A Requirement for Salvation 1: The Holy Eucharist
"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you have no life in you."
When Jesus said in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life,” what He meant was that those who believe in His words and follow them, because they trust Him as being true, have eternal life. When you put your faith in Christ you put your faith in His teaching. One of His teachings was that you must receive the Holy Eucharist, or you cannot be saved.
We see this further ahead in John 6. The full passage is worth quoting. I have bolded key items in this long passage to pay close attention to, and I will provide commentary afterwards. Note that this is just following the miracle of the loaves and fish, where Christ demonstrated His power to provide infinite bread. A large crowd crossed the Sea of Galilee to find Jesus, both extremely excited to see more miracles and looking for infinite food in a time where food was scarcer.
John 6:22-69
2 On the next day the people who remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. 23 However, boats from Tibe′ri-as came near the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 So when the people saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Caper′na-um, seeking Jesus.
25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give to you; for on him has God the Father set his seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see, and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Lord, give us this bread always.”
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me; and him who comes to me I will not cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me; 39 and this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up at the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that every one who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
41 The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43 Jesus answered them, “Do not murmur among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. 46 Not that any one has seen the Father except him who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; 54 he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 56 He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever.” 59 This he said in the synagogue, as he taught at Caper′na-um.
60 Many of his disciples, when they heard it, said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at it, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of man ascending where he was before?[e] 63 It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you that do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the first who those were that did not believe, and who it was that should betray him. 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
66 After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him. 67 Jesus said to the twelve, “Will you also go away?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
Jesus Christ laid out a requirement for salvation, and what separated those who believe in Him from the rest is that they accepted what Jesus said, even though it was highly offensive to a Jew to eat flesh, let alone drink blood. It was so offensive that over half of his disciples abandoned Him after this. This is because they rejected the Spirit, which gives life, mentioned in verse 62, and would only look at what Christ said from a fleshly standpoint. When we follow the Spirit, we take what Jesus says for granted, like St. Peter and the other 11 Apostles did in John 6. We take it on faith that Christ means what He says, including hard sayings. “This is a hard saying, who can listen to it?” many disciples said of this teaching. We must take Christ for granted, and seek to understand after, trusting that whatever He tells us is entirely correct and true, and trusting that any of our misunderstandings are due to our own insufficiency.
Christ let them go. He didn’t say “it’s ok guys, come back, it will just be a symbol you won’t have to really drink any physical blood.” He was willing to let them go, because they heard what He plainly said and rejected it. In the same way, Protestants refuse to have faith in Christ here. They are just like the Jews who refused to believe, saying “who is this man who can give us his flesh to eat?” Calling the Eucharist a symbol is the same as rejecting the entire teaching, which is, as Christ said, a necessity for salvation.
In verse 53 Christ said “truly, truly I say unto you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.” A Protestant does not have the life of Christ within him or her because they reject a core tenet of Christianity. This sounds harsh, but Christ said so. Martin Luther and the Reformers were Satan’s disciples, looking to turn people away from the narrow path, even if ever so slightly. You can find Protestants that reject the Eucharist, original sin, the necessity of baptism, and other doctrines, which is the devil’s web of lies to weave a false religion that’s in many ways similar to the True Faith, but falls short, in order to damn souls. I am not the one saying that someone who rejects the Eucharist lacks the life of Christ in them, Jesus Christ Himself said it in verse 53.
This is not my interpretation, but the interpretation of the Apostles and the entire Church for 1500 years. Arguably, it’s the teaching of the entire Church for 2000 years, because there is only One Church, the Catholic Church. Ephesians 4:5 says there is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” There are not 25,000 denominations, there is only One, and there is only One that can trace itself back to the Apostles. And this Church can never err, never apostatize, never promulgate incorrect doctrine, as the Church is the “pillar and foundation of the truth,” which 1 Timothy 3:15 says. You cannot have the Bible apart from the Catholic Church, because it can only be interpreted by the pillar and foundation of the truth.
