I've been writing my journey away from the Catholic Church. Here is my reply to the Eucharist. It's long - this is why I wanted to go email with you but for some reason you decided to go harry carry with a thread.
A Deeper Explanation on Communion and the Eucharist
John 3:3, In replying to Nicodemus, Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” Verse 7, “…you must be born again.” Verse 15, “that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” Verse 16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Verse 36, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”
Jesus has been describing to Nicodemus about being born again in a spiritual sense and attaining life everlasting by believing in Him. In John 4:32-34 Jesus begins to answer some questions raised by His disciples by describing a particular food for Him to eat and comparing eating this food to doing the will of God who sent Him and to also finishing God’s work. He stated to His disciples, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” When they continued to think literally of eating food, he expounded upon his meaning by saying, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.” Then in John 5:21, Jesus says, “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.” Verse 24, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” The work of Jesus – the food He is about to eat – becomes our food if we believe in Him and in what is about to take place. Verse 25, “I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. Verse 40, “… yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” Can you imagine the mixed-up and confused minds of the disciples and others who was listening to Jesus speak? It wasn’t like they were on the yellow brick road of wisdom and knowledge and understanding. They must have all had that perplexed look of confusion plastered upon their faces.
The beginning of chapter 6 of John’s Gospel describes the feeding of the five thousand. Jesus states in Verse 27, “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” Verse 28, They asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Verse 29, Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
Because of their misunderstanding, confusion and hardening of hearts, they began questioning Jesus at this point. They’re not questioning to gain insight and belief; they’re questioning instead to counter His directed message. They begin asking how it is their forefathers ate manna in the desert, giving them bread from heaven. Verse 32, Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who had given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
Now their prideful hearts are all excited and want this bread that Jesus talks about. In their minds they think of physical bread, the kind that Moses ate, only better. This bread is life-giving? Heck yeah, give me some of that bread! Simple enough. But Jesus doesn’t whip out bread like he did the five-thousand, He instead declares this in Verse 35: “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” Verse 40, “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
What happens next is a disdain toward His teaching. The Jews began to grumble. They sense they’ve been misled. They apparently are now looking at Jesus as a madman, not one who was going to perform a miraculous sign by giving them “life-giving” physical bread to eat. Jesus doesn’t escape the complaining but instead reiterated His testimony by saying in Verses 48-51, “he who believes has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
Oh man, can you imagine the looks on these people’s faces?! Really? Eat His flesh? Ah, but this is where the Catholic might say, “See there? This is the Eucharist that Jesus speaks of.” But not so fast. I believe it is here that Jesus isn’t speaking of the Eucharist but of an event that hasn’t yet occurred but must occur: His passion – His death on the Cross so those who believe can have eternal life.
Verse 52, “Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” They are still thinking worldly and have the Moses moment in their minds. Jesus doubles-down in His reply to their questioning by stating in Verses 53-58, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefather ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.”
Goodness. What a concept for those listening to try and accept. He isn’t suggesting they eat the Eucharist and live. He is the Word becoming flesh. The Word is truth. He Himself is life-giving. If they would believe in Him, He would be life-sustaining. Since God fed those who were following Moses and sustained them by this food from heaven, God now has invited the world to accept Him as life-sustaining food for ever. If this whole passage was meant to prove that life was distributed by Jesus solely in the Eucharist, how many in the world have failed to see this and died without the Catholic Eucharistic Jesus? It’s simply illogical that Jesus would be only talking about the Eucharist here. Of course, he does provide us with the communion meal later and uses that as a staple of belief, but it doesn’t mean it is the all-encompassing point of His death on the cross.
His true flesh and blood that was shed can now be represented in earthly forms of bread and wine. The significance of the Last Supper is declared by Jesus by stating, this is My body and this is My blood. You must accept Me in full. I shed my body and my blood for you. You must accept this literal, life-giving moment in time – My life for yours – and declare it with me not only at the communion table but at all times to truly and faithfully believe in me and to accept this gift I have given you freely.
So, my belief in Jesus is not figurative, it’s literal. He is literally giving me His life-giving flesh to eat daily because He is life-sustaining. He feeds me when I read the word daily, when I pray and when I simply live out my life aware of His continual presence at work in me and around me. He truly is life-giving. Without Him I am dead. With Him I am alive.
With this in mind, it’s a perspective of choice. To sustain the Catholic view of the Eucharist as being the all-in-all and the focal point of Christian behavior under the disciplined rules handed down by the Catholic Church. Or to recognize Jesus Himself as life-giving, solely focusing upon Him and dedicating your life to Him outside of a religious tradition that carries a shackling of man-made rules in order to receive Holy Communion.
Holy Communion is to be received when one accepts and believes in the passion of the Cross that Jesus died on. It’s an acceptance and heartfelt drive and desire to serve the one and only Savior of your soul instead of making sure things in your life lead to a worthiness to accept and receive Holy Communion by following the rules of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church becomes to focal point to follow.
He alone is our life-sustaining bread. Instead of manna, Jesus is our food of life. We eat when we believe. We eat when we pray. We eat when we live in communion with Him. We eat and we live. As long as we stay in communion with Him, He will sustain us with life. When we stop praying, when we stop seeking Him to be our guide in life, when we start trying to do things on our own, we move into darkness. Life no longer sustains us through Jesus Christ. He moves in us when we open our hearts to receive His life giving food – His passion, death and resurrection.
