"Jesus also called Himself a gate and a vine. 'This is my body' is a symbol." Let's test that against the text.
Short answer: Yes. Jesus said, "my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink" (John 6:55), and at the Last Supper said plainly, "this is my body." St. Paul warns that receiving it unworthily makes a person "answer for the body and blood of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 11:27). He is answerable for the Lord's body and blood themselves, not for mistreating a reminder of them.
Key verses on the Eucharist
- "unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you" (John 6:53)
- "For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink" (John 6:55)
- "Take and eat; this is my body" (Matthew 26:26)
- "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you" (Luke 22:20)
- "The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?" (1 Corinthians 10:16)
Scripture quotations are from the New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE), © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
What Catholics Actually Teach
The Church teaches the Real Presence. In the Eucharist "the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained" (CCC 1374). This happens at the consecration: "by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation" (CCC 1376).
What Catholics do not teach:
- That the bread changes chemically. The appearances remain. What changes is the substance, what the thing is.
- That Christ is re-crucified at Mass. "The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice" (CCC 1367). The Mass makes present the one sacrifice of the cross.
The Biblical Case
1. John 6: Our Lord insists
After feeding the five thousand, Jesus says, "I am the bread of life" (John 6:35), then speaks plainly: "the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world" (John 6:51). His hearers take Him literally: "How can this man give us [his] flesh to eat?" (John 6:52).
When Jesus was misunderstood elsewhere, He corrected the mistake (the "leaven" in Matthew 16:6–12). Here He repeats Himself four times in four verses (John 6:53–56): "unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you"; "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life"; "For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink"; "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him." From verse 54 on, St. John switches to a different Greek verb for eating (trōgō), whose basic sense is to gnaw or chew. The verb can be ordinary (it is used of sharing a meal in John 13:18), but it appears exactly when His hearers are objecting to literal eating. Our Lord intensifies; He does not soften.
2. Jesus lets disciples leave
The reaction: "This saying is hard; who can accept it?" (John 6:60). Then "many [of] his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him" (John 6:66). Jesus does not call them back to explain it was only a metaphor. He turns to the Twelve: "Do you also want to leave?" (John 6:67). St. Peter answers: "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" (John 6:68).
3. The Last Supper: "This is my body"
Jesus "took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, 'Take and eat; this is my body.'" Of the cup: "this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins" (Matthew 26:26–28). St. Luke adds, "This is my body, which will be given for you" (Luke 22:19). The body given on the cross is the body given at the table.
4. The Passover Lamb is eaten
At the first Passover, a lamb "without blemish" was slain, and "They will consume its meat that same night, eating it roasted with unleavened bread and bitter herbs" (Exodus 12:5–8). Israel had to eat the lamb. St. Paul says, "our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast" (1 Corinthians 5:7–8). The new Passover has a Lamb too, and He gives Himself to be eaten.
5. St. Paul: participation, and judgment
"The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?" (1 Corinthians 10:16). A chapter later: "whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 11:27). Eating "without discerning the body" brings judgment, and St. Paul links it to sickness and death in Corinth (1 Corinthians 11:29–30). That is strong language for bread that only reminds us of Jesus.
Objections Answered
(a) "Jesus also said 'I am the gate' and 'I am the vine.'"
At its strongest: Jesus often used metaphors: "I am the gate" (John 10:9), "I am the true vine" (John 15:1). Nobody thinks He is wood or a plant. "I am the bread of life" fits the same pattern.
Answer: Agreed: "I am the gate" is a metaphor. But no one walked away over it. In John 6 the crowd takes Him literally, and He intensifies, then lets them leave. "This is my body" is not an "I am" picture of Himself. It is a statement about what He holds in His hands.
(b) "John 6:63 says the flesh is of no avail."
At its strongest: Jesus explains Himself: "It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life" (John 6:63). He means His teaching is spiritual, to be received by faith.
Answer: Jesus says "the flesh," not "my flesh." He had just said "my flesh" gives eternal life (6:54). In context, "the flesh" means merely human understanding, which cannot accept this teaching (John 6:64). And the disciples did not hear verse 63 as a retraction. They left anyway (6:66).
(c) "'Do this in remembrance of me,' and Christ was offered once for all."
At its strongest: "Do this in remembrance of me" (1 Corinthians 11:24) means recall. And Hebrews insists: "this one offered one sacrifice for sins" (Hebrews 10:12), "once for all" (Hebrews 10:10). A Real Presence or sacrificial Mass seems to deny that.
Answer: Biblical remembrance is more than recalling. The Passover was "a day of remembrance," and Israel would "celebrate it as a statute forever" (Exodus 12:14), and each Israelite father was to say, "This is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt" (Exodus 13:8). Every generation shared in the one Exodus. The Mass is the same: the one sacrifice made present, not repeated (CCC 1366–1367). Catholics fully affirm Hebrews 10. The question is not whether the sacrifice is once for all, but whether Christ gives us His body and blood in the meal that proclaims it (1 Corinthians 11:26).
