St. John, Chapt. 6; 63: It Is The Spirit That Quickeneth; The Flesh Profiteth Nothing...
Is this a proof text against the Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist???
No, not at all...
The disciples and the Apostles had just been told by their Savior, that they had to eat His flesh and drink His blood if they wanted to have life in them (that's supernatural grace that leads to eternal life!).
What happened after He explained all this to His followers?
Verse 66: From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him. Verse 67: Then said Jesus unto the twelve, will ye also go away? Verse 68: Then Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.
The entire chapter of St. John, explains the whole scenario of Christ telling His followers that He is the Bread from Heaven, and they must eat His body and drink His blood in order to have eternal life in them. The negative proof of what happens if they don't eat His flesh and drink His blood, is that they will have no life in them.
So now most of the disciples couldn't take this astounding, divinely revealed news from Our Lord, and they walked no more with Him. Note, that Our Lord doesn't call them back to tell them that what He just said was a metaphor, and, of course, they didn't have to actually eat His flesh and drink His blood, after all, that would be cannibalism, right?
Christ allowed the non-believers to continue to walk away, and basically, left them to their own devices, and, at the end of their lives, they probably were not saved... And because we don't know if any of them came back, eventually -- that possibility is not mentioned in Scripture -- we have to leave their fate up to God...
But let's get back to verse 63...It Is The Spirit That Quickeneth; The Flesh Profiteth Nothing...
Was Christ talking about His own flesh? No. Remember He said: the flesh profiteth nothing...
How could it be His own live flesh? He just went through the whole explanation of why we must eat His flesh and drink His blood!
Think about it... It would be the height of blasphemy to say the living flesh of Christ doesn't profit us. If Christ's flesh had profited us nothing, He would never have taken flesh for us, nor died in the flesh for us!!
Further, dead flesh separated from the spirit, in the gross manner they (the non-believing disciples) supposed they would eat His flesh, would profit nothing!
I think what it all boils down to, is that we have to use a little God-given common sense here, and admit that we Catholics do, in deed, receive much more than a "piece of bread" when we eat the Eucharist...
I invite all my dear Protestant friends to come to the true "Last Supper" and partake of the Holy Eucharist, the body and blood, soul and divinity of Our Lord, and Savior, Jesus Christ, that you too will have life in you; sincerely, I do invite you!!
Viva Cristo Rey! Fr. Miguel Pro, pray for us!
Gene DeLalla
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