunate if our appreciation of the Sacrament ends with explaining transubstantiation.
Thru the Eucharist, the basic human experience of sharing a meal to create or strengthen friendship, family and community, transforms us into friends in Christ, family in Christ and community in Christ, that is to say, "Church", the living body of Christ.
I suppose you could say that not only are the bread and wine transubstantiated. So are we! I'm one of them. The quotes from the gospels are interesting, but we don't know that what Jesus said then unless someone eats my flesh and drinks my blood Jesus' early followers didn't believe this and didn't practice this.
We have mentions in the NT and by church fathers of communal "agape" meals shared by members of the early church - there were no priests who turned the bread and wine into Jesus but people gathered for a meal together to remember what Jesus had done. Thank you to the authors for stimulating my reflection on just how deeply I believe in the Eucharist and how much it means to me. Eucharist has been many things to many people over the centuries. Furthermore, he is likewise present in other sacraments; for example, "when anybody baptizes it is really Christ himself who baptizes" ibid.
We speak of the presence of Christ under the appearances of bread and wine as "real" in order to emphasize the special nature of that presence. What appears to be bread and wine is in its very substance the Body and Blood of Christ.
The entire Christ is present, God and man, body and blood, soul and divinity. While the other ways in which Christ is present in the celebration of the Eucharist are certainly not unreal, this way surpasses the others. First, the Body of Christ refers to the human body of Jesus Christ, who is the divine Word become man. During the Eucharist, the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ.
As human, Jesus Christ has a human body, a resurrected and glorified body that in the Eucharist is offered to us in the form of bread and wine.
Secondly, as St. Paul taught us in his letters, using the analogy of the human body, the Church is the Body of Christ, in which many members are united with Christ their head 1 Cor , ; Rom This reality is frequently referred to as the Mystical Body of Christ. All those united to Christ, the living and the dead, are joined together as one Body in Christ.
This union is not one that can be seen by human eyes, for it is a mystical union brought about by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The central act of the Church is the celebration of the Eucharist; the individual believers are sustained as members of the Church, members of the Mystical Body of Christ, through their reception of the Body of Christ in the Eucharist.
Playing on the two meanings of "Body of Christ," St. Augustine tells those who are to receive the Body of Christ in the Eucharist: "Be what you see, and receive what you are" Sermon In another sermon he says, "If you receive worthily, you are what you have received" Sermon The work of the Holy Spirit in the celebration of the Eucharist is twofold in a way that corresponds to the twofold meaning of "Body of Christ.
In the eucharistic prayer, the priest asks the Father to send the Holy Spirit down upon the gifts of bread and wine to transform them into the Body and Blood of Christ a prayer known as the epiclesis or "invocation upon". On the other hand, at the same time the priest also asks the Father to send the Holy Spirit down upon the whole assembly so that "those who take part in the Eucharist may be one body and one spirit" Catechism , no.
It is through the Holy Spirit that the gift of the eucharistic Body of Christ comes to us and through the Holy Spirit that we are joined to Christ and each other as the Mystical Body of Christ. By this we can see that the celebration of the Eucharist does not just unite us to God as individuals who are isolated from one another. Rather, we are united to Christ together with all the other members of the Mystical Body.
The celebration of the Eucharist should thus increase our love for one another and remind us of our responsibilities toward one another. Furthermore, as members of the Mystical Body, we have a duty to represent Christ and to bring Christ to the world. We have a responsibility to share the Good News of Christ not only by our words but also by how we live our lives. We also have a responsibility to work against all the forces in our world that oppose the Gospel, including all forms of injustice.
To receive in truth the Body and Blood of Christ given up for us, we must recognize Christ in the poorest, his brethren" no. The word "mystery" is commonly used to refer to something that escapes the full comprehension of the human mind. In the Bible, however, the word has a deeper and more specific meaning, for it refers to aspects of God's plan of salvation for humanity, which has already begun but will be completed only with the end of time.
In ancient Israel, through the Holy Spirit God revealed to the prophets some of the secrets of what he was going to accomplish for the salvation of his people cf. Am ; Is ; Dan Likewise, through the preaching and teaching of Jesus, the mystery of "the Kingdom of God" was being revealed to his disciples Mk Paul explained that the mysteries of God may challenge our human understanding or may even seem to be foolishness, but their meaning is revealed to the People of God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit cf.
The Eucharist is a mystery because it participates in the mystery of Jesus Christ and God's plan to save humanity through Christ. We should not be surprised if there are aspects of the Eucharist that are not easy to understand, for God's plan for the world has repeatedly surpassed human expectations and human understanding cf.
Jn For example, even the disciples did not at first understand that it was necessary for the Messiah to be put to death and then to rise from the dead cf. Mk , , ; Mt , , ; Lk , , Furthermore, any time that we are speaking of God we need to keep in mind that our human concepts never entirely grasp God. We must not try to limit God to our understanding, but allow our understanding to be stretched beyond its normal limitations by God's revelation. By his Real Presence in the Eucharist Christ fulfils his promise to be with us "always, until the end of the age" Mt Thomas Aquinas wrote, "It is the law of friendship that friends should live together.
Christ has not left us without his bodily presence in this our pilgrimage, but he joins us to himself in this sacrament in the reality of his body and blood" Summa Theologiae , III q. With this gift of Christ's presence in our midst, the Church is truly blessed.
As Jesus told his disciples, referring to his presence among them, "Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it" Mt In the Eucharist the Church both receives the gift of Jesus Christ and gives grateful thanks to God for such a blessing.
This thanksgiving is the only proper response, for through this gift of himself in the celebration of the Eucharist under the appearances of bread and wine Christ gives us the gift of eternal life. Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. As the Gospel of Matthew tells us: While they were eating, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, "Take and eat; this is my body.
Mk , Lk , 1 Cor Recalling these words of Jesus, the Catholic Church professes that, in the celebration of the Eucharist, bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit and the instrumentality of the priest.
Why does Jesus give himself to us as food and drink? Why is the Eucharist not only a meal but also a sacrifice? When the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, why do they still look and taste like bread and wine? Does the bread cease to be bread and the wine cease to be wine?
Is it fitting that Christ's Body and Blood become present in the Eucharist under the appearances of bread and wine? They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire. Bread and wine are not normal or natural symbols of flesh and blood. Either the symbols would have been clearly explained which is not the case or Jesus spoke literally which is the case! Box , Farmington, NM When Catholics receive Holy Communion, it is an expression of the unity among all those in communion with the Catholic Church throughout the world, who maintain the belief in the Real Eucharistic Presence of Christ.
Therefore, only those who believe in the True Presence may participate in this sacrament of oneness with Christ and his Church. Ultimately, Catholics believe that we cannot celebrate this unifying sacrament with other Christians while there are disagreements about the Eucharist itself. There are several facts that point to the literal meaning that Christ meant to convey here.
Fact 1: The Jews took him literally in verse Fact 2: His disciples took him literally in verse Fact 3: the Apostles took him literally in verses If everyone who heard him speak at the time took Him literally, then all of us today, years after the fact, are also called to take Him literally, in accordance with the Scriptures. Also, in verse 51, Jesus says that the bread which He will give for the life of the world is His flesh.
When did He give His flesh for the life of the world? On the Cross. We know that Jesus was not speaking symbolically here. Since we conclude that Jesus was speaking literally of dying on the Cross, we should also conclude that He meant what He said about eating His flesh and drinking His blood.
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