The eucharist

The Eucharist

What is the Eucharist, anyway? Well, Eucharist
is a Greek word that means “Thanksgiving”. It
refers to the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of
Jesus truly present in Holy Communion. What
was once an ordinary piece of bread and an
ordinary cup of wine, has now been changed
(transubstantiated) into Jesus. In other words, just
like Jesus changed the substance of water into
wine at Cana, the priest, through the power of
Jesus given to him at his ordination, changes the
substances of bread and wine into the Body and
Blood of Jesus at the consecration.
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So what are some of the biblical references to this? Well, starting in Genesis 14:18,
Melchizidek, the High Priest, offers bread and wine as sacrifice. The Bible says in
Hebrews 7:17 that Jesus is priest forever, in the line of Melchizidek. Melchizidek is a
biblical type (foreshadowing) of Jesus. A biblical type is an OT person or event that
prefigures a person or event in the New Testament. Jesus offered Himself at the Last
Supper in the form of bread and wine, so He is both priest and victim.

In Leviticus 24:1-8, God directs the Israelites to create the Bread of the Presence (see also
Exodus 25:30, Exodus 35:13, Exodus 39:36, Numbers 4:7, 1 Samuel 21:6, 1 Kings 7:48, 2
Chronicles 4:19, 1 Maccabees 1:22, 2 Maccabees 10:3, Matthew 12:4, Mark 2:26, Luke 6:4,
& Hebrews 9:2:

The LORD said to Moses, "Command the people of Israel to bring you pure oil from beaten
olives for the lamp, that A LIGHT MAY BE KEPT BURNING CONTINUALLY.
Outside the veil of the testimony, in the tent of meeting, Aaron shall keep it in order from
evening to morning before the LORD continually; it shall be a statute FOREVER
throughout your generations. He shall keep the lamps in order upon the lampstand of pure
gold before the LORD continually."And you shall take FINE FLOUR, and bake twelve
cakes of it; two tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake. And you shall set them in two
rows, six in a row, upon the table of pure gold. And you shall put pure

frankINCENSEwith each row, that it may go with the BREAD as a memorial portion to
be offered by fire to the LORD. EVERY SABBATH day Aaron shall set it in order before
the LORD continually on behalf of the people of Israel as A COVENANT FOREVER.

In the Catholic Church, there is a lamp that burns continually near the tabernacle where the
Eucharist is kept, behind a veil, in a golden tabernacle. During the Mass on the Lord's Day,
it is placed on the altar, or table for sacrifice, with incense. And according to Jesus in Luke
22:19-20, the bread that is now become his body (his real PRESENCE) and the wine that is
now become His blood is to be a memorial sacrificial meal for the New Covenant that also
forgives sins. There are LOTS of parallels here between the Bread of the Presence and the
Eucharist.

Another Old Testament type is the Passover. In Exodus 12:7-8, God told Moses to mark
the doors of the Jewish homes with the blood of the slain lamb, using a hyssop branch,
and to eat the lamb, with bitter herbs, as well, so that they and their children could live,
before finally leaving Egypt for the Promised Land. Just so, we are commanded by
Jesus, the slain Lamb of the New Testament, to eat His body and to drink His blood, so
that we can live forever in the real Promised Land, Heaven. Jesus was given bitter
vinegar to drink during the crucifixion, with a hyssop branch. In Christianity, the
Eucharist at Mass has replaced the Jewish Passover meal. The Church is now the new
Israel. In none of the gospel narratives is an ovine passover lamb mentioned during the
Last Supper. Why? Because Jesus is the Passover Lamb for all time. A lot of non-
Catholics say that the Eucharist is only a symbol of Jesus, but no Jewish Passover would
have been a real Jewish Passover unless the REAL Passover Lamb was eaten. That
means that the bread and wine the apostles ate at the Last Supper had to be the REAL
Passover Lamb, or Jesus. And the bread and wine we now consume at Mass is now the
same Eucharist, or Jesus.

Another prefigurement of the Eucharist in the Old Testament is the manna from Heaven.
In Exodus 16:4ff, God feeds the Israelites struggling in the desert with bread from
Heaven. The Israelites were forbidden from storing more than one day’s supply of the
manna (except for the day before the Sabbath), so that they would learn to trust in God’s
providence. Just so, Jesus feeds us with the bread of heaven, His body and Blood, while
we struggle in our lives, which can certainly resemble wandering in a desert at times.
When we say the “Our Father” prayer – “Give us this day our daily bread”- we are asking
God to give us the Eucharist always.

