Saturday, August 4, 2012

No. It's not cannibalism.


can·ni·bal·ism

  
[kan-uh-buh-liz-uhm]  Show IPA
noun
1.
the eating of human flesh by another human being.
2.
the eating of the flesh of an animal by another animal of itsown kind.
3.
the ceremonial eating of human flesh or parts of the humanbody for magical or religious purposes, as to acquire thepower or skill of a person recently killed.
4.
the act of pecking flesh from a live fowl by a member of thesame flock.
5.
the removal of parts, equipment, assets, or employees fromone product, item, or business in order to use them inanother.



T: Whatcha talking bout?


B: What do you think? ;)

T: The Holy Eucharist?

B: Yessir.

T: Well we believe Jesus is God so since cannibalism would only be eating the flesh of fellow humans we are not doing that we are only eating God's flesh.

B: I know. That's what I said.

J: But you can't separate Jesus' divinity from His humanity. He is both fully God and fully man, even in the Eucharist.

B: True enough, J. This is why another answer to question/accusation, “Isn’t that cannibalism?” would be that it doesn’t matter. This is what we are instructed to do.
Continually, there are folks who ask this, with a smirk, as though this question (whichever one they are asking this time) is THE question that is going bring the entire Church to ruin. They are the same old questions since the early days of the Church and before. It was difficult for people to hear, even as Jesus told them in person. And I will admit it is also difficult for someone to understand. Rarely, though, do I encounter this question, outside of RCIA, as just an innocent attempt to comprehend The Eucharist.
I still maintain that, based on the definition, that it is not cannibalism. When we receive the Body, Soul, Blood and Divinity of our Lord, it’s not the same as eating the flesh of the human dead. He is inseparably True God and True Man and we receive the Living Glorified Body of Christ. In such a beautiful act as participating fully in the Eucharist, who is consuming whom, really?





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