What We Believe (link to teachings of Catholic Church)
When I started listening to the Cathecism three years ago I was in disbelief because what I thought the Church believed was much much different than what I had been told the Church believed. I believed for forty years a false truth about the Catholic Church. To my amazement the Catholic Church believed more in the way of Christ than I had even known. I always wanted these things for my life that the bible teaches but they seemed out of reach. Like actually an impossiblity in today's society to grasp for all the things that we written in God's word.
Now that it has been three years since I first started discovering the truth of God's word I am relieved. There is true peace in Christ in the Eucharist. When Jesus came he taught THE WAY. He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." "No one comes to the Father, but through me." So he taught THE WAY to the disciples and they have passed in on. Peter was the first Pope, "and on this rock I will build my church...." Jesus called Peter "Rock". {The wiseman built his house upon the Rock. The wiseman here was probably Solomon because he built is temple on the Holy Mountain of God.}
So Jesus created this WAY and there were instructions given to the Apostles and those that followed them. This is called Apostolic Succession http://www.catholic.com/tracts/apostolic-succession and it is a line stemming from the apostles to the present day. The Church still teaches the same way. And when you discover it for yourself you will know without a doubt that this is the truth.
The second part of the passage that I quoted was "No one comes to the Father, but through me." The apostles and their students or disciples of the apostles believed all that Christ said. The apostles had seen the risen Lord and all the miracles that he performed and ultimately died for Christ and his Church. Coming to the Father through Christ consisted then of fulling believing all the Christ said and did. In the gospel of John chapter 6:48-51 Christ says: 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.” THE Bread THAT I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. This is literal! Not in a way that means we are to become cannibals but in an unfamiliar way. A way that is heavenly or spiritual. Christ becomes literally present when the ordained priest says the words of consecration over the bread or wafers. And Christ's literal presence here is spiritual. It is not that we see him standing there with us. It becomes a faith like a child. Christ says that anything you ask for in my name it shall be given when speaking to the apostles. Jesus ordained the apostles to do his work on earth and to pass it on.
HISTORY OF THE EUCHARIST
The Eucharist is the communion table that Christ implemented in the Last Supper. But it all started in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were right with God in communion with him in the garden. You could say that Adam was the first priest. He tilled that garden, named the animals, and God gave him authority over everything on earth. They feasted together in the garden (The Sacred Banquet) and it was all good until the fall. Eve grasped for the forbidden fruit. God had told them that they could not eat of it, of this tree of knowledge of good and evil. Ultimately this created a chasm between them and God and they were no longer in a state of grace. It interrupted the flow of grace. And instead of living forever and being fed, the sacred banquet was disrupted and death was now a part of the human condition.
Eventually God raises up Isreal to be the light for all the nations that will draw the world to them and to God. God frees them through the way of the Passover. In the passover they are to spread the blood of the lamb on the door post and eat all of the sacrifical lamb. Hence, another meal and this one includes unblemished lambs. So if they do all that is required of them they will escape God's wrath as the Angel of Death passover. These lambs represent the Bread of Life.
In the desert, Isreal is fed the Bread from heaven, the bread from heaven that Jesus talks about in John chapter 6. But he states that He is the bread that comes down from heaven. Let's read it again: John 6:48 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.”
I am believing Christ and his statement.
MORE HISTORY OF THE EUCHARIST. THE SACRED MEAL.THE WAY OF THE LORD.
Isaiah 2:1 The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2 It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, 3 and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.”
This is the same mountain in which Jesus speaks from and feeds the 5000, teaching the beatitudes, speaking with Moses and Elijah and giving the Great Commission. Speaking on feeding the 5000....there were 12 loaves remaining which are said to represent the 12 tribes of Judah and symbolize Jesus feeding the world. Other symbols of this is the fact that Jesus was born in a manger in the town of Bethlehem. Bethlehem means "House of Bread". And what was a manger but a feeding trough for sheep.
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