Over a billion of Catholics around the world believed in the power of what they called Eucharist or Holy Communion –
a kind of unleavened bread that they received every time they celebrate their mass. Unlike some Protestant churches that also commemorate the death of the Lord through their own version of the Holy Supper three or four times a year, Catholics have a deep devotion towards this celebration because they believed that this is the summit and the center of Christian life. Hence, Catholics receive the Communion every week or if possible every day according to what their Canon Law states. And unlike the Protestants, Catholics believed that the very bread they received during the mass was transformed into the actual body of the Savior after been consecrated by the priest – a divine process where the bread and the wine transformed completely into the actual body and blood of Christ, “just like Jesus changed the essence of water into wine at Cana”, as some Catholic apologists said. Thus, from simple bread, after the consecration, it becomes a divine substance worthy to be worshiped by all Catholics.
I really admire how often Catholics remember the death of the Lord, but devotion is not enough to please God because there is no other way to please Him but to submit ourselves to His words and righteousness. This also applies to the teaching of how Christians should commemorate Christ’s death. Remembering Him by partaking with the bread and wine is a way to eternal life, and Christ taught us the right way how to partake with it. Unless we adopt the right way, we cannot obtain that glorious promise.
Catholics claim that Christ is in the bread of the Eucharist and that “through the food of the Eucharist, Christ’s eternal life penetrates and flows within human life” and that it is the antidote to death, as John Paul II stated in his encyclical. But the question is, does eternal life connives with acts of idolatry? This is what’s happening today in the Catholic Church. The entire Church recognized the consecrated bread as the real Christ and bow down before it. Said the Cathecism;
Para 1378 Worship of the Eucharist. In the liturgy of the Mass we express our faith in the real presence of Christ under the species of bread and wine by, among other ways, genuflecting or bowing deeply as a sign of adoration of the Lord. “The Catholic Church has always offered and still offers to the sacrament of the Eucharist the cult of adoration, not only during Mass, but also outside of it, reserving the consecrated hosts with the utmost care, exposing them to the solemn veneration of the faithful, and carrying them in procession.
There’s no any biblical record showing that the bread of the Lord’s Supper was laid in a sacred vessel and worshiped, neither apostles consecrated an ordinary bread to be worshiped. And why did the Curia excluded the wine in the service of their Eucharist? They stated that it is not necessary to partake of both species of the Eucharist because the consecrated bread and wine are both the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, and so one is sufficient. The same way they did to the order of the Ten Commandments, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority. So, by the light of the Scriptures, the bread of the Eucharist is rather an object of a mortal sin than a mean of eternal life. The Bread of the eternal life is not in the form of a piece of unleavened bread bought from a baker’s store that when a man eats will “go into the belly and is cast out into the draught”. (Matthew 15:17) What do you think will happen to Him after digestion? Think. Catholic apologists also insist that the bread of the Eucharist is no more an ordinary bread once consecrated by the priest, but like the water of Cana which Christ completely transformed into wine, will transform into the actual body of the Savior. If it is true, then why did the bread still remain in its appearance unlike the water of Cana?
The Bread of life is a LIVING BREAD, not a lifeless piece of cake. When a man eats this, it will dwell within him forever, for it is written, “He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him”. To dwell in Christ and He in us means to let Him live and direct our lives. By accepting His precious sacrifice, His body and His blood, on the cross, our old man also crucified with Him so no more that we are living by ourselves but Christ liveth in us: and the life which we now live in the flesh we live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us, and gave himself for us; this is how we partake with the Bread of life. But concerning to the Eucharist, Catholics believed that when the host is digested it no longer has the appearance of bread, it is no longer the body of Christ. The Lord is only present as long as the appearance of bread is present. So look upon those millions of people who are very much devouted in receiving the Communion? As how often people celebrates the mystery of the Eucharist, the world is becoming more wicked. When Christ said, “I am the bread of life”, it doesn’t mean that He’s turning His body into a literal bread, neither transforming the bread of the Supper into His actual existence. The real bread that comes down from heaven is Christ Himself in His actual divine and human state. How we can receive Him or partake with His body and blood? Are we going to chew and swallow Him literally? No. The Bread of heaven is free for everyone. By coming to Him and by believing in His words, we are actually receiving Him in spirit according to His command. Christ said, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” (John 6:36).