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Originally Posted by niftydrifty  Ok, I'm back. before we continue, I realize I may be making assumptions about what you mean by "literal," and "literally."
Can you define what you mean by these terms when you speak about the Eucharist? |
When I say the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ is LITERALLY present in the Eucharist. I mean it's his flesh--it's NOT symbolically his flesh--it IS his flesh. There are symbolic associations to the liturgy, but the thing that was bread and wine is NO LONGER bread and wine after consecration, but it still appears physically bread and wine, yet it is literally Jesus' Body and Blood.
Further, the disciples in John 6 who heard Jesus say that His Flesh is True Food--understood him literally. To eat someone's flesh was to ridicule and debase if was meant symbolically--the disciples knew he was not speaking symbolically or metaphorically--they KNEW he was saying they would have to EAT HIM--that is why many left. WE know Jesus meant it literally because Jesus let them leave without clarification. Jesus would not allow a silly misunderstanding to confuse someone to the point that they would turn away from him--Jesus explained errors in understanding when it caused people to question his divinity.
I mean literally in terms of the disciples heard Jesus words and took them in the DENOTATIVE sense.