My Flesh Is Meat Indeed

How Many Times Must I Tell You?

In John 6 we often speak of the repeated command of Jesus for us to eat His body and drink His blood - or else we have “no life” in us.  Let us examine the verses...

27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth unto life everlasting, which the Son of man will give you. For him hath God, the Father, sealed.

OK, that one doesn’t issue the command, but I wanted to include it because it contains the promise that the Son of Man will provide us with the meat which does not perish and endures unto everlasting life.

ONE

32 Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say to you; Moses gave you not bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.

33 For the bread of God is that which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life to the world.

34 They said therefore unto him: Lord, give us always this bread.

35 And Jesus said to them: I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall not hunger: and he that believeth in me shall never thirst.

TWO

48 I am the bread of life.

49 Your fathers did eat manna in the desert, and are dead.

50 This is the bread which cometh down from heaven; that if any man eat of it, he may not die.

THREE

51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven.

52 If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give, is my flesh, for the life of the world.

FOUR

54 Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you.

FIVE

55 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day.

SIX

56 For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed.

SEVEN

57 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him.

EIGHT

58 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, the same also shall live by me.

NINE

59 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that eateth this bread, shall live for ever.

So NINE TIMES does Jesus insist upon us eating His body and/or drinking His blood.  It doesn’t get much clearer here nor insistent that He was not speaking allegorically.  No, He repeated it, over and over again because He meant it!

There are those who argue that the Catholic teaching on this is cannibalism, and who can abide by such a teaching?  The context of the above verses indicates the Jews and even Jesus’ own disciples were thinking along the same lines:

53 The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying: How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

61 Many therefore of his disciples, hearing it, said: This saying is hard, and who can hear it?

62 But Jesus, knowing in himself, that his disciples murmured at this, said to them: Doth this scandalize you?

67 After this many of his disciples went back; and walked no more with him.

Did Jesus call them back and say, “Wait guys, I was only speaking in symbolism here - you don’t REALLY have to eat my flesh!”  No, He let them walk away precisely because they DID understand Him correctly and they had NO FAITH to accept His teaching and BELIEVE IN HIM that HE WOULD PROVIDE as He promised in verse 27.  Not only did He not call back those who left in disbelief, He challenged the Twelve to leave as well:

68 Then Jesus said to the twelve: Will you also go away?

The spokesman/coryphaeus of the Apostles stood up and said:

69 And Simon Peter answered him: Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.

70 And we have believed and have known, that thou art the Christ, the Son of God.

To my dear Protestant family, friends, associates and acquaintances, and also to my Catholic family, friends, etc. who while still claiming to be “Catholic” avoid the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist...

I am not accusing you of “walking away” (unless you’re one who has left the Catholic faith), for most of you were, like me prior to my epiphany, born into the community you worship in.  You haven’t “walked away” - but someone in your family did.  Prior to the 16th century, just about everyone in Western Europe who called themselves “Christian” was a Catholic (with very few exceptions and nothing large-scale).  Prior to 1054ad it didn’t matter if we were Western or Eastern, our ancestors were united as One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.  So, if your heritage is Christian, you have Catholic roots.  Some of you may have become a Christian from a non-Christian background, but you were only given part of the truth by those who have helped you so far on your journey of faith.  Yes, Protestantism has a measure of truth to it - but they also reject some very fundamental truths, one of which we are discussing in this article.  While you personally may not be one who has “walked away” - you’re part of a group which has, at some point, done so.

Have faith!  Believe FULLY in His Word and TRUST Him that He not only could do what He promised, but that He DID do as He promised and provided us with the means to eat His body and drink His blood.  That all started with the first celebration of the Mass when Jesus took the partaking in bread and wine from the Jewish Passover Seder and made it the Christian celebration of the Eucharist.  He Himself declared, “This is My body” and “This is My blood...” and those who have faith BELIEVE Him!  Those who have faith do not attempt to rationalize their way around that which He commanded no less than NINE TIMES in John 6 nor what He declared at the celebration of the Eucharist (Matt. 26:26-28; Luke 22:19-20; Mark 14:22-24 and 1 Cor. 11:24).  It is through this celebration of the Eucharist where we are given the means to fulfill that which He commanded in John 6!  Those who had faith and stayed with Him were able to receive that gift.

Those who left may appreciate MOST of what Jesus said and taught, but they fall short on this very critical mark!  To not believe in Him enough to stay with Him means they missed out on the true gift of the Bread of Life which comes down from Heaven!  Jesus Christ Himself IS that Bread of Life which comes down from Heaven.  He did not ask us to symbolically partake in His body and blood, no!  He said His flesh is real meat and His blood is real drink! (v. 56).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) puts it this way:

1394 As bodily nourishment restores lost strength, so the Eucharist strengthens our charity, which tends to be weakened in daily life; and this living charity wipes away venial sins.²³¹ By giving himself to us Christ revives our love and enables us to break our disordered attachments to creatures and root ourselves in him:

Since Christ died for us out of love, when we celebrate the memorial of his death at the moment of sacrifice we ask that love may be granted to us by the coming of the Holy Spirit. We humbly pray that in the strength of this love by which Christ willed to die for us, we, by receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, may be able to consider the world as crucified for us, and to be ourselves as crucified to the world. . . . Having received the gift of love, let us die to sin and live for God.²³²

1395 By the same charity that it enkindles in us, the Eucharist preserves us from future mortal sins. The more we share the life of Christ and progress in his friendship, the more difficult it is to break away from him by mortal sin. The Eucharist is not ordered to the forgiveness of mortal sins - that is proper to the sacrament of Reconciliation. The Eucharist is properly the sacrament of those who are in full communion with the Church.
1396 The unity of the Mystical Body: the Eucharist makes the Church. Those who receive the Eucharist are united more closely to Christ. Through it Christ unites them to all the faithful in one body - the Church. Communion renews, strengthens, and deepens this incorporation into the Church, already achieved by Baptism. In Baptism we have been called to form but one body.²³³ The Eucharist fulfills this call: "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread:"²³⁴

If you are the body and members of Christ, then it is your sacrament that is placed on the table of the Lord; it is your sacrament that you receive. To that which you are you respond "Amen" ("yes, it is true!") and by responding to it you assent to it. For you hear the words, "the Body of Christ" and respond "Amen." Be then a member of the Body of Christ that your Amen may be true.²³⁵ 

So then, it remains my prayer that our separated brethren return to the fold where true reformation took place - that we may be one.

In JMJ,
Scott<<<
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Footnotes from the CCC:
231 Cf. Council of Trent (1551): DS 1638.
232 St. Fulgentius of Ruspe, Contra Fab. 28,16-19: CCL 19A,813-814.
233 Cf. 1 Cor 12:13.
234 1 Cor 10:16-17.
235 St. Augustine, Sermo 272:PL 38,1247.