(d) "John 6 is about believing, not eating."
At its strongest: Jesus Himself defines the work God wants: "This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent" (John 6:29). He says, "whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst" (John 6:35) and "whoever believes has eternal life" (John 6:47). So "eating" is a picture of believing.
Answer: Faith is where John 6 begins, and Catholics agree it is required. But the discourse does not stay there. At verse 51 Jesus names the bread: "the bread that I will give is my flesh." Only then do His hearers quarrel (6:52), and only then does He add drinking His blood (6:53–56). A mere picture of faith would not explain why disciples walked away (6:66). The text joins the two without collapsing one into the other: "whoever believes has eternal life" (6:47; see 6:35, 40), and "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life" (6:54). Both are required: the faith that comes to Him, and the eating without which "you do not have life within you" (6:53). (More in Is John 6 just symbolic?)
(e) "God forbade drinking blood."
At its strongest: The Law says, "You shall not consume the blood of any flesh" (Leviticus 17:14), and the apostles kept the ban for Gentile believers, telling them to avoid "the meat of strangled animals, and blood" (Acts 15:20). Jesus would never command His disciples to break God's law, so "drink my blood" must be figurative.
Answer: The objection shows how shocking Jesus' words were to Jewish ears. The Law gives the reason for the ban: "the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement on the altar" (Leviticus 17:11). Animal blood was reserved for the altar. Christ's blood is the atoning sacrifice that the altar pointed to, and He gives it so that whoever drinks it "remains in me and I in him" (John 6:54–56). Acts 15 addresses the blood of animals in table fellowship; it says nothing against the cup St. Paul calls "a participation in the blood of Christ" (1 Corinthians 10:16).
(f) "Tertullian called the bread a 'figure' of His body."
At its strongest: Tertullian (Against Marcion, early third century) writes of the Last Supper: "Then, having taken the bread and given it to His disciples, He made it His own body, by saying, 'This is my body,' that is, the figure of my body" (4.40). An early Father calls the bread a figure, so the earliest Church must have held a symbolic view.
Answer: Start with Scripture. St. Paul calls the bread "a participation in the body of Christ" (1 Corinthians 10:16) and warns that eating it unworthily makes one "answer for the body and blood of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 11:27–29). No Father can lower that. And Tertullian does not try. He was writing against Marcion, who denied that Christ had real flesh, and his very next sentence is: "A figure, however, there could not have been, unless there were first a veritable body" (4.40). His point is that the Eucharist proves Christ's body is real, which is the opposite of a symbol standing in for an absent body. Elsewhere he says plainly that in the sacraments "the flesh feeds on the body and blood of Christ, that the soul likewise may fatten on its God" (On the Resurrection of the Flesh 8). For Tertullian, "figure" was not opposed to reality.
(g) "Christ is really present, but the bread remains bread."
At its strongest: Lutherans confess the Real Presence but reject transubstantiation. After the consecration St. Paul still calls the element bread: "For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes" (1 Corinthians 11:26), and "A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup" (1 Corinthians 11:28). If the Apostle calls it bread, the bread remains, and Christ's body is present in, with and under it.
Answer: Calling it "bread" does not settle what it is, because Scripture regularly names a changed thing by what it was or what it looks like. At Cana the headwaiter "tasted the water that had become wine" (John 2:9). Aaron's staff had turned into a serpent, yet "Aaron’s staff swallowed their staffs" (Exodus 7:10–12), though all of them were serpents. St. Luke calls angels "two men," because that is how they appeared (Luke 24:4; Acts 1:10). And Jesus Himself uses "bread" for His flesh: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven ... the bread that I will give is my flesh" (John 6:51). Between verses 26 and 28, St. Paul says the unworthy eater must "answer for the body and blood of the Lord" (11:27), not for bread.
Then the words of institution. Jesus did not say "this contains my body" or "my body is in, with and under this." He said, "this is my body" (Matthew 26:26). Lutherans rightly refuse to weaken "is" into "symbolizes." By the same rule, "is" cannot be weakened into "is present with."
The Fathers read it this way. St. Justin Martyr (c. AD 155): "For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these" (First Apology 66). St. Cyril of Jerusalem (mid-fourth century; the Mystagogical Lectures are traditionally his, though some scholars assign them to his successor John) tells the newly baptized they are "fully assured that the seeming bread is not bread, though sensible to taste, but the Body of Christ" (Catechetical Lecture 22.9). St. Ambrose (On the Mysteries, c. AD 390) teaches that "by blessing nature itself is changed" and asks, "shall not the word of Christ have power to change the nature of the elements?" (9.50, 52).
