The Eucharist is foolishness to those who are perishing and destined for damnation but for those being saved, it is the life-giving food. The spiritual food that is the true body and blood of Jesus Christ that will raise us up who believe and follow him to eternal life in his coming kingdom at the end of the age.
It is the bread of life that came down from heaven but many could not recognize it because of the hardness of their hearts in believing the lies heretical doctrine of the Protestant churches who continue to adhere to their Bible Alone doctrine to which they have built their churches. Accordingly, the Protestants will fall and rise on their two sola as their pillars of faith - Sola Scripture and Sola Fide. Both are in fact false.
The question in the minds of the unbelievers who love to call themselves Christians is almost always that the word Eucharist is not in the bible and for them anything that can't be found in the bible is false which is flawed logic. Faith does not depend on the bible alone but on the life of the true church which is the Pillar and Foundation of the Truth. The bible testifies for the church not for itself. However, even if we look up to the standards of finding the truth in the minds and hearts of those who don't believe in the Eucharist even mocking it as just a piece of bread we can see that in the heart of the scriptures the bead of life that is the Eucharist has been thoroughly taught in the scriptures, by the Lord himself and the Apostles and bishops that came later on.
BIBLICAL ORIGIN OF THE EUCHARIST
We should never forget that before the different versions of the bible came to be in different languages most favored of which is English, the original New Testament and the Letters or Epistles of the Apostles of the bible were written in Greek. Quite astonishing because Jesus taught in Aramaic and Hebrew and the Apostles being Jews themselves spoke and taught the same language. But the New Testament was originally written in Greek to Latin to English. Just imagine the differences in the nuances of words used in each of the languages and we can be sure that such differences have caused much misunderstanding for those who read the bible, not on the context by which they are written but based only on the text. We know that text without context would lead us to pretext. These translations have obscured many words in the bible that really resulted in some confusion and dilution of the real and true meaning of the words of God that are in the verses of the bible and somehow the appreciation of the Eucharist and its utmost importance in our faith have been lost.
Now comes the question that Protestants love to ask, "Where is Eucharist in the bible?" The answer is simple, you read the bible in English today, you will not find the word Eucharist but the words "giving thanks" or "thanksgiving" but if you read the bible in the original form of Greek, you will find the word Eucharist. The origin of the Eucharist comes from the Greek noun "eucharistic" or εὐχαριστία in Greek. Its literal meaning is "thanksgiving", something that is offered to God for the purpose of giving thanks. This word in the original bible in Greek can be found but is used not as a noun but as a related verb as in 1 Corinthian 11: 23-24 "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'...(εὐχαριστήσας, in Greek verb), ...he broke it, and said,'This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me', thus the Eucharist is the breaking of bread as a thanksgiving or sacrifice". The word Eucharist, therefore, is biblical as far as the Greek bible is concerned but is not biblical to readers as far as the English bible is concerned because there is no word for Eucharist in the original English language but "thanksgiving". So the original greek eucharistia is translated in the English language as thanksgiving.
The term Eucharist is literal for Thanksgiving which is a rite that is conferred to the Apostles by the Lord himself as the High Priest in the Order of Melchizedek. It is presented in the Didache which is an early instruction similar to Catechism to Christians in the Catholic Church written and used in the church as early as the late 1st or 2nd century. Ignatius too and Justin Martyr famous early Bishops and Christian Theologians and saints have discussed the Eucharist in their apologies. It is also called the Communion, Lord's Supper, and or Breaking of Bread by the nature of the rites of which it is performed by a validly ordained Bishop or Priest as we shall see where the bread or wafer in the eyes of the unbelievers is broken by the Priest as part of the rites.
Our next question is a follow-through, "How is the breaking of the bread a thanksgiving?" To answer this question we need to take John 6:25 70 seriously which is the...
THE BREAD OF LIFE AND THE EUCHARIST
In the gospel believed to be written by St. John the Apostle, he has presented that Jesus is the bread of life, and it's one instance when the Lord spoke literally of his body and blood that must be eaten to have a life instead of just metaphorical allegories. For the early followers of Jesus especially the Jews his commandment that his body and blood must be eaten as true food and taken as a true drink is one hard teaching to follow. They regard it as impossible to do for how can the Jews eat the body and drink the blood of the Lord after it is offered as a sacrifice in thanksgiving to God? Are they pagans that they will eat Jesus like cannibals?
