Writer responds to last week's letter

To the editor:

Dear Tom,

In response to your letter to the editor of 6-5-16.

Twelve members of our church were sitting at the table during the last supper when Jesus said, "take, eat; this is my body" Mt26:26.

Eleven of the Apostles took him literally, one didn't, Judas.

You also claim we re-sacrifice Christ at Mass, we do nothing of the sort. Hebrews chapter 8 is written in present tense, we see Christ after his resurrection, he's ascended to heaven, and he is a priest sitting next to the Father, he is continuing to offer gifts and sacrifice. This offering is the Mass, which we enter into, it's Christ's unending, un-bloody sacrifice to the Father.

We probably agree on many scriptures, on the ones we disagree upon sometimes it's worthwhile to go beyond scripture like St. Paul recommends in 2Thes2:15. Try looking at what the first Christians believed, surely the Apostles, the ones Christ entrusted his church to were competent enough to pass on core teachings to at least one generation. Let's see what the people who learned directly from the apostles believed about Holy Communion.

No one fits this description better then Ignatius of Antioch. Ignatius who was trained by the Apostle John, eventually was ordained Bishop of Antioch. Antioch was the second largest dioceses outside of Rome, and of course Antioch is the city where St. Paul maintained his base of operations. Ignatius like all the early Popes was arrested by the Romans because he was such an important leader in the early church. While he was being transported to Rome for execution he wrote seven letters. His last letter was delivered as he arrived in Rome. In chapter 7 he writes,"I desire the bread of God, the heavenly bread, the bread of life, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became afterwards of the seed of David and Abraham; and I desire the drink of God, namely His blood, which is incorruptible love and eternal life." And in his letter to the Smyrnaeans, he writes, "They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh! of our Savior Jesus Christ... wherever Jesus Christ is there is the Catholic Church". In his letter to the Ephesians he calls the Eucharist the "medicine of immortality".

Tom, I invite you to become like St. Paul who after the Council of Jerusalem, Acts 15, accepted ALL of the decrees of the Council, in sake of church unity.

God Bless You,