"Unless You Eat My Flesh"

Real Presence Communion

Real Presence is the belief that the Eucharist (Communion) is truly Jesus. In other words, during the Mass, the host of bread and wine truly become Jesus' Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. He is physically present under the appearances of bread and wine. As an extension, the Mass is a recreation of the Last Supper in which Jesus said "This is My Body" and "This is My Blood." Many other Christians will say that Jesus is simply spiritually present in the Eucharist. Additionally, the communion service is simply a remembrance or memorial of the Last Supper. (*Though Eucharistic theology can vary a lot among the Protestant branches--I see you, Lutherans and Episcopalians.*)

Well, why do Catholics go so far to claim to eat the Body and Blood of Jesus? Isn't it idolatrous to worship bread and wine? Or even worse... cannibalistic (and maybe gross) to eat Jesus?

Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Antonin Richter

To answer the first question: "The Bible tells me so." 

Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, 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 them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink." (John 6:53-55 NIV)

I wish I could just let the Word of God speak for itself, but if that were the case everyone would be Catholic. ;) The Gospel of John was written about 90-100 AD, which is 20-30 years after Matthew and Luke. John's gospel varies the most in account from Matthew, Mark, and Luke, aka the "synoptic gospels." One passage that appears in John and not the synoptics is the Bread of Life Discourse in John 6. Throughout the chapter, Jesus preaches about a bread that can sustain them - not just for earthly purposes but for heavenly purposes. I really encourage you to read John 6 in its entirety to get the proper context. But for this article I will highlight a couple points. (By the way, all quotes are from NIV since many Christians use that translation.)

Yeah, He Really Said "Eat"

Probably the biggest objection to the Real Presence interpretation of John 6 is that the word "eat" is metaphorical. And here I will try to do some exegesis... while relying mostly on the work of scholars before me. Throughout the discourse, the two words Jesus uses for "eat" in the Greek are phago and trago. Phago means simply "eat" and could be used metaphorically. However, as the disciples begin to question Jesus, he switches to trago in verse 54: "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day." (John 6:54) Trago is sometimes translated to as "gnawing" "munching" or "crunching" -- in most contexts it would be used for animals. It's the kind of word that would make the Jews -- a religion with dozens of rules about cleanliness -- very squeamish, maybe even offended. (John 6, Greek)

Another sign that he was speaking literally was after he drops the t-bomb, some of the disciples leave (John 6:60-65). Their departure doesn't prove he was speaking literally, but if he was speaking metaphorically, we would expect him to clarify that instead of doubling down on the issue. 

In high school, I often sympathized with the people who left--"This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?" (John 6:60) I would wonder why Jesus expected them to accept such a teaching at face value. Of course, Eucharistic theology wasn't defined at the time, so Jesus' response wasn't a lecture on Thomistic metaphysics. However, earlier in the chapter, Jesus revealed his divinity by feeding over 5,000 people, so all the focus is on who He is and what He is saying. Not on how it will be carried out. The Twelve stayed because "You have the words of eternal life." (John 6:68) Personally, I've interpreted this passage as a need to know and love God and His Word before obsessing over finer points of theology and apologetics.

So to elaborate on what I was saying before. We claim the Real Presence because we believe that's what the Jesus really meant in John 6. And it's not idol worship of bread and wine -- we really believe it is Jesus present. 

Cannibalism??

To address my other objection... Wouldn't it be cannibalistic to eat another person? 

Cannibals are humans eating humans. But what makes it immoral is the injury and death we cause to the other person by eating them. On the other hand, Jesus is both fully human and fully God. Just as he is God who is able to become flesh, he is also able to take on another form which we can consume. And rather than us causing injury to him (which is impossible), his substance is able to give us eternal life. He says it best Himself in John 6:35: "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."

More Biblical Accounts

The main accounts we should really examine are the Last Supper accounts of the synoptic gospels (Mt. 26:17–30, Mk. 14:12–26, Lk. 22:7–39). I've saved them for now since I assumed Christians have familiarity with these passages.

“Take and eat; this is my body...This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Mt 26:26, 28)
“Take it; this is my body... This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.” (Mk 14:22, 24)
“This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me. This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you." (Lk 22:19, 20)

These passages work beautifully with the entirety of John 6 -- Jesus feeding the five thousand and asserting "my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink." In the celebration of Communion, Jesus gives of Himself -- the Bread of Life -- to the whole world. I struggle with commenting further other than to say that Catholics take these Last Supper passages at face value. These exact words are used during the Mass to indicate that we are not just re-enacting, but recreating the Last Supper.

Regarding the Corinthian's early celebration of Communion, Paul also appears to assert the literal sense of these statements:

Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? (1 Cor 10:16)

On a personal note, the Eucharist means everything to me, and I have trouble putting it all in words. I talked in another post how difficult it was to go without the Eucharist and Adoration during COVID, and since then I've wanted to expand on that more. I hope you can investigate the Bible passages for yourself and that we can talk soon.

More early church accounts and exegesis in the links below. Pax!

Bread of Life Discourse – The Roman Catholic Mass Explained

WHY "EAT MY FLESH" IS LITERAL in John 6!! | Real Presence of the Eucharist (LizziesAnswers Video)