JESUS IS THE BREAD OF LIFE
When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat."
Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.” Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
At this, the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven?” “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
The question of how can this man gives us his flesh to eat is answered in the rites of the Eucharist, the Thanksgiving Sacrifice of the Holy Mass first celebrated by Jesus Christ in the last supper.
MANY DISCIPLES DESERT JESUS
On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.” From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
“You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)
PROTESTANTS ARE LIKE THE UNBELIEVING JEWS
“This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” with that almost all followers of the Lord left him except the very few led by the Apostles. But instead of asking those who left to stay and clarify to them that he was only talking metaphorically of the bread of life which is his true body and blood in the form and appearance of bread, Jesus even asked those who chose to stay, "You do not want to leave too, do you?"
Jesus has repeatedly said and swore with the word "Very truly I tell you", it means absolutely true that for use to be raised up to eternal life, we must feed on the Lord's body and blood and what is this body and blood of the Lord that is true food and true drink?
HOW CAN THE BREAD AND WINE WHICH WE NOW KNOW AS THE EUCHARIST BECOME THE BODY AND BLOOD OF THE LORD?
LORDS SUPPER
In the 1st Letter of Paul to the Corinthians which was the oldest recorded Christian document written by an Apostle around AD 54 it says:
For I received from the Lord what I also handed on 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 [broken] for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, also he took 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” (1 Corinthians 11:23-25).
From the time of the founding of the church by Jesus Christ upon his ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit sometime in 30-33 AD, there was no Letters, Epistles, or Gospels, the church just live by oral instructions from the Apostles, the 70 Disciples who themselves became bishops of the churches established all over the Roman Empire territories and for a long as the Apostles were alive there appeared to be no real need for any formal writings, meaning that the church and the Christians for a good 21 or more lived solely by oral tradition and teachings of the Apostles handed down to the church. It is in the context of the early situation of the church that we can understand the words of St. Paul for saying "For I receive from the Lord what I also handed on to you" although he came in as Apostle later and was never present in the Last Supper. This is in the context that the tradition in the church, the rites of the Eucharist which is the sacrificial offering of the bread and wine as body and blood of Jesus Christ to God in Thanksgiving has been received by Paul from the Lord through the Apostles. One would remember that Paul reported to Peter, the head of the church, and stayed with him for 15 days before he even went on missionary journeys. "Whoever receives you receives me..." so that what St. Paul may have received from St. Peter he imputed as having received from the Lord too.
We also know that what St. Paul has written for the Corinthians has also been written in the synoptic gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke which came out later in about 75-80 AD when the leading Apostles Peter, James, Paul have already died and only John was left to also write the Gospel of the Kingdom as well as his Letters and Revelation. Apparently, the writings were done to ensure that the teachings of the Lord through the Apostles will not be lost since they have come to realize that the expected 2nd coming of the Lord that the early Christians thought will come in their generation will not happen. So they started to write letters, epistles, and the Gospels. Also with the Apostles gone and the other 70s were dying, the church was having problems coping up with heresies creeping into the church threatening the salvation of the members.
And so we can read in the synoptic gospels the same words used by St. Paul:
Here is how Mark related the Eucharist to the Last Supper. And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing, it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many” (Mark 14:22-24).
Now we can connect the Bread of Life of John 6 with the 1 Corinthians 11:23-25 as well as Mark 14:22-24 all pointing the breaking of bread as a ritual for the Eucharist or Thanksgiving.
But are there other writings to support the Eucharist as a Thanksgiving sacrifice? One important piece of writing is the Didache which has survived and is also used by some Protestant pastors and theologians skipping of course that chapter on the Eucharist.
WHAT IS THE DIDACHE?
The Didache (/ˈdɪdəkiː/; Greek: Διδαχή, translit. Didakhé lit. "Teaching") is known to be The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. Its author is anonymous but has been dated by experts and scholars to the first century or about 65-80 AD about the time the Apostles were mostly still alive. It is written in Greek and comes from the Greek word Didoskolos meaning teacher. Its a treatise for Christians on what the twelve apostles taught to the Gentiles concerning life and death, church order, fasting, baptism, prayer, etc. The work is cited by Eusebius who lived from 260-341 and Athanasius (293-373). The Didache is not inspired but is valuable as an early Catholic Church catechism.
