No, Catholics Don't Eat "A Random Piece of Christ's Body"- A Quick Lesson on the Eucharist From the First Passover

Typology is Important, Guys!

There’s a common Protestant objection to the Eucharist that basically makes the belief in the True Presence of Christ seem absurd. Essentially, Protestants will say something to the effect of “Which part of Christ are you eating? His elbow?” Here, I want to offer how I understand the Catholic Church’s position on the True Presence with a Biblical context.

I know that I’m VERY late to the party on this one, but there was recently a viral debate between Protestant speaker, Stuart Knechtle, and an Orthodox Christian at some college. By now, many readers have probably seen the video of the young student debating the Early Church’s belief in the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

I’m not here to rehash the debate or determine who won (*cough cough* the Orthodox student did *cough cough*), but I do want to highlight a common Protestant misconception that Knechtle brought up.

At one point, Knechtle tried to depict belief in the Eucharist as absurd by saying that believing in it is like saying that Christ, “was taking a piece of his kneecap, dipping it in some of the blood that perhaps was pouring out of His arm. . .” at the Last Supper. (That is a direct quote from the video, by the way)

The problem with Knechtle’s statement is that he presents a “straw-man” (intentionally dumbing down an opposing position in a debate), misrepresenting the Catholic position. I’m sure that Knechtle is familiar with typology, but it seems that he chose to ignore any of its implications before making his statement.

What is Typology?

Typology is a theological term that has a really simple meaning- it is when an Old Testament foreshadowing is fulfilled in a greater way by someone/something in the New Testament. A quick example would be the 12 tribes of Israel being fulfilled by the 12 Apostles.

Don’t just take my word for it either! The Catechism states this explicitly, “The Church, as early as apostolic times, and then constantly in her Tradition, has illuminated the unity of the divine plan in the two Testaments through typology, which discerns in God's works of the Old Covenant prefigurations of what he accomplished in the fullness of time in the person of his incarnate Son” (CCC 128).

*Passover* Lamb of God

Let’s apply that concept of typology to the first Passover. The Israelites, under the slavery of Pharaoh, were called to protect themselves from the final plague- the death of the firstborn in Egypt. To prevent the death of any Israelites, Moses commanded the people to slaughter an unblemished lamb, spread its blood on the doorposts of their homes, and then eat the ENTIRE lamb.

That last requirement, to leave no leftovers, is VERY important to understanding the Eucharist. God leaves no question about it, the lamb should be eaten entirely, “‘Do not leave ANY OF IT until morning’” (Exodus 12:10).

Clearly, there is something important about eating the entirety of the lamb. After all, the first Passover was a life-or-death situation. God wanted the ritual followed perfectly; therefore, any part of the ritual must be considered absolutely important, no matter how small.

We have our Old Testament foreshadowing, so we can now look ahead to Christ’s life.

Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity

Jesus, as we know, fulfills ALL things on His own. He is the pinnacle of Salvation History- God in the flesh. He has come to bring us to Heaven, delivering us from sin and death.

That last part sounds familiar. . . Like the first Passover, which delivered Israel from the sin of Pharaoh and the Angel of Death. God gave the Israelites a ritual by which they were saved by sacrificing and consuming a lamb.

Is there a New Testament ritual that fulfills that Passover? Yes- the Last Supper!

The connection between the first Passover and the Last Supper is quite obvious. The Last Supper is a Passover meal, “‘I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer’” (Luke 22:15). No explanation necessary. The Eucharist is directly linked to the first Passover, so we are seeing Christ make an explicit typological connection for us!

It is at this meal that Christ gifts to the Apostles the “source and summit” of the Catholic faith- the Eucharist (CCC 1324). As Catholics, we believe that Christ was speaking literally at both the Bread of Life discourse from John 6 AND the Last Supper accounts when He said that, “‘This is my body. . . This cup is the New Covenant in my blood’” (Luke 22:19-20). Christ is offering Himself as the New Passover lamb. No Protestant would object to that, but we have to remember that the Israelites ate the ENTIRE Passover lamb in the book of Exodus.

Now having the background of the first Passover- specifically the part about eating the ENTIRE lamb- we see how Christ fulfills that ritual with the Eucharist.

For typology to make sense, the fulfillment must encompass and be greater than the foreshadowing. The foreshadowing, the Passover lamb, was the Israelites consuming the flesh of a mere animal- in its entirety. The fulfillment, the Eucharist, is that Catholics consume Christ- in His entirety: Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. (And we pray that one day all Christians be united in the same faith and Eucharistic sacrifice once again!)

The typology demands that the Catholic belief in the True Presence be that we don’t eat “a piece of Christ’s kneecap dipped in blood from His arm”, but that we eat Him in His entirety; otherwise, Christ wouldn’t be fulfilling the prescriptions of the Passover sacrifice. And that would be missing the whole point of the Last Supper account. After all, it is in the Book of Revelation that Christ is referred to under many titles, but none more than “Lamb of God”. If we missed the connection of Christ to the Passover lamb when reading the Last Supper accounts, St. John hits us over the head with it in the final book of the Bible.

Knowing all that we do now about the first Passover meal, the Last Supper account, and the Book of Revelation- it all makes Knechtle’s statement, and anyone who holds to it, simply insufficient and not well-informed.

To claim that Catholics only eat a piece of Christ’s body at Communion- and that, therefore, the True Presence is false- misses the beauty and fulfillment that is the Eucharistic Sacrifice. Not only that, but it limits Christ’s fulfillment of the Old Testament, essentially saying that He DOESN’T fulfill all the typology in the Bible. I would tread that ground extremely lightly to say the least.

An Invitation

I understand that this post may ruffle some feathers, and I want to state that this article isn’t meant to be exhaustive. It’s more so to invite the reader to think critically about the dogmatic teaching of a 2,000 year old Church. Perhaps study with some humility what millions of people held as their own personal faith over that time, and consider that they have maybe already thought of and worked out common objections to her doctrines.

Also, I may not be able to answer every objection; however, I still invite commenting on this post. Maybe I can direct you to sources that will help you come to belief in Christ’s True Presence and to the Catholic faith.

Catholics- this article is your reminder to get to Adoration! He’s waiting for you! Our Passover Lamb desires to spend time with you!