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Those of us who believe that the Eucharist is really Jesus have to examine our own hearts and lives, too.Some time ago, I met a man who had once worked for a Western intelligence agency. He was embedded in a majority-Muslim country, posing as a businessman. Given the lawlessness of parts of the country, he had to be driven across it in the dead of night to avoid bandits. As they were speeding across the desert at high speeds, with the headlights off, his driver—a Muslim who had no idea …

How can you tell if you have the right understanding—the biblical interpretation, Jesus’ interpretation—of the Eucharist?I’d suggest five things to look for: your beliefs should be strange,sacrificial,serious,sacramental, and shocking. First, as we’ve already seen, the proper Christian understanding of the Eucharist must be strange, and hard to accept. That’s how it was initially received, and Jesus did nothing to dispel this impression. Why, he was trying to present an easy teaching and was jus …

My old pastor gave a homily in which he talked about preparing a girl for First Communion. Her parents had been wondering if she was ready yet, so Father asked her to explain her understanding of the Eucharist.She pointed to the large crucifix in the back of church and said, “That looks like Jesus, but isn’t. The Eucharist doesn’t look like Jesus, but is.” It’s hard to imagine a better or more succinct way of capturing what Catholics believe about the Eucharist. Needless to say, the priest …

The Catholic Church teaches that when we partake of the Eucharist in Holy Communion, we are literally consuming the body and blood of Jesus Christ. A key passage from Scripture that Catholics, and other believers in the Real Presence, have looked to throughout the centuries as biblical support for this teaching is John 6:48-67. There are many reasons Catholics, and other believers in the Real Presence, give as to why we should take Jesus’ words, “eat my flesh, drink my blood,” literally. But p …

As Valeriy Alikin of St. Petersburg Christian University explains,“Christians began to read apostolic epistles in their gatherings at the latest from the middle of the first century onwards.” At the end of his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul instructs,“I adjure you by the Lord that this letter be read to all the brethren”(5:27). And after the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15, the leaders of theChurchsend Paul and St. Barnabas to Antioch with a letter addressed to“the brethren who are of …