Dear Bro. Ignatius Mary,

I thank God I have found someone to tackle my previous question on the relationship between blood and life. This is a follow-up to delve a little deeper.

Your first three stanzas were the build-up to your answer about the ancients and prefigurement, etc. of which I already knew. Then you mention that 15 minutes is the approximate time that the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, and likewise the presence of persons of which we may have their blood in us, is actually present in us. This is because digestion and other physiological processes would transform one substance into another. I understand.

You speak of the "presence" of the other person within, but I would like to know about the "life" of the other person that is within. To this I have two questions:

1. Is there not a difference between being and life? One's being gives life, but are they not distinct concepts? The substance of Jesus may be in us for 15 minutes, but does His Life within us remain longer than that?

Is there a way of guesstimating how long the life from His body/blood remains in us and is operative after His substance has been dissolved?

2. Could an argument be made that His substance is actually absorbed into our substance after the 15 minutes, and He literally becomes part of us? Our very being. I know enzymes break down the blood and body, but does the life of the person remain in those smaller components that eventually become a part of our being after digestion? Hence, could His Life, absorbed in Eucharistic Communion, remain in us indefinitely? Likewise, when the pagans would share each other's blood in order to share the life of the other, was this life only present in the 15 minutes before substantial breakdown?

It seems to me that with both the prefigurements and in Eucharistic Communion, i.e. ancient pagans as well as enlightened Christians, the belief was that the life acquired through the blood of the other remains much longer than just 15 minutes.

I eagerly look forward to your response.