Bismillah:
I read the following in the Catholic Catechism and I really need some clarification:
Quote:1357 We carry out this command of the Lord by celebrating the memorial of his sacrifice. In so doing, we offer to the Father what he has himself given us: the gifts of his creation, <b>bread and wine which, by the power of the Holy Spirit and by the words of Christ, have become the body and blood of Christ. Christ is thus really and mysteriously made present</b>.
Quote:1374 The mode of Christ's presence under the Eucharistic species is unique. It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as "the perfection of the spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments tend."In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist "the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, <b>the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained. "This presence is called 'real' - by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they could not be 'real' too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present</b>."
Quote:1376 The Council of Trent summarizes the Catholic faith by declaring: "Because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again, <b>that 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 </b> change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation."
Quote:1380 It is highly fitting that Christ should have wanted to remain present to his Church in this unique way. Since Christ was about to take his departure from his own in his visible form, he wanted to give us his sacramental presence; since he was about to offer himself on the cross to save us, he wanted us to have the memorial of the love with which he loved us "to the end,"even to the giving of his life. In his Eucharistic presence he remains mysteriously in our midst as the one who loved us and gave himself up for us,and he remains under signs that express and communicate this love:
So, do you really believe that <b>Jesus Christ is actually transformed into the physical appearance of bread and wine?</b> Can you actually <b>worship this “bread-god”?</b> Do you really believe that <b>this piece of bread which was made by human hands can be sacrificed for your sins and then you are granted salvation? </b>
Also doesn’t the Bible say that:
… we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ <b>once for all</b>. <b>And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins But this man</b>, <b>after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God</b> From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Hebrews 10: 10-14
And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel. Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? <b>this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner
as ye have seen him go into heaven</b>. Acts 1:9
So how can you believe that he <b>truly, really, and substantially present in the forms of bread and wine</b>?
Salam
Wael.