Jesus’ words are to be understood in the same way that Saint Paul understood them, and as early Fathers of the Church explained them, and as orthodox Christians, East and West, accepted them down to the Reformation, and as they have continued to be understood in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches to our own day, namely, as literally affirming the real presence of Christ’s body and blood under the appearances of bread and wine. The truth of this belief is assured by the promise Jesus gave to His disciples at the Last Supper, that He would send them the Holy Spirit to instruct them in everything (Jn 14.26) and lead them into all truth (Jn 16.13).
Saint Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, says: “Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily sins against the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself first: only then should he eat of the bread and drink of the cup. He who eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks a judgment on himself.
When Saint Paul speaks of “The Body and Blood of the Lord” against which one would sin he is speaking literally of the sacred humanity of Christ. He is not speaking of fellow members of the Church, nor of the poor in particular, or of any other group of Christ’s “mystical body.” None of these are ever referred to as His “blood.”
Saint Paul also admonishes the Corinthians to take care not to approach the Eucharist in a thoughtless manner but to recognize the body when he says: “He who eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks a judgment on himself.” What is this “body” that Christians must recognize when they eat and drink the Eucharist? Is it fellow Christians, especially the poor, who are the body of Christ? No. In the immediate context the only “body” of which Paul speaks is Christ’s Eucharistic body.
In Christ,
Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching
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