Catholics believe that the Holy Eucharist is really the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ, under the appearances of bread and wine. While this belief can seem strange to non-Catholics, it is backed up by Sacred Scripture, as well as early Christian historical documents.
The Gospels tell us that on the night Jesus was betrayed He shared a Passover meal with the Twelve Apostles, the Last Supper. The Passover is the ritual meal eaten by the ancient Israelites on the eve of their liberation from bondage in Egypt. God instructed them to slaughter a lamb without blemish, put some of its blood upon the doorframe of their houses, and then roast and eat its flesh (Eksodus 12:5, 7-8).
Jesus, whom the Bible calls “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), is the fulfillment of the Passover lamb. Just as the Passover lamb was without blemish, so Jesus is without sin. Just as the people put the lamb’s blood upon the wood of their doorframes, His blood was upon the wood of the Cross.
Net so, the Last Supper is the fulfillment of the Passover meal, eaten as it was on the eve of mankind’s liberation from sin. On this night the Lamb of God gave His own Flesh and Blood to be eaten by the faithful sakramenteel under the form of bread and wine.
Brood neem, seën dit, breek dit, en dit onder die Apostels te versprei, Hy het gesê, “Neem, eet; dit is my liggaam” (Matteus 26:26). Toe neem Hy 'n beker, wat Hy ook geseën het, en aan hulle gegee, sê, “Drink daarvan, als van jou; want dit is my bloed van die verbond, wat vir baie uitgestort word tot vergewing van sondes” (Matteus 26:27-28). Alhoewel Jesus tydens Sy bediening dikwels metafories gepraat het, op hierdie deurslaggewende oomblik het Hy duidelik gepraat. “Dit is my liggaam," Hy het gesê, without further explanation. “Dit is my bloed.” Dit is moeilik om te dink hoe die Here meer direk kon wees.
Jesus se instelling van die Eucharistie by die Laaste Avondmaal vervul Sy beroemde Brood van die Lewe-preek, recorded in the sixth chapter of The Gospel According to Saint John. Hierdie preek word voorafgegaan deur die vermenigvuldiging van brode en vis, in which thousands are miraculously fed from a tiny amount of food (John 6:4). This event is an Eucharistic metaphor, occurring as it does during Passover and involving the same formula Jesus would later use at the Last Supper—taking the loaves, bedank, en versprei hulle (John 6:11). Wanneer die mense die volgende dag terugkom om 'n teken van Hom te eis, onthou hoe hulle voorouers manna in die woestyn gegee is (sien Bv. 16:14 ff.), the Lord tells them,“Ek is die brood van die lewe; he who comes to me shall not hunger, en wie in My glo, sal nooit weer dors kry nie.” (John 6:35).
Al maak Sy woorde die Jode onrustig, Jesus gaan onverpoosd voort, Sy toespraak word geleidelik meer grafies, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; as iemand van hierdie brood eet, hy sal vir ewig lewe; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh” (6:51). Because He equates the Bread that is to be eaten with His Flesh that is to suffer and die, we know He cannot be speaking symbolically, for this would mean His Flesh that suffered and died was merely a symbol!
To this the people ask, “Hoe kan hierdie man vir ons sy vleis gee om te eet?” (6:52). Ten spyte van hul konsternasie, Jesus speaks all the more emphatically,
“Waarlik, waarlik, Ek sê vir jou, as julle nie die vlees van die Seun van die mens eet en sy bloed drink nie, jy het geen lewe in jou nie; wie my vlees eet en my bloed drink, het die ewige lewe, en Ek sal hom opwek in die laaste dag. Want my vlees is waarlik voedsel, en my bloed is waarlik drank. Hy wat my vlees eet en my bloed drink, bly in my, en ek in hom. Soos die lewende Vader my gestuur het, en ek lewe ter wille van die Vader, so hy wat my eet, sal ter wille van my lewe. Dit is die brood wat uit die hemel neergedaal het, nie soos die vaders geëet en gesterf het nie; wie hierdie brood eet, sal vir ewig lewe” (6:53-58).
Non-Catholic Christians, who interpret John 6 symbolically, often point to the saying of Jesus that follows His Bread of Life Sermon: “It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (6:63).
Jesus cannot mean His own Flesh, wel, when He says, “The flesh is of no avail,” because that would mean His death on the Cross was of no avail!
