Apologetics For The Eucharist: Understanding The Real Presence

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once? Did Christ hold His own body up at the Last Supper when He said, “This is my body”? Why do we Cathsacrifice Him who was sacrificed “once and for all”?

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Christ “hides” Himself in an unleavened wafer not

e old axiom, “you are what you eat” rings true physiologically, and in the case of the Eucharist, metaphysically as well.

bloody, and that Christ’s

Furthermore, Christ’s sacrifice on Calva

its blood on the door posts and lentils, and eat its flesh in order to be “passed over” by the

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This is also why John the Baptist says, “Behold the Lamb of God” (John 1:29), when he

When Christ breaks the unleavened Passover loaf with His Apostles, He says, “This my body” (Matt 26:26 tice that He does not say, “This is a symbol of my body,” or “this represents my body.”

ostle Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and believed.” God wants to give us reasons for faith, but He does not want to force faith

as the actual body and blood of Christ. Even in the first century after Christ’s death, men

in the real presence. Even in this present day, three fourths of the world’s Christians

Certainly those who heard Christ’s words as recorded in John 6 understood that He was

of His own disciples left Him that very day after they heard the “bread of life” sermon

actually say? Did Christ say to the crowd, “No wait, don’t go! I am only speaking in a symbolic sense.” He says nothing of the kind. Rather, He intensifies His sta

translated “to munch” or “to chew”.

own body in His hands at the Last Supper, who are we to tell Him, “No, sorry, that’s not possible, God.” To distribute His body, He does not have to make millions of little

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just before he describes the “bread of life” sermon in John 6. God, speaking through

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Christian teaching, for Christ’s sacrifice rendered all other sacrifices unnecessary and

loaf of Christ’s body is eternally the same.

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would have no life in them. What a jolt that must have been! He hadn’t given them the here’s a saying in our culture that gives a good insight as to where Jesus was leading them. It says, “You are what you eat.” In a spiritual sense, that’s

and energy is what we call “grace.” What a remarkable destiny we have: To become

eated, so why are we so much more disturbed by the mystery of Christ’s real presence

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hat Christ’s will might be

Christ’s name. God has ordained it that man might p

How long is Jesus present in the Eucharist after we’ve received

Catechism’sement that the presence of Christ “endures as long as the Eucharistic species subsist.”

rue “heartheart” with Jesus

 –

 ’The Bread we Offer’ ...The Jewish matzo used at Passover is analogo

 –A child asked, ‘In preparing me for my 1

I can’t see him!’ Pope Benedict answered, ‘No, we cannot see him, but –

is, people change, they improve...Therefore, we do not see the Lord himself, but we

let us go to meet this invisible but powerful Lord, who helps us to live well.’ 

 Wisdom 16:20 “Instead of this, you nouris

delights and conforming to every taste.”

“The word used in the Greek for “” is “,” their food. The word used in John 6 is “”, which designates the manner in which animals eats, “ ”