In 1 Corinthians 15:45, Jesus is described as “the new Adam”, meaning that through
Adam sin entered the world, and through Jesus salvation entered the world. However,
there is more to it than that. Adam ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and
died as a result. Conversely, Jesus was hanged on a tree (Acts 10:39); He commanded us
to eat of the fruit of this tree (his Eucharistic flesh) at the Last Supper, so that we will live
forever and never die.

In the New Testament, there are also several types of the Eucharist. At the wedding feast
at Cana, in John 2, Jesus changes ordinary water into wine. Jesus describes himself as
the bridegroom of the Church in Luke 5:34-35. It is no coincidence that His first public
miracle took place at a wedding, where He changed one substance into another, thus
prefiguring the transubstantiation of the wine into blood at the Last Supper.

Another example is the multiplication of the loaves, in John 6:11, where 5000 people
were fed with only 5 barley loaves. Just as thousands were filled with just five loaves,
Jesus feeds millions of believers throughout the centuries with his Eucharistic flesh.

At the Last Supper, in Matthew 26, Jesus held up the bread and said – “This IS my
Body”. Notice He didn’t say –“This represents my Body”, or “This is a symbol of my
Body”. Although curiously questioned by a former President of the US, the word “is”
has a very definitive meaning. Jesus also said that his Body and Blood at the Last Supper
was shed for mankind – Us. So it is also a sacrificial meal, in addition to being a
memorial meal (do THIS in memory of me). And why was it shed? Jesus said it was
for the remission of our sins. So the Eucharist is a sacrificial, memorial, and sin-
forgiving meal for us. The exact scripture is as follows:

Matthew 26:26-28: Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and
gave it to the disciples and said, "Take, eat; this is my body." And he took a cup, and when
he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood
of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Jesus goes to great lengths to tell his believers about the Eucharist. He mentions both the
manna in the desert and the multiplication of the loaves as bread that only provided for
temporal needs. He then explained that His body and blood was "real food", & would
give us eternal life, not just fill our stomachs. The Jews who heard him said that it was a
“hard saying”, and walked away. Why would they walk away and leave someone who
they had seen raise the dead, multiply the loaves, cure the sick, walk on water, etc., if
“eating his body” and “drinking his blood” was only a symbolic statement? They
understood his meaning perfectly, that it was a literal statement, and not symbolic. To
literally “eat someone’s flesh” and to “drink someone’s blood” was a pejorative term in
those days, as seen in Isaiah 9:20, Jeremiah 46:10, and Deuteronomy 32:42.

Jesus couldn’t have been more outspoken about the reality of the Eucharist being His
actual body and blood. The key scriptures are as follows:

John 6: 30-66: So they said to him, "Then what sign do you do, that we may see, and believe
you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is
written, `He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" Jesus then said to them, "Truly, truly, I
say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the
true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven, and

gives life to the world." They said to him, "Lord, give us this bread always." Jesus said to
them, "I AM the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in
me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that
the Father gives me will come to me; and him who comes to me I will not cast out. For I
have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me; and
this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but
raise it up at the last day. For this is the will of my Father, thatevery one who sees the Son
and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day." The
Jews then murmured at him, because he said, "I am the bread which came down from
heaven." They said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?
How does he now say, `I have come down from heaven'?" Jesus answered them, "Do not
murmur among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws
him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, `And they shall all be
taught by God.' Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that
any one has seen the Father except him who is from God; he has seen the Father. Truly,
truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I AM the bread of life. Your fathers ate
the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from
heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I AM the living bread which came down from
heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give
for the life of the world is my flesh." The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying,
"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to
you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you;
he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last
day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and
drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because
of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down
from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever."
This he said in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum. Many of his disciples, when they
heard it, said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" But Jesus, knowing in himself
that his disciples murmured at it, said to them, "Do you take offense at this? Then what if
you were to see the Son of man ascending where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life,
the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are
some of you that do not believe." For Jesus knew from the first who those were that did not
believe, and who it was that would betray him. And he said, "This is why I told you that no
one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father." After this many of his disciples
drew back and no longer went about with him.

