An Episcopal bishop once told me that any discussion of "The Real Presence" that lasted longer than three minutes was probably heretical. I tend to agree with him. A recent chain of commenting on Facebook seemed to bear this out when it stretched out to 80 comments and replies over the course of 10 hours.
One serious defect among the 80 remarks was the subtle hint that one denomination had a "better" opinion on this than another denomination. That is an unfortunate use of a low priority theological issue to fortify the walls between us.
In considering our Gospel priorities, I would rank this "Theology of The Real Presence" far below the theologies of Creation/Incarnation, Atonement, and the care of the poor.
It might help to look at this from another direction. Since the Holy Spirit is not constrained by time or space, and since we are all caught up by the Holy Spirit in our celebration of Eucharist, WE are REALLY PRESENT in the upper room as Jesus really breaks the bread and shares the cup with us.
I have shared this idea with a couple of bishops and several priests, and none of them have found a logical or theological problem in it.
nice
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