St. Paul calls it bread the way St. John calls it water: by what it was. The earliest Christians spoke of a change, not of bread remaining.
The Early Church Agrees
- The Didache (late first or early second century) treats the Eucharist as holy and reserved to the baptized: "But let no one eat or drink of your Thanksgiving (Eucharist), but they who have been baptized into the name of the Lord; for concerning this also the Lord has said, Give not that which is holy to the dogs" (9).
- St. Ignatius of Antioch (Letter to the Romans, c. AD 110), echoing John 6: "I desire the bread of God, the heavenly bread, the bread of life, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ" (7).
- St. Ignatius of Antioch (Letter to the Smyrnaeans, c. AD 110), on heretics who denied Christ's real flesh: "They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again" (7).
- St. Justin Martyr (First Apology, c. AD 155), explaining Christian worship to the emperor: "For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh" (66).
- St. Irenaeus of Lyons (Against Heresies, c. AD 180): "He has acknowledged the cup (which is a part of the creation) as His own blood, from which He bedews our blood; and the bread (also a part of the creation) He has established as His own body, from which He gives increase to our bodies" (5.2.2).
- St. Cyril of Jerusalem (Catechetical Lectures, mid-fourth century; this lecture is traditionally attributed to him): "Judge not the matter from the taste, but from faith be fully assured without misgiving, that the Body and Blood of Christ have been vouchsafed to you" (22.6).
Conclusion
The Emmaus disciples knew Jesus "in the breaking of the bread" (Luke 24:35). The Real Presence is the plain reading of John 6, the Last Supper, and St. Paul, and the faith of the earliest Church.
If you're Protestant, we're not asking you to stop trusting Scripture. We're asking you to take Jesus at His word: "this is my body." The same apostles He fed at that table He also sent to forgive sins (why Catholics confess to a priest).
Come home. The Body and Blood Jesus gave when He said "this is my body" are offered on the altar at every Mass in the Catholic Church. That gift depends on a validly ordained priesthood, which is why the Catechism teaches that communities from the Reformation "have not preserved the proper reality of the Eucharistic mystery in its fullness, especially because of the absence of the sacrament of Holy Orders" (CCC 1400). Christ did not found many churches. He founded one, on St. Peter and the apostles (Matthew 16:18), and that Church is the Catholic Church. "It is through Christ's Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help toward salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained" (CCC 816). If you are a baptized Christian, you already share "a certain, although imperfect, communion" with her (CCC 838). Every truth you already hold is a call to the rest of the way. Christ is calling you into the Catholic Church.
Your next step: Come to Mass this Sunday at your local Catholic church. You can find one near you at MassTimes.org. Everyone is welcome; if you're not yet Catholic, pray with us but don't receive Communion yet. When you're ready to become Catholic, call the parish office and ask about OCIA, the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults. They will walk you through every step. Read our guide: How Do I Become Catholic? Not ready yet? Get our free pocket guide below and keep learning.
FAQ
What is transubstantiation? The Church's term for the change of the whole substance of bread and wine into Christ's body and blood, while the appearances remain (CCC 1376).
Where is the Eucharist in the Bible? Above all in John 6:48–69, the Last Supper accounts, and 1 Corinthians 10–11.
Does the Mass sacrifice Jesus again? No. It makes present the one sacrifice of the cross: "only the manner of offering is different" (CCC 1367).
Who may receive the Eucharist? Catholics who are in a state of grace. "Anyone conscious of a grave sin must receive the sacrament of Reconciliation before coming to communion" (CCC 1385).
Sources
Scripture (NABRE, bible.usccb.org): Exodus 7:10–12; Exodus 12:5–8, 14; Exodus 13:8; Leviticus 17:11, 14; Matthew 16:6–12; Matthew 16:18; Matthew 26:26–28; Luke 22:19–20; Luke 24:4; Luke 24:30–35; John 2:9; John 6:29–69; John 10:9; John 13:18; John 15:1; Acts 1:10; Acts 15:20; 1 Corinthians 5:7–8; 1 Corinthians 10:16–17; 1 Corinthians 11:23–30; Hebrews 10:10–14.
Catechism of the Catholic Church (vatican.va): 816, 838; 1366, 1367, 1374, 1376; 1385, 1400.
Church Fathers (newadvent.org; ccel.org where noted): Didache 9; Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Romans 7; Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Smyrnaeans 7 (ANF vol. 1, trans. A. Roberts and J. Donaldson); Justin Martyr, First Apology 66 (ccel.org, ANF vol. 1); Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5.2.2 (ANF vol. 1, trans. A. Roberts and W. Rambaut); Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 22.6, 22.9 (NPNF2 vol. 7, trans. E. H. Gifford); Ambrose, On the Mysteries 9.50, 52; Tertullian, Against Marcion 4.40 (ccel.org, ANF vol. 3); Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh 8.