Eucharist: the sacrament of Holy Communion; the sacrifice of the Mass; the Lord’s Supper.

The disciples recall Jesus telling the Jews “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” Why did Jesus talk like this? He could have said, “There will come a day when I will be nailed to the cross. But after three days I will rise from the dead and prove that I am God.” The Jews would have understood this.

John 2:19

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

The Jews had another temple in mind. A temple built by human hands. You can hear it in their response. “It has taken 46 years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in 3 days?” So did Jesus clarify this to the Jews? No. But you know they thought back to that day after His resurrection. 

John 2:20

The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?”

Jesus says, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” This totally freaked the Jews out. Look at their response. The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?” So did Jesus clarify this to them? No.  

John 6:51-52

 I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.” Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?”

The devil challenged Jesus to prove he was God in the flesh. “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

Jesus answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” 

Matthew 4:3-4

And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’”

So should I eat food and tear the pages out of my bible and eat them too? No. Jesus took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” Were they literally eating His flesh like cannibals and drinking his blood like vampires? No. Are we to believe Jesus was holding his own body (bread) in his hands? No. However, when Roman Catholics celebrate communion, they believe that the bread is literally the body of Christ and the wine is literally the blood of Christ. 

I was raised in the Roman Catholic church. Growing up as a Catholic, I believed that the bread and wine were symbolic of His body and blood, but this was contrary to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. Roman Catholics believe if Jesus wanted us to know that the bread and wine were symbols he could have said, “This bread represents my body.” That is why I pointed out the previous verses in John and Matthew. He didn’t always spell things out. Jesus planted words in such a way that would provoke people to think deep. 

My dad used to take me on trips to New Hampshire to visit his sister. I recall attending a Catholic Church and taking communion on one of those trips. 

The priest proclaimed, “The body of Christ.” 

I held out my hand and responded, “Amen.” 

But when he handed me the bread is wasn’t the typical round wafer that I was used to. The priest handed me a little piece of bread, like something you would buy at the grocery store.  

I'm thinking to myself "Not cool. This is not how we do church in Massachusetts"

I didn't eat the bread. When I went back to the pew, I must have had a strange look on my face. 

My dad asked, “Are you ok?” 

I held out my hand and showed him the bread. This was even more disturbing. because he asked me where i got it. Apparently he got a circular wafer and I did not. So my dad held onto the bread and  after the service he went to the priest and showed him the bread. 

The priest smiled and said, “Oh. We ran out of wafers so we had to substitute with bread.”

 - Michael Hoover