If the Holy Eucharist is only bread, why did God institute it at the Last Supper?

Question

He said--"Do this in memory of me" and elsewhere he says "Unless you eat of my body and drink of my blood you have no life in you" Some will say he only meant spiritually but, I think he meant literally too. If he only meant spiritually he would have just said absorb my words in Scripture It says that the flesh is of no account but, it is the spirit--Yes---the Spirit in his flesh and blood. If it remains regular bread then it becomes part of us but, the Heavenly bread works to enable us to become part of him.

Answer 1

1374 The mode of Christ's presence under the Eucharistic species is unique. It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as "the perfection of the spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments tend." In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist "the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained." "This presence is called 'real' - by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they could not be 'real' too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present."

Answer 2

You propose a pretty good question. How important is the bread, and are the bread and wine only symbolic of a spiritual reality, or do their physical presence mean something?

I'm of several minds about this.

Bread is common to practically every culture on earth. So are fruit, fruit juice, or fermented drink such as wine. Therefore, it would be easy for any culture around the world to adapt their "bread and wine" to the Holy Communion rite. Jesus told his followers to make disciples all around the world.

Bread and wine rituals were, and are, also important to Jewish customs such as Friday night Sabbath meals and Passover (with flatbread rather than leavened bread in the Passover feast). The first Holy Communion, according to several versions of the Gospel, happened at a Passover seder.

When Jesus told the crowds in John 6 that they had to eat his flesh and drink his blood, the cannibalistic picture shocked and offended the people. John 6:66 (how appropriate!) says many people stopped following Jesus at that point. It was a while before Jesus at that Last Supper said the bread was his body and the cup was his blood.

I think the key here is intimacy. I've heard it preached from the pulpit that when a Jewish man proposed marriage to a Jewish woman, he'd offer her a drink of wine saying he was offering her his blood (which would come true when she bore his children). Jesus in a way is proposing marriage and intimacy to his disciples, not in an earthly physical way but in a spiritual metaphysical way. After all, scripture says we are the Bride of Christ.

Food that you eat becomes a part of you. Jesus is asking us to let him become a part of us. The food shows how deeply we take him in.

Transubstantiation--the idea that the bread and wine physically change into Jesus' body and blood--doesn't matter much to me; you can believe or disbelieve that if you want. However, the idea of the bread and wine being set apart for a holy purpose, perhaps even to the point of being spiritually infused--does matter to me. Remember, though, when you take communion, that it's not about how good you are, but how good he was, and is. Remember him and his death as you take communion, and, I believe, you'll be taking it worthily.

Answer 3

According the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation after the blessing it no longer bread and wine, it has become, literally, the flesh and blood of Christ, Holy Communion is therefore an act of ritual cannibalism. A proposal some centuries back that the transformation was only symbolic, the doctrine of consubstantiation, was condemned as Heretical, and Christianity remained a religion of blood drinking cannibals. As a Pagan I can only shake my head, these people call US depraved?

Answer 4

Jesus spoke in parables so that believers would discern via the Holy Spirit and non-believers would not. The bread was Jesus body broken. Bread is also used to symbolize the Word, which was also Jesus, the fullness of the spirit. Bread is also sometimes interpreted as the Holy Bible, also the fullness of the Holy Spirit, which is Christ in us.

Answer 5

One can not physically eat/drink of the body and blood of Christ.
If it had been a literal/physical thing, then the disciples would have to have done so, but they did not.
This is a picture of Christ bodily sacrifice on the cross, the shedding of His blood for our sins.
With the heart one believes, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

He is the bread of life.

Answer 6

It is your own belief system that makes the bread into the body of Jesus Christ. In the Roman Catholic Church, You actually pray to God at least the priest prays to God to transform the bread into the actual body of Jesus Christ, but, it is really up to you at the Holy Eucharist to actually believe that you are eating the body of Jesus Christ and drinking the blood of Jesus Christ too.

Answer 7

It is in the understanding and practice of communal celebration of Christ's sacrifice that we celebrate and reaffirm that we are called to be a community of believers, a local expression of the whole body of believers. Jesus Christ offers us personal salvation but does not stop there! In "communion" re-enactments of the last supper (see gospel of Luke chapter 22 in new testiment) during a church service in a church, or in smaller gatherings of belivers in their homes, even secret meetings where churches are not available, belivers joint with their brothers and sisters in faith. It is a physical statement - or action of faith. A step that we take with our bodies to fulfill the command in Luke 22:19. This action based on faith puts our physical, emotional, and spiritual states together in a moment of expectation. It is a time to decide to turn toward God. The dynamic work of the Holy Spirit in our lives takes place when we turn toward faith. This work does not depend upon what religious rites are followed or what specific doctrines we accept but simply on our turning to God and asking for his forgiveness & love.

Answer 8

My dear friend, I'm with you on the Eucharist. But this isn't the place to launch a conversion rally.

Answer 9

I agree with you. Ever since Martin Luther messed things up (because he had chronic constipation), the bread has lost its Body. Return to the True Faith, O ye of stale bread. ;-)

Answer 10

because it is not simply bread.

through transubstantiation it becomes in fact the real body and blood of christ