7 Bible Verses Every Catholic Should Know (7 of 7)

John 6:53 HOLY EUCHARIST

“So, Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of man and drink of his blood, you have no life within you.” If you or I were there, in the year 98AD, and we hear the reading from John’s gospel during a gathering for Eucharist of the first Christians, on a Sunday, the first day of the week, the most distinctive cultural practice, and the presbyter (priest) would speak over the bread and wine and quotes the first line of scripture of this article, how would you and I avoid what Jesus was actually speaking about? The first Christian readers could not have avoided the eucharistic interpretation of John 6:53. They believed it. They practiced this. The Eucharist. We hear the words of Jesus. To be obedient to Jesus: to eat his body and drink his blood, we are being called to participate in exactly what we were there gathered outside of ancient Ephesus in worship. More than two thousand years have passed, and we, the original Christians are still obedient to the words of Jesus. (Source: Lectures of Dr. John Bergsma, St. Paul Center)