The Disciple Matthew, the former tax collector, wrote:
Matthew 26:26-28
26 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” 27 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you; 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
The same blood that Christ shed for the forgiveness of sins we are commanded to drink. Jesus did not say “this wine is a symbol of my sacrifice and love for you.” He said “this is my blood,” and it is indeed the blood of the New Covenant itself. If you are not drinking it, you are not participating in the New Covenant. You are outside of the Church, and as the Bible says, outside of the Church there is no salvation. The only way to ensure you will be with Christ at the Great Banquet is to have faith in Him. This means having faith in every item He taught, including this one. Nothing can be rejected. Everything is an essential. The Protestants are teaching against the Bible when they say “all that matters is that you love Jesus.” Protestants did not used to say this, and the Reformers certainly did not say this stuff. Luther and Zwingli teamed up to slaughter an abundance of Anabaptists, the precursor to modern Baptists and Evangelicals who reject infant baptism, because they did not believe that all that matters if that you “love Jesus,” or that “we agree on the essentials.” Everything is Christ taught is an essential.
Additionally, Jesus said “if you love me you will keep my commandments.” John 14:15. Nothing is optional or non-essential.
At this point, many Protestants will throw up their hands and say “who can know every essential?” To that I say, no human can on their own power. This is why you cannot just read the Bible on your own, and self-interpret it to find the way to heaven. The Church is a necessity to understand the Bible, and the New Testament is a collection of Church documents written by the Bishops (Apostles), or written by non-Apostles such as Luke and approved by the Bishops. What makes Scripture, Scripture is the fact that is approved by the Bishops as such.
The Eucharist alone should be reason to reject all of Protestantism. The fact that a Protestant group does not have it should be reason to doubt everything else they say that’s contrary to the Catholic faith, and to accept every doctrine of the Catholic Church uncritically, seeking to understand after. The Eucharist is the clear sign that the Catholic Church is the only true faith, because the body and blood of Christ can only be found in the Catholic Church. Some may say it is also found in the Orthodox Church, and this is true, but only because their theology on the matter and their Priestly faculties come ultimately from the Catholic Church, which does not rescind them.
You don’t need to understand Transubstantiation right away. Jesus didn’t stand there in Capernum and talk about transubstantiation and how it works. He left that up to the Apostles afterwards. You just need to believe in Jesus. Believe Jesus when He says “this is my body, this is my blood.” And believe Jesus when He says “my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.” They are not symbols. If you reject this teaching, you are walking away from Christ just as His disciples did who returned to Judaism. You are trusting in a form of legalism to save you, where God imputes a righteousness to you because of some action you took, such as praying a prayer. This is a type of legalism. Christ calls us not to a legal switcheroo, He calls us to a covenant relationship. He calls us to join the New Covenant and the Church mentioned in 1 Timothy 3:15. We are saved because we are in His family, His covenant, and as Jesus mentioned, His blood is the blood of this covenant. We are saved by our relationship to Christ, as a family member of His.
If you are outside of the Catholic Church, you are at least formally outside of the God’s family. The Catholic Church is the Bride of Christ. There is not a neutral body of Christians who exist outside all denominations that “true Christians” belong to. A valid Baptism, which many Protestants have, makes you at least at one point a member of the Catholic Church, even if you do not know it or reject the Catholic Church itself. So at least initially following Baptism you are a Catholic, but Baptism is only one requirement to enter the Kingdom of God. It is only one thing we accept when we say we believe in Christ. God may extend special grace and forgiveness to a Protestant who rejects the Catholic Church and Eucharist, but this would be salvation via extraordinary means, similar to the Thief on the Cross who had no capacity to be baptized or receive the Eucharist. Christ is not bound to His sacraments, and only holds people accountable for what they know and can do. Today, you can join the Catholic Church, and Jesus has not given any of us a different or alternative way to heaven. To end, remember John 6:53. Be saved by joining the family of God, and establishing a personal relationship with Christ through the blood of the covenant, which must be physically consumed.