explain the catholic faith
GO TO
CATHOLIC CHURCH APOLOGETICS SUBJECT INDEX
If you ever have a question about what you read at IAmOnetruth, please Email me at::
webmaster@iamonetruth.com
For a FREE Trifold on:
Eucharist
Unity of Christians
EUCHARIST VI - THE PLAIN TRUTH FROM THE BIBLE
THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT ST. PAUL AND THE
EARLY CHURCH BELIEVED THAT WHAT THEY
'RECEIVED' AT "THE LORD'S SUPPER"
WAS THE TRUE "BODY & BLOOD" OF JESUS.
In First Corinthians St. Paul is sharing pastoral advice with a new Christian community.

1 Cor 5:4b "When you are assembled, and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord
Jesus,"

When you are "assembled", Paul is speaking of the celebration of the Eucharistic banquet.

St. Paul is basically saying; "When you gather together for Mass! This is what I ask of you."

1Cor 5:7  "Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are
unleavened. For Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed.
8  Let us, therefore, celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and
evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."

Dr. Scott Hahn says that expression right there; "celebrate the festival," refers to the early
Mass.
This Letter of St. Paul's to the Corinthians is a pastoral response to problems in the church at
Corinth.
Paul covers many topics, as though he had a list. One topic is the exclusion of a  man who is
sinning.
Paul also talks of the Mass throughout this Letter. We have the verses that I just made
reference to. He also refers to the "
Real Presence".

St. Paul goes on to tell us about the immeasurable POWER  that we have to carry out God's
Will in our lives through the Grace given to us in the
Holy Eucharist.

In 1 Cor 10:14-16 (RSV-CE)
14  "Therefore, my beloved, shun the worship of idols.
15  I speak as to sensible men; judge for yourselves what I say.
16  The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The
bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?"

Here we see Paul sharing with the believers at Corinth a sure "Truth".
We do not see him trying to convince anyone. He merely states that when the Corinthians,
"assemble as a church"
(1 Cor. 11:18), the "cup" they drink is "the blood of Christ" &  the bread is "the body of Christ".

First Paul tells us that God gives us a way to handle every trial.
Then he speaks of the "Real Presence" in a kind of "matter of fact" attitude.  

St. Paul goes on to install restrictions in the, New 'tradition' (1Cor 11:2).
1Cor 11:22  Do you not have houses in which you can eat and drink?  Thereby, breaking up
the 'festival' which was the Old Testament Passover, now become the New Covenant
Celebration of the Lord's Supper (1 Cor 11:20) .

There was a meal, a teaching and then the sharing of the Body and Blood of the Lord. St.
Paul effectively breaks up the 'eating' part, "eat at home" (1 Cor 11:20-22).  Then goes on to
say, that some believers are getting sick and even dying as a result of not discerning " body
and blood of the Lord."
1Cor 11:28  A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup.
29  For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on
himself.
30  That is why many among you are ill and infirm, and a considerable number are dying.

How can someone get sick or die from eating a symbol?
The Revised Standard Version - Catholic Edition makes sense out of all the other Bibles.
For example; The King James says; 1Cor 11:27  Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread,
and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

Again, I ask, "Guilty of what?"  A "symbol"? I doubt that people would be getting sick and even
dying because they did not realize "discern" that they were eating and drinking a symbol of
the body and blood of The Christ.

The (RSV-CE) 1Cor 11:27  Therefore, whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of
the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of profaning the body and of the blood of the Lord.

That one word "profaning" makes sense out of the whole sentence. If, as we know from 1 Cor
10:14-17, St. Paul is talking of the Real Presence of The Body and Blood of The Lord, then
this verse about 'discerning' and "sickness" and "death", and only then, can all this make
sense.

You can not "profane" or "desecrate" a symbol. Only the True Real Presence of The Body
and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ could be "profaned" and only that could one be "guilty" of.
Eucharist I
EUCHARIST
HOLY COMMUNION
Eucharist VI
Eucharist II
The Mass
Eucharist VII
Eucharist III
The Catholic Mass
Eucharist VIII
Eucharist IV
The Catholic Mass
in the Bible
Eucharist IX
Eucharist V
Eucharist Poem
Reasons to
Abstain From Communion

Bookmark and Share