Donate SIGN UP

Best Before Dates-Holy Communion wafer

Avatar Image
Marijn | 11:29 Sat 02nd Oct 2010 | Religion & Spirituality
158 Answers
Are there best before dates on Holy Communion wafer packets? Catholics believe in transubstantiation i.e that really IS the flesh and blood of Christ (not just a representation of it). So is it 2000 year old Jesus's flesh they are eating, or current Jesus's flesh? Is it Jesus's flesh when it's being made in the factory? Or when the priest blesses it? How does the priest know he is really doing that properly? Can paedophile priest's have the power to change the wafers into real flesh (if so, how come? as they're sinners, not real priests) So the people who've been taking communion from sinners, haven't really recieved Communion afterall. Can you get drunk on a bottle of Communion wine, if so, how? As it's really blood isn't it?
I expect 95% of Catholics don't even know they're supposed to believe it ACTUALLY IS the body and blood of Christ.
Gravatar

Answers

101 to 120 of 158rss feed

First Previous 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next Last

Best Answer

No best answer has yet been selected by Marijn. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.

For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.
The persuasive arguments of all the agnostics and atheists in here have worn me down. I've changed my mind.
it was a convincing and thorough argument, it was bound to happen.
Well, up to a point, Ankou. Up to a point.
yes but no point stopping 'at' the point, gotta dig in and twist it a bit.

just to be sure like.
Question Author
I personally am not interested in converting people to whatever. If they're happy with their religion, then why not stick with it. I asked the questions because I personally find it all weird. I wanted to understand something about the issues, But now I don't. But thank you everyone for your answers and for taking the trouble to send the replies.
So, what's for supper then? . . . http://www.cartoonsto...a/lowres/gwan238l.jpg
Body, blood, soul and divinity: it's a mystery.
Oh dear ... all that hulabaloo Notafish ... and you obviously don't understand transubstantiation yourself.
The Catholic chruch would readily admit that, if you take consecrated bread and wine to a laboratory and analyse it with every technique known to mankind, the results will show that they are just bread and wine.
Now pick a human being .. any one will do. Analyse that person. Find out the exact quantities of every chemical, mineral, metal etc. that make up that person. Now mix those exact same quantities in laboratory and you get ... a mixture of chemicals, minerals, metals etc. NOT a duplicate of the person you analysed.
What's missing is the substance of the original person. It might be easier to think of a felt hat here .. it has a shape, a colour, a degree of softness but those things are not the hat itself. They are just the outward appearance of the hat.
Consecrated bread and wine retain their outward appearance, but their substance is changed to that of Christ. what you consume in communion is, physically, bread and wine, but in substance it is the body and blood of Christ.
And yes, this was primary school stuff, not to that level naturally, but it was taught at primary school hwne I was a lad.
// what you consume in communion is, physically, bread and wine, but in substance it is the body and blood of Christ //

Isn't the whole point of transubstantiation that it really is Christ, not just "in substance" ?
Question Author
Transubstantiate :- to change to another substance. Transubstantiation:- a change into another substance: the doctrine that, in the consecration of the eucharist, the whole substance of the bread and wine is converted into Christ's body and blood, only the APPEARANCES of bread and wine remaining.
The correct word is not APPEARANCES, it's ACCIDENTS. Appeances is used because it's a lot easier to understand than accidents.
Accidents, in philosophy, is the term used to cover the attributes of something - it's look, texture, shape, feel, smell. The attributes are those things we percieve with our senses and are separate from substance which is the thing itself.
Remember the Magritte painting of a pipe ?
At consecration, the substance of the bread and wine are changed, but the accidents .. the attributes of them remain unchanged.
Or to put it another way .. drink a bottle of blood and you'll probably throw up. Drink a bottle of consecrated wine and you'll get drunk or a bit tipsy depending on your tolerance, but you will still have consumed a bottle of the substance of the blood of Christ.
Or if you prefer it from the Catholic Encyclopaedia "Transubstantiation differs from every other substantial conversion in this, that only the substance is converted into another — the accidents remaining the same — just as would be the case if wood were miraculously converted into iron, the substance of the iron remaining hidden under the external appearance of the wood." Please note the use of the word hidden in that.
In other words, "The emperor has no clothes." . . . http://img210.imagesh...edemperor922055or.jpg
I had this discussion with my wife some time ago - brought up a Catholic in Ireland.

She was under the (I believe) false impression that this wasn't really Catholic teaching any more.

It seems to me from the Catholics that I know that they are masters in ignoring the bit's of Catholicism they don't like.

The Contraceptive thing being another prime example
Purgatory being another
I think Limbo was officially done away with a few years back wasn't it.

Not sure how many buy into the assumption of Mary or the special status of priests


Personally I think they're all slowly evolving into protestants
perhaps they are moving with the times ?

i am happy for catholics to start getting real and accepting contraception, homosexuality etc, wherever they evolve to (so long as its forwards of course)
Does anyone know how many crackers I need to eat to make a whole Jesus?
none, you just have to 'be' crackers
-- answer removed --
-- answer removed --
-- answer removed --
at 16% w/v communion wine must be fortified, perhaps with some kind of spirit?

101 to 120 of 158rss feed

First Previous 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next Last

Do you know the answer?

Best Before Dates-Holy Communion wafer

Answer Question >>

Related Questions

Sorry, we can't find any related questions. Try using the search bar at the top of the page to search for some keywords, or choose a topic and submit your own question.