Why Take Only The Body?
I've noticed in some of the forums I frequent, one of the recurring issues between Catholics and Orthodox is whether it is legitimate to take only the bread/body of Christ and not the cup/blood. Catholics, though we do both during our liturgy, don't always do so. Orthodoxy, from what I understand, do both through intinction. I had a protestant friend come to Mass once and concluded that we were more liberal on the issue. No such thing is true.
There are plenty of places in scripture that discuss only the body in reference to the Eucharist, such as John 6:31-35, 48-51, 57-58, Acts 2:42, and others. The reason is that since you take his body or blood, you receive the fullness of His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. This is brought out in more explicit terms in 1 Corinthians 11:27 "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." Paul makes two uses of logical operations "or" and "and". If you take one species then you are guilty of both. Implied in this is that in St. Paul's time, it was common to take only one species, and if St. Paul was aware of this and was opposed, this would be the place to see his protestations. But no such things occurs. So St. Paul is okay with it. And thus, is permitted by Apostolic Tradition.
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