Dear ABS. As a Catholic I have to be mighty careful about what I say and do in Fussels Corner because Catholics in Fussels Corner are as rare as common sense is in a speech on the floor of The United States Senate.
Because you know pretty much everything you prolly know that we have snake handlers and holy rollers up here in this neck of the woods and so when my friends ask me if I agree that Communion is just symbolic I am afraid to answer truthfully.
The worst thing about these types of questions is that I get them when I am just sitting down to enjoy a dozen or so boilermakers at Babel's Bullet, Bait, Bar and Bistro on a Saturday night and so when these types of questions are asked I just excuse myself and say I gotta go take a squirt but what I really do is to sneak out to my pick-up truck and lay low until last call but as I am leaving Babel's I hear nasty comments about how I prolly had children with the Whore of Babylon, who'ever'n'hell she is.
So, tell me ABS why don't Catholics just agree with the snake handlers and holy rollers and say that Communion is just symbolic and then we can all live in peace and not have to sneak out of Babel's during Saturday's Happy Hour which runs from 2:00 pm to 2:00 am.
Your admirer, Flummoxed in Fussels Corner, Florida.
Dear Flummoxed Catholic in Fussels Corner. The reason Catholics do not agree with the snake handlers and holy rollers that Communion is symbolic because in the Old Testament the expression - To eat somebody's body or to eat somebody's blood - is old Jewish rhetoric (An Hebraism) that means to assault and persecute.
You can check our your bible to verify this
Psalm 26:2
Isaias 9:18-20
Isaias 49:26
Micheas 3;2,3
2 Kings 23:15-17
Apocalypse 17:6
as it is clear those verses are not referring to the actual eating of another's Body and Blood. It is symbolic language.
Now, read;
all of The gospel of John 6
Mark 14:22-24
1 Cor 10:14-17
1 Cor 11: 23-29
Matt 26:26-28
Luke 22: 17-20
Luke 24:30-35.
Jesus is not speaking symbolically for if He was speaking symbolically He would be telling the crowd that the way to eternal life is to assault and persecute Him.
Hang tough, baby. Never give an inch when it comes to the truth.
Rock on, Brother.