The Last Supper and the Eucharist

The Catholic position on the Eucharist is the only one that makes sense, Biblically, historically, religiously, etc. In this quick essay, I want to look at some of the reasons to believe.

First of all, read John chapter 6, probably starting around verse 50. If you continue to read, you will notice many things. I do not have the exact Biblical reference, so this is from memory, so you may want to check for the exact verses. First of all, when explaining what he is doing, Jesus says eat my body, drink my blood. Then he says, for my body is true food, and my blood is true drink. How can true food and true drink be symbolic? They can't.

Secondly, Jesus says, unless you eat my body and drink my blood, you will have no life in you. Another thing to remember is that this is the only time in the Bible when Jesus makes a teaching, then even when people walk away, he does not explain it. A lot of times, people misunderstood what Jesus meant, and he would then proceed to explain it to them, but this time, even though dozens of people left saying they could not accept this hard teaching, Jesus did not stop them, he just let them go. The message is that this was essential, and must be accepted.

Now, let's consider something. The disciples who followed Christ, saw many unblievable things. Turning water into wine, multiplying the loaves and the fishes, Jesus walking on water, the list goes on. It is not possible that after witnessing these things, disciples would leave because Jesus said to eat grape juice and crackers in memory of him. This makes no sense. The only way it makes sense is if this teaching is real, and Jesus really meant his body and blood, which Christians celebrate. Even the apostles had trouble with this, but ultimately none of them left. They accepted this. Jesus also said, do this in memory of me. You can't do something in memory of someone if they're not there. So Jesus was talking about when he was gone. Therefore, we still do this today.

The doctrine of the True Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist is something that was accepted by all the church founders and fathers, including all the apostles, but dont take my word for it. Read what they wrote. Also, it was accepted by all Christians, until a couple of hundred years ago, when more "found it too hard to accept", just as some early disciples who left because of it. Many thing were not accepted when Protestantism reared its head. We, however, must persevere in our beliefs which have been handed down from Christ.