An important note is that "I AM" is the name of God, as told to Moses in Exodus 3:14.
Here Jesus uses the name of God to say that "I AM (GOD is) the bread of life." Also
notice above that if you eat Jesus' flesh and drink Jesus' blood, you abide in Him, and He
in you. Why is this important? Because of

John 15:4-7: Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it
abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the
branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from
me you can do nothing. If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and
withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in
me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.

Some people take John 6:63 as the scripture that negates everything that Jesus just said,
because it says “the flesh is of no avail”. But scripture can’t contradict scripture, no
matter how hard it is twisted out of context. John 6:63 talks about “the” flesh, or human
flesh in general. In the rest of John 6, Jesus always refers to the necessity of eating “my”
flesh, which is quite a distinction. To say that the real meaning of the above scriptures is
that "Jesus flesh is useless", as some protestants do, is heresy. We are saved by the flesh
of Christ sacrificed on the cross. And the rest of John 6:63 talks about his words being
spirit and life. “Spirit” is not symbolic, as in “The Father, Son, and Holy “Symbolic”.
The Spirit is just as real as He can be. In other parables that Jesus told, when there was
a question as to the meaning of it, he very carefully explained it, as is the case of the

sower and the seed (Luke 8:11). However, here, he explains nothing; he just turns to his
twelve apostles and asks if they also want to leave him. Why? Because He meant it
literally, not figuratively. There really was nothing to explain!

In 1 Corinthians 10:16-21, Paul says the following:

The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in theblood 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. Consider the
people of Israel; are not those who eat the sacrifices partners in the altar? What do I imply
then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that
what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be partners
with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot
partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.

Here Paul talks about participating in the body and blood of Christ by receiving Holy
Communion. This brings up an important point. The sacrifice of the Mass is not another
sacrifice of Jesus; it is the same one repeated over and over again, through space and
time. The key word is SACRIFICE, as in "This is my body...which is poured out for many for
the forgiveness of sins." Verse 18 above mentions the Jews eating the sacrifice of the altar
being partners. Of course, the old animal sacrifices of the altar have now been replaced
by the one pure sacrifice of the altar, Jesus Christ, as foretold in Malachi 1:11. So many
people just think of Communion as a memorial only, but it is much more than just a
memorial. It is the unbloody sacrifice of Calvary.

Additionally, in verse 21 above, Paul talks about not partaking of the table of demons
AND the table of the Lord. That is why the Church says that one must go to confession
first and be absolved of any mortal sins before receiving Holy Communion.

St. Paul also speaks about the reality of Jesus' body and blood in the Eucharist, in 1
Corinthians 11:23-30:

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night
when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said,
"This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way also
the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as
you drink it, in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup,
you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or
drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body
and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the
cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks
judgment upon himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.

How can one profane the body and the blood of the Lord if the Eucharist is only a
symbol? People can get sick and die if they do not discern the body of the Lord when
they consume the Eucharist. They actually eat and drink judgment upon themselves.
How can this be if it is only a symbol? The Eucharist is 5 parts. It is a

memorial
sacrificial
sin-forgiving
thanksgiving
meal

The effects of taking Holy Communion are as follows:

1. it unites us most intimately with Christ;

2. it increases sanctifying grace in us;

3. it weakens our evil inclinations;

4. it strengthens us in the practice of all virtues;

5. it cleanses us from venial sins;

6. it preserves us from mortal sins;

7. it is a pledge of eternal life.

The bottom line is that Jesus Himself commanded us
to eat His body and to drink His blood, so that we can
have eternal life. By ignoring this command of
Jesus, or by downplaying its significance, we are
putting our very souls at risk, not to mention the fate
of the entire world. The devil hates the Eucharist,
and is trying to desecrate it and degrade it every
chance he gets. By adoring the Eucharist, and by
consuming the Eucharist, we are following God’s
instructions and helping Jesus to “destroy the works
of the devil” (1 John 3:8). Remember - The Bible
says that the devil goes around like a roaring lion
trying to devour us. Evidently the devil wants us
damned, so we can be his food, and spend our
eternity in hell with him. Jesus, on the other hand,
wants to be our food, so we can be blessed and attain
eternal life with Him in Heaven.

Remember, a prayer said from the heart immediately after receiving Holy Communion is
very powerful, because you and Jesus are one flesh at that time, so please don't take the
time lightly after you receive Jesus in the Eucharist. And always remember to first seek
the love of Christ, before asking for something.

The eucharist

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