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Blue Collar Apologetics Session 6Handout Material

“The glory of God is man fully alive” (St. Irenaeus, Lyons).

Website infohttp://www.biblechristiansociety.com/home.php http://www.saintteresahutchinson.com https://www.catholic.comhttp://www.ofcuniversity.com

“The Catholic faith is like a lion in a cage. You don’t need to defend it. You simply need to open the cage door.”

Rules of Engagement

1. Pray2. Learn more about your faith daily…small steps make big changes over time3. Do not be afraid - Luke 5:10 10 (RSV2CE) and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men.”4. View questions as opportunities5. Don’t get frustrated6. Don’t be afraid to say, “I don’t know”

Apologetic Strategies

1. The “ignorant Catholic”2. Be “Aw” fensive and not “Uh” fensive3. It’s the principle of the thing4. But that’s my interpretation

Reminder of 2 Essential Layers of Foundation

1. The Bible is a Catholic book!2. There truly is an answer for every intelligible question about our Catholic faith – it is your responsibility to go find it.

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Today we will discuss the very core of our Catholic faith, the Eucharist. Protestants have many names for it, the Lord’s Supper, Communion, or Holy Communion…but we Catholics call it the Eucharist. Right out of the box Catholics and members of the Eastern Orthodox Church believe that the Eucharist is the real Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, not just symbols of Christ. We believe at each Mass we are eating the flesh of Christ and drinking His blood, and that we experience both Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead, as the eternal sacrifice and celebration of His victory over sin, death, the grave, and hell itself.

The first scripture John Martignoni shared from Malachi is one I had not thought of before. Malachi 1:11 (RSV2CE) 11 For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts.

There is only one church that could possibly fulfill this prophecy, the Catholic Church. What other church offers in their liturgy a pure offering, around the world, with incense? Jesus is the only pure offering this prophecy could be talking about, and our church is the only one that offers the Eternal Sacrifice of Jesus at

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each Mass, and we do that in practically every nation on earth. Remember the meaning of the word “nations” in the Bible means the “gentiles”, the non-Jews. The Catholic Church over the past 2000 years has made the name of Jesus great among all the nations, and we are the only church that celebrates Mass daily in every time zone around the globe, “from the rising of the sun to its setting.” I recognize this passage because this scripture is a familiar part of our Eucharistic prayers, “From the rising of the sun to its setting your name is great among the nations.”

Now let’s look at another critically important passage about the “Real Presence of Jesus” in the Eucharist found in John 6:53-55. John 6:53–55 (RSV2CE) 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; 54 he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.”

These are strong words, very strong words. Symbolic is not the first concept that comes to mind when you read this passage. I know I read this passage many times, but with my Protestant glasses on, I couldn’t see or hear this, “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” Does that sound a little radical to you? I read it now and wonder how could I have missed this, I had to have been blind…for a long time I did not want to hear the

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truth of this passage, or how about this one, “he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.”

Couple those verses with Jesus’ exact words at the Last Supper found in three Gospels, Matthew 26, Mark 14, and Luke 22, “this is My body, this is My blood.”

The Apostle Paul was not there the night of the Last Supper, but he claims that Jesus taught him personally the same words about the Eucharist that all the other Apostles had received that night, the “is-ness” of this passage is unmistakable.

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1 Corinthians 11:23–29 (RSV2CE) 3 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also the chalice, after supper, saying, “This chalice is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the chalice, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. 27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself.

Verse 27 and 29 are really telling, “27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord.” A little common sense would ask this question, how can you eat the body and blood of Jesus in an unworthy manner and be guilty of profanity, if it is not His body and blood, if it’s only symbolic? Verse 29 speaks of wrongfully “discerning” the body and blood, bringing judgement on himself. That says to me, if you don’t recognize, or discern, that it is in fact the real Body and Blood of Jesus, judgement will come upon you. When you weigh all these scriptures together, that weight scale begins to tip heavily in the direction of the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, not just symbols.

