A Roman Catholic wrote:

>> My favorite part of Catholicism is the receiving of the actual Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ in Holy Communion.

I actually have Christ coursing through my veins!

Through transubstantiation, the miracle of bread and wine changing into Jesus Christ's body and blood at the hands of the Priest.<<

My answer to Dawn was this:

Jesus said in John 6:53-54 "...I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.

Whoso eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, has eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day."

Is Jesus contradicting himself in John 3:16 where he said simple faith in him is all the Father requires for eternal life? Is he really saying in John 6:53-54... that when we partake of the Lord's Supper the bread and wine wholly cease to be simple bread and wine? Instead becoming literally and completely his body and blood?

And... That we must eat it believing that or we have no hope of eternal life?

If Jesus meant those words literally...then we must believe Jesus was teaching us that our faith entirely consists of... cannibalism and idolatry!

The Vatican (which claims to speak for God) takes John 6:53-54 literally. All Roman Catholics are taught that once the bread and wine are blessed by the priest the entire physical essence of our Lord Jesus Christ resides in the Bread and wine.

They further teach that one is fully incorporated into the body of Christ by participation in their first mass (Documents of the Vatican 2).

In the Roman Catholic processional (as well as in the mass), the Eucharist (disc shaped wafer) is blessed and displayed. The people are then permitted to "worship it", because, at that point, they are taught that the entire essence of the body of their God (Jesus Christ) resides in the Eucharist.

When they look upon the Eucharist after it is blessed... They are beholding their God

That Is Blatant Idolatry.

If indeed the wine and bread are completely transformed into the literal body and blood of our lord with no trace of the original bread and wine existing after the priest blesses it, then once we ingest it... we become guilty of cannibalism.

We find others in the sixth chapter of john who also mistakenly believed Jesus was advocating cannibalism—and they turned away from following him. They could not see what he was really saying... Because they were following him for the wrong reasons to start with!

Jesus boldly confronted their motivations in john 6:26. Those people wanted breakfast!

And Jesus was telling them they needed to be hungry for Heavenly food instead. The Heavenly food Jesus was referring to in John 6:53-54 has no reference whatsoever to the Lords supper.

Let's look at what he does say at the actual event...

Matthew 26:26 Jesus took bread, and blessed it… Take eat, this is my body… Matthew 26:27-28 drink ye all of it, this is my blood... Mark 14:22 Jesus took the bread, and blessed it... take eat, this is my body… Mark 14:23-24 he took the cup...this is my blood… Luke 22:19 this is my body…Luke 22:20 this cup is the new covenant in my blood…

There is no doubt that Jesus called the bread and wine his body and blood. The question is, at the last supper, did the bread and wine transmute (transubstantiate) into another substance altogether, or did it remain simple bread and wine?

Was Jesus speaking symbolically rather than literally?

Jesus called the wine he drank at the last supper his blood. He also called it "this fruit of the vine," ...after it was blessed and ...after he said it was his blood (Matthew 26:29, Luke 22:18, mark 14:25).

It obviously did not change into his blood, but rather remained what it started out as - wine....the fruit of the vine.

Was Jesus lying when he said this is my blood? Of Course He wasn't. He was speaking symbolically. He also said...This Do in Remembrance of Me

Jesus Christ has no need of giving sacrifice after sacrifice as is portrayed in the Roman mass. He died to sin once. Now he lives (Romans 6:10).

Before he came and died, faith in the promise of his atonement was necessary. That atonement was prophetically foretold in the rituals of the Mosaic Law.

Today we participate in the remembrance of that atonement.

The Jewish people partook of the Lord's Supper every Passover without

realizing what it was. No transubstantiation took place then, none takes place now.

Faith in the atoning death, burial and resurrection of our Lord is what saves us. The act of his death was not enough to save us from our sins (participating in the Lord's Supper cannot save us from our sins). Jesus was proclaimed the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead.

We are told to flee idolatry.

To say that the essence of our creator can be compressed into a man made wafer of bread, that we can hold our God in our hands and put him into our mouths (even worship that piece of bread after it has been blessed) is nothing short of blasphemous idolatry.

What exactly is the communion of the blood and body of Christ? The cup which we bless and the bread which we break is the communion (fellowship) of the body and blood of Christ, which we all participate in the blessings of.

It is a rejoicing of remembrance (1 Cor. 10:14-16).