A new reason to be a practicing Catholic?
A simple question we should consider very carefully: Does John, 20: 23, “If you do not eat My Body and drink My Blood, you do not have life in you.” have the same meaning as: “If you do not eat My Body and drink My Blood, you have death in you.”
The common-sense answer appears to be “Changing the word ‘life’ to ‘death’ while removing the second ‘not’ doesn’t change the meaning, but actually makes it more clear and direct.”
It is historically clear: Since the earliest days of The Church, the only way to eat His Body and drink His Blood is to take Communion in a Roman Catholic Church. That is the only place on earth where wafer and wine are, by the Miracle of Transubstantiation, transformed into His Body and Blood.
Changing the passage makes it blatantly obvious. We are being directly told, by the Son of God, that those who choose not to take Communion in a Roman Catholic Church have death in them.
Romans, 6:23 is another short passage about “death”. “The wages of sin is death.”
Sin is disobeying God.
To find if we are sinful, we combine Jesus’ indirect command: “If you do not eat My Body and drink My Blood, you do not have life in you.” with “The wages of sin is death.” If we take Scripture seriously, we see that it is suicidally foolish not to take Communion in a Roman Catholic Church. Why? If we refuse to do so, we have sin and death, not life, in us.
A new reason to be a practicing Catholic? Doesn’t matter. But, it certainly is a direct, short, path to the most decision of all: What must I do to increase my chances of spending eternity in Heaven?
