*cough* apologetics *cough*

i know i am totally going against my own grain when i post something like this, but i am diving in. iread a lot of blogs - see cool pictures, read cool writings from cool people. i have learned so much from so many deep, thoughtful & learned writers and most of them don't even know i exist because i don't even post so much as a comment.

i'll be honest: i enjoy being a Catholic. it took me a very long time to come around to my faith and i embrace it very enthusiastically. i don't get involved in apologetics-type discussions, let alone arguments, because i feel the theologians do a much better job and i'd be motioning my thumb to the right all the time saying, "yeah, what he said..." so what i am about to talk about may come as a surprise but i would actually like feedback, because i don't even know that what *we* Catholics do is simply relegated to *Catholics only* -- and it comes up more and more during bible study about how to interpret Holy Scripture.

before i proceed without fins or an innertube, please remember this about your concerned blog hostess: once a Protestant, now a Catholic. my first year in Bible study was spent in, what's the word? incredulousness? over the way Catholics interpret the Bible. i have issues with it, still, but totally understand that it was written for the time it was written in (think back 2055 years or so for the NT, much older for the OT) and is subject to our interpretation, as well.

knowledge of the meaning behind Greek, Hebrew and Latin words is also essential because what you are reading in English doesn't necessarily mean it will come close to what the *true* word meant in Greek back in the day.

are ya with me so far?

so here i am, surfing away and i happen upon this nice guy's blog and read this thread: i take the bible literally, along with the comments that followed, especially ...and only Roman Catholics literally interpret John 6:53. without looking the Scripture up, i had a feeling it was regarding the Eucharist...my first response was to type something out that was a little snarky, like "oh, yah - those whacky Catholics! what are they thinking??" but thought i'd save it for here.

what are we thinking? if anyone does a study on John 6:53, more specifically

Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you."

pretty heavy stuff. reading a little further, you find:

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.
55
For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.
56
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.
57
Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.

okay, call me crazy, but i thought i'd see why the text online was highlighted, so i searched a bit further for explanation...

[54-58] Eats: the verb used in these verses is not the classical Greek verb used of human eating, but that of animal eating: "munch," "gnaw." This may be part of John's emphasis on the reality of the flesh and blood of Jesus (cf John 6:55), but the same verb eventually became the ordinary verb in Greek meaning "eat."

okay, what part of that would you not take literally? i got my source, by the way, from united states catholic conference of bishops New American Bible.

what parts of the bible do others take literally that Catholics don't? apparently, Catholics think the Eucharist is just what Jesus says it is, because nowhere does it say that He is being *symbolic* in fact, just a tad further in John 6:66, it speaks of many of His disciples no longer following Him...

As a result of this, many (of) his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.

did He turn around and say, "hey guys, wait!! it's a symbol...I meant it symbolically!! really!!" (and as an aside, did you catch the scripture chapter and verse? hmmmm......)

no, He didn't.

where do you draw the line? where do you stand? on what part of His Word? is it not all subject to interpretation in this end?

do you agree with st. augustine?

If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself. ~ St. Augustine of Hippo