Jesus uses the word “flesh” differently here than He does in the sermon. Here it refers not to the actual body, but to bodily or worldly thinking, reasoning with the flesh instead of the spirit (sien John 3:6, 12; 6:27; Paulus s'n Brief aan die Romeine 8:5-6 and his Eerste Brief aan die Korintiërs 2:14-3:3). Jesus is simply saying that it is impossible to understand His Bread of Life teaching by human reason alone; one needs to think in a spiritual way.
Die viering van die Eucharistie was sentraal in die lewens van die vroeë Christene, wat “hulle toegewy het aan die apostels se lering en gemeenskap, tot die breking van brood en die gebede” (Handelinge van die Apostels 2:42). Paul identifies both the manna and the rock that spewed forth water for the Israelites as Eucharistic metaphors. “Almal het dieselfde bonatuurlike kos geëet en almal dieselfde bonatuurlike drankie gedrink," hy skryf. “Want hulle het gedrink uit die bonatuurlike Rots wat hulle gevolg het, en die Rots was Christus” (Paulus s'n Eerste Brief aan die Korintiërs 10:3-4).
Even more explicitly, he goes on to admonish the Corinthians for their lack of reverence in receiving the Eucharist, skryf:
“Whoever, daarom, op 'n onwaardige wyse die brood eet of die beker van die Here drink, sal skuldig wees aan die ontheiliging van die liggaam en bloed van die Here. 28 Laat 'n man homself ondersoek, en so eet van die brood en drink uit die beker. 29 Want elkeen wat eet en drink sonder om die liggaam te onderskei, eet en drink 'n oordeel oor homself. 30 Daarom is baie van julle swak en siek, en sommige het gesterf” (Eerste Brief aan die Korintiërs 11:27-30).
How could the unworthy reception of ordinary bread and wine amount to a sin against the Body and Blood of Jesus?
Early Church Teachings
We know the Catholic Church’s teaching on the Eucharist is in harmony with how the early Christians understood It. Ancient historical writings from the Apostolic Age forward affirm this. Take the writings of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, byvoorbeeld. Not only was Ignatius a Christian Bishop, but he had learned the faith seated at the feet of the Evangelist John, the one who wrote John 6!
In about A.D. 107, Ignatius was arrested and taken to Rome to die a martyr’s death in the Colisseum.
On his way there, he composed seven letters, which have come down to us and which all reputable scholars agree are authentic.
In sy Brief aan die Smirnaeërs, he uses the Church’s Eucharistic teaching to defend the belief that Jesus had a real human body against the Docetists, who denied He had truly come in the flesh:
“Take note of those who hold heterodox opinions on the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us, en sien hoe teenstrydig hulle opinies is met die verstand van God. … Hulle onthou van die Eucharistie en van gebed, omdat hulle nie bely dat die Eucharistie die Vlees van ons Verlosser, Jesus Christus, is nie, Vlees wat vir ons sondes gely het en wat die Vader, in Sy goedheid, raised up again.” (6:2; 7:1)
Dieselfde Liggaam wat gely en aan die Kruis vir ons sondes gesterf het en uit die dood teruggekeer het, soos Ignatius verduidelik het, is aan ons teenwoordig in die Heilige Eucharistie (vgl. John 6:51).
Sint Justinus die Martelaar, writing around the year 150, only about fifty years after John’s death, gesê dat die eucharistiese brood en wyn ontvang word “nie as gewone brood of gewone drank nie,” want hulle is “die vlees en bloed van daardie geïnkarneerde Jesus” (Eerste verskoning 66).
In ongeveer 185, Sint Irenaeus van Lyon, wie se leraar Sint Polikarpus van Smirna (d. ca. 156) het ook vir Johannes geken, het van die Eucharistie gepraat in die verdediging van die liggaamlike opstanding teen gnostisisme. “As die liggaam nie gered word nie,” het die Heilige aangevoer, “toe, in werklikheid, ook het die Here ons nie met Sy Bloed verlos nie; en die beker van die Eucharistie is ook nie die deelname aan Sy Bloed nie en ook nie die Brood wat ons breek die deelname aan Sy Liggaam nie (1 Kor. 10:16)” (Teen dwaalleer 5:2:2).
In 217, Irenaeus’ student, Heilige Hippolytus van Rome, perceived Proverbs 9:2 as “refer[ring] to His honoured and undefiled body and blood, which day by day are administered and offered sacrificially at the spiritual divine table, as a memorial of that first and ever-memorable table of the spiritual divine supper” (Commentary on Proverbs).