Catholic Eucharist - Del
From Del on Eucharist - April 2 2009 - Catholic Church
I'm just sending FIRST this one paragraph - which I found interesting.
I spoke to Penny before I found this reference - and I was pleased
that I told her the same thing. When you analyze what the Eucharist
is - it does give them eternal life.
Just think, what a language! It is not to be wondered at that those
who do not understand the meaning connected with the name Son of man,
are offended because of this. It sounds not only unreasonable, but
also loathing. The Jews understood His words in a natural sense, and
the Christians of our time, according to the Catholic Church's mode of
explanation, spiritualize it so that Christ's meaning disappears
entirely. Both are equally far from the truth. The church applies the
meaning to the bread and wine in the Lord's supper, but that would
then indicate that all who go to communion would have everlasting life
in them. Would that be to "labour for the meat that perisheth not"?
No. Those who speak thus show thereby that they neither know the Son
of man nor of what they speak.
OUT OF LOGOS - page 17 - BELOW
When Israel journeyed in the wilderness, Christ accompanied them as a
rock of life out of which they all drank. This shows also that the
Logos-power, which had escorted them thus far, directed and carried
out the powers through which the divine attributes of God were
manifested to them. In His conversation with the Jews concerning this
very Logos-power, the Lord says: "Labour not for the meat which
perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life,
which the *Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father
sealed." (John 6: 27.)
He said this on account of the power that had been displayed when with
five loaves of bread and two fishes He fed about five thousand
persons. The Logos, or creative power, by means of which the divine
element of germination enclosed therein so convincingly and
faith-strengtheningly manifested itself, demonstrated to them all that
a thorough linking with and working for this power would ultimately
immortalize them. The Son of man represented this relation,
manifesting itself just then when two fishes and five loaves of bread,
being in themselves as corruptible as the people who ate them,
nevertheless satiated many thousands of hungry beings. The natural
life depends on the visible food, therefore, as a matter of course, it
craves for it. However, it does not matter how much food is gathered,
it is unable to perpetuate the natural life, hence Christ admonishes
to labor for meat which the Son of man has to give.
This activity, which He also calls faith or the work of faith, He
further explains. The Jews asked Him: "What shall we do, that we might
work the works of God?" (John 6: 28.) To this the Lord replies: "This
is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent" -- the
Son of man. Then follows the strange explanation concerning the faith
in the Son of man, offending both the Jews and the disciples, and it
has continued to do so down the course of time, not the least in our
days. This is what He says: "Verily, verily, 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 eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal
life; and I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6: 53, 54.)
Just think, what a language! It is not to be wondered at that those
who do not understand the meaning connected with the name Son of man,
are offended because of this. It sounds not only unreasonable, but
also loathing. The Jews understood His words in a natural sense, and
the Christians of our time, according to the Catholic Church's mode of
explanation, spiritualize it so that Christ's meaning disappears
entirely. Both are equally far from the truth. The church applies the
meaning to the bread and wine in the Lord's supper, but that would
then indicate that all who go to communion would have everlasting life
in them. Would that be to "labour for the meat that perisheth not"?
No. Those who speak thus show thereby that they neither know the Son
of man nor of what they speak.
The flesh and the blood of the Son of man signify something entirely
different than ordinary human flesh and blood or corruptible bread and
wine. When it is held before the mind that "Logos was made flesh,"
then one can understand what the Lord means. The Word which we read
and handle represents the flesh of the Son of man, and the
Spirit-power linked with this Word of which faith is partaker,
represents the blood of the Son of man. As the bread and the fishes in
the miracle Christ performed represented Logos and the divine power
therewith connected, so also in this case.
The one who interestedly and in life and practical development
embraces the truths of the Scripture, works the work of God. By means
of this he receives in his being the eternal element of germination in
order that he, when the Son of man carries out His final act, may be
immortalized.