Do we Catholics really eat the body of Christ?

I would be lying if I told you that I always believed in the changing of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. In fact it was only recently, after much reading, it all began to come together for me. I had 4 questions to which I needed answers and here is what I found:

Why did Jesus need to give us his body?

In order to understand this, we need to go to the very beginning, to Genesis. It was in the garden of Eden that man's obedience to God was tested, Jesus was also in a garden when his obedience to God was tested, the garden of Gethsemane. Adam failed the test and ate the fruit of the forbidden tree, Jesus chose the right tree, he chose the tree of life. The cross was also called the tree in the Bible, "cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree" (Galatians 3:13). Before sin, Adam walked with God in the garden and seen the face of God but after he sinned he hid from God's presence. Sin brought distance between God and man, it also brought death into the world. Jesus by his obedience reverses what the old Adam did. He bridges the gap between God and man by making a way for God to abide in man through the eating of his flesh. His death and resurrection also gives us the promise of eternal life. What is life? Jesus will say in John 6:53 "Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you."

This shows God's love in wanting to repair the damage caused by man, so that God and man can once again share a personal relationship and man can enjoy the fullness of life.  

How did Jesus give us his body to eat?

The answer to this lies in understanding the connection between Moses and Jesus. New Testament writers, especially the gospel of Mathew show Jesus as the new and greater Moses, for good reason. Moses was a saviour of his people just as Jesus became the saviour of the world. At the time of Moses' birth the king of Egypt ordered the killing of the first born sons of Hebrews as he feared the Hebrews would become too powerful whereas during the time of Jesus, Herod ordered the killing of children as he feared the birth of the King of the Jews. Moses performed signs and wonders but they didn't believe him, Jesus performed greater signs and wonders but no one believed him either. Moses fasted for 40 days on top of Mount Sinai after which he brought down the law. Jesus also fasted in the dessert for 40 days and soon after that he gives a new law, the beatitudes and goes on to say that he is not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. When Moses encountered God on the Mountain his face became radiant, so much so that he had to cover his face with a veil, this is similar to Jesus' transfiguration where his face shone like the sun. You see the connection?

however I would like to focus on the incident when Moses takes the people out of slavery and they are complaining because they are hungry and fear that they will perish, so he prays and God gives them manna from heaven in the morning. It tasted like wafer mixed with honey. Why honey? The Promised land was a land flowing with milk and honey, so the manna was a foretaste of the Promised land. In the same way the Eucharist is a foretaste of heaven for us, because we are also on a journey to our Promised Land which is Heaven. The Israelite's were not just given miraculous bread from heaven but since they wanted meat, God sent them quails in the evening. 

If God could send them bread and flesh from heaven then, why do we doubt he can send it to us now in the form of the Eucharist. Jesus the new Moses, multiplies the loaves and gives the people miraculous bread in John chapter 6 after which they begin to ask him for more signs. It is then that he tells them that he will give them his flesh. This would have been extremely difficult for the Jews to listen too. They must have been barfing as they have very strict dietary laws. They could eat only certain meats and human flesh was out of the question. You would think that Jesus having seen their reaction would back down or clarify himself saying he meant it symbolically or metaphorically but he doesn't he makes matters worse for them. He goes on to tell them that they should drink his blood or they will have no life in them. Jews believed that there was life in the blood and hence they would never have food with blood in it. Jesus however doesn't seem to back down, he repeats himself even more strongly over and over again, so much so that many of his own disciples turn away from him because they found it too difficult to digest such teaching. Jesus seems to be saddened by the fact that all have deserted him and he asks Peter if he would like to go away too. It seems like Peter considered the option of leaving as he responds "Lord to whom can we go?" However, there seems to be a change of heart because inspite of the fact that he didn't understand the teaching, he trusted the teacher and that was enough for him. That's an important lesson for all of us, who find this teaching of Jesus difficult to digest. 

From this we see that just as God provided manna and meat from heaven in the past, he makes available his Son in the form of living bread from heaven, so that we might believe and not perish. It is not the crucified body that we eat but the risen and glorified body. 

When did he provide us with his body?

We cannot talk about the Eucharist without talking about the Last supper which was Jesus' final Passover meal on earth. Every Passover meal is divided into 4 parts, symbolized by the 4 cups of wine. 

-1st the cup of sanctification after which the food is brought out but not eaten

-2nd the cup of proclamation. Here the head of the table, in this place Jesus would recount the first Passover where the Israelite's took a lamb and killed it without breaking any of its bones, collected its blood in a basin, put its blood on their doorposts with a hyssop branch, roasted it and ATE IT so that death would pass over their house and they would not be harmed. 

-3rd cup was the cup of blessing, at this Jesus took the bread and wine and consecrated it as his body and blood and gave it to his disciples. However, the pouring out of blood can be done only by a priest and so here we see Jesus as the priest offering the sacrifice of himself. He also tells the disciples, do this in memory of me, in this way he is making them priest. 

After this Jesus says something even more striking in Mark 14:25. He says he will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until he drinks it new in the kingdom of God. The reason it is surprising is because, the Passover meal had 4 cups of wine and the last one was the most important one. It was the cup of consummation. The Passover wasn't complete without the last cup, it was like a priest skipping Holy Communion at mass. Soon after they sing the hymn, they go out into the garden of Gethsemane. There we see, he seems to talk about a cup which he must drink. He says "Abba, Father for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet not what I want, but what you want." So when did he drink from the cup? As they were taking Jesus to be crucified they offered him wine mixed with myrrh which was a sort of painkiller, but he did not take it. His kingdom had not yet come! in John 19:28-30 we see that when Jesus knew his time was near he said something in order to fulfill the scripture. Around this time it would have been excruciating for Jesus to breathe, let alone speak, yet he found it necessary to say, "I am thirsty." They gave him sour wine on a sponge with a hyssop branch (same thing used to put the blood of the lamb on the doorposts) and held it to his mouth and Jesus RECEIVED IT. Soon after that he said "It is finished" and he gave up his spirit. What was finished? It couldn't have been his redemptive work as that wouldn't be complete until he rose from the dead. Moreover he receive the wine, which goes to show that his kingdom has come. He has been glorified! It was the Last Supper which began in the upper room and completed on the cross. We cannot separate the last supper from the crucifixion, if we do then the last supper becomes just a meal and the cross becomes just an execution, but together it becomes a willing sacrifice. 

What's in it for us?

Although the Passover was finished for Jesus, it wasn't finished for you and me? A Passover isn't complete until the lamb that is sacrificed is eaten. if the Israelite's during the time of Moses didn't eat the Passover lamb, their first born would be dead by morning. The apostles seemed to have clearly understood what Jesus did. we see that in 1 Corinthians 5:7 "For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the festival". Till today, we continue to celebrate the feast, where we are taken back to the last supper as the priest repeats the words Jesus said when he gave us his body and blood. Yet we do not sacrifice Jesus again and again at every mass. Jesus is our high priest in heaven and as a high priest he must offer sacrifices and gifts which he has done by the one perfect sacrifice of his body, it is this sacrifice that he continuously pours out for us at every mass.