As Jesus is the cornerstone upon which the Church is built, so are his teachings the unifying cornerstone of Christian doctrine.

Meditations on the Bread of Life

  • How many ways was bread used in the Bible? (e.g. shew bread, manna, unleavened bread, Jesus born in Bethlehem = house of bread)
  • Is Jesus exhorting us to cannibalism when he encourages us to eat his body?
  • What does it mean to eat Christ's body at communion?
  • Why do Catholics kneel during the Eucharist?
  • Why do they believe that the bread and wine become literally the body and blood of Christ?
  • Why do Catholics take the Bible literally when it says "this is my body...this is my blood" even when Protestant literalists do not?
  • It is recent vocabulary, first approved in 1215 by the 4th Lateran Council. So why do they not also believe Christ is literally a door or a vine or that the leaven of the Pharisees is literal too?
  • Does taking this literally make Christians cannibals?
  • Is the cup then also literally the new covenant? Let's be consistent.
  • Is the bread only symbolic, literally Christ's body, or something in between?
  • What does it mean to only eat Jesus once and thereby gain eternal life?
  • How can true bread, Jesus be consumed yet also be eternal?
  • How does eating Christ's flesh grant us eternal life?
  • Does partaking of communion in some way give us eternal life?
  • Is this magic, or superstition?
  • Is the bread of communion, food of immortality?
  • Is there something deeper such as faith and a relationship that is hinted at here?
  • How are we related to Jesus as a person is related to bread?
  • How does living bread live in us?
  • As we consume immortality, do we become immortal too?
  • Were people offended only at the thought of cannibalism, or also that Jesus' said his origin was heaven?
  • If this was scandalous, would that same body ascending to heaven offend them more?
  • Is substituting the word believing for the word eating just too simplistic, or is there something more here?
  • In a consumer society, we consume the world and remain empty. How does internalizing Christ combat our poverty in wealth?
  • What does grain go thru to become bread? Could that picture what Jesus went thru to become our bread?
  • Why did Jesus not say, I am the candy or the honey of life?
  • Why did Jesus reveal this bread in 3 steps -- there is bread from heaven, he is the bread, his body given for the world is that bread?

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