Roman Catholic Beliefs- Part 1- The Holy Eucharist
Jesus said, "I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly."(John 10:10, Catholic Bible, Douay Version)
This message is to the Catholics and I titled it, "Cathechism Chat". I'm going to be using three books, 'The Holy Bible'- Douay Version; 'A Cathechism for Adults' by Rev. William J. Cogan and 'The Documents of Vatican II' by Walter M. Abbot, S.J. All three of these books are Catholic approved with the Imprimatur.
I'm going to be discussing Lesson 21:The Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist and Lesson 22:The Sacrifice of the Mass out of the catechism book then I'll be tying in some thoughts from 'The Documents of Vatican II'.
Now Lesson 21, point #1,
1. What is the Holy Eucharist?
Ans. The Holy Eucharist is the sacrament in which Jesus Christ is really and physically present under the appearance of bread and wine.
And point #2-
2. Why is it called "the blessed Sacrament?"
Ans. Because it is the most blessed of all sacraments since it is Jesus Christ Himself.
Also in 'The Documents of Vatican II', Ch. 11- 'The most Sacred Mystery of the Eucharist' pg. 154, it says,
"At the Last Supper, on the night when he was betrayed, our Savior instituted the Eucharistic Sacrifice of His Body and Blood. He did this in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout the centuries till He should come again,.."
Now we are going to Lesson 22: The Sacrifice of the Mass' out of the catechism book and read some points out of it.
Point #5 says,
5. Why were the sacrifices of the Old Testament imperfect?
Ans. They were imperfect because "it is impossible that sins should be taken away with the blood of bulls and goats."(Heb. 10:4)
Jumping down to point #12,
12. What is the difference between the two sacrifices?
Ans. The difference is that the Sacrifice of the cross was a bloody sacrifice, while the sacrifice of the Mass is an unbloody one.
And check 'The Documents of Vatican II', pg. 535 towards the end of the second paragraph,
"Through the hands of the priests and in the name of the whole church, the Lord's sacrifice is offered in the Eurcharist in an unbloody and sacramental manner until He Himself returns."
Also in pg. 560 of the same book, last paragraph,
"Priests fulfill their chief duty in the mystery of the Eurcharistic Sacrifice. In it the work of our redemption continues to be carried out. For this reason, priests are strongly urged to celebrate Mass everyday, for even if the faithful are unable to be present, it is an act of Christ and the Church."
Time for a few comments, now when I read my bible, it tells me, "..without the shedding of blood there is no remission (forgiveness)." (Heb. 9:22)
So if I'm going to try to work for salvation through sacrifice then I better get a bloody one but then again if Christ Jesus didn't do a well-enough job when he died on the cross for the world's sins then it is for sure that all the petty little things that we can do all our life long won't accomplish anything. His sacrifice on the cross was a one-time work that will never need to be repeated because he lives forever and interceeds for his people. Read Heb. 7:22-28. Matter of fact, read all of Hebrews. Chapters 7, 9,10.
Now going back to the catechism book, still in Lesson 22, point 9 says,
9. Who offered the first Mass?
Ans. Jesus offered the first Mass at the Last Supper when He changed bread and wine into His body and blood.
First if I read the Bible in context, I see that's not true, not only by reading it in context but by doing a few greek word studies, I get an even deeper verification that it's not true.
Let's read some in John Chapter 6, even though this was a while before the Last Supper but this is what a Catholic priest and some other Catholics used with me, then I will throw out a few thoughts.
READ JOHN CHAPTER 6:51-64
First, I see that he was speaking to the Jews and the Lord God commanded them not to eat any flesh with blood in it (Ck. Lev. 7:26,27 and abstaining from blood was repeated in The Acts Ch. 1:v.29. So we can see a little clearer how this freaked the Jews out that God would command them to abstain from eating flesh with blood in it and then when he came he commanded them to eat his flesh and blood. Weird!
Verses 55-57 talks about eating his flesh and drinking his blood and if we tie this in with v.64, we see that his words are spirit and life. We also need to back track to v.35 of John Ch. 6 which says, "And Jesus said to them: 'I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall not hunger: and he that believeth in me shall never thirst.'"
So we see that to come to Jesus is to eat and to believe on him is to drink and that really speaks to me in regards to the spiritual meaning that he is seeking to bring across. This lines up with 'To The Romans' Ch. 10 very well.
One final thought concerning the body and blood of Jesus before I close. I wanted to throw out a thought concerning the greek that it was written in.
Just two words:
'touto esti' which means 'this signifies, represents or stands for'
and 'touto gignetai' which means 'this has become or is turned into'
When Jesus held up the bread and the fruit of the vine, he said, 'touto esti' or in other words- this signifies or stands for or represents my body and blood.
In Luke 22:19 it says,
"...Do this in commemoration of me." (Douay Version) or in the King James Version, God's true written word it says,
"...this do in rememberance of me."
Catholicism is a lot like the Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and any other cult. Many, many members don't believe all that their church teaches. The Roman Catholic Church is like other false religions, you must believe all of it or you are not really one of them.
If you see yourself as a sinner in need of a Saviour. Come to Jesus, he'll accept you just the way that you are, come into your life, make you brand new, give you the strength and power to overcome sin and live for him. He's awesome, he loves you enough to become a man and die for you so that you can experience his life. Praise his holy name!
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