Hi Kyle,

"The bread which I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." "For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink." Cf. Jn 6:51,55. I believe that Christ's flesh does avail, since it is through it that we enter into the Sanctuary. Cf. Heb 10:20. I think Jn 6:63 is referring to the body in its connection to unbelief.

Regarding Jn 4:10-14... I have no clear evidence that this is not referring to living water. As it is written, "this is the one who came through water and blood... so there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water, and the blood." Cf. 1 Jn 5:6-7.

As I understand it, cannibalism is eating a dead body. Catholics don't believe in eating Christ's dead body nor eating him in a bloody--i.e. a destructive manner.

For a citation, her is the Catechism of the Cathoic Church:

1366 The Eucharist is thus a sacrifice because it re-presents (makes present) the sacrifice of the cross, because it is its memorial and because it applies its fruit: [Christ], our Lord and God, was once and for all to offer himself to God the Father by his death on the altar of the cross, to accomplish there an everlasting redemption. But because his priesthood was not to end with his death, at the Last Supper "on the night when he was betrayed," [he wanted] to leave to his beloved spouse the Church a visible sacrifice (as the nature of man demands) by which the bloody sacrifice which he was to accomplish once for all on the cross would be re-presented, its memory perpetuated until the end of the world, and its salutary power be applied to the forgiveness of the sins we daily commit.189
1367 The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice: "The victim is one and the same: the same now offers through the ministry of priests, who then offered himself on the cross; only the manner of offering is different." "And since in this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and is offered in an unbloody manner. . . this sacrifice is truly propitiatory."190


Here is St. Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria:

"You will see the Levites bringing the loaves and a cup of wine, and placing them on the table. So long as the prayers and invocations have not yet been made,it is mere bread and a mere cup. But when the great and wonderous prayers have been recited, then the bread becomes the body and the cup the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ....When the great prayers and holy supplications are sent up, the Word descends on the bread and the cup, and it becomes His body."
Athanasius,Sermon to the Newly Baptized,PG 26,1325(ante A.D. 373),in ECD,442


Last edited by patricius79; Wed Sep 16, 2009 1:46 PM.