As for the words, "This is my body," Jesus said something similar in John 6:53-54 - "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." Such words, taken literally, gave rise to the accusation that the early Christians were cannibals. Of course they were not. Jesus was speaking figuratively, not literally, as he explained, "It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life" (John 6:63).This comes from a Presbyterian minister...At least we can be thankful it was not a quote from a priest.
When it comes to the words of institution, we need to take them seriously, which means not taking them literally. "This is my body" is ultimately another way of saying: These are your brothers and sisters in the faith; treat them right.
However, having said that, we have this statement from a Catholic priest, in the same article:
On the other hand, the Rev. Kenneth Lasch, a retired priest who counseled with Haley's mother, said, "To think that, all of a sudden, God says I will not be present in a form other than wheat is a very literal and fundamentalist approach." He said, "The church needs to revisit this."Of course, Fr. Lasch, is thankfully retired so, hopefully, and with God's blessing, his influence on other members of the faithful will be minimized.
Article here.
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