In verses 1-4, St. Paul is regarding the manna, the water and the rock as
types of things to come. This ties in with the words of Christ in St. John,
outlined earlier, “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the
wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from
heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die” (vv. 48-50). The early
Christians saw the Eucharist as a fulfillment of the promised manna, but
unlike those who ate the manna, he who eats the bread of the Eucharist will
“live forever” (v. 51).
The language of verses 14-17 again is the type that excludes all sense of the
figurative or symbolic.
St. Paul speaks directly of “participation in the
blood and body of Christ.” St. Paul uses even more striking language in
chapter 11:
“For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord
Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had
given thanks, he broke it, and said, This is my body which is for you. Do
this in remembrance of me. In the same way also the cup, after supper,
saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you
drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and
drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Whoever,
therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy
manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a
man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any
one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks
judgment upon himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some
have died” (vv. 23-31).
Some scholars believe this written account of the institution of the
Eucharist predates all the Gospel accounts. Stephen Ray, a recent convert
to Catholicism from Evangelical Christianity, comments on vv. 23-31 as
follows:
“Being guilty of someone’s ‘body and blood’ was to be guilty of
murder. How could one be guilty of murder if the body (bread) was
only a symbol? The Real Presence of Christ’s Body is necessary for
an offense to be committed against it. How could one be guilty of the
Body and Blood of Christ by simply eating a little bread and
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