The Eucharist - The Body of Christ

1 Corinthians 11:24
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.”

Anscombe wrote a brilliant little piece called On Transubstantiation. It can be found in the book Faith in a Hard Ground, but also can be found by clicking on the title I provided. 

This dogma is one of the biggest obstacles that I had in coming to the Catholic faith. Anscombe swept that away. I will not try to repeat her reasoning on the subject, but I will try to get down a few of my thoughts that were triggered by what she wrote. 

You see, she understands how Protestants like me think and what we have been taught. She converted to Catholicism from Protestantism. Now, I do not know if I will convert to the Catholic Church or not, but I admit that I am thinking about it. 

Here are Jesus' words. 

1 Corinthians 11:24

This is my body which is for you

It seems like we Protestants are taught to kind of skp over these words quickly so we won't fall into the alleged error of thinking that the bread is really the body of Christ. 

We really don't know how to explain the absolute declaration of Jesus Himself - This IS my body. 

Does He mean that this is like His body, and that is all there is to it?  It is just a symbol, we are told, but a symbol of what? A symbol of something real and mysterious or a symbol with no real meaning. Yes, even Anscomb acknowledges that there is a symbolic side to what Jesus is saying. 

Then, isn't the next phrase curious? He tells us to do this. To do what? To break bread and eat it as His body. Then comes the even more curious phrase - 

do this in remembrance of me.

In remembrance? Of what. Well, of how He broke the bread, blessed it, and told them that it was His body. 

Even more curious is the fact that He had not yet done on the cross what He was asking them to remember. He had not yet given His body, yet they were to remember. 

His body is for us. That is considerably more than merely symbolic, and He was talking about the bread they were about to eat. Besides, He was talking as if the resurrection had already taken place. So, the break is about His life, not just about His death. We take in His life when we eat the bread in remembrance of Him. 

In a way, when we say that the bread is merely a symbol of Christ's death and imparted life, but not really having any physical substance we are denying the Incarnation. Well, Protestants don't deny the Incarnation - God made flesh. (John 1) Think of it this way, though. Christ became a real man, a real human being. His human body is real, not just symbolic or spiritual. The bread  also becomes His real body and in more than just a symbolic way. It IS Hid body. 

The same with the cup, representing His blood, and also really His blood. It is not magic, but it is a mystery. Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27)

We believe that He really is in us through faith by the Holy Spirit. He is not in us merely in a symbolic way, but rather in a real way. Yes, it is a mystery, but the ancient church embraced this mystery as the real interpretation of Jesus' words and the real meaning of the Eucharist. This is the original interpretation and practice of the Church. Why was it changed? 

If it was how the Church observed and understood Communion until the time of Martin Luther, then that should tell us something.