This document was discovered in the library in Constantinople in 1873/ It provides today documentary evidence that early church of Christians was gathering together for a common thanksgiving meal called the Eucharist in English today or Thanksgiving, blessing the bread and wine as a pure sacrifice to God in apparent imitation of Christ as the High Priest in the order of Melchizedek.
And what do we find in this authenticated early Christian writing? Chapter 14 which has the heading of the Christian Assembly on the Lord's Day we read "But every Lord's day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice maybe pure. But let no one that is at variance with his fellow come together with you, until they be reconciled, that your sacrifice may not be profaned. For this is that which was spoken by the Lord: In every place and time offer to me a pure sacrifice; for I am a great King, says the Lord, and my name is wonderful among the nations.
What is this thanksgiving and breaking of bread? In Chapter 9 which has a heading Thanksgiving Eucharist, we read, "Now concerning the Thanksgiving thus give thanks. First, concerning the cup: We thank you, our Father, for the holy vine of David Your servant, which You made known to us through Jesus Your Servant; to You be the glory forever. And concerning the broken bread: We thank You, our Father, for the life and knowledge which You made known to us through Jesus Your Servant; to You be the glory forever. Even as this broken bread was scattered over the hills, and was gathered together and became one, so let Your Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into Your kingdom; for Yours is the glory and the power through Jesus Christ forever.
But let no one eat or drink of your Thanksgiving, but they who have been baptized into the name of the Lord; for concerning this also the Lord has said, Give not that which is holy to the dogs. (Matthew 7:6)
Then in Chapter 10 with the heading Prayer after Communion, we read, "But after you are filled, thus give thanks: We thank You, holy Father, for Your holy name which You caused to tabernacle in our hearts, and for the knowledge and faith and immortality, which You made known to us through Jesus Your Servant; to You be the glory forever. You, Master almighty, created all things for Your name's sake; You gave food and drink to men for enjoyment, that they might give thanks to You; but to us, You freely gave spiritual food and drink and life eternal through Your Servant. Before all things we thank You that You are mighty; to You be the glory forever. Remember, Lord, Your Church, to deliver it from all evil and to make it perfect in Your love, and gather it from the four winds, sanctified for Your kingdom which You have prepared for it; for Yours is the power and the glory forever. Let grace come, and let this world pass away. Hosanna to the God (Son) of David! If anyone is holy, let him come; if anyone is not so, let him repent. Maranatha. Amen. But permit the prophets to make Thanksgiving as much as they desire.
IS THE EUCHARIST JUST A SIMPLE REMEMBRANCE AS PROTESTANTS BELIEVE THAT THE BREAD IS JUST AN ORDINARY WAFER?
Again we will have to go back to the First Epistle to the Corinthians written by Paul about 54-55 AD which gives the earliest description of Jesus' Last Supper with the Apostles earlier than the three synoptic gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke. It says and we read ""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.'" 1 Corinthian 11:23-25. Jesus declares it to be his body, he did not say represents his body but a declarative statement, "This is my body".
Interestingly, we have to go back also again to the original Greek of the letter where we read "anamnesis" ἀνάμνησιν that in itself has a much different theological meaning and history than the English word for remembering.
Anamnesis ἀνάμνησιν has a meaning in greek as reminiscence or "memorial sacrifice" in Christianity. It is a liturgical statement in which the Church refers to the memorial character of the Eucharist related to the Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension of Christ. Its origin is the commandment of the Lord in his words "Do this in memory of me" (1 Corinthians 11:24-25 and Luke 22:19) which in Greek is "τοῦτο ποιεῖτε εἰς τὴν ἐμὴν ἀνάμνησιν (anamnesis)" In a wider perspective, it is a key concept in the liturgical theology: in worship, the Christians members of the church participating in the rites of worship recall God's saving deeds. The memorial aspect is not just a passive process but one by which the Christians can actually enter into a Paschal mystery.
Eucharistic Prayers or Anaphoras contain an Anamnesis. This part of the Anaphora is usually placed after the consecration of the bread and wine by the presiding Priest or Bishop after the account of the Last Supper in which are pronounced the Words of Institution spoken by Jesus Christ. It is ended by the sentence "Do this in memory of me", which meaning is thus prepared and immediately taken up by the following Anamnesis:
In the Roman Catholic Church the wording is: "Therefore, O Lord, as we celebrate the memorial of the blessed Passion, the Resurrection from the dead, and the glorious Ascension into heaven of Christ, your Son, our Lord"...We can then conclude that the Eucharist is not an ordinary remembrance but active participation in the Sacrifice of the Lord offering the bread as his body and wine as his blood. The mystery of the Eucharist as Jesus taught in John 6 is that it is the Bread of Life, his true body and blood, the spiritual food given to us that we may have life eternal.
