“that which goes into the mouth goes out thru the digestive tract,” Jesus
“The inner man is renewed day by day” Paul
The taking of the Eucharist or “the bread and cup” is a spiritual transaction done in remembrance of Christ’s sacrifice. Whether it was ever blood and flesh or simply bread and wine doesn’t matter one wit in terms of the form of its physical matter but rather the attitude of the one who partakes of the Lord’s supper is what is important.
Can you honestly say that many nominal Catholics who receive Eucharist(even after going to confession) but then live their daily lives much like non Christians do in sinful fashion have actually received Christ via the Eucharist they took? If so, they don’t show any evidence of it. Politicians like Pelosi who say and do the most loathsome things but go Church and pretend like everything is all hunky dory don’t show any evidence of having received anything like a Christ presence thru the Eucharist.
Can a person meet Christ thru the partaking of the bread and cup....well Christ can meet and regenerate a soul anywhere, but that comes thru a working of the Holy Spirit in one’s heart. Countless Christians have encountered the “real presence of Christ” without receiving a wafer or sipping a cup in the physical sense. Yet rest assured that from the moment they believed, such persons indeed have “eaten of the body of Christ and drank of his blood” having been regenerated by the Spirit of God!
The Spirit of Christ is with a Christian day by day, whether he takes Eucharist that day or not. That which is flesh is flesh and that which is spirit is spirit. By acknowledging Christ’s death and resurrection so that we might be saved, and asking for his forgiveness so that we might have a new life in him, we have spiritually “eaten his body and have sipped of his blood”.
We have “consumed Christ” by believing that God has sent him into the world, not to condemn us but to save us! The Lord’s supper is a Holy occurrence we are all encouraged to partake in; a time of deep self reflection and a chance for repentance...but it is the Spirit of God that gives us life!
The Spirit regenerates us and renews our inner man daily. The times set up that we partake of bread and cup are to remind us of that spiritual transaction and we are warned to take such a time of remembrance most seriously.(”do not eat and drink in an unworthy manner lest you eat and drink damnation to your self...for this cause many are sick and some are already asleep”)
We are to share the gospel but Christ “gives of himself”...after the wooing and work of the Holy spirit. Bread and wine without context is just bread and wine;it is the Spirit of God that provides context. That which goes into the mouth goes out thru the digestive tract but Christ we have always with us...”even unto the end of the world”!
Well said.