I’m not sure I’ve ever looked at a crucifix and had that kind of feeling without the mini discourse on theology and I’m a cradle Catholic.

I think some of that has to do with personality. Bearing recently had a discussion on her blog about whether you are a “heart” person or a “head” person when it comes to faith. For some people faith is very much an emotional experience, for others of us it’s much more intellectual.

I’ve always been much more of a “head” person myself. While I sometimes have those gushes of emotion and “got it” moments, they are very few and far between and even then for me they usually accompany a moment of intellectual clarity, when all the sudden the pieces of the puzzle fit together and I have a flash of insight.

And I’m not only that way about my relationship with God, I tend to be very intellectual even when it comes to relationships with people, sad as that sounds. I’m just the kind of person who lives very much in the head. I’m not very emotional. As my husband says, I’m very even keeled in all areas of my life.

That is a great post.

Many people never stop to hear the literal translation of Christ’s words in John Chapter 6 where He gives his discourse on the Real Presence in the Eucharist.

Our modern translation, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life in you,” doesn’t do his words justice.

You see, in the Greek text of John’s Gospel, he uses the word for “chew” or “gnaw.” So, in fact, Jesus tells us that, “unless you chew upon the flesh of the Son of Man…” It’s a very visceral image, gnawing on Christ’s flesh.

But, when we see the reaction of the Jews around Him, turning away in disgust, it becomes clear that this is exactly what He said and meant.

Jesus doesn’t then say, “Hey! Guys! I was only kidding!” or even, “Yo! I was being metaphorical.” No, He turns to those closest to Him and says, “Will you also leave?”

St. Peter, my favorite Apostle because he is so very good at sticking his foot in his mouth, again gets it right. “To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. We have believed and have known that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

Jesus didn’t ask us to enjoy a meal together, or to take part on a symbolic banquet. He asked us to chew and gnaw on His flesh? Why? Think about what it means to eat something, anything? The matter of the food is transformed by our bodies into the flesh, blood, bone (and fat – lots of fat in some cases) that make up our persons. We truly are what we eat!

Thus, by consuming Christ, we unite ourselves with Him in a very distinct way and, as such, we share in everything that He promises us.

We just finished Scott Hahn’s book SWEAR TO GOD in our Bible study, and he spent quite a bit of time on this same topic: namely, that the sacrifice wasn’t finished, wasn’t a “done deal,” until the person actually consumed part of it. Having the blood on the doorposts was only part of the Passover — the Jews had to EAT the lamb.