This Catholic Journey
Great post. Its the Eucharist that did it for me too. The Real Presence is in a word - undeniable.
Easter Vigil is approaching quickly. I'm so excited that you're coming into full communion with the Church!! I bet you're starving to receive the Most Holy Eucharist.
I'm a revert to the Church. I'd been away from the Church for 27 years. Can you believe my Catholic Confirmation teacher was an apostate!???. She claimed to be a Catholic, but was an Assembly of God born-again believer. She preached John 3:16 to us instead. Three teenage girls left the faith of the Church, along with me. I so much regret leaving the faith, but I did not know the fullness of the Truth b/c my Confirmation teacher taught us and undermined all of the Sacraments: the priesthood, the Eucharist, Confession.
At any rate, after my marriage was convalidated in the eyes of the Church, I was starving to receive the Eucharist. When I was able to finally receive Christ in the Most Holy Eucharist, my hands shook and my entire body trembled in gratitude.
You are making the right decision to come Home. There will be many pleasant surprises in store for you. Wait til you get to go on some Marian pilgrimages. You will be astonished and richly blessed in deep faith!
God bless you.
Cyndi
Eucharist:
Amber, Go back to the beginning of John chapter 6. The time was before Passover (Last Supper) and a great crowd had gathered. Jesus performed the miracle of multipling loaves and fish to feed them. (v7-14). Now jump to where people sought Jesus on the other side of the sea (v25) Jesus told them "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled" (v26). They came to seek Him to fill their physical hunger and they didn't recognize the significance of the signs. Jesus says to them "Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him." (v27) Obviously, the eucharist is perishable and it also is man-made while Jesus is the LIVING BREAD (v51) that nourishes our spiritual souls. "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4)
The people that was seeking Jesus for another meal asked Him "What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do?"(v30) They were trying to measure Jesus up with Moses "Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written. 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat," (v31) Jesus told them that it was not Moses who gave them bread from Heaven."..but My Father 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" (vs32,33)
When the people heard this they asked Him to give them this bread always. (v34) Now note the similarity of this question to the one asked by the woman at the well and Jesus telling her that He will give her living water. See John 4:15 "Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw". When people place their faith, trust and love in Christ they'll never be spiritually hungery or thirsty. Jesus said "This is the bread which came down from heaven , not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever." He is speaking in the spiritual sense in both saying he'll give the living water and the living bread. "I speak to you are spirit, and they are life." (v63)
Marie some interesting ideas there, my question is why Paul didn't get it right then in 1 Corinthians 11, the early Church "flubbed" it up, even Luther, Calvin, etc all got it wrong according to your analysis...
To say he was speaking in the spiritual sense does not make sense. How can we eat his flesh in a spiritual sense in order to gain eternal life? Nothing in this passage takes away from the fact that Christ was speaking literally and that those around him understood him literally. Christ even said that many would not believe and he allowed them to walk away in their disbelief!
And Damion makes a good point as well. In order to believe that this is only symbolic, you'd have to be saying that Paul got it wrong, all early Christians got it wrong.... in fact, we got it wrong for thousands of years before recent Christians finally got it right... ?
This is also another perfect example of how Scripture is not entirely self-interpreting and how we need to look at how it's been understood throughout the history of Christianity to get a true understanding.
I simply cannot accept an interpretation that is new to Christianity against an interpretation that is 2000 years old and in which there such evidence!
Marie, please address the issue... Give me one passage that states that this is only symbolic. Tell me what Jesus could possibly have meant if this were only symbolic... Why did he allow disciples to leave him in disbelief for a symbol? How does one profane the body and blood of the Lord by the unworthy taking of a symbol?
If it is only a symbol, what does this mean? 1 Corin 11:29 For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself.
After Jesus said "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man...", John 6:60-66 says 72 disciples left him, saying "This saying is hard. How can anyone accept it?" and they left Him.
The Lord did NOT follow after them, explaining, "Hey, I was ONLY SPEAKING FIGURATIVELY! Come on, guys!"
He let them go, because He wanted us to know that His words were absolutely literal.
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