This is the bread that Jesus taught in the Lord's Prayer as we will now see: In the Lord's Prayer, the English translation is Give us this day our daily bread. The word daily seems a repetition of day and does not really conform with the sentence because the original Greek word used is "espiousios" a word that is not found anywhere else in the original scriptures of the bible nor anywhere else in all of ancient Greek literature and so its meaning
Ignatius of Antioch (born c. 35 or 50, died between 98 and 117), one of the Apostolic Fathers, mentions the Eucharist as "the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ", and Justin Martyr speaks of it as more than a meal: "the food over which the prayer of thanksgiving, the word received from Christ has been said ... is the flesh and blood of this Jesus who became flesh ... and the deacons carry some to those who are absent."
CONSECRATED EUCHARIST BECOME TRUE BODY AND BLOOD OF THE LORD
The Catholic Church teaches that the Eucharist once consecrated become the true body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ although the physical feature that we see remains to be bread and wine. By conversion called transubstantiation, each of which is accompanied by the other and by Christ's soul and divinity as long as the Eucharistic species subsist, that is until the Eucharist is digested, physically destroyed, or decays by some natural process (at which point Aquinas argued that the substance of the bread and wine cannot return)
The empirical appearance and physical properties (called the species or accidents) are not changed, but in the view of Catholics, the reality (called the substance) indeed is; hence the term transubstantiation to describe the phenomenon. The consecration of the bread (known as the Host) and wine represent the separation of Jesus' Body from his Blood at Calvary. However, since he has risen, the Church teaches that his Body and Blood can no longer be truly separated. Where one is, the other must be. Therefore, although the priest (or extraordinary minister of Holy Communion) says "The Body of Christ" when administering the Host and "The Blood of Christ" when presenting the chalice, the communicant who receives either one receives Christ, whole and entire.
The Catholic Church sees the basis for this belief in the words of Jesus himself at his Last Supper: the Synoptic Gospel (Matthew 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:19-20) and Saint Paul's 1 Cor 11:23-25) recount that in that context Jesus said of what to all appearances were bread and wine: "This is my body … this is my blood." The Catholic understanding of these words, from the Patristic authors onward, has emphasized their roots in the covenant history of the Old Testament. The interpretation of Christ's words against this Old Testament background coheres with and supports belief in the Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
In 1551, the Council of Trent definitively declared, "Because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread, (John 6:51) it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation The FourhtCouncil of the Lateran in 1215 had spoken of "Jesus Christ, whose body and blood are truly contained in the sacrament of the altar under the forms of bread and wine, the bread being changed (transsubstantiatis) by divine power into the body and the wine into the blood." The attempt by some twentieth-century Catholic theologians to present the Eucharistic change as an alteration of significance (transignification rather than transubstantiation) was rejected by Pope Paul VI in his 1965 encyclical letter Magisterium Fidei. In his 1968 Credo of the People of God, he reiterated that any theological explanation of the doctrine must hold to the twofold claim that, after the consecration:
1) Christ's body and blood are really present; and
2) The bread and wine are really absent, and this presence and absence is real and not merely something in the mind of the believer.
On entering a church, Latin Church Catholics genuflect to the tabernacle that holds the consecrated host in order to respectfully acknowledge the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, a presence signaled by a sanctuary lamp or votive candle kept burning close to such a tabernacle. (If there is no such burning light, it indicates that the tabernacle is empty of the special presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.) Catholics will also often kneel or sit before the tabernacle when the sanctuary light is lit, to pray directly to Jesus, materially present in the form of the Eucharist. Similarly, the consecrated Eucharistic host—the unleavened bread—is sometimes exposed on the altar, usually in an ornamental fixture called a Monstrance, so that Catholics may pray or contemplate in the direct presence and in direct view of Jesus in the Eucharist; this is sometimes called "exposition of the Blessed Sacrament", and the prayer and contemplation in front of the exposed Eucharist is often called "adoration of the Blessed Sacrament" or just "adoration". All of these practices stem from the belief in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, which is an essential Article of Faith of the Catholic Church.
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