The Eucharist
We partook of the Eucharist tonight at church, and I was disturbed again to hear that phrase "this represents," since I firmly believe that the bread and the wine are in truth exactly what the scriptures declare: the body, and the blood of Christ. I am amazed at the individuals that think of the Sacrament as merely symbolic. Zwingli at his worst! We are taught that the Old Testament was full of symbolic rituals that God gave unto Moses, and the even the tabernacle of the Jews, and their temple worship was based on the reality of something that Moses saw in the heavens. The Law and the ritual observances contained therein all pointed to a truth, but they were not the true substance, merely a shadow of things that were to come. Saint Paul makes this abundantly clear in his teaching, yet he never takes the words that Jesus spoke about the eucharistic celebration to mean anything less than what Jesus had said. When Christ declares "Take eat, this is my body...," Saint Paul accepts this as a mystical truth, without reservation. The Apostle declares "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? " How does anyone read this as anything less than being Saint Paul's agreement with the very words of Christ. Nowhere in the scriptures is the word, symbol, symbolic, or representation ever used of the bread and wine, indeed many disciples turned away from Christ when He insisted that "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. "
I will say in all honesty that I cannot comprehend the mystery of the Eucharist, but I believe that the elements are indeed transformed through faith, and it is (in stark contrast to a symbol) the body and the blood of our Saviour. While I may be within the walls of a Protestant church, I can only be Catholic when it comes to this doctrine, for I am persuaded that to partake of these sacred elements is to partake of the very presence of Jesus.
I will say in all honesty that I cannot comprehend the mystery of the Eucharist, but I believe that the elements are indeed transformed through faith, and it is (in stark contrast to a symbol) the body and the blood of our Saviour. While I may be within the walls of a Protestant church, I can only be Catholic when it comes to this doctrine, for I am persuaded that to partake of these sacred elements is to partake of the very presence of Jesus.