Back to John chapter 6. Many Protestants will point to verse 63 to prove that Jesus was speaking symbolically, John 6:63 (RSV2CE) 63 It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.Yes, and amen says the Catholic, these words are Spirit and life. Did you notice this word Spirit, is capitalized? Why, because the Holy Spirit is the person being spoken of here, and the Spirit of God is real, just as real as the flesh and the blood of Christ at the Mass. We do not say, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Symbol. Is the life being talked about here real…it better be, or our whole life in Jesus is not real.

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A symbolic understanding of verse 63 really falls apart when many of His disciples leave Him in verse 66, after His so-called explanation. If His words are only symbolic, then why did they think His teaching was so hard, and why did they leave Him even after Jesus explained His words were Spirit and life? All three groups mention in this chapter, the Jews, the large group of disciples, and the original twelve all take Jesus literally, not symbolically. Verses 67-69 are further evidence of this. John 6:67–69 (RSV2CE) 67 Jesus said to the Twelve, “Will you also go away?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

Another thought, why would Jesus allow so many of His disciples to leave if what He said was not to be understood literally. Surely, He would have clarified what He meant and declared His words to be symbolic in the face of seeing so many disciples turn their back on Him. Instead He doubles down on His own disciples and asks if they are going to leave too. The symbolic understanding of this passage is at the very least a stretch, and very hard to believe in the face of all this evidence of being literal.

Let’s flip this discussion on John 6 and assume that Jesus is speaking symbolically, then what He is saying really makes no sense. John 6:53–55 (RSV2CE) 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man

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and drink his blood, you have no life in you; 54 he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.

Here is a good question to ask, how does eating His flesh and drinking his blood symbolically give eternal life. Having a cracker and a tiny glass of grape juice, which is how many Protestant churches do communion, gives us eternal life? Most evangelicals would not agree with that, they would say only the “real” Jesus can give eternal life. Than ask our separated brothers, is the eternal life being talked about here, symbolic eternal life, or is that real eternal life? And does that mean that Jesus is going to symbolically raise us up on the last day to symbolic eternal life?

Verse 60 also makes no sense if Jesus was talking symbolically. Read this verse again, John 6:60 (RSV2CE) 60 Many of his disciples, when they heard it, said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” Think about it, you can only say this is a hard saying, only if you take it literally. How many Catholics have been lured away from the Church by Protestants who look at this verse and see this as a hard saying, and challenge Catholics, “you don’t really believe that do you?” And eventually that are talked into leaving the Catholic Church just like that large number of disciples left Jesus, who also thought this was a hard saying back then.

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Here is where it really gets interesting, let’s look at the context of this entire chapter. Tell me if you believe this passage is symbolic or literal. John 6:9–14 (RSV2CE) 9 “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what are they among so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place; so the men sat down, in number about five thousand. 11 Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, that nothing may be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten. 14 When the people saw the sign which he had done, they said, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world!”

Was this a symbolic feeding of the thousands? Protestants don’t believe this passage is symbolic, so why don’t they take the rest of the chapter literally? Many of these same disciples that left Him that day had seen Him walk on water, raise people from the dead, heal the sick, and cast out devils, was any of all this symbolic to them…no! They saw all these as real happenings, they believe they happened literally. I can’t believe that those disciples that left Him that day, would have left Him over a symbolic understanding of the Eucharist. No, I have no

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doubt that they took Him literally that day. If this was a parable or a metaphor, Jesus would have explained it to His disciples later, as He did so many other times. This was not a parable, and this was not symbolic.

One last point, Jesus said in verse 51, the bread I will give you is my flesh.John 6:51 (RSV2CE) 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.” If we say that was a misunderstanding, and now call His flesh symbolic, are we not also saying that the flesh that He gave on the cross is symbolic too. He clearly says here this bread, the bread of the Eucharist, is my flesh, and if we deny that it really is His flesh, not real but symbolic, then we open the door to believing that the flesh He laid down on the cross is not real as well, and that is heresy. And if that flesh was not real, then did Jesus “really” die on the cross? You can’t have it both ways. This is my body, this is my blood, yes and amen we must proclaim. Catholics, we need to lovingly stand our ground with this most fundamental truth of our faith, and share the Miracle of the Mass to all who will listen.