Making Sense of the Real Presence

[Michie]

Each of us could point to our bodies and say truly but trivially, “This is my body,” but Jesus remarkably does not point to his body but instead to this bread and says, “This is my Body.” What is going on?

This is not as unusual as it may seem. When children play, they point to a toy and say, “This is a duck,” or “This doll is Camp Counselor Dolores.” They don’t point to something that already is what they are identifying; instead they are baptizing the object, setting it aside for a role it will play in their game.

Sovereigns do something similar when they point to pieces of paper and say, “This shall count as money.”

We play along when we take the doll as a person named Dolores or the paper as a means for exchange.

Now there are limits to the reach of the child’s play or the sovereign’s decree. The doll remains a piece of plastic and the money remains a piece of paper. So it counts as something different, even gaining new causal powers (you can use it to buy things), but it also remains what it was (a piece of paper). Within the play, Dolores really is Dolores and money really is money. But the play is limited; outside of the play, Dolores is really a plastic doll and the money is really a piece of paper.

Jesus takes a piece of bread and says, “This is my Body.” We follow along when we take the bread as his Body. The question is how far does this identification go? And here we have to intersperse this reflection: What is the reach of Jesus’ authority?

Continued below.

Making Sense of the Real Presence - Word on Fire

If Christ were not really there, the act of welcoming him under our roofs would be a charade, an empty spectacle.

www.wordonfire.org

 

[JoeT]

Each of us could point to our bodies and say truly but trivially, “This is my body,” but Jesus remarkably does not point to his body but instead to this bread and says, “This is my Body.” What is going on?

This is not as unusual as it may seem. When children play, they point to a toy and say, “This is a duck,” or “This doll is Camp Counselor Dolores.” They don’t point to something that already is what they are identifying; instead they are baptizing the object, setting it aside for a role it will play in their game.

Sovereigns do something similar when they point to pieces of paper and say, “This shall count as money.”

We play along when we take the doll as a person named Dolores or the paper as a means for exchange.

Now there are limits to the reach of the child’s play or the sovereign’s decree. The doll remains a piece of plastic and the money remains a piece of paper. So it counts as something different, even gaining new causal powers (you can use it to buy things), but it also remains what it was (a piece of paper). Within the play, Dolores really is Dolores and money really is money. But the play is limited; outside of the play, Dolores is really a plastic doll and the money is really a piece of paper.

Jesus takes a piece of bread and says, “This is my Body.” We follow along when we take the bread as his Body. The question is how far does this identification go? And here we have to intersperse this reflection: What is the reach of Jesus’ authority?

Continued below.

Making Sense of the Real Presence - Word on Fire

If Christ were not really there, the act of welcoming him under our roofs would be a charade, an empty spectacle.

www.wordonfire.org

I think Dr. Engelland’s argument of pretense in Jesus Christ is reality in our existence is one that only works on Catholics. Thus, to argue that when Christ says of the bread, “this is my Body” it becomes reality out of the reality of God. Engelland says to make ““toútó estin tó sómá mou” into a metaphor is to deny God’s presence in man’s existence. As evidence Englelland cites the centurion’s petition to heal his servant [Cf. Matthew 8:5-10]. Christ needed only command the healing of the servant. The problem I find the reason for eating Christ becomes God made it so; thus a bit weak.

Pneuma is a Greek word most always translated spirit, it’s meaning however is more an inner force that reaches and unites us to God, that which “quickens”. Catholics are one pneuma with the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:17). And, as in John 6:64(63) and in Paul’s Galatians 3 we receive this power from God, you might say as a quickening (which is more often thought of as grace today). Sarx refers to the flesh or the physical body of a person. Thus, in john 6:64 we see it is the spirit that quickeneth: the flesh (sarx, the physical body) profiteth nothing. Christ said, “I have spoken to you, are spirit and life.” If we take this verse to be metaphoric then every time “flesh” was used previously in Chapter 6 is undone. Raised like Christ body, and soul, i.e. essence of Christ requires a quickening. What benefits the soul will indeed benefit the flesh in eternity.

Soma is a Greek word for body as well, however it refers to the whole person, more literally, ‘the thing that is self’, i.e. person, essence. In Matthew 26:26-28; Mark 14:22,24; Luke 22;19-20; and 1 Corinthians 11:24-25 we hear Christ say this is my Body; soma, “the thing that is His Person”, i.e. the real deal, His essence. To be a person requires body, soul, and intellect where in the will resides. Actually, he is saying “toútó estin tó sómá mou”, (this is my Essence) which means His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, the whole thing that is Jesus Christ. And you are told, eat and drink the very essence of Christ; not His symbol, not His metaphors, not an empty cross, one without the Corpus Christi. Likewise, the wine, not grape juice which gives us an emotional fuzzy feeling inside, but the very substance that is life. It’s called the Real Presence of Jesus Christ.

One commandment Christ gives is either partake of the Real Presence, His essence, else you do not have life in you [John 6:54]. Conversely, “He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day." [John 6:55]. Eating symbols gums up the works, doing nothing but putting excess weight on the flesh. People can’t go more than a day, sometimes two, without sustenance. Likewise eating symbols, pictures found on food boxes, may hold me over but it doesn’t seem to help. Rather we need real food that quickens us. I like to say it is the only food we consume actually consumes us, bite by bite.

JoeT