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The following references demonstrate that the Holy Communion or the Blessed Eucharist really, truly and substantially Christ (body, blood, soul and divinity) under the appearances of bread and wine.
(The hyperlinks will open an online NAS bible to the chapter referenced)
- Scripture
Major Texts
Matthew. 26:26-28; Mark. 14:22,24; Luke 22;19-20; 1 Cor. 11:24-25– The Institution Narratives where Christ says "This is my body" and "This is my blood."
John 6:51 - "I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh."
John 6:53-56– "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 yourselves. "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. "For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him."
1 Cor. 10:16-17– "Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread."
1 Cor. 11:27-32– "Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world."
Minor Texts
Matthew 6:9-13; Luke 11:3– Super-substantial bread
1 Cor. 10:1-6– "For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved."
Luke 24:30-31,35– Jesus reveals himself to this disciples in the "breaking of the bread."
- History / Tradition
- "They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again." (Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to Smyrnaeans, 7,1 written ca AD 110).
- "For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh" (Justin Martyr, First Apology, 66 written ca. AD 165).
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- "[T]he bread over which thanks have been given is the body of their Lord, and the cup His blood..." (Irenaeus of Lyon, Against Heresies, 4.18.4 written ca. AD. 180).
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- "He acknowledged the cup (which is a part of the creation) as his own blood, from which he bedews our blood; and the bread (also a part of creation) he affirmed to be his own body, from which he gives increase to our bodies." (Irenaeus of Lyon, Against Heresies, 5.2.2 written ca. AD 180).
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- "But what consistency is there in those who hold that the bread over which thanks have been given is the Body of their Lord, and the cup His Blood, if they do not acknowledge that He is the Son of the Creator of the world..." (Irenaeus of Lyon, Against Heresies, 4.18.2 ca. AD.180).
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- "For the blood of the grape--that is, the Word--desired to be mixed with water, as His blood is mingled with salvation. And the blood of the Lord is twofold. For there is the blood of His flesh, by which we are redeemed from corruption; and the spiritual, that by which we are anointed. And to drink the blood of Jesus, is to become partaker of the Lord's immortality; the Spirit being the energetic principle of the Word, as blood is of flesh. Accordingly, as wine is blended with water, so is the Spirit with man. And the one, the mixture of wine and water, nourishes to faith; while the other, the Spirit, conducts to immortality. And the mixture of both--of the water and of the Word--is called Eucharist, renowned and glorious grace; and they who by faith partake of it are sanctified both in body and soul." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, 2 written ca. AD 202).
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- "Then, having taken the bread and given it to His disciples, He made it His own body, by saying, 'This is my body,' that is, the figure of my body. A figure, however, there could not have been, unless there were first a veritable body…He did not understand how ancient was this figure of the body of Christ, who said Himself by Jeremiah: 'I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter, and I knew not that they devised a device against me, saying, Let us cast the tree upon His bread,' which means, of course, the cross upon His body. And thus, casting light, as He always did, upon the ancient prophecies, He declared plainly enough what He meant by the bread, when He called the bread His own body. He likewise, when mentioning the cup and making the new testament to be sealed 'in His blood,' affirms the reality of His body. For no blood can belong to a body which is not a body of flesh. If any sort of body were presented to our view, which is not one of flesh, not being fleshly, it would not possess blood. Thus, from the evidence of the flesh, we get a proof of the body, and a proof of the flesh from the evidence of the blood." (Tertullian, Against Marcion, 5.19 written ca. AD 212).
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- "For because Christ bore us all, in that He also bore our sins, we see that in the water is understood the people, but in the wine is showed the blood of Christ...Thus, therefore, in consecrating the cup of the Lord, water alone cannot be offered, even as wine alone cannot be offered. For if any one offer wine only, the blood of Christ is dissociated from us; but if the water be alone, the people are dissociated from Christ; but when both are mingled, and are joined with one another by a close union, there is completed a spiritual and heavenly sacrament. Thus the cup of the Lord is not indeed water alone, nor wine alone, unless each be mingled with the other; just as, on the other hand, the body of the Lord cannot be flour alone or water alone, unless both should be united and joined together and compacted in the mass of one bread; in which very sacrament our people are shown to be made one, so that in like manner as many grains, collected, and ground, and mixed together into one mass, make one bread; so in Christ, who is the heavenly bread, we may know that there is one body, with which our number is joined and united." (Cyprian, Epistle 62(63),13 written AD 253).
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- "Having learn these things, and been fully assured that the seeming bread is not bread, though sensible to taste, but the Body of Christ; and that the seeming wine is not wine, though the taste will have it so, but the Blood of Christ; and that of this David sung of old, saying, And bread strengtheneth man's heart, to make his face to shine with oil, 'strengthen thou thine heart,' by partaking thereof as spiritual, and "make the face of thy soul to shine"" (Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, 22.8 written ca AD 350).
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- "For as to what we say concerning the reality of Christ's nature within us, unless we have been taught by Him, our words are foolish and impious. For He says Himself, My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in Me, and I in him. As to the verity of the flesh and blood there is no room left for doubt. For now both from the declaration of the Lord Himself and our own faith, it is verily flesh and verily blood. And these when eaten and drunk, bring it to pass that both we are in Christ and Christ in us. Is not this true? Yet they who affirm that Christ Jesus is not truly God are welcome to find it false. He therefore Himself is in us through the flesh and we in Him, whilst together with Him our own selves are in God." (Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity, 8.14 written ca. AD 359).
"Let us then in everything believe God, and gainsay Him in nothing, though what is said seem to be contrary to our thoughts and senses, but let His word be of higher authority than both reasonings and sight. Thus let us do in the mysteries also, not looking at the things set before us, but keeping in mind His sayings. For His word cannot deceive, but our senses are easily beguiled. That hath never failed, but this in most things goeth wrong. Since then the word saith, 'This is my body,' let us both be persuaded and believe, and look at it with the eyes of the mind. For Christ hath given nothing sensible, but though in things sensible yet all to be perceived by the mind. So also in baptism, the gift is bestowed by a sensible thing, that is, by water; but that which is done is perceived by the mind, the birth, I mean, and the renewal. For if thou hadst been incorporeal, He would have delivered thee the incorporeal gifts bare; but because the soul hath been locked up in a body, He delivers thee the things that the mind perceives, in things sensible. How many now say, I would wish to see His form, the mark, His clothes, His shoes. Lo! Thou seest Him, Thou touchest Him, thou eatest Him. And thou indeed desirest to see His clothes, but He giveth Himself to thee not to see only, but also to touch and eat and receive within thee." (John Chrysostom, Gospel of Matthew, Homily 82 written ca. AD 370).
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- Summary
Protestantism makes a distinction between Positional
Sanctification and Actual Sanctification. Scripture
commands that we be fully actually sanctified to
enter into Heaven. We are actually sanctified in this
life by God’s grace. If we depart this life not
completely sanctified, God will complete what he
has begun in us. This state or place of purification
is what Catholics call Purgatory. Just as the
purification here on earth is relieved by our prayers.
Our prayers also aid those who undergo purification
after death. Therefore, prayers for the dead
demonstrate the belief in God’s final purification of
the righteous. This was part of the Faith Jesus
inherited from the Jews in the First Century. Luther
denied the existence of Purgatory and lowered the
Deuterocanon from inspired Scripture to an
intermediate level of Apocrypha. They were still
considered holy, but Protestants would not admit
them into argument. Later, these books lost this
respect and were eventually removed from most
Protestant Bibles. This removal, in my opinion,
constitutes a deformed understanding of the
Judaism of Jesus’ day and consequently a deformed
understanding some of the teachings of the New
Testament. Passages in the NT that speak about
Purgatory seem to be clear references to Purgatory
for Catholics and Orthodox are missed by
non-Catholics who use a truncated Old Testament.
Explanation of Purgatory; CC 1030 - 1032
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